The 2016 United Way Campaign got off to a good start Wednesday, Sept. 21, as campaign organizers rallied the crowd to reach a goal of $606,060 in donations over the next year and increase the number of donors to 2,660.

Already the United Way has raised $10,000, thanks to its Pacesetter partners, which held fund-raising events early on to bring momentum to the campaign. They were recognized with plaques, a standing ovation and cheers by those attending the lunchtime rally at Huntington Sheet Metal.

Originally published on Sept. 19, 2016.

A group of Huntington County quilters, not to be outdone by what other artists have depicted in observance of Indiana’s bicentennial, have created a quilt depicting 200 years of the county’s history, township by township.

The Piecemakers Quilt Club, a special interest club of the Huntington County Extension Homemakers, came up with the idea for the quilt last fall, after someone at The Forks of the Wabash suggested they get involved in the bicentennial celebration, says Club President Kathleen Scribner.

Originally published Sept. 15, 2016.

In a pastoral setting on the edge of Huntington, 16 men are learning to give all to God.

They own nothing; they pray constantly.

At the end of nine months of postulancy, they’ll continue down a path that will likely lead to full communion with the religious order of Franciscan Friars Minor, the first group of friars to occupy Huntington’s former St. Felix Friary since the original group of Franciscans left in 1980.

Originally published Sept. 12, 2016.

The staff at Andrews-Dallas Township Public Library has done away with an iconic 140-year-old system and replaced it with a classification system that they say will result in easier searches of its non-fiction books and materials.

The Dewey decimal classification system – developed in 1876 by Melville Dewey, a contributor and supporter of libraries – determined how books were shelved based on a numerical system.

Originally published Sept. 8, 2016.

Huntington University is only a mile away from Huntington North High School.

But it took Brad Buzzard 17 years to get there.

A star goalkeeper for the Huntington North boys’ soccer team, Buzzard graduated from the school in 1999 with a Division I college soccer career ahead of him. However, after a series of twists and turns spanning almost two decades, he’s returned to Huntington to finally finish his soccer career, playing for Huntington University at the age of 35.

Originally published Sept. 5, 2016.

They are the group behind the group – making sure the Huntington North High School Marching Vikes put their best feet forward, whether on the football field or in school competitions. This season, members of the Band Parents Association are facing a “Challenger” in preparation for a new show presentation.

Originally published Aug. 29, 2016.

Donna Waters uses leather to create art.

And wallets and belts.

Even chaps — and one pair went on a mountain lion hunt in Arizona.

But it was horses that paved her path to leathercraft.

The rural Markle resident has miniature horses, and has always liked to visit the Indiana State Fair to gaze on the larger version of her small horses — the Percherons and the Clydesdales, animals that can weigh a ton or more.

The tractors will be running non-stop in Warren this weekend.

The Labor Day Tractor Pull starts Friday evening, Sept. 2, and continues around the clock until the last heat is done sometime on Monday, Sept. 5.

“The drivers will try to get some shut-eye,” says Wendell Bradford, one of the organizers of this year’s event. “Somebody will beat on their pickup truck and say, ‘It’s your turn to drive.’”

You might even spot a driver napping on a ratty recliner or a beat-up couch, he says, as the competition goes on around them.

Originally published Aug. 25, 2016.

The gaming craze that has swept the country – and even the globe – in the past month-and-a-half is very alive and well here in Huntington County. Pokémon Go was unleashed on the world on July 6, and the fun, addictive game has aficionados from young children up to Senior Citizens; in other words, anyone who can use a smartphone and walk from Point A to B. Others are curious why people seem to be walking around town with their eyes riveted to their phone screens while others are afraid the game is dangerous.

Originally published Aug. 22, 2016.

Joey Tackett can often be seen around town, taking a walk or hanging out at Walmart. He’s known by the Canon video camera he carries, focused mainly on himself, as he tells his story, his way.

Tackett, a Huntington native, has logged more than 470 individual videos so far, just on his “INDIANAJOEVLOGS” You-Tube channel.

