Distinguished Families

Family Services honored several people, including three distinguished families at a ceremony Monday night at the Lafayette Country Club. The organization chose three families based on the 40 developmental assets needed to succeed in life. The winners are: Doug and Laurie Cupp and their children; William and Pat Calhoun and their children; and Paul and Beth Krogmann and their children. The Tempest Scholarship Award went to Cory Nordenbrock of Crawfordsville High School. The Lillian Kaplan Human Service Award went to North Central Health Services. The business partner of the year was Pay Les Super Markets. Volunteer of the year Awards went to Dan Oldenkamp and Vicki Toole from Pay Less for their help in raising money for Family Services' Penny Harvest. The Family Advocacy Award went to Patty Jischke for her work with the Alliance for Children and Families. For more information about Family Services Inc. you can contact them at (765) 423-5361 ext. 2330. www.fsilafayette.org

More Turkey

Hope you are enjoying your Thanksgiving holiday weekend. Today you will see reports from the Community Thanksgiving Dinner at Central Presbyterian Church. Hundreds of people will show up for turkey and the trimmings. Some people are in need, others just want to share the holiday with others.
Spiro Moisidis and his daughter Maria have reopened the Nirvana Restaurant. They are now located in the old Arby's at US 52 and Teal. Many of you may remember the restaurant when it was located at US 52 and SR 26. Even though the restaurant opened only a few days ago, Spiro will be offering free Thanksgiving meals today. It was a tradition he started in 1996 after his restaurant was destroyed by fire. I remember talking to Spiro then. He told me he had much to be thankful for and this was his way to give back to the community. The free meals are offered from 4:00p.m.-8:00p.m. tonight.
I have much to be thankful for this year. Most of all being able to spend time with my mom, family and friends. Above is a picture from a friend's annual gingerbread making contest. I worked with Emilee, Debbie and Tom to create a ranch. The barn was filled with candy corn and the grass was frosting with green sprinkles. Others made a castle, the North Pole, and a race car. There is some serious competition there. I guess I have a year to come up with a more creative design next year!

Happy Thanksgiving!

On a cool rainy day, don't you wish you were in Hawaii with this group? These are members of the Twin Lakes High School Marching Band. They are in front of the Battleship Missouri Memorial. I wish I got to go on trips like that when I was in high school!

On this day before Thanksgiving, it is sad to see more and more people lining up for a free holiday meal at St. Ann's Soup Kitchen. Some of the people we talked to said they were having trouble making ends meet. St Ann's will have another holiday meal distribution before Christmas. Contact the church on Wabash Avenue if you'd like to donate.

Be careful on the roadways this weekend. Mike and Kelly are calling for falling temperatures and snow flurries.

Coats For Kids

There were dozens of people standing in line at the Community and Family Resource Center in Lafayette Saturday as distribution day of Coats for Kids began. It was overwhelming, yet sad, to see the line wrap around the building.
Volunteers from our station and Hudlow's Cleaners helped families find the right size of coats, shoes, gloves and other items that were donated for the event. Santa was there to talk to the youngsters.
There are two more distribution days for anyone still in need of a coat. They will be given out December 4th and 6th from noon until 7:00p.m. at CFRC at 4th and Fountain Streets.

If you have a coat that your little one has outgrown drop it off at any one of these locations:

All Hudlow's Dry Cleaning locations; WLFI-TV 18, West Lafayette; Arnett Health Plans, 415 N26th Street, Lafayette; Chick-Fil-A, State Road 26 East; AAMCO Transmissions, State Road 26 East; Twin City Dodge-Chrysler, Sagamore Parkway, South; St. Elizabeth Medical Center; Home Hospital; and Wild About Horses Equestrian Center, West Point.

Red Kettle Campaign Begins

Watch for bell ringers and red kettles outside Lafayette area stores. They are raising money for the Salvation Army. The organization is working to help many local families. Money raised during the holidays will help feed, clothe and shelter people all year.
The Salvation Army says it helped 11,600 people during the past 12 months. That's more than 2,000 over the previous year. There are many ways you can donate. You can volunteer to be a bell ringer. Just contact Audrey at 742-0006. You can also ring the bell online. For more information on how to do that go to http://give.salvationarmyusa.org/goto/Lafayette

Paws For Art

The Humane Society in Tippecanoe County will benefit from the arts this weekend. "Paws for Art" is a free event to benefit the "Almost Home Humane Society" on Friday night. It is from 6:00p.m.-10:00p.m. at the Historic City Lofts at 14 N. Third Street in Lafayette. Local artists will be selling items and there will be animals for adoption there. Consider attending the event to raise money for the shelter or adopt a pet. They make great companions. My cat even helps with the laundry.

National Family Week

This is National Family Week. Family Services joined state lawmakers and local leaders in kicking off the occasion on Saturday. I was honored to help hand out awards to the essay and poster contest winners at Ivy Tech. Children wrote about how important their parents, siblings, grandparents, and others are in their lives. One little girl made us cry when she read how much she loves her mom and appreciates her coaching soccer. Another child made us laugh when he talked about 'how very old' his grandfather was. Others made colorful posters showing the family having fun at the park or at a pool in Florida. Congratulations to all the winners. Winning entries will be on display November 18th through November 24th at the Lafayette Coldstone Creamery.

