By Rebecca Sandlin - Monday, August 7, 2017 8:22 AM
Photo by Rebecca Sandlin
Originally published Aug. 3, 2017.
It seems everybody likes the idea that incoming seniors who reserve a parking space at Huntington North High School can paint their space in a creative way. It’s the first year the school has allowed the painting of the reserved spaces, serving as a fund-raiser for student council.
A photo of a painted spot posted on the high school’s Facebook page has already received more than 330 “likes” – from the likes of fellow students, teachers and even Huntington Mayor Brooks Fetters.
By Cindy Klepper - Thursday, July 27, 2017 7:55 AM
Photo by Cindy Klepper.
Originally published July 24, 2017.
Mix 1,500 gallons of ice cream with a few hundred gallons of milk, toss in some chocolate syrup, and what do you get?
New pens for the goat barn.
That’s after you serve hundreds and hundreds of milk shakes.
Shakes that have developed such a following that the line to order one sometimes snakes clear across the Huntington County Fairgrounds.
By Cindy Klepper - Monday, July 24, 2017 8:16 AM
Photo by Cindy Klepper.
Originally published July 17, 2017.
You may think the firefighter freeing your loved one from a mangled vehicle is a god.
He’s not.
Neither are the dispatcher who sent him out, or the police officer or the emergency medical technician also working the scene.
Sure, sometimes they go back to work unscathed and wait for the next call.
But sometimes that horrible thing that just happened eats at them.
“We’ve had some pretty tough hits on the fire department,” says Huntington Firefighter Jason Meier.
By Steve Clark - Thursday, July 20, 2017 8:33 AM
Photo by Steve Clark.
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.
By Rebecca Sandlin - Monday, July 17, 2017 8:04 AM
Photo by Rebecca Sandlin
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.”
By Cindy Klepper - Thursday, July 13, 2017 8:14 AM
Photo by Cindy Klepper.
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.”
By Steve Clark - Monday, July 10, 2017 8:18 AM
Photo by Steve Clark.
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.
Thursday, July 6, 2017 8:05 AM
Photo by Cindy Klepper.
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.
By Rebecca Sandlin - Sunday, July 2, 2017 11:44 AM
Photo by Rebecca Sandlin
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.
By Cindy Klepper - Thursday, June 29, 2017 8:08 AM
Photo provided.
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.
By Rebecca Sandlin - Monday, June 26, 2017 8:35 AM
Photo by Rebecca Sandlin
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.
By Rebecca Sandlin - Monday, June 19, 2017 8:13 AM
Photo by Rebecca Sandlin
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.
By Cindy Klepper - Wednesday, June 14, 2017 5:55 PM
Photo provided.
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.
By Rebecca Sandlin - Monday, June 12, 2017 7:59 AM
Photo by Rebecca Sandlin
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.
By Rebecca Sandlin - Thursday, June 8, 2017 8:26 AM
Photo by Rebecca Sandlin
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.”