High school teams find victories lead to more fans, funds for programs In his first two years as athletic director for Michigan City High School, Craig Shaman remembers when Friday night varsity football games drew about 1,000 people. That meant at least 3,000 seats were empty at the 4,000-person capacity Ames Field, which didn’t help …
Water park proves profitable despite doubts Widely known for its out-of-the-box approaches to events and attractions, the city of Whiting has become the small city with big ideas. Its annual Pierogi Fest, Wickedly Whiting, and the WhoaZone at Whihala Beach sports park have put the city on the attraction map. Last summer, WhoaZone’s floating sports …
Interest fades in America’s former favorite pastime Springtime again, and there’s no doubting what Kevin Bradley’s fancy turns to. Baseball is his thing and has been for four decades. The president of the Gary Metro Little League first put a bat to a ball when he was just four years old, and the ball sat …
Ron Howard leads the way for children’s camps Seven years in, they pull up to the door now and out spill the children. Out spill all the things in his life that make Ron Howard smile. Yet it’s not just the children who are his blessing, it’s who’s behind the wheel of the vehicles that …
The game has changed but it’s still coaching kids and it’s still football The game is not going to lose him. David Bush is pretty clear about that. “I love the game of football,” he says. And so, autumn is a busy time for him, and has been for more than a quarter century. He …
New conferences for Purdue NW and Valparaiso University Thirty-four miles of toll road still separate the two, multiple lanes of pavement that run east and west and, these days, represent far more than just a thread of red on some service plaza map of Indiana. Those 34 miles are only geographic now, because Purdue Calumet …
NWI Paddling Association combines community and conservation She’s the first to admit that the ancestral spirit of the French voyageur likely doesn’t breathe within her. Nor does that of the Olympic kayaker. Instead, Debby Stoit says she’s still a novice at this business of paddling canoes and kayaks along the waterways of Northwest Indiana, and …
Notre Dame’s ice arena aims to inspire young athletes The eye of the beholder begins to gleam, as the beholder steps into this clean, well-lit place. Jeff Jackson has seen it. Mike McNeill, too. “I don’t ask them directly what their thoughts are about the facility, but when they walk through there, their eyes are …
Society of Innovators shines the spotlight on the region’s big thinkers. by Jerry Davich Similar to when atoms collide at high speeds, something remarkable happens when ideas collide at innovative speeds. “The spark of genius happens,” says John Davies, managing director of the Society of Innovators of Northwest Indiana. “Everything begins with an idea. Everything. …
Northern Indiana companies with great results and lots of promise. by Steve Kaelble What companies have potential to create tomorrow’s big business news? That’s what the Indiana Companies to Watch program sets out to discover. This year, four Northern Indiana organizations made the state’s Companies to Watch list. These companies aim to bring people’s ailing …
