Business news: Congressional art competition winner named
The Northwest Indiana Partners for Clean Air honored high school senior scholarship recipients and regional air quality leaders recently at the organization's annual scholarship and awards luncheon at the Hammond Marina, according to a release.
The PCA received a record number of applications for its high school scholarship program with very competitive submissions. The PCA Scholarship Committee selected four scholarship winners. Each winner will receive a $2,500 scholarship, totaling $10,000, the release said.
This year's scholarship winners are: Paige Hein, Washington Township High School; Brooke Lakin, Michigan City High School; Cavin McNulty, Munster High School; and Kaitlin Shideler, Valparaiso High School.
In addition to the scholarship winners, six recipients received awards for voluntary actions to improve air quality in 2024: K&C Trucking Co., Homewood Disposal Services, Metro Ports; Porter County Parks & Recreation and La Porte County each received the Municipal Award and Trailblazers Bike Barn of Hobart received the Mark Siminski Bicycle Award.
U.S. Rep. Frank J. Mrvan, D-Highland, recently announced that Adam Tenbarge II of Chesterton High School is the winner of the Dist. 1 2025 Congressional Art Competition, a release said.
Tenbarge used paint and colored pencils to create his winning artwork, 'Journey Through Indiana,' which captures the varied landscapes of Northwest Indiana.
'The dunes, Lake Michigan and the steel mills define our surroundings,' Janet Bloch, Executive Director of the Lubeznik Center for the Arts and judge of the Congressional Art Competition, said.
'This landscape impacts the way people in our region think, what we value, what we do recreationally, and how we define beauty. The winning submission depicts these various settings under one unified sky.'
In partnership with the Northwest Indiana District 1 Firefighter Training Council, the MAAC Foundation recently graduated its newest class of 40 volunteer firefighters representing departments across Northwest Indiana, a release said.
The graduation marks the culmination of intensive hands-on and classroom training designed to prepare recruits for service in their local fire departments.
The graduates are: Brittany Llanes, Allied Universal; Noah Engelhardt, Michael Gutierrez and Kodi Nowacki; Kyle Caves and Brandon Zimmerman, Cedar Lake; Teagen Janson, Crown Point; Riley Waterman, Dyer; Joshua Bertossi and Patrick Thompson, Griffith; Clayton Buchanan, Julian Childress, Peter Gladstone and Shawn Glenn, Hebron; Matthew Michael, Highland; Jacob Rush and Christopher Stone, Lake Dalecarlia; Terrell Farmer, Kenya Jordan, Brayden Seaton, Kameron Stojakovich and Timothy Whitmore, Lake Ridge; Chris Bynum and Emma Parker, Isabella Fuentes and Sara Sweney, Lowell; Jayden Harvey, Jacob Simpson, Emmanuel Soto and Gavin Tienstra, Munster; Ryan Cogdill and Jason Skeesick, Ogden Dunes; Cameron Tancos, Rensselaer; Lucas Adams, Jermiah Brown and Ravi Fuentes, South Haven; Carmela Gallardo and Crystal Rivera, St. John; and Raymond Gorz and Ho Jonathan Nguyen, Washington Township.
The City of Hammond has been awarded funding through the U.S. Department of Energy's Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant Program for new electric vehicle charging stations, according to a release.
The grant will fund charging station infrastructure at the Hammond Sportsplex at 167th Street and Indianapolis Boulevard, and City Hall, 5925 Calumet Ave. Both were chosen for their visibility and frequent use, the release said. The project is part of Hammond's commitment to environmental responsibility, clean energy infrastructure and community well-being. Installation is expected to be finished by the end of 2025, the release said.
