A Circuit of Community Champions
11 projects, 10 cities, 4 days
The Indiana Housing and Community Development Authority’s Placemaking Manager and CreatINg Places leader, Carmen Lethig and I stopped by 11 projects in 10 cities over 4 days taking us all around the State of Indiana. We got to see finished projects and some in progress but what we learned along the way was that in each community and leading each project there was always a “community champion”, an individual fiercely advocating for their city or town. While this meant we got a bit off schedule, we also got to learn more about the culture, the history, and even the future for these communities.
Here’s SOME (we could write a book!) of what our community champions taught us along the way:
We knew that the Mishawaka’s Fitness Court was cool but we were so pleased to see it so wisely situated next to the riverwalk. It was great to see real community members working out in the space and see the riverwalk busy with travelers. Phil Blasko, Mishawaka’s Park Superintendent’s also told us that the weekly farmer’s market takes place just steps from the fitness court. Phil’s energy is palpable so it’s no surprise to see the many ways his community uses their park space, you can find something for everyone. There was more to see in Mishawaka.
Phil led us to the Community Educational Greenhouse which was the campaign ran by his colleague Jacob Crawford. It was a hot day but Jacob and three Mishawaka High School students were hard at work building their greenhouse. We learned that a campaign donor felt compelled to give to the campaign because the land where the greenhouse is situated was land that his family had originally farmed many years before. He was proud to donate and restore the land to somewhat of its former use as a place to grow.
The next day, we headed to Chesterton to see the Thomas Centennial Park Restrooms. Here we met Jennifer Gadzala a bit ahead of schedule since Chesteron is on central time but she rolled with it and showed us the new public restrooms which were previously empty train cars. While there, we saw some trainspotters, which we learned was an interesting draw to the community. People come to watch the trains pass and keep an eye out for rare locomotives or carriages so the project’s location along the rails was ideal. We were impressed with the projects attention to detail, paying tribute to the history of the railroad.
After a few more stops, we headed south to the Bedford Community Gardens. We met Barry Jeskewich and his team to explore the gardens. Not only was it exciting to see plants and veggies growing but they recently added a beehive to the garden. Barry shared a wonderful story about how a resident kindly waters any plot needing a bit of help. Community organizations and residents care for 60 different plots and this was a sweet story about how the gardens bring out a sense of generosity and spirit of kindness.
The final stop on our circuit, was to the Lively Lakefront Playground Zipventure. Even though it was a partly cloudy day, we noticed that the zipline was the main attraction of this project. Jameson Hobbs this community’s champion was excited to share the transformation of this empty space but shared his vision for future improvements to bring more visitors to West Boggs Lake. He rattled off four or five projects he was planning and we could tell that by running this campaign he was empowered to do even more!
What do all these spaces have in common? Passionate and dedicated community champions. Each community member expressed the challenges in running a campaign but they were ultimately surprised by the amount of donors, in fact many would have increased their goal if they had known the amount of investment their community was capable of making in these placemaking projects.
Does your community have a champion? Could it be you?
