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2 with local ties competing at Miss Indiana Pageant

Lauren Petersen (left) and Mindi Hoffman.
Photos provided.

Two teens with Huntington connections are competing this week in the Miss Indiana Pageant.

Former Miss Huntington Lauren Petersen, of Bluffton, and reigning Miss Huntington Mindi Hoffman, of Columbia City, are among 29 young women competing Sunday, June 19, to Saturday, June 25.

The Miss Indiana and Miss Indiana's Outstanding Teen competitions will be held in Zionsville at the Zionsville Performing Arts Center. Preliminaries will be held during the week, and the Miss Indiana finals will take place at 7 p.m. on Saturday.

Cherished Horace Mann spot to live on in a new location

Horace Mann Elementary School librarian Tammie Frederick (left) and Toni Mayo pack up the “Brandon’s Corner” area at the Horace Mann library on Thursday, May 26.
Photo by Matt Murphy.

Originally published June 6, 2011.

A cherished spot in the former Horace Mann Elementary School library will live on, although in a new location.

Brandon's Corner, created 19 years ago in memory of Brandon Mayo by his mother, Toni, is now in its new home in an upstairs room at the Boys & Girls Club of Huntington County.

"It's great to continue the tradition of Brandon's Corner," says Desiree Frederick, a staff member of the Boys & Girls Club and a Horace Mann alumna. "It's great that our kids get those resources."

Huntington County Slice of Roanoke history hidden in quiet building on First Street

Kate Hoffman, a caretaker at the Roanoke Area Heritage Center, discusses a painting by the late Horace Rockwell, a Roanoke resident, on Tuesday, May 24. The RAHC preserves a chunk of the history of this northeast Huntington County community.
Photo by Matt Murphy.

Originally published June 2, 2011.

A slice of Roanoke history is preserved at a hidden gem on First Street near the town's main corridor.

The Roanoke Area Heritage Center features an array of memorabilia unique to the town, from uniforms and class pictures from the former Roanoke-Jackson Township High School, to Native American artifacts to a desk carved decades ago from the wooden gates of the Dickie Lock, or Lock No. 4, on the Wabash and Erie Canal.

Near-tragedy brings missing pet home after several months

Family pet Rowdy sits cozily on the couch in the Martins’ living room, still on the mend after getting hit by a car on Saturday, May 21. The car accident was the first sign of Rowdy since he ran away in February.
Photo by Sarah Johnson.

It took a near-tragedy to bring a long-missing pet back home.

When Rowdy, a 2-year-old beagle mix from Crescent Avenue in Huntington, ran away, it was mid-February. While on a walk, he stepped on something that startled him and he took off, leash and all, two days before his annual vaccination appointment.

Tammy Martin, Rowdy's owner, says that usually the family could trust Rowdy on the front lawn without a leash and that he had never run away before. But on Feb. 17 he vanished.

YSB’s SOS students launch Holocaust memorial project after seeing film

Sophomore Dominic Black explains a map of Europe depicting the locations of Holocaust concentration camps, death camps, Jewish ghettos and massacre sites.
Photo by Sarah Johnson.

Originally published May 30, 2011.

The words "Arbeit Macht Frei" (Work Makes You Free) once hung over the entrance of Auschwitz, a dark and deceptive greeting at what would be a place of tragedy.
Today, the same words hang over a hallway in Huntington's Youth Services Bureau as a tribute to the Holocaust.

Students involved in the Students Out of School program (SOS) at the YSB decided to launch a Holocaust memorial project after seeing the documentary "Paper Clips" in March.

HU senior decides he can do more with iPod

Huntington University senior Andrew Martin recently had his application for the popular Mafia Wars game accepted by the Apple iTunes store. Martin wrote the program as part of a J-Term class.
Photo by Andre B. Laird.

Originally published April 25, 2011.

After receiving an iPod, most people upload songs, videos, games and load up on cool "apps."

Andrew Martin decided that he could do more.
The Huntington University senior from Eaton, OH, recently had his first application accepted for the Apple software market.

"A couple years ago, I won my iPod in a capital campaign competition here," states Martin. "I developed an application as part of a J-Term class."

VFW honor guard pays last respects to county’s veterans

Members of the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 2689 Honor Guard (from left) Bennie Sams, Mike Harrell, Jerry Walling and Mike Smith stand at attention during a recent military service.
Photo by Cindy Klepper.

They've buried all the World War I veterans; now, they're putting the guys from World War II in the ground.
Occasionally, they'll gather to pay their last respects to a contemporary, bonded by common service in a more recent war.

"Just about every cemetery you go to now, there's somebody in it we helped bury," says Jerry Walling, a Vietnam veteran who heads up the honor guard of Huntington's Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 2689.
Even his own era is not exempt.

"We've done a lot of Vietnam veterans," says Walling, who earned a Purple Heart in that war.

