INSIDE THIS ISSUE Classifieds............................................................................B10 Community Calendar ...................................................B10-15 Discover Downtown .............................................................A9 Happy Father’s Day........................................................... A13 Leo-Cedarville Freedom Festival .....................................A10
Serving New Haven & East Allen County
INfortwayne.com
June 19, 2015
Free Fridays music blends with play at riverside park By Garth Snow gsnow@kpcmedia.com
Terry Jo Lightfoot says the fifth season of the Free Fridays concerts features the variety and local connections that the audience has come to expect. The music continues at 7:30 p.m. each Friday through July 31 at Riverside Gardens, on the banks of the St. Joe River. Lightfoot, a member of the Leo-Cedarville Park Board, said planners envisioned the concerts 15 years ago during the design of the three gazebos. “I had been wanting to do this forever,” Lightfoot said. “But you really have to have the support of your park board and your town council in order to make that happen. I am just so thankful that they allow
PHOTO BY GARTH SNOW
A band plays a Free Fridays concert at Riverside Gardens in Leo, as the audience listens from lawn chairs just yards from the St. Joe River.
me to do this, because I really, really enjoy it. “It’s a nice evening. It doesn’t cost you anything
except a donation if you can. And it’s pure enjoyment. “The river’s in the
background, which is kind of pretty. The sun is usually setting when See FREE, Page A4
Myers says band succeeds because everyone steps up By Garth Snow gsnow@kpcmedia.com
The Leo High School Band Department has earned the Indiana State School Music Association’s All-Music Award for the seventh consecutive year. Leo is the only East Allen County Schools program to receive the award this year, and one of only a handful in northeast Indiana. “The award is given to a band program that has received gold ratings in marching band, concert band, and jazz ensemble and has had students quality for state solo and ensemble contests,” said Bob Myers, who just wrapped up his seventh year as Leo band director. “It speaks loudly to the type of students that we have at Leo and how talented they are,” he said. “With a band of say 75 vs. a band of 300, it’s a lot easier percentage-wise to receive that award with a
PHOTO BY GARTH SNOW
Bob Myers directs the Leo High School band in concert at Riverside Gardens.
big program.” “With a smaller program, it really requires everybody to do their part,” he said. “In order for us to achieve that, it really is a partnership between the school administration and the parents. It requires a lot of flexibility in scheduling. It requires flexibility on the parents’ part to make sure they’re getting their kids See BAND, Page A4
Express delivery Mom hits gym, births child, makes cookout As Nicky Schwanz arrived at a Memorial Day cookout, her friends were shocked to see her walking and carrying her son who she had welcomed into the world a few hours earlier. “They were more than surprised,” she said. “They had seen me earlier in the day, working out with a pregnant belly.” The elapsed time was about six hours. Schwanz, a labor and delivery nurse at Parkview Regional North, wasn’t expecting to give birth at her Georgetown area home. “It happened so quick,” she said. “Everything just happened. And everything’s OK.” She began feeling her first contractions while working out in the morning. Schwanz and her husband, Corey, participated in the “Murph”
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Nicky Schwanz works out on Memorial Day at CrossFit Praus, where she continued a modified fitness program during her pregnancy. Schwanz gave birth that day, and brought her baby to a gym cookout that afternoon.
“It takes most people 45 minutes or an hour or maybe more,” Burge said “It’s not a heavy workout, but what we call a See MOM, Page A2
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workout at CrossFit Praus that day. The five-part workout is named for Navy Lt. Michael Murphy, 29, of Patchogue on Long Island in New York, who was killed June 28, 2005, in Afghanistan. The workout was one of Murphy’s favorites. Fitness enthusiasts around the country complete the workout each Memorial Day in honor of those who have served in the military. “Obviously it’s nowhere near sacrifice enough, but it’s a pretty brutal workout for athletes to honor the sacrifice that he (Murph) made,” said Amanda Burge, who owns the gym with her husband, Shane. At the gym on Merchant Road in Fort Wayne, Corey and other Praus members began the “Murph” with a mile run, followed by 100 pullups, 200 pushups, 300 squats and another mile run.
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By Garth Snow