Originally published April 12, 2018.

Some Huntington North High School nutrition and wellness class students won’t get to taste the fruits of their labors, but after the donation of two grafted apple trees from an orchard in Peru, they’ll leave a legacy that up-and-coming students will enjoy and continue to care for.

The students, members of Jan Hildebrand and Dayna Stump’s classes, as well as visiting ag class students, received a donation of two apple trees from Jason McClure, of McClure’s Orchard and Winery, during a guest class lecture and demonstration.

She was known as “The Doughnut Girl” – the Salvation Army soldier who came up with an idea to make doughnuts for troops fighting on the front lines in France during World War I. On Saturday, April 14, Helen Gaye Purviance, a Huntington native, will be recognized and honored for her service and ingenuity in bringing homesick soldiers a taste of home.

Originally published March 22, 2018.

Years ago, when Riverview Middle School’s daily, student-produced news show first began airing, it was based in a supply closet.

Today, the show, which is known as RTV, has expanded from those cramped quarters into a proper, two-room studio. The first room contains several computers used to produce the show, while the other houses the program’s blue and yellow set, instantly familiar to anyone who watches the show.

Originally published Feb. 26, 2018.

It helps to have a sense of humor when you’re doing something as mundane as making noodles.

It’s what has melded a group of noodle-makers from New Hope United Brethren Church into a tight-knit and rather efficient group, and has helped fund some big projects in their church and the community.

And, they’ll tell you, that’s some big noodle-doin’s.

Originally published Feb. 19, 2018.

Members of the Huntington University softball and women’s soccer teams recently traveled to Mexico for mission trips.

During their stays there, the team members helped construct a community center in an impoverished town.

The most important thing they built, though, didn’t require a single brick.

“People in the past week have said, ‘So, what’d you do down there? What’d you build?’,” says Amanda Burge, head coach of the women’s soccer team. “And my answer is, ‘We built relationships.’”

Originally published Feb. 15, 2018.

When it comes to what Huntington City-Township Public Library patrons enjoy reading most, a select group of authors proves they have the staying power when it comes to the most checked-out reading materials of 2017. But look out, books – graphic novels are finding a lot of popularity among readers.

Originally publlished Feb. 8, 2018.

This is a story, not about the team from Riverview Middle School that won the Future City regional competition, but about the team that did not.
In fact, they wound up not placing at all, but the members of Team Acropolis are pretty darned proud of that fact. Here’s why.

Originally published Feb. 5, 2018.

The leadership at Huntington House noticed a concerning trend among the individuals who were approaching the shelter for help.

“Most of the people coming through the door needing assistance have had an addiction of one type or another, whether it’s alcohol or the drugs,” explains the facility’s director, Rosella Stouder. “We saw that over and over.”

Something needed to be done, Stouder thought.

With Huntington County Community School Corporation’s spring break just a scant two months away, those looking to make a getaway outside the country are scrambling to obtain passports, and post office officials say wannabe travelers need to hurry and get their applications in as soon as possible.

Originally published Jan. 22, 2018.

Fifth-grade students in Huntington County will soon find some new role models in their corner, giving them inspiration to deal positively with such issues as self-esteem, peer pressure, drugs, alcohol, risky behavior and its consequences during what may be the most impressionable time in their lives.

Originally published Jan. 18, 2018.

Known for their pluck, a dozen hardy members of Boy Scout Troop 130 spent most of their Christmas break backpacking, dune climbing, beachcombing and hanging out with wild horses, on their way to achieving several backpacking merit badge requirements.

Originally published Jan. 11, 2018.

Basketball players with Huntington County Special Olympics had an important question for County Coordinator Keith Hartley last fall.

When was their game at Huntington North High School?

“When we first (started) our basketball practice, end of October,” says Hartley, “that was one of the first questions they asked, ‘When are we playing at the school?’”

Originally published Jan. 4, 2018.

Inside Burton Wygant’s lovely appointed home, which sits on the Wygant family homestead just outside Roanoke, is a collection which he began as a result of going on a few duck hunts.

Originally published Jan. 1, 2018.

When Robert Knorr was brainstorming names for the sober-living facility he wanted to open up in Huntington, he took a liking to the name “Harmony House.”

After doing some digging, though, he found out that name was already being used by a facility elsewhere in the country. So, he decided to change the name, ever so slightly, to “Harmony Home.”

He’s glad he did.

“Really, ‘home’ is what I want it to be,” reflects Knorr. “I don’t want it to be a house. The house is a structure.

Originally published Dec. 21, 2017.

When Evie Webb journeys to Haiti next month, she will be able to claim at least two new homes that dog treats built.

The eloquent 10-year-old, a fifth grade student at Flint Springs Elementary, is baking homemade treats for pooches and selling them for donations to her project of funding earthquake-resistant homes in the ravaged country.

It all came about when she learned that millions in Haiti are still in need of aid years after an earthquake hit that region in 2010. Evie, only 8 at the time, wanted to help.

Even before you get to the front door of Rick and Jenny Bower’s home on North Miller Street in Markle, you can hear Christmas in the air, with holiday music wafting through the air amid brightly-lit vintage Christmas display figures.

But once you get in the door, it’s everywhere.

Originally published Dec. 18, 2017.

Ten years ago, Jeff and Chrisse Dyke started Mittens for Millions, a nonprofit initiative that sees them collect cold-weather apparel and distribute it to those in need.

