LETTERS: Thanks for FallFare, Stuff a Stocking and Hilly Half; ‘Consequences of voting no’

FallFare 50th was ‘perfect’ thanks to community

To the editor:

For 50 years this community has supported the Nashville United Methodist Church FallFare.

For 50 years this community has donated, shopped, and sometimes endured bad weather, to help us help others. We thank you.

This 50 year celebration was perfect! The sun was out, the llamas were smiling, and 42 pies disappeared. Proceeds were the second highest in 50 years, with profits going to non-profits who work hard to support others. We thank you.

It takes a dedicated congregation to prepare a FallFare. It also takes a community to make it successful. We thank you.

Jane Huffman, FallFare Chair, for the NUMC congregation

Thanks for Stuff a Stocking success

To the editor:

Nov. 26, 2022 was an amazing and festive day in Nashville. We had Santa at the History Center, a free showing of the Polar Express movie and children with adults in tow walking around town participating in the Brown County Community Foundation’s 8th Annual Stuff a Stocking event.

Approximately 272 children started the morning at 10:30 a.m. by picking up their ticket, green and white striped stocking, and black bag from the Brown County Community Foundation (BCCF) and off to the merchants they went.

Thank you to the 24 locations that allowed the children to venture into their shops to pick up goodies. The BCCF would like to thank the following businesses for the generous contribution to this event:

Brown County Public Library, Pioneer Women-Brown County History Center, The Toy Chest, At Home with Heartland, JB Goods-Life is Good store, Brown County Rock &Fossil Shop/Copperhead Creek Gem Mine, Changing Seasons, Carmel Corn Cottage, Big Woods Pizza, Hobnob Corner, The Wild Olive, B3 Gallery-LLC, Candy Emporium, Fallen Leaf Books, The Clay Purl, Jack &Jill Nut Shop, Madeline’s French Country Shop, Nashville Fudge Kitchen, Nashville Spice Company, Kith &Kindred, Lawrence Family Glass Blowers, The Educated Otter, Touch of Silver, Gold &Old, Angry Robot and the Brown County Music Center.

We would also like to thank Hills O’Brown Vacation Rentals for sponsoring the Nashville Express train for the day.

Events this large could never take place without the wonderful help of volunteers. They include Lori Winford, Beverly Teach, Marilyn Fagg, Erika Rudd, Phil McKown, Mary Cartwright, Victor Bongard, Emily Austin, Katie Finney, Ann &Bill Walters, August Simons, Linda Todd and Sean Hildreth.

Over $4,000 was raised from BCCF Stuff a Stocking and will be placed in the Stuff a Stocking Unrestricted Endowment. These funds will be awarded to the Not for Profit organizations in our community through our Competitive Grants cycle.

Thank you for making the 8th annual Stuff a Stocking such a success. Mark your calendars for next year Dec. 2, 2023!

Maddison Miller &Jenise Bohbrink, BCCF Staff

Many thanks for ‘act of love’ at Hilly Half

To the editor:

Another Hilly Half is in the Books! The 2022 Brown County YMCA Hilly Half survived frigid cold and wind, But the sun was shining and the runners were happy. The after-race party was great fun, and all because of you!

This race could not have occurred without the help from our community. We had over 100 volunteers offering their time between Friday and Saturday making sure over 600 runners had a great time, stayed safe, and enjoyed a great lunch and post-race party. So many of you have been with us from the beginning, and we all feel like we own this race. After seven years you make this look like a walk in the park – oh wait, it’s a run in the park!

We also have new individuals who are willing to give a helping hand and offer 6 to 8 hours of their weekend day in the hopes of giving back and having a little fun while doing it. Now we are thinking of having a contest amongst the water stops. All of this while not knowing what kind of weather we’re going to have, but knowing that they’ll likely be cold for a while in the morning.

It’s hard to express how grateful we ALL for your willingness to volunteer. Thank you for saying “Yes” when asked! Thank you very much for being part of this great group. Thank you for making this The Great Race in Brown County! It’s because of you making this a premier event that runners want to add this race to their bucket list.

Thank you for supporting The Hilly Half, and the Brown County YMCA!

The entire 13.1 mile course is in the Brown County State Park, beginning at the saddle barn/Lower shelter and winding up Saddle Barn Road, past the Aynes house, the park office, fire tower, campground, and the nature center. The turnaround was at Hohen Point and racers headed back to the Lower Shelter House for the Upland Brewing Company Post-Race Party. We had a 5K and 10K option and for both you could opt to walk or run or both!

Thank you to Upland Brewing Company for being our Post-Race Party Sponsor this year. They provided four wonderful beer options poured right into a complimentary pint glass and shots of beer at the Beer Mile. We added some of our own crew to help out- Thank you to Lyndsay Rae, Hailey Hash, Jason Stratton, Sarah Ladd and Hailey Lindsey. The post-race party was rounded out by live music from Kenan Rainwater, Corey Flick, Brian Webb and Casey Simmons.

