INSIDE THIS ISSUE Business & Professional..............A18 Classifieds ......................................A17 Community Calendar.............A20-21 Healthy Times ...............................A8-9
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June 22, 2012
Dining & Entertainment................A22
Serving Northwest Fort Wayne & Allen County
School honors slain classmate with garden
YMCA expansion still planned By Linda Lipp
lindal@fwbusiness.com
By Valerie Caviglia pr@timespubs.com
The school attended by a 9-year-old girl who was brutally murdered around Christmas recently gathered to remember their former student and classmate with a new memorial garden. Holland Elementary School student Aliahna Lemmon was killed Dec. 22 by Michael Plumadore, 38, of Fort Wayne who had been caring for the third-grade girl while her mother was sick. “Like her classmates, she left school earlier that week probably looking forward to Christmas and all the joy and happiness that a child’s anticipation of this holiday brings,” Holland Principal J. Michael Caywood said at the dedication ceremony. “In place of that joy and
Photo by Valerie Caviglia
Holland Elementary School, along with members of the community, participate in memorializing former classmate Aliahna Lemmon. To see video and a photo gallery fr om the dedication, visit fwdailynews.com happiness, hearts were filled with grief, sorrow and fear. Those feelings still exist for many. Maybe not as strong or as
deep, but they’re still there. Today we come together to celebrate and remember Aliahna Lemmon … the memory
LLS Man and Woman of the Year named By Nichole Hacha-Thomas nthomas@kpcnews.net
Two local community leaders recently were named the Indiana Chapter, Northeast Branch of The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society’s Man and Woman of the Year. Craig Vanderwall Jr., a Dupont-area resident and owner of General Petroleum, won the fundraising contest by a landslide by raising $48,000 during the 10-week time limit. “$48,000 was a record for a campaign team in this market under 35 years old,” Vanderwall said. “The closest number for a candidate and their team in the same market and age group was $18,000.” Vanderwall said he’d previously not volunteered with LLS, but after being asked and remembering loved ones and friends who have fought cancer, he decided to go for it. After assembling a team of 10 young business leaders in the city, Vanderwall said the group hit the ground running with a grassroots campaign including plenty of word-ofmouth campaigning, the use of electronic media and leveraging General Petroleum’s corporate clientele. “To me, it wasn’t about being named Man of the Year, it was about fun and raising money. It is never about the awards or accolades, it is about one life breathing easier because of the work we put in,” he said. Jill Sample, a Lincoln Village resident and sales executive at Granite Ridge Builders, was named the LLS Woman of the Year for raising $34,000 during the contest.
Courtesy photo
Jill Sample
See GARDEN, page A17
See YMCA, page A17
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Courtesy photo
See LLS, page A23
of a sweet smile and sparkling eyes — eyes that saw the good in others and her words
Although the expansion of the Parkview Family YMCA has been delayed a little bit, the YMCA of Greater Fort Wayne still hopes to have the 8,000-square-foot addition and related renovation work completed this fall. The groundbreaking on the project is expected to occur by the end of June, about a month later than originally anticipated. The 70,000-square-foot facility on Dawsons Creek Boulevard, just off Dupont Road, was built to accommodate about 10,000 members. It has been serving about 18,000, said Nicole Liddell, the Y’s director of mission advancement. The timing of the proposed expansion of the facility, which opened in 2001, was expected to be contingent on fundraising, “but as we got into it we realized we needed to serve this community,” Liddell said. The organization decided to just go ahead with the $1.75-million expansion project. “We’re financing the whole thing, ultimately,” she said. The expenditure makes sense for the bottom line, however, because the Parkview Family YMCA’s strong membership numbers help support other YMCAs in parts of Fort Wayne that are not as thriving, Liddell added. The Parkview Family YMCA also will pick up about 3,500 square feet of space that has been leased to Parkview Health for a rehab unit. Parkview will move the physicaltherapy operation to Parkview Regional Medical Center in July.
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3306 Independence Dr., Fort Wayne, IN 46808
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