Tony Cotterman was surprised when he won a pair of Ford Mustangs in a contest earlier this year.

What’s even more surprising is that he almost turned them down.

Cotterman, of Fort Wayne, was awarded a 1967 Shelby Mustang GT350 and a 2016 Shelby Mustang GT350 in the Mustang Dream Giveaway. The contest, which is open to residents of the United States and beyond, is conducted annually by Dream Giveaway Promotions, an organization that raises funds for charities through prize drawings. Cotterman made a donation and entered the contest last fall.

Originally published July 13, 2017.

Sonya Harshman moved to Andrews about three years ago so her husband could be closer to work. But an old house located on their new property provided the inspiration to hunt for historic treasures. And, catching the “bug,” Harshman hasn’t stopped hunting.

“That’s an 1857 log cabin,” she explains. “Whenever we moved here I thought, you know, I’m going to get a detector and just see what’s out in the yard. And that was it.”

Originally published July 10, 2017.

Connor Huff has two sisters at home, but they’re, well, girls.

He has “a whole bunch of brothers,” but they don’t live with him.

There are some other kids in his neighborhood, but they’re all younger.

Luckily for 12-year-old Connor, he has Jason.

“I actually get to hang out with another boy,” Connor says. “I actually get to talk to him.”

Originally published July 6, 2017.

Paul Bickel moves fast on a bicycle.

As a result, his career in bicycle motocross has moved fast, too.

Bickel, a Huntington native, has competed in over 50 events. He’s raced in places as far-flung as Australia. He’s upped his proficiency from intermediate to expert.

And he’s done it all in just 12 months.

Originally published July 3, 2017.

Melissa “Myndi” Greer threw a party on June 25 to celebrate her 50th birthday.

She was also celebrating beating the odds — again.

Doctors told her parents that their newborn wouldn’t see her first birthday; then they told her she wouldn’t live through her teenage years; then they said she’d be lucky to see 30.

“Now, the doctor says, ‘You’re going to live as long as you want,’” she says.

Greer has the most severe form of osteogenesis imperfecta — brittle bones that break easily, and frequently.

Originally published June 29, 2017.

The Girl Scouts have a song that goes, “Make new friends, but keep the old; one is silver and the other is gold.”

In 2004, four little girls in Markle decided to join Daisies, the youngest level of Girl Scouts, when they were in kindergarten.

Thirteen years later, the girls — now high school graduates and headed to college — have forged a friendship of gold together bonded by scouting.

Originally published June 26, 2017.

The name Georges Auguste Escoffier isn’t one that makes it into everyday conversation.

But everyone who eats owes a debt to Escoffier, says Jeff Albertson, one of the French chef’s newest disciples.

Albertson, a hometown chef who chairs the hospitality administration program at the Fort Wayne campus of Ivy Tech Community College, was one of two Ivy Tech chefs to be inducted into Disciples Escoffier International USA during a recent food tour in France and Germany.

Originally published June 22, 2017.

As a nurse, Huntington resident Alysha Wilson found herself working in some very unsavory neighborhoods in Fort Wayne.

Jenny Eversman, a Fort Wayne resident, was fearful for her young family when her husband was away at work.

Both women found a way to deal with their trepidations and now have formed a new club in Huntington County to help other women become confident behind the trigger.

Originally published June 15, 2017.

A new ministry devoted to helping women with children find shelter and get back on their feet has moved from the vision stage to the hammer and saw stage.

Originally published June 12, 2017.

Helen Purviance was 28 when she gained fame as the “doughnut girl” of World War I.

The Huntington native, then an ensign with The Salvation Army, was ministering to soldiers on the front lines in France in 1917 when she and a friend surprised the men with freshly-fried treats.

A century later, the doughnuts are coming back to Huntington, served up freshly made by Salvation Army Capt. Dennis Marak and his crew using Purviance’s original recipe.

Originally published June 8, 2017.

The story goes, she rode along with her family from Pennsylvania, traveling in a canvas-covered wagon to the frontier known as Indiana – the “Land of the Indians.”

It was the early 1840s, and Millie was a pioneer woman in a rough, new, unforgiving country.

Although time has made her appear a bit older, in her long pioneer dress and frilly bonnet, Millie is only about 9 years old – a fictional character made up by Laura Whiteleather.

Originally published June 5, 2017.

When Steve Mitchell learned he was going to lose his job as a surface mount technician at United Technologies Electronic Controls in Huntington, his world was in for a major shift. After working there 23 years and close to retirement age, he needed to kick in Plan B.

“They decided to move to Mexico; I don’t really have a choice,” Mitchell says. “My family is here; that’s where I belong.”

Originally published June 1, 2017.

This past year at Roanoke Elementary School, people were seeing double a lot more than at other Huntington County schools — make that double times eight.

The school had eight sets of twins this year — three sets of girls, three sets of boys and two sets of boy/girl twins.

“We have kind of a ‘twin anomaly’ here,” says Principal Chris Tillett. “They’re just cute … They’re a lot of fun.”

Originally published on May 29, 2017.

Like most things that have lasted for a century, the Huntington Rotary Club has seen its share of changes.

“It’s really evolved, because it was at one time a good old boys’ club,” says Jim Hoffman, who’s been a Rotarian since 1973.

“It used to be men who didn’t punch the clock, and they had secretaries,” says Mel Ring, whose 57 years of membership makes him the longest-standing Rotarian in Huntington.

There were no women, and there were strict limits on the number of members from any one profession.

Originally published May 22, 2017.

Theresa and Atom Cannizzaro were looking for a Midwest farmhouse surrounded by a couple hundred acres of land.

They bought a massive former lodge hall near downtown Huntington, complete with two parking lots.