Cookies and hot vegetable soup provided by Kevin Ault, Rafters and there were fires in the shelter fireplaces and in portable fire pits making for a great, warming atmosphere! Thank you to Brown County State Park staff for letting us take over the Lower Shelter house and the park for the morning. The Hilly wouldn’t be the Hilly if not in the State Park!

Thank you to Brown County Visitor &Convention Bureau, and the Commission for helping to promote the day and marketing support.

Thank you to Bob Blass for the graphic designs and Facebook Ads. Kamady Lewis is our Social Media queen!

Thank you to the Brown County Democrat for the wonderful print coverage and featuring the Hilly Half in the winter Almanack. Thank you to Abby Youmans too, for being on location taking pictures!

Thank you to Dale Seward for providing tables, chairs and tents for volunteers and post-race party. Thank you to Brown County IGA for supplying water and bananas for all race participants. Thank you to McDonald’s for race day coffee – the volunteers appreciated it.

Thank you to Brad Cox for creating our custom overall winner awards with his amazing ironwork and to White River Running Company in Columbus for gift certificates to winners.

Thank you to our local EMA Director Susan Armstrong and Corey Frost. Nashville Volunteer Fire Department: Hunter Riebl and Dave Wedel; Fruitdale Volunteer Fire Department: Dia Jones, Robert Jones and Jim Norton; Hamblen Volunteer Fire Department: Billy Redmond, Taylor Childers, Dave Frensemeier and Ricky Sebastian; Cordry-Sweetwater Volunteer Fire Department: Mike Leavitt and Logan Miller. Chris Henderson with IU Health LifeLine for making sure every participant was safe every inch along the course. Each water stop had a first responder on stand-by in UTV’s. Thank you to Keith Baker and his team from Brown County Sheriff’s Department Reserves, Keith Baker, Andrea Baker, Thom Miller, David Redding, Cecil Martin for keeping runners safe on the road from park traffic.

Thank you to Greg Wright for leading the runners through the course on his bike.

Thank you to ALL of our sponsors: Anthem; Bear Hardware; Brown County Democrat; Brown County Convention &Visitors Center; Brown County IGA; Brown County Winery; Brown County Rock &Fossil Shop; Brozinni Pizzeria; Carpenter Hills O’Brown Realty- Team Scroggins; Centra Credit Union; Duke Energy; Friends O’Mine Campground; Hall Scott, Attorneys at Law; Hills O’Brown Vacation Rentals; IU Health; IU Lifeline; Jackson County REMC; Jack &Jill Nut Shop; Peaceful Valley Construction; Stifel Endeavor Investment Group; Touch of Silver Gold &Old; Weaver Fine Furniture; White River Running Company; Seward party Rentals; The Rafters; Upland Brewing Company; OORNJ; Iwant2Run Timers and Curt Winders.

Thank you to Kevin Ault and his crew! 2,000 cookies on top of 25 gallons of hot soup is a tall order and it was delicious!

We spread the soup love with the new addition of Josh &Sam from Bonafide Bites and hot Tomato soup – Thank you!

Thank you goes out to Ryan &Kharysa Seward for Breadsticks donated from Brozinni’s Pizzeria, they were great.

Thank you to White River Running Company for gift certificates to 1st, 2nd &3rd place overall winners!

DASH DJ, kept us on our feet, informed and entertained throughout the morning. We had a special treat from PT Solutions &Columbus Regional being on site to provide runner support!

The small but mighty organizing team spent hours pulling this all together and a Special thank you goes to the staff and volunteers who and without each of you we wouldn’t be successful — DeAnne Weaver, Debbie Leach, Bob Blass, Kamady Lewis, Susan Armstrong, Chris Henderson, and Rex Watters.

This event wouldn’t have happened without the 100+ volunteers who braved the cold on race day! Michaela Adams, Lexie Austin, Livie Austin, Jamie Bube, Scott Bittner, Bob Blass, Jill Burns, Julia Burt, Roger Cagwin, Isaac Capshaw, Carey Capshaw, Brenda Clerkin, Emily Crase, Ken DeLap, Marilyn Fagg, Pam Green, Teresa Geary, Roger Grissett, Richard Hall, Kenny Holsclaw, Danny Hollander, Maddie Huff, Abby Johnson, Cory Joy, Cady Kemp, Eli Koester, Kai Koester, Londyn Koester; Larry Kuhn, Becky Ladd, Debbie Leach, Nancy Marchand, Tona Martin, Doug McGrill, Lydia Miller, Marie Mooney, Jeff Mooney, Jim Nelson, Lynne O’Brien, Michael O’Brien, Betsy Parman, Dennis Parman, Heather Powell, Matt Powell, Jerry Reeves, Judy Reeves, Murlaina Richardson, Bill Robinson, Quincy Robinson, Pat Robinson, Greg Roshel, Melinda Roshel, Barb Schade, Warren Schade, Karen Smith, James Smith, Locke Stadler, Lukas Stadler, Lisa Stadler, Anna Stogsdill, Chris Stoll, Jim Sumners, Lynsey Summers, Anna Tipton, Katie Tipton, Christine Vuskalns, Craig Walker, Deanne Weaver, Eli Webb, Greg Wright, Tammy Yacchari, Kathy Yeager and Kevin Yeager.