However, after a few years of gathering and dispensing stacks of new and gently used mittens, gloves, hats, scarves and coats, Jeff Dyke started to feel himself getting a little burned out.

“Honestly, about four or five years ago, I questioned what I was doing here,” he admits.

But that’s when his wife told him something that he hasn’t forgotten.

Originally published Dec. 14, 2018.

A decades-old Huntington County institution will wrap up its final meetings next month, leaving behind a legacy of patriotism, efficiency, service and fun, especially for the county’s developmentally-disabled people.

There are several reasons why the Altrusa Club has decided to disband, but perhaps the main one dovetails with the length of time the club has been in existence.

Originally published Dec. 11, 2017.

Anyone driving out Waterworks Road on Huntington’s suburban south side will see Kent Farthing’s passion displayed in thousands of lights throughout his yard and on his house.

And it’s still a work in progress.

His house, located at 1274 Waterworks Rd., has about two acres of grass, perfect for staging his display. There is also a pond lit up by encircling lights, and an illuminated Conestoga wagon on the property.

Originally published Dec. 7, 2017.

For 10 seasons, Fred Fields coached the Huntington North High School girls’ basketball team, during which time he guided the Lady Vikings to state championships in 1990 and 1995.

Today, he navigates the lakes of northwest Michigan, searching for a different prize.
Fields is the proprietor of Coach’s Angle Charters, a business in Traverse City, MI, that sees him, an experienced fisherman, lead customers on fishing excursions.

Originally published Nov. 27, 2017.

After 73 years apart, Mary Ellen Wygant has finally rejoined the man she considered the love of her life.

The two were reunited after death through the efforts of her nephew, Burton Wygant, who still lives in the same small community of Roanoke where Mary Ellen and Frank Phillip Koontz had grown up together.

They had mapped out their lives. After high school, she went into nurse’s training and he joined the United States Army.

Originally published Nov. 23, 2017.

With about 85 percent of Huntington County’s crops collected and in storage, local farmers are giving thanks today for what has been called a “surprising” harvest this year.
Relentless spring rains flooded fields, forcing some farmers to plant multiple times before their seedlings could germinate or stay in place.

Others who waited to plant have had to wait to harvest, says Ed Farris, agriculture and natural resource educator at the Purdue Extension-Huntington County Office.

Originally published Nov. 20, 2017.

Glass windows in the house, and below freezing temperatures at night — both new experiences for the Harris kids.
“We’re getting used to jackets and socks,” says their mom, Jennifer Harris.

For two and a half years — a large chunk of a young life — the family lived in the Dominican Republic, a lifestyle the kids came to know as “normal.”

It’s life in the northern Indiana community where they were born that now seems a bit “foreign.”

Originally published Nov. 16, 2017.

The curtain will rise on 10 local ballet hopefuls this holiday season, young ladies who might not otherwise have had an opportunity to learn the intricacies, nuances and plain ol’ fun of classical dance.

Nine girls in third through sixth grades are members of “Miss Joy’s” ballet class, a new program at the Parkview Boys & Girls Club of Huntington County.

Originally published Nov. 13, 2017.

It all started with an art show held during last summer’s Salamonie Summer Festival in Warren.

It’s blossomed into an effort that could wrap art around an area far beyond Warren.

“When you put a bunch of artists together — we’re dreamers,” says Josh Heim, who works in ceramics at his studio just outside of Warren.

Originally published Nov. 6, 2017.

A year after Kathy Carnes was cleared as cancer-free, she asked her three adult children to write down their thoughts about how they felt when they were told she had breast cancer.

She was surprised by their responses.

“I was shocked that they thought I was going to die,” she says. “I didn’t realize how seriously they took my diagnosis.”

Her middle daughter, Natalie Burgess, said her mother’s diagnosis caused her to think about her own mortality.

Donald O. Patmore spent 26 years of his life in the United States Army, serving in three wars.

He has no regrets.

“It was a good job, a good occupation,” he says. “I liked it.”

In the beginning, it was the job that chose him — not the other way around.

Patmore, then living in the state of Washington, was drafted on Nov. 10, 1945. He went to Fort Lewis, WA, to train for a job running construction equipment at the end of World War II in 1945.

Originally published Oct. 30, 2017.

Some Huntington North High School students are spearheading a drive to raise funds for a hospital dedicated to curing diseases in children, some of whom are fellow classmates.

Originally published Oct. 26, 2017.

The big little barn has in excess of 900 miniature shingles, each lovingly cut by hand; more than 160 lilliputian boards making up the cladding.

It measures about 42 inches by 74 inches and stands some 43 inches high, big enough for builder Greg Witkamp’s wife, Eva Witkamp, to fit inside.

And it’s sure to light up the eyes of a certain 5-year-old boy living in Maryland.

“He has about 20 toy tractors, mostly John Deere,” Greg says. “He keeps telling his mom and dad he needs a barn to keep them in.”

Originally published Oct. 23, 2017.

Sue Williams and Paula Blackstone have struggled through some dark years.

Alone.

The two Huntington women, both mothers of recovering addicts, want to lessen the loneliness of others making the same journey.

They have established Stronger Together, a support group for adults with loved ones who are suffering from addiction or are in recovery. It’s meant to be a safe place, with no judgments, where family members and friends can talk to others who understand — or just sit and listen.