County woman Wilda Beeby served her nation; to be honored with others in Memorial Day program

Peggy Bard holds a Naval Academy photograph of her parents, the late Charles and Wilda Beeby. Wilda joined the Navy in 1944, after the death of her first husband, John Bos.
Photo by Andre B. Laird.

It would be hard to find many women in Huntington County who lived a more adventurous life than the late Wilda Beeby.

Beeby, who died last year, served in the United State Navy from March 28, 1944, to December, 1945, as a driver for officers in Washington, DC.

She will be among the deceased veterans to be honored during Huntington County's Memorial Day service on May 30.

Her daughter Peggy Bard says Beeby had an adventurous spirit from an early on.

SUV to hold first Memorial Day illumination

Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War member Gib Young stands next to the Civil War monument at General Slack Park.
Photo by Sarah Johnson.

Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War, Champion Hill, Camp 17 will host its first Memorial Day illumination ceremony to honor 217 Huntington soldiers who died while serving in the Civil War at General Slack Park on Monday, May 30, at 8:15 p.m.

The event will include live music from the Erie Railroad Band, a brief ceremony for the fallen soldiers, presentation by American Legion Post 85 and SUVCW color guards and the lighting of 217 bagged candles. Boy Scout Troops 130 and 637 will also assist.

Prosecutor among Ten Outstanding Young Americans award winners

Amy Richison
Photo provided.

Huntington County Prosecutor Amy Richison will share the stage with national celebrities including New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees and Philadelphia Phillies center fielder Shane Victorino as 2011 recipients of the Ten Outstanding Young Americans award, an annual honor sponsored by the U.S. Junior Chamber of Commerce - an organization better known as the Jaycees.

Richison will be honored during a ceremony at the Wyndham-Lisle-Chicago Hotel in Lisle, IL, on Saturday, June 11.

Joining athletic conference has paid academic dividends for Riverview Middle School students

Five Academic Super Bowl teams from Riverview Middle School participated in their conference meet on March 29, three of which moved on to the state meet on April 30.
Photo by Jessica Williams.

Originally published April 21, 2011.

Joining an athletic conference has certainly paid off academically for Riverview Middle School.

Three 2011 Riverview Middle School Academic Super Bowl teams placed in the Northeast Lakes Middle School Conference meet in Warsaw on March 29 and will get to compete in the state meet on April 30 at Indian Springs Middle School in Columbia City.

Local Red Cross head calls scene in Alabama worst he’s dealt with

Mike Rohler.
Photo provided.

Mike Rohler is no stranger to devastation and destruction.

Appointed head of the Red Cross in Huntington County since the fall of 2008, Rohler came into that position as an experienced Red Cross volunteer specializing in disaster assessment. As such, he assisted with Red Cross efforts after Hurricane Katrina devastated the Gulf area in 2005; Ike and Dolly in 2008; the central Indiana floods that same year; and last year's floods in Nashville.

But nothing prepared him for the utter ruin he encountered last week in Alabama.

Leonard sees fixes coming in future due to shortened session

State Rep. Dan Leonard (R-Huntington) reviews legislation at his desk in the House Chamber of the Indiana Statehouse in Indianpolis before the House of Representatives convenes on Friday, April 29, the last day of the 2011 legislative session.
Photo by Matt Murphy.

In light of a five-week walkout from the Indiana Statehouse by House Democrats, District 50 Rep. Dan Leonard (R-Huntington) calls it an "accomplishment" that the state legislature was able to finish its session by the Friday, April 29 deadline.

"We got our work done without five weeks in the middle," Leonard said in Indianapolis on the final day of the 2011 legislative session. "But we missed that five weeks of discussion. I'm not trying to throw stones, but the legislation we're passing today ... we're going to have to come back and fix some things next year."

Banks feels newcomer learning experience will help in future

State Sen. Jim Banks (R-Columbia City, right)) talks with Sen. Carlin Yoder (R-Middlebury) in Banks’s office in the Indiana Statehouse in Indianapolis on the last day of the 2011 legislative session, Friday, April 29.
Photo by Matt Murphy.

At the end of the 2011 legislative session, State Sen. Jim Banks (R-Columbia City) said he has learned much about the lawmaking process of the Indiana General Assembly and will be able to push harder for legislation benefiting the state and his district, District 17, next year.

"It's been at times, an overwhelming experience," Banks said at the Indiana Statehouse on Friday, April 29, the last day of this year's session. "I've learned so much. I know already I'll be more effective next year."

Christina Christman has to use both hands when counting blessings on Mother’s Day

Matt and Christina Christman pose with their growing family in their rural Huntington County home.
Photo by Cindy Klepper.

When Christina Christman stops on Mother's Day to count her blessings, she'll have to use both hands.

There's Alexandria, and Luke, and Marianne, and Benjamin, and Nicholas, and Joseph, and Gabriel.

That's seven kids, ranging in age from seven weeks to 11 years, every one of them welcome.

"We both wanted kids," Matt says. "We had no set plan of when or how many."

"We didn't have a plan," Christina says in agreement. "We just thank God for whatever he sends us."