Features

Originally published May 7, 2009

For many people, crocheting and knitting offer a form of therapy and allows them to create pieces of art.

One local group of women has taken its love for the art form and used it to help others.

Beth Fulton heads up The Loose Ends, a group comprised of area women who love to crochet and knit.

"We started last October," states Fulton. "I was asked by a friend to start up a group that could get together."

Originally published April 30, 2009.

Ted Rogers seems almost offended when asked why, after spending four years serving his country during World War II, he agreed to take on the responsibility of establishing an Army National Guard armory in Huntington.

"To protect our country," he says, after a pause. He had the training and the know-how, he adds. "I wanted to pass that on to another generation."

Originally published April 27, 2009.

Members of the Andrews Lions Club recently recognized the accomplishments of the famous Clark Twins, who hailed from the small burg in western Huntington County, by having signs made to place on the north and south ends of town in their honor.

The signs, which read "Hometown of the Clark Twins," will be placed along Ind.-105 - near the Andrews-Dallas Township Fire station on the north edge of town and just before the curve on the south edge of town.

Originally published April 23, 2009

One of the last things anyone would associate with Huntington County is bison.

However, Huntington resident Blaine Kaylor is now the owner of a small herd of the unusual - for these parts, anyway - animal.

The decision to start raising bison, more commonly known as buffalo, came after a lot of research.

"Four years ago, I decided that I wanted to build a barn to raise beef cattle," Kaylor states. "I started building the barn and began to research bison."

Originally published March 3, 2005

Long before the white settlers came, a frequently used trail ran along the Salamonie River.

It was known as the Godfroy Trail, or trace, and ran between Chief Francis Godfroy's reservation further southeast along the Salamonie River to his principal village near present-day Peru.

The trail became the River Road, and it remains today one of the most scenic drives in the county.

With rising food prices, many families find it difficult to maintain balance when it comes to eating healthy and staying within budget.

In response, Indiana Family and Social Services Administration and the U.S. Department of Agriculture have teamed up with Purdue University Cooperative Extension Service to offer the Family Nutrition Program.

Susy Jennings, program assistant and recent addition to the Huntington County Extension Office staff, says the aim of the program is simple.

Originally published April 9, 2009

Tiffany Smith, a senior at Huntington North High School, has been selected by the local Boys and Girls Club as the community's Youth of the Year.

Smith is the fourth recipient of the Huntington Chapter award, and the first female recipient.
Boys and Girls Club Program Director Josh Miller says,

Originally published April 2, 2009

What are we reading?

Depends on where we live.

In Huntington, we're enamored of Stephanie Plum, "a bounty hunter with attitude."

In Markle, we'd rather settle down with a thriller.

"There is a big difference in what is read in Huntington and what is read in Markle," says Huntington City-Township Public Library Director Kathy Holst as she flips through a list of the most-checked-out books for 2008.

Robert Fettinger's family seems to have a history of coming home.

His parents, who were living elsewhere when he was born, came to Huntington when he was just 2 years old.

That was a homecoming for his mom, whose family was from the Lancaster and Huntington areas.

When Fettinger himself came home, it was after stints in Arizona and Mexico, where he met and married his wife.
The city he came home to was a place so familiar to him that, even at age 77, he can reproduce the exact shades of the bricks that made up the facades of its downtown buildings.

When it comes to fitness and strength training, five Huntington men are taking the sport to a new level.

The group, known as "The Tribe: Huntington Strength Athletes," consists of Aaron Snider, Nate Falcone, Gabe Rice, Scott Smith, Bryce Davis and Chris Schuman.
Snider, the team leader, says the name means a lot to the group.

"The definition of tribe is a group of individuals who come together for a common purpose," Snider states. "We all have different personalities and backgrounds, but the sport is what brings us together."

Originally published March 23, 2009

In October of 1882, O.E. Mohler stepped outside and recorded the weather in Huntington.

Somebody's been doing it ever since.

Originally published March 16, 2009

Once a month, a group of women gathers at St. Mary Catholic Church.

They've been doing it for 50 years - probably longer.

"It's possible it was started in the early 1950s," says Dana Flora, president of the St. Mary Rosary Sodality, but she's not sure exactly when it was organized.

The name "sodality" might puzzle some, but it's actually a fairly common term for describing a lay organization in the Roman Catholic Church with a devotional or charitable purpose.

Originally published March 12, 2009

Betty Leininger learned to sew as a young girl but it wasn't until recently that she took up the art of making yarn-tied quilts. And once she started, there was no stopping this 85-year-old rural Yoder resident.

Leininger picked up the hobby when she joined a group of women at her church who were making the blankets. But over time, the group dwindled to just a handful of people and Leininger was having difficulty seeing at the church, so she decided to exit the group and continue her stitching at home.

Originally published March 12, 2009

Six months ago, Brian Spice picked up a hobby resulting in approximately 10,000 live beetles moving into his Huntington County barn.

His services - more specifically, the services of his bugs - are in high demand.

Spice and his colonies of carpet beetles can prepare an animal skull as a European mount in a matter of six to eight weeks, a mount preferred hunters who want just the skull, not the hide, of their trophies preserved and mounted.

Florence Jackson does not like New York.

But then again, after being mugged and robbed there, who would?

Jackson, also known as Rocky Mountain Lady, now retired from a 12-year driving career, has traveled to all 48 contiguous states, Canada and Mexico.

She's earned numerous safety awards and worked for several companies, but her love for the road has never changed. She even seemed destined for the job, explaining, "I could never sit still. I found a job that would pay me for not sitting still."