Horizons 2019: Made in Michiana

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Made in Michiana | HORIZONS 2019

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FROM THE GENERAL MANAGER

Made in Michiana

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hances are, somewhere on your commute through Michiana, there is a building you pass by regularly and wonder, “what do they do there?”

You may have a favorite local coffee shop where you enjoy a treat that satisfies your sweet tooth so perfectly that you wonder, “who made this?”

If you are really curious, on a sweep through the produce aisle at the grocery store, you may pick up a vegetable and wonder, “what farm did this come from?”

In this year’s issue of Horizons, we sought to answer many of these questions and more, focusing on all things “Made in Michiana.”

As you see on our cover, the definition of “made” is vast, and encompasses a wide range of trades. We tried to hit as many as we could.

Part of the fruit belt, southwest Michigan is rich in agriculture, with thousands of farms in Berrien and Cass counties. The hard work that starts on these farms translates into meals on our tables, wine in our glasses and food in our freezers. We featured many of the farmers who bust their backs to feed us.

Speaking of food, we filled our bellies talking to creative culinary experts such as the sisters who comprise The Dough Parlour, an up-and-coming edible cookie dough business, and also learned from soon-to-open Iron Shoe Distillery how to make bourbon.

In some of those buildings that may have drawn your curiosity, pieces of widgets that are used in products all over the world are made right here in southwest Michigan. As we prepared Horizons, we talked to many local industry leaders about what they make, and the impact they have, not only on the local economy, but globally as well.

Then, we talked to all sorts of artisans with a wide range of trades — from an 18th Century-style cooper to a locally famous tattoo artist to a Dowagiac man who makes art by burning wood.

We learned that there is no end of “makers” in Michiana, and that these crafts have not only made a big impact in our communities, but come with great stories of connections made and people helped.

Take, for example, Mary Cramer, who volunteers her time to make mats for the homeless out of recycled grocery sacks, or Delta Machining, who helps pay tuition for aspiring machinists as they earn their degrees.

We heard star-studded stories of art impacting big names, like the musicians who have worn guitar straps made in Buchanan at Souldier (read: Aerosmith, Stone Temple Pilots, and so many more!). Local woodworker and knife maker Terry Truesdell once made a set of knives for his friend, Roger Ebert.

While we could not feature every local maker in the Michiana region, we did our best to share impactful stories of the hard work and perseverance it takes to hone a craft — and the fun anecdotes that come along the way. We hope that now, on your daily commute, you can share the answers to some of those questions you have pondered, and some fun stories to go with them!

Ambrosia Neldon is the general manager at Leader Publications. She can be reached by phone at (269) 687-7700, or by email at ambrosia.neldon@ leaderpub.com.

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Made in Michiana Meet the staff responsible for producing Leader Publications’ many products

58 61 64 68 71 74 77 80 85 88 91 94

Made to rock and roll Guitar straps made in Buchanan found worldwide, on celebrities

Homegrown in Michiana Get a peek at farm life with Dussel’s, Lehmans, Ecklers’ and Amazing Acres representatives

Layer by layer Niles’ NCP Coatings coated with family legacy, traditions

Bags to mats Buchanan woman helps the homeless, promotes recycling with grocery sacks

Fabricating community Lake Michigan College Fab Lab offers creative outlet in Michiana

Sparking interest Adolescent business owners use welding skills to craft unique creations Doughlightful creations Niles sisters see future in edible cookie batter business The business of hard work Shelton’s Farm Market epitomizes the fruit of Michiana for decades Blazing a trail Dowagiac artist uses wood burning to tell stories, make a difference Modern manufacturer Robots key to growth for Delta Machining Connecting and energizing Michiana Midwest Energy and Communications brings new tech to rural communities Between the lines Artist channels creativity into signature tattoos Tight-knit community Dowagiac yarn shop weaving people together How to make bourbon Niles distiller offers step-by-step guide to making bourbon