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Chicago Tribune
2 days ago
- Chicago Tribune
Business news: Congressional art competition winner named
The Northwest Indiana Partners for Clean Air honored high school senior scholarship recipients and regional air quality leaders recently at the organization's annual scholarship and awards luncheon at the Hammond Marina, according to a release. The PCA received a record number of applications for its high school scholarship program with very competitive submissions. The PCA Scholarship Committee selected four scholarship winners. Each winner will receive a $2,500 scholarship, totaling $10,000, the release said. This year's scholarship winners are: Paige Hein, Washington Township High School; Brooke Lakin, Michigan City High School; Cavin McNulty, Munster High School; and Kaitlin Shideler, Valparaiso High School. In addition to the scholarship winners, six recipients received awards for voluntary actions to improve air quality in 2024: K&C Trucking Co., Homewood Disposal Services, Metro Ports; Porter County Parks & Recreation and La Porte County each received the Municipal Award and Trailblazers Bike Barn of Hobart received the Mark Siminski Bicycle Award. U.S. Rep. Frank J. Mrvan, D-Highland, recently announced that Adam Tenbarge II of Chesterton High School is the winner of the Dist. 1 2025 Congressional Art Competition, a release said. Tenbarge used paint and colored pencils to create his winning artwork, 'Journey Through Indiana,' which captures the varied landscapes of Northwest Indiana. 'The dunes, Lake Michigan and the steel mills define our surroundings,' Janet Bloch, Executive Director of the Lubeznik Center for the Arts and judge of the Congressional Art Competition, said. 'This landscape impacts the way people in our region think, what we value, what we do recreationally, and how we define beauty. The winning submission depicts these various settings under one unified sky.' In partnership with the Northwest Indiana District 1 Firefighter Training Council, the MAAC Foundation recently graduated its newest class of 40 volunteer firefighters representing departments across Northwest Indiana, a release said. The graduation marks the culmination of intensive hands-on and classroom training designed to prepare recruits for service in their local fire departments. The graduates are: Brittany Llanes, Allied Universal; Noah Engelhardt, Michael Gutierrez and Kodi Nowacki; Kyle Caves and Brandon Zimmerman, Cedar Lake; Teagen Janson, Crown Point; Riley Waterman, Dyer; Joshua Bertossi and Patrick Thompson, Griffith; Clayton Buchanan, Julian Childress, Peter Gladstone and Shawn Glenn, Hebron; Matthew Michael, Highland; Jacob Rush and Christopher Stone, Lake Dalecarlia; Terrell Farmer, Kenya Jordan, Brayden Seaton, Kameron Stojakovich and Timothy Whitmore, Lake Ridge; Chris Bynum and Emma Parker, Isabella Fuentes and Sara Sweney, Lowell; Jayden Harvey, Jacob Simpson, Emmanuel Soto and Gavin Tienstra, Munster; Ryan Cogdill and Jason Skeesick, Ogden Dunes; Cameron Tancos, Rensselaer; Lucas Adams, Jermiah Brown and Ravi Fuentes, South Haven; Carmela Gallardo and Crystal Rivera, St. John; and Raymond Gorz and Ho Jonathan Nguyen, Washington Township. The City of Hammond has been awarded funding through the U.S. Department of Energy's Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant Program for new electric vehicle charging stations, according to a release. The grant will fund charging station infrastructure at the Hammond Sportsplex at 167th Street and Indianapolis Boulevard, and City Hall, 5925 Calumet Ave. Both were chosen for their visibility and frequent use, the release said. The project is part of Hammond's commitment to environmental responsibility, clean energy infrastructure and community well-being. Installation is expected to be finished by the end of 2025, the release said.