That’s not counting another, more music-themed channel he also posts videos to called “JOEDCTALK.”

Originally publilshed Aug. 18, 2016.

A passion for craft beer brewing has pushed a team of Huntington County home brewers into the spotlight.

Rob Myers, Erik Garrison and Adam Larkey were recognized for their craft at the GnawBrew Beer, Art and Music Festival on July 22, near Gnaw Bone.

Garrison took first place for his “Bushwhacker” British Strong Ale, which he developed from his desire to rediscover “defunct” styles of beer.

Originally published Aug. 14, 2016.

A once-in-a-lifetime trip abroad that fostered a life-changing experience for a young Roanoke man this summer may also result in a change in his life’s occupation — working full time for God.

Trey Sorg is playing soccer this week, participating in pre-season games for his college, Holy Cross in South Bend. The incoming freshman left straight for college after he returned from a trip to Poland, where he participated in the Roman Catholic Church’s World Youth Day.

Originally published Aug. 11, 2016.

The Idle Hour is long gone, but a piece of it lives on in Tommy Johnson’s creation.

Actually, pieces of lots of things live on in Johnson’s creations.

His old porch railing, for example; a dismantled office chair.

And that’s the point of the Hoodratz Alternative Transportation Club, organized by Johnson and a buddy in 2006. Everything is made out of something else.

Originally published Aug. 8, 2016.

Huntington County residents, regardless of their financial situation, have access to farm stand-quality produce thanks to the Helping Hands Community Garden.

The Community Garden, under direction of the Huntington County Purdue Extension Office has harvested a successful summer crop of produce that is free and open to the public.

Summer harvest began in June, and residents still have a chance to pick up fresh summer crops like green beans, cucumbers, zucchini, summer squash and tomatoes.

Some new principals and administrators have joined the ranks at Huntington County Community School Corporation for the upcoming 2016-17 school year, while other administrators have switched positions at county schools.

Here is the lineup of new HCCSC administrator positions for school year 2016-17:

• Huntington North High School: Russ Degitz, principal.

Degitz is a familiar face to HNHS, returning to take over from Chad Daugherty, who was promoted to a corporate administrative position.

Originally published July 28, 2015.

William Bowman always wanted to enter something in the Huntington County 4-H Fair.

This year, just days before his 90th birthday, he finally did.

Though Bowman has lived in Markle for most of his life, he grew up in Huntington. Residing within the city limits, he says, prevented him from participating in 4-H.

“We lived in town, in Huntington,” he says. “At that time, you couldn’t be in 4-H if you lived in town.”

Originally published July 25, 2016.

When there’s nothing new under the summer sun, some kids at Roanoke Public Library have learned they can trust something old to be a new fascination.

It’s called quilling — a craft that dates back to the 16th and 17th centuries, explains Library Assistant Karen Baker, who led a class for kids on Thursday, July 21. Baker herself claims she’s a novice quiller, but says she found the art beguiling.

“My kids did it in school, so that’s how I knew about it,” she explains. “It’s an old paper craft.”

Terry Martin, of Roanoke, owns a 1966 Dodge Coronet 500, replete with a 426 Hemi engine and an automatic transmission.

Chrysler only made 132 ’66 Coronets with those specifications, notes Martin. Considering the car’s scarcity, it makes Martin’s story of how he found his all the more unbelievable.

It was 2007 and Martin discovered the car sitting in a deserted barn in rural Huntington County.

Originally published July 14, 2016.

Two influential Jackson Township women are working to keep their area’s history alive by ensuring the deceased are remembered.

Prior to the work of Jackson Township Trustee Sheila Hines, many of the township’s cemeteries have fallen into disarray because of time and vandalism. Her work is not only helping return them to pristine condition, but is also helping history buff Marsha Martin with preserving the history and genealogy of the area.

Originally published July 11, 2016.

At age 43, every breath Brian McCoy takes is sweet, especially after he brought home two medals — a gold and a silver — for his bowling prowess at the Transplant Games, held June 10 through 15 in Cleveland, OH.