Creating a voice Niles man illustrates greeting cards as way to express himself For joy and legacy Niles man practices old-fashioned art of coopering, blacksmithing Heating Michiana Round Oak stoves remain a memento of Dowagiac The seasoned artisan Niles man spends retirement hand-crafting knives, woodwork Building your own path SMC construction trades program offers hands-on alternatives to students Finding an edge Niles artist looking to change the look of small-town art scene Solving the puzzle Niles duo brings escape room business to Buchanan, South Bend area Perfect harmony Niles Area Community Orchestra offers free music, outlet for local musicians Marketplace Your guide to multiple businesses throughout the Michiana region

Made in Michiana | HORIZONS 2019

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Ambrosia Neldon General Manager

Years with company: 6 in August

OUR PRODUCTS ARE

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MADE IN MICHIANA

ach Sunday through Thursday as the sun goes down, a familiar hum fills a building the size of a city block at 217 N. Fourth St. in Niles.

As people make the commute home from work, journalists attend council meetings and local events, taking notes and photographs to share with their communities.

Meanwhile, that hum reverberates through the Leader Publications building as tomorrow’s newspapers come hot off the press.

Most Michiana residents recognize “The Leader,” but many do not know the extent of the Leader Publications family.

In addition to the shopper you get for free each weekend, Leader Publications publishes two daily newspapers, two weekly newspapers and two lifestyle magazines. Content published in all of our products also publishes digitally for our more technologically inclined readers, in addition to other real time news.

In an age where the journalism

industry continues to change rapidly, Leader Publications also rapidly changes the way it shares information. Through all these changes, however, one thing remains the same: Our products are produced here in southwest Michigan.

We believe there is no better way to serve our customers than to interact with them. It’s why at almost every home sporting event, you see a familiar face with a camera. It’s why we sponsor local festivals, and attend ribbon cuttings, meetings, court proceedings and more. It’s why you find our staff volunteering throughout the community and getting involved in civic organizations.

We invite you to meet the talented people in your communities selling, producing, printing and delivering these products — made right here in Michiana.

Doug Sriver

Press Foreman Years with company: 6 Responsibilities: Making sure the papers get out on a daily basis.

My favorite part of the job is…

There are always problems, but when you fix something, it’s very rewarding.

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Responsibilities: I guide an amazing crew of talented people to produce and deliver awesome products that inform our communities and help local businesses grow.

My favorite part of the job is… Seeing our completed projects for the first time.

There is no greater feeling than holding in your hands the product of hours of hard work, passion and collaboration.

Donna Knight

Scott Novak

Years with company: 15 years

Years with company: I joined the company as a stringer in 1979 and was promoted to sports editor in the summer of 1984.

Customer Service

Responsibilities: Assist customers in receiving our products and services.

My favorite part of the job is… Helping to produce products that receive positive community feedback.

Austin Sriver Press Operator Years with company: 4 Responsibilities: I’m a second pressman. I help my dad [press foreman Doug Sriver] with everything. I’m his apprentice, kind of.

My favorite part of the job is… Fixing things.

The press is like a puzzle and when its completed, the press runs smoothly.

Sports Editor

Responsibilities: I do a little bit of everything from social media, photography, writing and page design.

My favorite part of the job is… Getting to interact with the student-athletes and their parents.

Penny Baker

Mailroom Supervisor Years with company: I started in 1994 as an inserter and then became supervisor.

Responsibilities: My jobs are getting newspapers and Leaders out the door and to the customers.

Rhonda Rauen

Regional Accounting Manager Years with company: 25 in April Responsibilities: I oversee all accounting functions and prepare financials.

My favorite part of the job is… Working with a great staff!

Emily Sobecki

Photographer/ Newspaper Designer Years with company: Two years in July Responsibilities: I take photos and design newspapers. It’s like working on a puzzle. I am given pieces from different departments, and I have to place them together.

My favorite part of the job is… Being able to be creative, doing what I love and working in a fun environment with awesome people.

Phil Langer Marketing Consultant Years with company: 11 Responsibilities: Selling advertising that supports our publications.

My favorite part of the job is…

Dealing directly with our advertisers.

