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.