Yahoo
04-06-2025
- Yahoo
PCA teacher running for seat on Poudre School District Board of Education
Mike Thomas, a teacher at Poudre Community Academy and former member of the Colorado Education Association's Board of Directors, is running for seat on the Poudre School District Board of Education in the November 2025 election. Thomas, 41, is running for the District D seat, representing northwest Fort Collins. Jim Brokish, who currently holds that seat, does not plan to run for reelection. Tom Griggs, who spent most of his professional career teaching teachers, and Coronda Ziegler, a student success manager at Colorado State University, have also announced their candidacy for the District D seat. Board of Education members must reside within the district they represent but are elected by all voters within the school district's boundaries. Thomas taught for 13 years at schools in Boulder, Denver and Fort Collins after getting started on his career in education in a Head Start program in the Seattle area, Thomas told the Coloradoan on May 30. His experience ranges from preschool through high school, primarily in science, mathematics, construction and welding. Thomas took a break from teaching for several years to be a stay-at-home father — he and his wife, Kristen Rasmussen, have two children — and renovate their Fort Collins home before accepting a job two years ago at Poudre Community Academy, one of two alternative high schools in Poudre School District. Concerns over the poor condition of the building that houses PCA prompted him to run for the school board, he said. Thomas waited until the school year was over to announce his candidacy, fully aware of a PSD Board of Education policy that automatically puts district employees running for seats on the school board on an unpaid extended leave of absence until the election. Were he to win the District D seat, that policy reads, Thomas would deem him 'automatically and voluntarily resigned as a District employee' upon taking the oath of office. 'I really love PCA; I don't want to leave it,' Thomas said. 'I made the decision to think about running in January, when we had to walk across the street with all of our students to use the bathroom, because our bathrooms had stopped working for the third time this year.' More: Poudre School District raising pay for teachers, classified employees One of Thomas' primary concerns, he told the Coloradoan, is ensuring the district uses money from the 2024 debt-free schools mill levy to properly maintain, repair and improve its school buildings and other facilities. He would like to help the school district explore the use of solar and geothermal energy in its facilities. Thomas would also like to see the district speed up the implementation of its new elementary school literacy curriculum through professional development opportunities for teachers and expand its use into middle and high schools. 'I'm really happy with what the district is doing at the elementary school level, which is a big change,' Thomas said. 'It has not been implemented as fully as it needs to be; professional development has not been provided as extensively as it needs to be. We need to make it happen a lot faster than what's going on right now.' In addition to serving on the Colorado Education Association's Board of Directors, Thomas said he worked on multiple political-action campaigns and helped two candidates with their races for seats on the Boulder Valley School District Board of Education while living there while his wife, now a climate scientist at CSU, completed post-doctoral work at the National Center for Atmospheric Research. Two candidates in other districts have also announced their candidacy for Board of Education seats in the November 2025 election — Sabrina Herrick in District C (northeast Fort Collins) and Andrew Spain in District E (northern and western Larimer County, including Wellington, Red Feather Lakes and Poudre Canyon). Reporter Kelly Lyell covers education, breaking news, some sports and other topics of interest for the Coloradoan. Contact him at kellylyell@ and This article originally appeared on Fort Collins Coloradoan: Mike Thomas running for seat on PSD Board of Education
Chicago Tribune
17-03-2025
- Chicago Tribune
Community news: Kankakee Marsh, art show, cultural grants, smoking cessation and more
Historical society presents program on Kankakee Marsh The Kankakee Valley Historical Society presents 'Whatever Happened to the Kankakee Marsh?' The program explores how Northwest Indiana's 'Everglades of the North' was reduced to the Kankakee River after the marsh was drained. The program begins at 6:30 p.m. April 8 at Open Door Fellowship Church hall, 636 S. Baums Bridge Road in Kouts. The program is free though donations are appreciated. For more information, go to Mrvan announces 2025 Congressional Art Competition Rep. Frank J. Mrvan invites entries to the 2025 Congressional Art Competition for high school students from Indiana's First Congressional District. Each year, the Congressional Institute and Members of the U.S. House of Representatives sponsor the Congressional Art Competition to promote artistic talent in each Congressional District. All artwork submissions and application forms must be brought to Congressman Mrvan's office, 8001 Broadway, Suite 102, Merrillville, no later than 5 p.m. April 18. The office is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. For additional