The Huntington resident received a double lung transplant on March 2, 2014, at the University of Michigan, after a medication interaction caused him to develop interstitial lung disease.

Originally published July 7, 2016.

Rae Ann O’Neill may be a new face to Huntington County 4-H, but 4-H isn’t new to her.

When the first events of the 2016 Huntington County 4-H Fair — the dog show and the tractor operators’ contest — take place this weekend, she’ll show up with some experience under her belt.

Originally published June 30, 2016.

Bill Walker is living the dream of any Indiana high school basketball fan.

Walker, of Huntington, serves the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame, doing so alongside many of the players and coaches he grew up idolizing.

“It’s like, I’m ‘Joe Regular Guy’ along with these guys who, I mean, they are legends to me,” Walker says. “They’re my heroes. I can tell you about every one of them.”

Maitlyn Christman isn’t shy about saying she has talent.

But rather than a statement of boastful pride, it’s more like a confirmation – perhaps even an epiphany – that she only recently received, when she traveled to New York, NY, to play at Carnegie Hall June 22 to 26.

“I’ve realized how talented of a performer that I actually am – I don’t know how else to say that – in that I have a lot of potential in music and performing,” she says, somewhat abashedly.

The 3 and 4 year olds in the Discoverers class at Kids Kampus know all about birthdays.

With three or four digits held up in the air, they can tell you on one hand how many of them they’ve celebrated. However, the kids spent the past week learning that our country has a birthday, too.

The eager pupils in teacher Karissa Ditzler’s class got their red, white and blue on, as they created crafts, lent their handprints to make the stripes on a flag painting and celebrated Independence Day with birthday cake.

Originally published June 27, 2016.

It’s been 15 years since Denny Jiosa has been back to his hometown of Huntington, but he says things have remained pretty much the same.

Originally published June 23,  2016.

Janice Harshbarger knew nothing about the town of Andrews when she moved there as a young teen.

“We knew it was a small town in Indiana that had a parsonage,” she says.

Now, she could write a book about what she knows.

Wait — she did.

“Only in Andrews” details the goings-on in the small Huntington County community from the 1880s through 1916, starting with a Miami village and tracing the town’s growth as first Antioch, and then Andrews.

Originally published June 20, 2016.

Last year, Larry Zahm was contemplating having routine cataract surgery.

Instead, he wound up being one of 700 people in the world to be implanted with an experimental pacemaker.

Before Zahm, of Huntington, would consider having a cataract operation, he wanted to make certain his heart would be up to the challenge.

“I wanted to be sure that I could stay awake, watching somebody working on my eyes without having a heart attack,” says the 77-year-old.

Originally published June 16, 2016.

The sisters of Victory Noll, in keeping with their land ethic, have partnered with ACRES Land Trust to permanently preserve 106 acres of land on their property.

The land was originally enrolled in the Crop Reserve Program (CRP), a government subsidy program that takes active agricultural land and puts it in a nature preserve system. The land that Our Lady of Victory Missionary Sisters wishes to preserve was farmed until around 1990, and the CRP will protect it from development for only 20 years.

Originally published June 13, 2016.

The Warren Public Library is the place to be — for movies, for a WiFi signal and, yes, for books.

Movies and WiFi were far from the minds of the small group of people who organized on June 16, 1916, to lay the groundwork for the Warren Free Public Library.

Now, it’s one of the selling points.

“We have the strongest signal in town,” says the library’s director, Robert Neuenschwander. “People sit outside when we’re closed just to use the WiFi. And that’s OK.”

Originally published June 9, 2016.

A bronze plaque tucked near the treeline at Pilgrims Rest Cemetery north of Huntington bears the names of nearly two dozen people, all of whom left this earth a century or more ago.

Their names — Hitzfeld, Behr, Jung, Schmiedes, Wuersten — bear out their roots in Germany; their final resting place is evidence of their lives in Huntington.