Here is a list of the Essay Contest Winners: First Grade: Kelly Justice and Ashleigh Sincebaugh from Wea Ridge Elementary School. Second Grade: Caleb Bunch and Joel Montes from New Community School. Fourth Grade: Daniel Smith from Happy Hollow Elementary. Fifth Grade: Samantha Hatter and Madison McCoy of Earhart Elementary School.
Poster Contest Winners: Kindergarten: Josh Persin and Caroline Riley, Oakland Elementary School. First Grade: Alex Ebershoff and Anna Weeks of St. Mary's Elementary School. Second Grade: Chella Foster-Flynn and Jessica Hefner of New Community School. Third Grade: Alise Weeks and Dianne Santos of St. Mary's Elementary.

Election Results

West Lafayette has a new mayor. Republican John Dennis beat democrat incumbent Jan Mills. Democrat Tony Roswarski easily won re-election as mayor of Lafayette.
Democrats had a big night. They swept the city council races in Lafayette. Control of the West Lafayette council has yet to be decided. Based on the preliminary results, democrats will control the council 4 to 3. But, there are 125 provisional ballots that have yet to be added to the totals. Provisional ballots are made when a voter doesn't appear to be eligible or does not have ID. Voters have 10 days to get to the election board to verify their information. On Friday November 16th, the election board will add the provisional ballots into the mix and certify the election results. Those ballots could impact three West Lafayette council races. Democrat Paul Roales won by 2 votes in district 1 and republican Vicki Burch won by 8 votes in district 5. I heard that most of the provisional ballots were from West Lafayette. So, stay tuned to see which races are affected by the provisional ballots. The election board meets November 16th.
I also suspect the election board will have more to say about how the election went. There were numerous problems at the polls during the day. That was followed by a long delay in getting the results tallied. Our news crew was at the Tippecanoe County Office Building for results after midnight.

Election Day

It's election day. It is a rough start for Tippecanoe County's pilot satellite voting centers. Several voting locations were not ready to open at 6:00a.m. Some election workers say they couldn't get logged onto the system. Others had issues with verifying who is eligible to vote. You will hear from several disgruntled voters who were turned away at the polls, others who were happy to be in and out of the polling location within minutes.
Tippecanoe and Wayne counties are taking part in this project. Secretary of State Todd Rokita will be in Lafayette to observe how the vote center concept worked.
Stay tuned for continuing coverage on the vote center problems and if the election board will consider extending the time to vote. We will also bring you results when they start coming in after 6pm.

Fallen Soldier

Another soldier from this part of the state has died in Iraq. Our hearts go out to the family and friends of Army Captain Timothy McGovern. He was killed last week when an improvised explosive device detonated near his vehicle during combat operations. McGovern was 28 years old. He graduated from Twin Lakes High School and Purdue.

Visitation for Captain McGovern is Thursday, from 3 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the Springer Voorhis Draper Funeral Home in Monticello. Funeral Services will follow on Friday morning at 9:30 at the Our Lady of the Lakes Catholic Church in Monticello. The funeral service on Friday is for Family Only.

We have not shown pictures of McGovern, at the family's request. We also will not be covering the services, at the family's request. While we would like to honor this soldier, we respect the family's wishes.

Spring Forward-Fall Back

Don't forget to set your clocks back on Saturday night. Indiana is going to Eastern Standard Time starting at 2:00a.m. Sunday. The good news -- we get an extra hour of sleep!

Enjoy the fall leaves. Unfortunately the fall colors won't last long.

Meth Watch Community

Reynolds in White County is the area's first 'Meth Watch Community.' Town leaders worked with Indiana State Police for about six months to earn the status. Citizens attended meetings to learn about drug abuse and hazardous ingredients to look for. In addition, firefighters and police officers received additional training. Signs will be posted around town declaring Reynolds a 'Meth Watch Community.' Town Board Member Fred Buschman told me he hopes the signs will deter people from coming into Reynolds for illegal activity. ISP Meth Suppression Officer Jerry Holeman is hoping other community will adopt the program. If your town is interested contact Indiana State Police at (765) 567-2125.

After spending time in Reynolds we were called to a truck-train accident in the small town of Lee, near Monon. One man was hurt after his truck hauling fertilizer struck an Amtrak passenger train. Police do not believe Dennis McCutchan's injuries were life-threatening. There are no signals or crossing arm at the railroad crossing. Police say there have been fatal crashes there in the past.

Thanks to everyone who participated in an auction at Earhart Hall at Purdue on Wednesday. I don't talk nearly fast enough to call myself an auctioneer. But I did help sell some items to raise money for the United Way. Thanks to Debbie Harmeson and Kathy Smith for the flowers! The group raised more than $1,000 for the United Way.