information, including guidelines and application forms, visit or contact Drew Ficociello in the Merrillville District Office at 219-795-1844 or Valparaiso HRC seeks applicants for cultural educational grants The City of Valparaiso's Human Relations Council (HRC) seeks applicants for its new Community Cultural Educational grants. The grants are designed to support efforts to increase awareness, appreciation and dialogue among diverse and traditionally underrepresented groups through programming, events or other outreach. The $10,000 grant pool is funded by the Valparaiso Mayor's Office, to be disbursed through matching grants ranging from $500 to $2,000 per project. The plan is for grants to be awarded twice annually. This first cycle is now open, with applications due on April 30. The HRC Community Cultural Educational Grant program is open to any resident of Valparaiso, nonprofit corporation with a 501(c)(3) designation, unincorporated association, and educational organization so long as the project for which funding is requested serves a nonprofit objective related to education/cultural inclusion. Find the guidelines and application at To learn more about the Valpo HRC, visit their page at Franciscan Health hosts weekly smoking cessation walks and talks Franciscan Health is hosting a free, weekly smoking cessation walk and talk support group from 9 to 10 a.m. on Wednesdays from March 26 to June 25 at the Lake County Fairgrounds, 889 S. Court St., Crown Point. Participants should meet at the picnic tables at the front entrance. The sessions will begin with a 30-minute walk and casual conversation with other participants. A 30-minute focused, supportive discussion will follow, allowing participants to share their experiences, challenges and successes with others who are also working to quit smoking. Different topics will be explored each week tailored to the groups' needs, including mindfulness exercises, stress management techniques and practical coping skills to help overcome cravings and triggers. More information is available from Laura Arent at Logan's Love to host sensory-friendly egg hunt Logan's Love will host its third annual Sensory Friendly Egg Hunt for people of all abilities from 11 a.m. to noon on April 5 at Redar Park, 218 Gregory St., Schererville. This free event is designed for those who cannot tolerate a traditional egg hunt. Registration takes place from 10:30 to 11 a.m. In case of inclement weather, an alternate location will be communicated to registrants. Logan's Love was created by Nicole Reveliotis to honor the loss of her autistic son, Logan Ruiz, who died in a train accident on Aug. 27, 2022, at the age of 10. The deadline to register is March 30. For more information, contact Nicole at 219-805-0750 or Eliana at 219-885-8434. IU Northwest to hold employment, internship fair Indiana University Northwest will host a Community Employment and Internship Fair from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. April 11 at the Savannah Center Gymnasium, 3400 Broadway, Gary. The event is free and open to the public. Local Northwest Indiana and Illinois employers will be present to provide company information, meet with prospective employees, collect applications and, in some cases, interview candidates. Professional opportunities range from internships to part-time or full-time employment. Representatives from the IU Northwest Office of Admissions also will be present for those interested in earning their bachelor's degree. All attendees are asked to dress professionally and bring copies of their resumes. To help prepare job-seekers, the Office of Career Services offers career guidance and resources to community members and IU Northwest students from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. every Friday in Hawthorn Hall, Room 108. During these workshops, attendees will receive support with resume building, cover letter preparation, interview skills and more. Additionally, the Office of Career Services offers access to the Crimson and Cream Closet, where individuals can select professional interview attire free of charge in preparation for the upcoming fair. Those interested in attending a Friday community workshop or making an appointment for the Crimson and Cream closet are asked to contact the Office of Career Services at 219-980-6650 or careernw@ Spring break programs at Gary library Special spring break activities begin Monday, March 24, through Friday, March 28, at all units of the Gary Public Library, Main Library 220 W. 5th Ave.; Kennedy Branch 3953 Broadway; and Woodson Branch 501 S. Lake St. Programs include story hours, arts & crafts, Legos, movies, chess, sewing, a scavenger hunt plus a variety of special MakerSpace activities. Refreshments will be served at the Main Library. A detailed listing of events is available on the library's website at or pick up a schedule at any library location. Venezuela is focus of Fourth Friday program by VIC The Valparaiso International Center invites the community to its March 2025 Fourth Friday event, featuring a special presentation by Urica Lopez, a Venezuelan entrepreneur and founder of López Digital Consulting LLC. Lopez will take attendees on a journey through the rich cultural heritage of Venezuela, exploring its identity, traditions and global influence. The event takes place from 7-8:30 p.m. Friday, March 28, at Trinity Lutheran Church, 201 N. Washington St., Valparaiso.
