Originally published Jan. 30, 2017.

When the staff of the Parkview Boys & Girls Club of Huntington County considered who to take on a potential trip to Washington, D.C., to attend the presidential inauguration on Jan. 20, they decided to pick members who were part of the club’s Smart Girls group.

Originally published Jan. 26, 2017.

A house sitting on a corner in Markle could help unlock the mysteries of long-ago forests in this part of the state.

“You all are making a big contribution to the tree ring desert in northern Indiana,” says Darrin Rubino.

Rubino is a botany professor from Hanover College, but it was his research side that brought him to the house in Markle on Saturday, Jan. 21.

Originally published Jan. 23, 2017.

On a gray Wednesday afternoon, 21 school kids were found hard at work — quietly — in the large fellowship hall of St. Peter’s First Community Church. They were doing their homework.

Not having a quiet, non-distractive place to do homework can make for a daunting situation that could potentially affect a student for his or her lifetime. Faulty or missed homework can lower grades, and academic grades can affect competition for scholarships, college choices and future job opportunities.

Originally published Jan. 19, 2017.

Jennifer Fahlsing sees the first day of July in 2018 as the end of the dark ages.

That’s the day Indiana will open access to birth records for Indiana residents who were adopted between 1941 and 1993.

“This is going to level the playing field,” Fahlsing says.

Originally published Jan. 16, 2017.

In a darkened room, some 20 teenagers are tackling what could be a nightmare of an issue – if it became reality. And they are learning that the enemy, smaller than can be seen with the human eye, is fierce.

It’s called “The Hot Zone” project, a study of viruses, their virulent nature and the havoc they’ve wreaked on humankind throughout history.

The Viking New Tech classroom has been transformed to resemble a biohazard Level 4 laboratory, according to VNT science teacher Chelsea Noffsinger.

Originally published Jan. 12, 2016.

The Warren Public Library is encouraging its youngest visitors to judge their books by the covers.

It seems to be working.

“Oh, it’s Clifford!” Penelope LaMar exclaims as she flips through a bin of books.

Clifford — and other book characters beloved by the preschool-through-first grade set — is facing forward, at eye level, in new bins being installed at the library.

The idea, library assistant Susan Mills explains, is to let the youngest readers easily see the books’ covers, instead of their spines.

Originally published Jan. 9, 2016.

A new ministry in town is enjoying the backing of the community as it seeks to help women coming out of incarceration turn their lives around.

It’s called “Place of Grace,” a mission that takes its roots from the jail itself, Director Sharon Metzger says. A women’s group at the jail began the vision in 2009; that vision has evolved into a house nearly ready to accept women seeking their own transformation.

Originally published Jan. 5, 2016.

William Howett died in 1864, a casualty of the Civil War.

Thomas Parker died in 1967 in Vietnam.

Neither man’s body was ever recovered.

Now, 152 years after his death, Howett is remembered with a marker at Huntington’s Mt. Hope Cemetery. The marker was installed in November, thanks to the efforts of his great-niece.

And, 50 years after Parker’s death, a push is underway to remember him with a statue in Huntington’s Memorial Park.

Originally published Jan. 2, 2016.

Janet McElhaney returned back to her office at Coldwell Banker Roth Wehrly Graber in downtown Huntington on Dec. 20, to find a mystery gift awaiting her, left by a mysterious deliveryman.

It was a long-lost treasure from McElhaney’s childhood and turned out to be one of her best Christmas presents ever, she notes.

Originally published Dec. 29, 2016.

The challenge was to read.

The goal was 200 — 200 books, or 200 hours — in celebration of Indiana’s 200th year.

Janice Harshbarger blew them all away.

She put in 735 hours of reading time.

“Which is only two hours a day,” she says. “It’s no big deal.”

Harshbarger accomplished the feat as part of the Andrews-Dallas Township Public Library’s 200 Club, sponsored by the Friends of the Library.

Originally published Dec. 26, 2016.

