By Rebecca Sandlin - Monday, September 25, 2017 8:49 AM
Photo by Rebecca Sandlin.
Originally published Sept. 21, 2017.
Back in 1961, George Wissinger happened upon a junkyard in Ohio that had a broken-down, decrepit pony cart. Wissinger just happened to have a pony (and two young daughters), and he was good with his hands.
“I paid $63 for it, and they threw in a set of harness,” he says.
By Cindy Klepper - Thursday, September 21, 2017 8:30 AM
Photo by Cindy Klepper.
Originally publihsed Sept. 18, 2017.
Carrie Munson likes being on the move.
Maybe it’s in her genes.
Her great-great-grandparents immigrated from Germany in the mid-1800s, crossing the country in a Conestoga wagon on their way to homesteading in Nebraska.
“So I kind of have that pioneering spirit,” Munson says.
Munson was born in New York and lived in Illinois and Wisconsin before making her way to Indiana. She now lives near Logansport, but can legitimately claim a large chunk of northern Indiana as her home base.
By Rebecca Sandlin - Thursday, September 21, 2017 8:17 AM
Photo by Rebecca Sandlin.
Originally published Sept. 11, 2017.
Uncharacteristic of youngsters their age, the pupils in teacher Courtney Whitney’s afternoon preschool class sit quietly on the concrete risers inside the courtyard garden at Flint Springs Elementary School on Thursday, Aug. 31, their eyes collectively fixed in anticipation on a little mesh cage sitting on the ground.
Inside, flexing and expanding its unmistakable orange, black and white-dotted wings, is a freshly-emerged monarch butterfly.
By REBECCA SANDLIN - Monday, September 18, 2017 7:58 AM
Photo by Rebecca Sandlin.
Originally published Sept. 14, 2017.
Students at Huntington North High School have a new place to gather and study this year, located adjacent to a row of lockers and next door to the school office. Appropriately enough, it’s called the Locker Lounge.
HNHS Principal Russ Degitz says the lounge was the brainchild last year of then-administrative intern Katie Jellison, who proposed turning the space into a place where students could work on homework.
By Steve Clark - Thursday, September 14, 2017 7:49 AM
Photo by Steve Clark.
Originally published Sept. 7, 2017.
Traditionally, helmets just protect football players during a hit.
The helmets at Huntington North High School, though, protect players after hits, too.
By Rebecca Sandlin - Monday, September 11, 2017 7:59 AM
Photo by Rebecca Sandlin.
Originally published Sept. 4, 2017.
Sharon Laupp describes a horticultural event at her house as like “waiting for a baby to be born.”
On Wednesday, Aug. 30, her unusual plant gave birth, at night, to a single, fragrant flower. And then it was gone.
Laupp’s plant is a night-blooming cereus, which she believes is the only one of its kind in the area.
By Cindy Klepper - Thursday, September 7, 2017 8:09 AM
Photo by Cindy Klepper.
Originally published Aug. 31, 2017.
By the end of the year, Ana Velazquez hopes, her small charges at Huntington Catholic School will be able to follow along as she speaks to them in Spanish.
“My goal is at least to have them say five complete sentences,” she says. “If I carry on a conversation, they can pick up on it.”
Velazquez is teaching Spanish to the school’s kindergartners and first-graders, and Huntington Catholic Principal Derek Boone says plans are to eventually expand the classes to take in more grades.
By Cindy Klepper - Monday, September 4, 2017 7:42 AM
Photo by Cindy Klepper.
Originally published Aug. 28, 2017.
If you’ve noticed an absence of litter along Huntington County roads, thank a group of inmates from the Huntington County Jail.
The inmates, non-violent offenders who have earned the trust of the jail staff, are walking rural roads, picking up trash tossed from car windows and marking the location of larger items pushed from the beds of pickup trucks.
“It’s bottles and cans,” says trusty Billy Craft as he fills a black plastic garbage bag with debris found along CR 300W on a perfect summer day.
Thursday, August 31, 2017 8:06 AM
Photo provided.
Originally published Aug. 24, 2017.
Chris Treft was 18 months old when he attended his first hockey game.
His grandfather, Harold Treft, took him to see his beloved Komets, Fort Wayne’s longtime minor league hockey team. While the elder Treft loved his infant grandson, he also loved the perks that came with having a diaper bag to carry into the Komets’ arena, the Allen County War Memorial Coliseum.
By Rebecca Sandlin - Monday, August 28, 2017 7:43 AM
Originally published Aug. 21, 2017.
Most parents hope their children will do well in school, college, career and life. In the Forsythe household, their two kids have sailed over hurdles on many of those milestones, shooting for the stars way ahead of the curve for their ages. And yes – it is, indeed, rocket science.
By Cindy Klepper - Thursday, August 24, 2017 7:54 AM
Photo by Cindy Klepper.
Originally published Aug. 17, 2017.
The shooting range at Huntington’s Roush Fish and Wildlife Area is a popular place.
In a slow month, says Assistant Property Manager Bethany Blicharz, the range gets at least 1,000 visitors.
During the heat of July, about 1,800 shooters visited the range.
As the weather cools and hunting season approaches, the numbers will increase to 2,000 to 3,000 a month, says Denise Reust, regional office manager at Roush.
And that’s been going on since the range opened in August of 2005.
By Steve Clark - Monday, August 21, 2017 7:52 AM
Photo by Steve Clark.
Originally published Aug. 14, 2017.
Sarah Jones, of Warren, was named this year’s Indiana Duroc queen.
It’s a title that comes with the responsibility of being an ambassador for the Duroc breed of swine. Chief among her duties will be appearing at the Indiana State Fair, where she will hand out ribbons to 4-H’ers during swine events.
By Cindy Klepper - Thursday, August 17, 2017 7:59 AM
Photo by Cindy Klepper.
Originally published Aug. 10, 2017.
Ashley Crittendon was on vacation in Florida over spring break when she found a rock hidden in a hole in a palm tree.
It wasn’t just any old rock; this one had been painted blue and was adorned with a picture of a sun.
“It was really exciting, just finding a simple rock,” Crittendon says.
By Cindy Klepper - Monday, August 14, 2017 8:24 AM
Photo by Cindy Klepper.
The old H.K. Porter/-Friction Materials is full of stuff that shouldn’t be left laying around.
There’s lead and asbestos, raw materials used in the manufacture of linings for automotive parts including brakes and clutches; and benzene, a solvent used in the manufacturing process.
All are known or suspected carcinogens, but all are still used — under strict regulations — in manufacturing today.
By Rebecca Sandlin - Thursday, August 10, 2017 8:01 AM
Photo by Rebecca Sandlin
Originally published Aug. 7, 2017.
While Huntington County’s schoolchildren may not be all that fired up about returning to the classroom, Huntington County Community School Corporation’s superintendent, Randy Harris, is stoked about the 2017-18 school year, and ready to take the proverbial bull by the horns for the year’s tasks ahead.