“We just really fell in love with this,” says Theresa, who, like her husband, Atom, was born and raised in San Diego, CA.

Originally published May 15, 2017.

Augusta National Golf Club in Augusta, GA, is widely known as the home of The Masters, one of the most famous golf tournaments in the world.

EJ Carroll, of Huntington, has another name for it.

“It’s the happiest place on Earth,” he says. “It really is. Everybody wants to be there.”

Originally published May 12, 2017.

What’s it like to be the new guy in the Indiana Statehouse?

There’s “a little bit of learn by fire,” says Sen. Andy Zay, fresh off his first term as a member of the state’s legislative body.

On the other hand, he says, there was always a seasoned lawmaker, an aide or a representative of a state agency available and accessible to provide him with the information he needed.

Originally published May 8, 2017.

When Kay Schwob signed on to help out her Huntington Rotary Club with its newly-launched Reading Buddies program at Lincoln Elementary School in 2000, she thought she was helping to give back to the community she loves.

Originally published on May 5, 2017.

Looking at one of the clocks outside the Huntington County Courthouse isn’t just a way to look at the time — it’s also a way to look back in time.

The clocks were installed in 1907. And while many aspects of the courthouse have changed since that time, the devices in charge of keeping the time have not.

There are four exterior clocks in all at the courthouse. None of them are automated. To keep the clocks running, maintenance workers must trek up to the courthouse attic once a week and wind each one of them up.

Originally published May 1, 2017.

It all started eight years ago when Roberta Rector received a cancer diagnosis.

Now, Rector is turning out aprons by the dozen in an effort to keep others from going through what she went through.

“I’m a survivor,” she says. “I’m just making aprons to try and help get rid of the disease.”

Originally published April 27, 2017.

Sarah Kirby’s trajectory has taken her from the future to the past.

Once part of a team that sought to explore the outer reaches of space, Kirby now heads a team whose mission is firmly planted on (or in) the ground.

Her new job as librarian in the Huntington City-Township Public Library’s genealogy collection is, she says, the answer to her question, “What do I want to be when I grow up?”

As a child, she says, the answer was space.

“I was a space cadet when I was 3,” Kirby says. “I named my dog ‘Star.’”

Originally published April 24, 2017.

A rural Huntington woman says achieving inner peace, tranquility and spiritual renewal may be just as far away as your own back yard.

Christy Thomson, who may be better known as the music coordinator at the Parkview Huntington YMCA, calls it “forest bathing” or “forest therapy.” The moniker is derived from the Japanese word Shinrin-yoku, which is translated as “bathing your senses in the forest.”

Originally published April 20, 2017

The idea of letting kids learn what they want to learn sounds like a recipe for disaster, but as the seventh-grade Blue Team at Riverview Middle School has proven, it’s sheer genius.

It’s called Genius Hour, a program that is teaching middle school students to not just think out of the box, but for themselves as well. The results have been impressive, says Assistant Principal Michael Parsons.

Originally published April 17, 2017.

John Nixon found his calling in life by chance.

While training to be an engineer in London, he was approached by government representatives who were searching for engineers to work on munitions and ordinance.

“They kind of picked me out and said, ‘Come for an interview,’” Nixon recalls. “So, I had an interview and then got the job. I was kind of like a troubleshooter, going from one technology area to another.

“So, I worked on a lot of things – like missiles, explosives, small arms.”

Originally published April 13, 2017.

In another week or so, with any luck, the willow will have budded and the ground will have dried, making the newly installed living tunnel at Salamonie Lake an enticing place to play — or just chill out.

But willow weaving artist Viki Graber and her assistant, Sadie Misiuk, had to contend with a chill in the air and mud under their feet when they created the sculpture on Friday, April 7.

“This is going to be a child’s tunnel, but adults can go in there if they want to crouch down a little bit,” Graber says.

Originally published April 10, 2017.

They haven’t quite solved the mystery of the lost city of Atlantis, but they have found a number of cemeteries throughout Huntington County.

Originally published April 6, 2017.

George Richardson says that “someone” twisted his arm to do this story. Truth told, it was more likely a bunch of “someones” who convinced him that he deserves all the attention he’s recently received.

“I like to be anonymous,” he said, simply.

But at Lancaster Elementary School, Richardson is anything but anonymous. His name is often heard overhead on the school’s PA system, summoning him for one task or another.

Originally published April 3, 2017.

Lorraine Dunford and Rose Hawkins were childhood friends who, over the years, lost track of each other.

While Hawkins stayed close to home, Dunford spent years overseas as a member of a military family.

Then, last December, both — coincidentally — moved into apartments at the LaFontaine Center, in Huntington.

“It was just a total surprise out of the blue,” Dunford says of reconnecting with her old friend.

“I was sitting in the Brick Room coloring, and she walked in,” Hawkins says.

Originally published March 30, 2017.

Pat Flynn has been traveling around the United States for cross country motorcycle races for more than 30 years.

This year, however, he has some company.

For the first time ever, Flynn’s grandson, Logan White, is on the road with him.

And after years of teaching White about cross country motorcycle racing, the teenager is now out competing in the same national races as his grandfather.

Originally published March 27, 2017.

When Cole Little noticed that the family’s pregnant cow “Tessie” had wandered off into the trees, he went to check on her.

That’s a sign that the cow’s about ready to give birth, explains Todd Little, Cole’s dad.

And “Tessie,” as expected, had given birth — to not one, not two, but three calves. Cole immediately called his mom, Jennifer Little.

“I called her and said, ‘She had three,’” Cole says. “And she said, ‘No, she didn’t.’ But I told her she did and one was just laying out there and I think she needs help.”