When Rev. Ron Rieder moved to Huntington in 1984, he did so begrudgingly.

After presiding over parishes in cities like Detroit, MI, and St. Paul, MN, he wasn’t thrilled that his new assignment happened to be in a small town.

When Rieder arrived at his new church, SS. Peter and Paul, his enthusiasm for the posting dipped even lower; the church and its accompanying school were in shambles.

Originally published Dec. 19, 2016.

When a musician takes the stage, it’s John Gernand’s job to make sure that they’re heard.

Gernand, a Huntington native, works as an audio technician in New York, NY. A resident of the Big Apple since 1979, his profession has enabled him to work with some of the most celebrated musicians in the world.

By the light of a full December moon, about a dozen non-elfishly dressed Santa’s helpers began knocking on doors Tuesday, Dec. 13, in the little Huntington Retirement Community, also known as the “Yellow Apartments behind Walmart.”

When residents opened their doors, they got cookies.

Originally published Dec. 15, 2016.

There was a time when any respectable woman wouldn’t leave the house without a hat.

Those days are long gone, but those hats live on.

Feathered, furred and sequined; pillbox and full brim — even a vintage Salvation Army bonnet — the classic chapeaux now adorn a pink Christmas tree that stretches nearly to the ceiling of the Village Salon, in Markle.

Even the tree is of another era.

Originally published Dec. 15, 2016.

When an animal’s in trouble in Huntington County, there’s a team ready to respond.

The animal rescue team — a loosely organized group of volunteers, all experienced in working with animals — can handle everything from an emu on the loose to a frightened dog at the side of the road.

The team got its start in 2011 when Lori VanOver, who has served as Huntington County’s animal control officer since 2003, decided she needed some backup she could rely on.

Originally published Dec. 5, 2016.

Paul and Esther Andrews were enjoying newlywed life in their apartment on North LaFontaine Street as 1941 drew to a close.

Paul spent his days working on the Erie Railroad; Esther, unable to find paid work — the country was still climbing out of the Great Depression — ran the household.
Their cozy existence, like that of so may others, was shattered 75 years ago on the evening of Dec. 7.

When Kasey Geyer looks in the mirror these days, he sees an old friend staring back.

That old friend is KC Thunder – the identity Geyer assumed for years as a professional wrestler. His return can only mean one thing: Geyer is getting back in the ring.

And not just any ring. Geyer will be climbing back into one in Huntington, his hometown. The ring will be at the Police Athletic League Club for “Christmas Clash 2016,” a pro wrestling event presented by W.A.R. Wrestling.

Originally published Dec. 1, 2016.

The Lancaster Elementary School robotics team currently boasts 11 members.

Shortly, its membership will increase by one. The incoming 12th member won’t be a fifth-grader, though, like everyone else on the team. In fact, the newcomer won’t even be human.

Indeed, the squad’s final member will be the robot that its preceding 11 members have been tasked with building. It’s the first time that students at Lancaster have had such an opportunity and librarian Vicky Platt and resource teacher Lisa Merryman made it possible.

Originally published Nov. 28, 2016.

One of the highlights of the upcoming Children’s Choir of Huntington Christmas concert on Saturday, Dec. 3, will be an ode to Huntington’s famous former limestone quarry.

The piece, called “The Sunken Gardens,” begins with the words, “Come with me this winter night, let’s go look at all the Christmas lights. What a wonder – all aglow, Sunken Gardens in the snow.”

The new song, written by local composer Diane Whitacre, will be premiered during the Forks of the Wabash “Christmas at the Forks” weekend.

Originally published Nov. 24, 2016.

A new downtown decoration is taking advantage of a prime piece of real estate to ring in some holiday cheer, thanks to donations from local businesses and the electronic programming expertise of a local resident.

A 32-foot “Christmas tree” made of metal and state-of-the-art “RGB” lights will light up the corner of Jefferson Street and West Park Drive when the switch is pulled on Sunday, dwarfing nearly all of the other decorations in Huntington’s downtown “mall.”

