Having an opinion, speaking your mind, telling it like it is...whatever you want to call it, at ValpoLife it's all good news. There have been so many positive things that people have shared with us this past year, and rightly so because a lot of positive things have happened this year.
Here are the Top 10 Voices Articles of 2012. Please read on and enjoy.
Finding Comfort in Our Own Community
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Last Friday, December 14, Northview Elementary celebrated its Blue Ribbon School certification. All the classrooms were open with smiling teachers standing the doorways to greet us as we walked the halls. In the gym there was cake and some nifty science displays assembled by young brilliant minds; the school choir performed a few holiday songs, and the library hosted a book fair full of stories of adventures, spooky places and sports heroes. A photographer set up shop in one of the classrooms where families could pose for a picture to commemorate the moment.
No one needed to mention the pall that hung over the school. It was obvious the instant you walked through the front door where an armed Valparaiso police officer stood prominent in the lobby.
The Road to Pittsburgh - "There is No Tomorrow"
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When the moment finally arrives you can’t forget to enjoy it. I took it all in for a second yesterday when I walked by the entrance to Heinz Field. Of course I snapped a picture and moved on and as I sit in my hotel room the morning of game day I am very very excited. You can’t let nervousness paralyze you or let the fear of making a mistake cripple you. You have to enjoy where you are.
I am excited to be taking the field for the very last time with this exact group of players. It will never be the same as players and coaches will move on in their lives. There is no tomorrow for this group of individuals. During the season it is easy to take for granted another practice or another team meeting or another film session, but now I look back and it all went so fast. However, every moment – good and bad – that we have gone through was necessary for this team to get where we are today.
Berta the Right Choice for Valpo Schools
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Since starting my tenure as a Portage student, I have had the luxury of a top-notch education. With many great resources and opportunities available, I have been able to excel and grow as a student and as a person during my time in the Portage Township Schools. That can be attributed to great teachers, great classmates, great administrators, great parents or a variety of other factors, but I know that it all started at the top with a great superintendent in Mike Berta. Berta did a thorough job of making sure that the district was operating to its fullest potential.
Berta was not the type of mysterious superintendent who could not be identified by students. Seeing Berta eating lunch in the PHS cafeteria, at a football game or at an elementary recess was not an uncommon site during his time in Portage.
Teamwork and Hard Work Make Popcorn Truly Pop
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Four years ago, we jumped into a box of popcorn soon after we launched ValpoLife.com, and each year we have appreciated, respected, and flat out enjoyed everything about the Popcorn Festival more every time.
Trying to think of the sheer volume of things that have to go right all week every year, for 34 years, with each year being bigger and better than the last is almost staggering. An entire city is transformed and engulfed, start to finish, with little and big runners...
NYC Marathon: Unbelievable Awesome Adventure
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On Friday, we arrived in New York City and met a girl from Brooklyn, Jessica, who helped us get to the Expo. We got our bibs, checked into our hotel, and went to an Italian restaurant for dinner. While eating, a woman came up to us at dinner with a cell phone showing the news: MARATHON CANCELLED. That's when our adventure began.
We wanted to help the victims of Hurricane Sandy but had no idea how. We received a text from Jessica about a group of runners that were going to Staten Island on Sunday with backpacks full of supplies. We found a computer and signed up to help via Facebook.
Here's the Good News: It's Over.
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The election sauntered across our landscape like a two-year tornado, churning debris and data into a soupy mix of dialogue and diatribe. It left a trail of destruction – or opportunity – however you choose to view it, but alas, it’s over. Today the clouds have cleared and a new day dawns. Maybe the sun shines on an opportunistic horizon, or one fraught with more challenges and gridlock. In reality it’s both. But since we don’t know for sure we might as well get moving.
Each election process teaches us something about ourselves, because let’s face it, we make it ugly. However, the process itself is a beautiful thing especially when you think about the sacrifices it took to create it. Millions lay in graves - some well-manicured and revered, others never found or marked – to provide us with this privilege to choose our own representation as a people. Our founders made themselves enemy of the Crown, even formally Declaring such on a length of parchment with their prominent signatures. It’s hard to put into context in our world today the significance of that act. Our forefathers left their homes and families often for years, for our independence and right to choose our own representation. They fought through winters with no provisions – many even with no shoes - against a professional army of foes. They died horrible deaths on battlefields here and abroad, in little pastoral Pennsylvania towns or on heavily fortified beach bulkheads in the Pacific and Atlantic. Some knew the instant they stepped out into the open they would die, and they stepped anyway.
A Look Behind the Curtain
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As a correspondent for Valpolife.com, I am usually the one with a pen and paper attending an event or in this case, sitting in the audience and secretly snapping pictures, flash off of course, writing about what I just watched; interviewing actors and the director about the latest production on stage. Tonight though, I was on the stage.
The Valparaiso Theatrical Company is now showing its latest production Prelude to a Kiss. This “Freak Friday” version of a love story is both comical and moving and just a little bit racy. It’s being shown at the Memorial Opera House with proceeds from opening night benefiting the Memorial Opera House Foundation.
Blackbird Diaries: The Story Behind the Series
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A diary is often considered to be a private place where one can share their truest thoughts, most candid observations, and what they really feel without worry about how it sounds, who might agree or disagree with your thinking, or whether it is something you really want to say in public.
Seems to me that those are just the kind of conversations a beautifully wide spectrum of people are having inside the comfort of Blackbird Café every day. So many words could describe the multitude of people I have been blessed to meet through the hours I have spent sharing coffee or a smoothie at one of their tables, though real, candid, personal, honest, and intelligent all come to mind.
The Coffee Shop Project
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Over the past four months I’ve set a group of 39 students out on an experiment. They are undergraduates at Indiana University Northwest in a 300-level marketing class who have a curriculum full of the four P’s, retailing, supply chain management and market segmentation/target marketing. They are a diverse lot with myriad experiences and range in age from the late teens to a few that are probably in my generation.
Throughout the course they’ve been working on a series of projects that are structured to incorporate the class material into real-world applications and study how even small businesses practice the concepts our text describes. They work in small groups to write up papers on their observations, produce slick PowerPoint presentations and talk about market penetration, SWOT analyses and customer relationship management.
Here's Why Porter Regional Hospital was Voted "Best Place to Work"
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Porter Regional Hospital has been voted by its employees “The Best Place to Work.” If you have ever visited Porter Regional Hospital, no doubt, you were greeted with a smile or a friendly hello from one of the volunteers; received a friendly smile from a doctor or nurse or even been given a flower by one of the Environmental Services Technicians more commonly known as the housekeepers. Nothing can be more true of the people that work at Porter Regional Hospital than the positivity that emulates from its employees. As an Environmental Services Technician (EVS) or housekeeper, I have been privileged to experience firsthand why Porter Regional Hospital has been voted “The Best Place to Work.” I have worked as a housekeeper for about six months and I have noticed friendships that have lasted for years. Strong bonds have been formed. People come into work with smiles on their faces ready to get their day started. We start each day off on a positive note with our morning huddle.
Nothing makes you feel better about your job than being able to tell someone, “Thank you for helping me or you did a wonderful job the other day and it was appreciated.”