We were also blessed with USA National Miss Indiana, Mae Farmer! So some of you at the finish line were crowned by royalty!

The Hilly Half is an act of love to show our support of the Brown County Community YMCA and a heartfelt thank you goes out to each and every one of you who helped from me, it wouldn’t be what it is without you.

Our participants always, always compliment our amazing volunteers and how supportive they are, even in the frigid cold!

See you ALL in 2023 — OhHillYes!

Kim Robinson, Brown County Community YMCA Executive Director

‘Consider consequences of voting no’

To the editor:

333 votes will have a negative effect on thousands of lives in Brown County. This week marked an important crossroad in our county.

The education of children has been essential in our country and here locally since the one room schoolhouse was created to teach children the basics of (reading, writing and arithmetic).

And I would not be writing this today if I had not been well-drilled in the basics that I was taught when I started school many decades ago. Thank you to my teachers who put up with my raucous behavior. And in spite of that, I was able to become a productive member of society.

With that in mind, I hope those who read this opinion will be open-minded and consider the consequences of turning a blind eye to our school system. It’s not a condemnation but rather a reality check for those who did not support the tax increase that we were desperate to get to keep our school system functioning.

We are the little community of about 14,000 residents that have provided a small tax to keep our school system from going under. The management of the expenses has been superior to offset the shrinking enrollment that drives the funding we have experienced over the years. Changes have been made until now, without having to release teachers and staff but we still watch them leave to get better paying jobs elsewhere. Combining students and reorganizing buildings have been done with efficiency. But the system cannot continue now without major changes. The 12 cent per $100 of property value increase would have kept that from happening. I calculated mine at less than $10 per month.

Spaced apart in several buildings throughout our county you will find young people from Pre-K to graduating seniors who look to the future as bright and full of excitement. Many have dreams of being successful in their own skills they learn in those buildings,

Those buildings have a lot of history to reveal. They were also once occupied by members of our community who went on to have amazing careers in all kinds of disciplines.

There are also some who did not reach the dreams they had and settled for a life that would only allow them to survive. There are those who won’t make it and will become a burden to our society.

We are about to lose the formula for success when we are required to eliminate very important categories of education here in Brown County. To explain, I will touch on the areas that will be reviewed and possibly eliminated due to lack of funding.

Adult education: The Career Resource Center is primarily responsible for helping people get a second chance at getting a G.E.D. which many employers require in order to get a decent paying job.

The CRC is also providing skills training in many areas such as electrical and nursing programs. Can you imagine if the certification programs were completely eliminated? How would that impact our community? It would put more people on the welfare system for basic needs support. Is that what we want for our county?

The tax we have in place is currently helping to fund the CRC along with grants which are not guaranteed at all. And that is up for a vote to continue in the near future.

Arts and sports: Can we eliminate the support for music, drama, social clubs and sports? These programs provide the foundations for which our youth can become productive citizens through the experiences they have.

Teachers and administrators: Finally, can we afford to eliminate the outstanding educators that will leave our school system and go to another community to teach other children?

Will we be faced with no one to provide our children with the necessary skills to function properly in our society in their jobs and their families that they create?

These are the reasons I believe we need to gear up and fortify our children’s future in Brown County.

The citizens who voted against the increase will now have to shoulder the burden of a dying community with government handouts and programs for the ones who won’t get their G.E.D. or the certification skills they need. The small amount each of us will provide through the tax is better than handing out soup and coffee at the local food bank someday to that person who didn’t get a proper education.

When the referendum comes up again for a vote, will you vote “Yes” to keep the current tax or “No” and see what the future brings for our children?

Curtis Moore, Nashville

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Letters to the editor

Send letters to [email protected] by noon Thursday before the date of intended publication (noon Wednesday on holiday weeks). Letters are the opinions of the writer. Letters must be signed by the author and include the writer’s town of residence and a contact number in case of questions. Only one letter every two weeks, per writer, to allow for diversity of voices in the opinions section. Please be considerate of sharing space with other letter-writers and keep your comments concise and to the point. Avoid name-calling, accusations of criminal activity and second- and third-hand statements of “fact.”