Better Newspaper Contest

Page 13 Lucretia Cardenas The Greater Fort Wayne Business Weekly A church is closing in Wawaka. You may not know where Wawaka is – even if you've lived in northeast Indiana your entire life. Those who grew up there joke that, if you blink while driving through Noble County, you could miss the rural community entirely. At the center of the unincorporated community are the grain bins of Frick Services, with a storage capacity of 1.7 million bushels. The U.S. Postal Service still operates an office there, with limited hours. Social interactions among neighbors typically take place around the baseball field or the Wawaka United Methodist Church. But, on May 7, after more than 150 years in the community, the church is closing its doors. Having only 15 people attending Sunday service makes sustainability difficult. The church closing is a result of a dwindling population. But the situation in Wawaka is one that is all too similar to other communities in northeast Indiana. As noted in Doug LeDuc's story this week, the Northeast Indiana Regional Partnership has some lofty goals for population increases – a 2 percent annual growth. But, the growth rate in 2015 was 0.4 percent, according to an analysis of census data by the Indiana Business Research Center at Indiana University's Kelley School of Business. We've all heard the pitch that higher wages and a more attractive quality of place are needed to attract people to the region. And work is underway to improve this – but mainly in our city centers. General economic principals say we need to keep growing to survive but we can't deny the shifting dynamic of our regional landscape. Our extremely small towns and unincorporated areas are losing people. While reversing this trend isn't something that can happen overnight, we can't deny what is currently occurring. We need to take a look at how losing small communities affects the overall region. Does it matter? How important are the Wawakas to our local makeup? Best General Commentary/Category 4 First Eric Deckers The Times-Post (Pendleton) It's hard to write thoughtful humor, but this writer pulls it off with a breezy yet substantive style and wit. Nicely done. Second Kristy Deer The Times-Post (Pendleton) Third Chandra L. Mattingly The Rising Sun Recorder & The Ohio County News Best Editorial Writer/Category 5 First Lucretia Cardenas The Greater Fort Wayne Business Weekly The winner in this category because these editorials showed deep and original thinking. Second Don Steen The Spencer County Journal-Democrat Third Staff The Times-Post (Pendleton) Best Business/Economic News Coverage/Category 6 First Chandra L. Mattingly The Rising Sun Recorder & The Ohio County News Haro Company Known Internationally An unusual, well-reported story that gave readers insight into the instrument and its craftspeople. Second Ashton Brellenthin Hendricks County Flyer (Avon) Hatching a plan Division 1 Eric Deckers The Times-Post (Pendleton) Call the neighbors and wake the kids. We're Hoosiers now! That is, we're officially called Hoosiers by the U.S. Government Publishing Office (GPO), for whatever that's worth. According to a recent story in USA Today, Senator Joe Donnelly and former senator Dan Coats had asked the GPO to update its official style manual and change the name of people from Indiana to "Hoosiers." And since they were in the process of updating the manual anyway, they made the change, so now we're really and truly Hoosiers! No longer do we have to put up with this "Indianians" or "Indianans" nonsense, two names we have railed against as woolly headed and dumb. It's not that there's anything wrong with having your state name as part of your demonym, a proper noun that refers to people from a particular country, region, or state. In fact, every other state in the country is part of the same sheep- like flock. Floridians, Kentuckians, Illinoisans, and even Michiganians and Wisconsinites. I also learned that people from Massachusetts are not called Massholes, they're called Massachusettsans. (Guess you learn something new every day.) If you're not from Indiana, you may not understand how important this is. We've always called ourselves Hoosiers, even if the rest of the country only thought it referred to people from Indiana University who were abused by Bobby Knight. For over 180 years, we've used the term, even though we're not exactly sure where it comes from. We've been using it since at least 1826 when the term first appeared in area newspapers. It gained popularity in the 1830s when Richmond poet John Finley penned "The Hoosier's Nest," which contained the lines "The emigrant is soon located, In Hoosier life initiated; Erects a cabin in the woods, Wherein he stows his household goods." Past etymological exploration about the term have turned up stories about mispronunciations of Hussar, the term "Hoshier," surveyors' questions of "Who's here?" and the rather dark question, "Who's ear?" That last theory was offered by our very own Hoosier Poet, James Whitcomb Riley, he of "Little Orphant Annie" fame. Riley says that back in the day, we Indiana folk were quite the vicious tavern brawlers who would gouge and bite off the noses and ears of our opponents. This was such a common occurrence, said Riley, that a settler might enter a tavern the next morning, spy a piece of humanity on the floor, poke it with his toe and ask "Whose ear?" People From Indiana Now Officially Called "Hoosiers" Don't forget rural communities Local harp company renown internationally For the complete story, visit hspa.com. Chandra L. Mattingly The Rising Sun Recorder & The Ohio County News Rees Harps, located in downtown Rising Sun, has something to harp about, so to speak. The company's harp sales puts it in the top three harp companies internationally, said Garen Rees, son of founder William Rees, 65. Professionals worldwide play Rees harps for recordings and concert performances. In January, musician Stevie Won- der visited Rees Harps' booth at the 2016 NAMM Show in Anaheim, Calif., which resulted in him buying two of the hand- crafted harps, said Garen Rees. "I never thought that I'd be giving Stevie Wonder his first harp les- son," said Rees, 35. The company, located at 222 Main St., recently shipped Wonder the first of the two harps he purchased, a 36-string Aberdeen Meadows harp. The other, a 26-string Harpsicle, will be shipped soon, said Melissa Irwin, 31, Rees' wife of five years. Other performers using Rees harps include Máire Ní Chatha- saigh, All Ireland harp champion, an international performer; and Marta Cook, another Irish champion, whose performance on Yo-Yo Ma's "Songs of Joy and Peace" earned them a double Grammy. Even Neil Young performs with a Rees harp, though he's better known for guitar playing and song writing. But William Rees didn't start out building harps, said his son. A bi- ology professor at Yosemite High School, William Rees had been interested in unique instruments since he was a teen. But the instruments that fascinated him either were hard to find or not affordable. "He's a crafty person so he said, 'I'll just make our own instruments,'" said Garen Rees. His dad proceeded to build lutes, dulcimers, guitars and even a harpsichord. "Harps are actually one of the last instruments he started making," said Garen Rees, explaining his dad got plans from other builders. But as he did so, he realized he could improve the harps he was making. "He took ideas from other instruments and put them into harps … which made a great- sounding harp," said Garen Rees. The changes include an asymmetrical sounding board, as most stringed instruments have both a small and large sound board. For the complete story, visit hspa.com. For the complete story, visit hspa.com.

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