Originally published Nov. 21, 2016.

Not less than a few inmates at the Huntington County Jail woke up Thursday morning, Nov. 17, to find a greeting from a four-footed, furry ambassador. And in each of the jail’s men’s and women’s cell blocks, there was not a frown to be found.

Originally published Nov. 14, 2016.

Alisha Morrical still has a hard time comprehending how her life changed in five months.

“Five months,” she says incredulously.

Then, she was a high school dropout bouncing from job to job, trying to support three young sons.

Now, the 25-year-old Huntington woman is the proud holder of a high school equivalency (HSE) diploma, looking forward to a career in the medical field.

“It’s been a road,” she says.

Originally published Nov. 7, 2016.

Some 20 young gardeners are learning how unconventional gardens can help feed the world, starting right under the roof of their own school.

The Garden and Nature Club, headed up by fifth grade teacher John Stoffel, has planted vegetables — mainly lettuce — in special garden towers that make use of hydroponics to grow the plants soil free.

The school obtained the garden towers thanks to a grant from the Purdue Extension office, facilitated by Special Projects Coordinator Susy Jennings.

Harold Billington grew up a farm boy, and he retired a farmer.

“Wheat, oats, bean, corn, rye,” he says. “Fixed tractors. I fixed about anything; electrical, welding, stuff like that.”
Most of his work was in the Bluffton, Geneva, Berne and Portland areas.

But for more than three years — “three years, four months and 10 days,” he says — Billington was on Oahu, building bridges, roads and landing strips on the Hawaiian island that was home to the naval base at Pearl Harbor in the midst of World War II.

Originally published Oct. 3, 2016.

When Matt Folk was a student at Purdue University, he aspired to see his name on more than just a diploma.

“Kind of one of my goals when I graduated from college was to eventually have my name on a building,” shares the 1991 Purdue grad.

This year, Folk finally achieved that goal. The Huntington native made a significant financial pledge to Purdue’s under-construction football performance complex, as well as its soccer program. Because of that generosity, he was given the opportunity to rename the school’s soccer complex.

Originally published Oct. 27, 2016.

Richard Hollinger, of rural Huntington, has found the perfect use for the roof of the pole barn out in back of his house, and it will likely save him more than $1,000 in utility bills this year alone.

Hollinger, a retired accountant, crunched the numbers and invested around $22,000 to put 45 solar panels on the south-facing roof of the barn.

Hollinger became interested in obtaining solar power when he saw numerous wind and solar collectors whenever he went to visit his sister in California.

Cynthia Smyth-Wartzok got up from her desk to answer the knock on the office door.

“There was definitely someone knocking at the door,” she says. “I heard the door very distinctly. But there was no one there.”

She went back to work and, a short time later, the knocking was repeated.

She didn’t bother to answer that time.

“Just the ghost,” she thought to herself.

Originally published Oct. 20, 2016.

In an amazingly short amount of time, Jessica Brooks’ five-month-long heroin habit had become so bad that she overdosed on the drug three times.

She shared her story on Oct. 4 with those who came to the Huntington County Sheriff’s community forum on the heroin epidemic that has strafed the county.

Today, Brooks is helping other women overcome substance abuse and addiction as the director of the Indiana Dream Center women’s ministry, one of several local programs offering help for those addicted to drugs.

Originally published Oct. 17, 2016.

Out on Stan Bippus’ property along CR 300W, a small town is taking shape.

Located just north of the Crown Hill subdivision, the town, which as of yet has no name, has popped up along the front of the road, on both sides of the driveway that leads back to Bippus’ pole barn, a.k.a. The Man Cave.

Along the gravel drive, single family housing in the form of birdhouses line the way back to his pond, workshop and poultry coops.

Originally published Oct. 13, 2016.

Every student at a Huntington North High School sporting event is a Viking.

But only one of those students gets to become a Viking, literally.