StoryPoint welcomes Chesterton High School football team for chili cookoff

StoryPoint welcomes Chesterton High School football team for chili cookoff

Everyone was a judge at the chili cookoff at StoryPoint today. Five StoryPoint managers put together their famous chili recipes for residents and Chesterton football seniors to dive into. One by one, judges dropped their votes for the hearty recipes that ranged from extremely spicy to subtly sweet. After the final count, spicy took home the crown. 

Twice a month, StoryPoint holds resident events that are open to the community as well, including students or other groups who want to visit.. But even if community members aren’t able to catch an event at StoryPoint, they’re welcome to come mingle with residents.

“Intergenerational communication is one of the things we do every single month for our residents,” said Regional Life Enrichment Director, Allison Tucker. “Students learn from our residents and the residents are able to learn from our students. Some of the residents don’t have grandkids, and some students don’t have grandparents, so they get to adopt one another and that relationship that they build is amazing,” she said.

Chesterton head football coach Mark Peterson is keen on getting his players involved in the community. When the opportunity arose for the players to come into StoryPoint, Peterson couldn’t pass it up. 

StoryPoint Chilli Cookoff 2019

StoryPoint Chilli Cookoff 2019 25 Photos
StoryPoint Chilli Cookoff 2019StoryPoint Chilli Cookoff 2019StoryPoint Chilli Cookoff 2019StoryPoint Chilli Cookoff 2019

“This is a wonderful opportunity for community outreach. We do a number of different activities within our school district already and having the opportunity to mix and mingle with older community members is definitely a bonus,” Peterson said. “Our community is phenomenal in the support that they show us, so any way that we can give back we want to make a difference.”

Senior quarterback Jacob Coslet was excited for the opportunity for some team bonding while the underclassmen took the PSAT. The seniors were given the opportunity to either practice for job interviews, go on a college visit, or do some community service. They jumped at the opportunity to visit StoryPoint during their day off. 

“The team likes doing things for the community and especially talking with older generations because it makes us feel good, and we know they like it too,” Coslet said. “In a small community like Chesterton, it’s great because everyone kind of knows each other. Everyone cares about one another and that’s the best part about the community.”

Booster Co-President Kim Lemon knows that Coach Peterson is a big proponent of getting the boys into the community to try different things. She also knows that the older generations can easily slip through the cracks, so getting the players to events like the chili cookoff is more important than they know. 

“As a young person, we sometimes forget that there are other generations in the community and the elderly sometimes get forgotten,” Lemon said. “So I think it’s great for the boys to see that there are other folks in the community that really appreciate their time and company, and I think it’s great for them to get used to populations outside of their age group.”

Erica Schnick has been a long-time resident of StoryPoint and loves every second of it. She loves the bi-monthly events that bring in the community and was most impressed with the behavior of the Chesterton football players today.

“All these young men are very, very nice; their parents did a good job," Schnick said. “We live here every day and it’s rather quiet, so it’s nice to get young life in here.”

For more information on StoryPoint Chesterton, visit www.storypoint.com