Sarah Culton

Angie Marciniak

Years with company: 2

Years with company: 4

Responsibilities: I report, write, edit and oversee leader Publications’ products and news team.

Responsibilities: My most important role at Leader is making sure all of our amazing publications are delivered as promised.

Managing Editor

My favorite part of the job is… Getting to hear and share the stories of people of Michiana.

Distribution Manager

My favorite part of the job is… Getting to be out in the community, meeting the people that live here, promoting our products, and occasionally being able to share their stories.

Kelsey Hammon

Adam Droscha

Years with company: 3

Years with company: First

Responsibilities: My job is to put my boots to the ground to cover the news that is pertinent, engaging and inspiring to readers.

Responsibilities: I am an active listener, furious typer, scribbler and story teller and scrambling content collector.

My favorite part of the job is… Having the opportunity to tell the stories of so many amazing residents.

Without their willingness to open up and share, there would be no newspaper. I’m continually inspired by these stories and all I have been able to learn. Yeah, my job is pretty awesome.

My favorite part of the job is… Connection — connecting with locals, finding a personal connection to their story, then connecting their stories to a wider audience. I go from passive observer to active participant and storyteller week in and week out.

Lisa Oxender

Jordan York

Years with company: 3

Years with company: First year

Journalist

Marketing Consultant

Responsibilities: Collaborating with local businesses through marketing and putting our best foot forward.

My favorite part of the job is… The day to day interaction with the outstanding people in our community!

Journalist

Marketing Consultant

Responsibilities: I help businesses share their message in our products.

My favorite part of the job is… The wonderful people I meet/work with.

Made in Michiana | HORIZONS 2019

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HOMEGROWN in Michiana A t the heart of southwest Michigan, thousands of local farmers earn their paychecks the old fashioned way: with blood, sweat, tears and prayers in the heart of the fruit belt.

Bordering Lake Michigan, Berrien County soil is fertile enough that 1,063 farmers had planted their roots on 156,418 acres of land in 2012, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s latest census published in 2012. The same year, Berrien County yielded the highest number of grapes in the state, and second in vegetables, melons, potatoes and sweet potatoes.

According to the same census, there

were 798 registered farms in Cass County — a total of 188,690 acres within the county. Among a field of 83 counties, Cass County was ranked second in the state for highest number of hogs and pigs, and 16th in the state for highest yield of produce.

Cass County also ranked second in bean crops.

Agriculture is celebrated throughout southwest Michigan through youth organizations such as 4-H and FFA and at numerous harvest festivals and fairs throughout the year. Most notably, though, southwest Michigan produce is celebrated in our meals and locally-made treats.

This is why people come from miles around to get their hands on Michigan cherries, apples, blueberries, peaches and asparagus each year.

In all its glory, farming is no easy task, and requires a level of discipline, commitment and hard work that is almost unmatched in other professions.

In this section, we celebrate the hardworking agriculturists who work tirelessly to yield goods that keep our bellies happy and our economy prospering, by recognizing four local farms that reflect the efforts of nearly 2,000 farms in the region.

Made in Michiana | HORIZONS 2019

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In a photo taken prior to the fire that destroyed Dussel’s Farm Market in late 2018, Mark Dussel poses inside the farm market in Cassopolis. The Dussels immediately began to rebuild following the tragedy. (Photo by ANN REIFF)

Rising from the ashes Tragedy in Cassopolis demonstrates true grit of farmers STORY SCOTT NOVAK | PHOTOGRAPHY EMILY SOBECKI & ANN REIFF

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arly on the morning of Nov. 4, Mark Dussel, owner of Dussel’s Farm Market in Cassopolis, got a phone call that nobody ever wants to get.

It was the Cass County Sheriff ’s Office Central Dispatch letting him know the family business along M-60 in Cassopolis was on fire.

The building that housed the store was a complete loss, but never once did Dussel or his family think about not rebuilding.

Then came another stroke of bad luck three days later.

At approximately 1:45 p.m. that following Wednesday, a car carrying three people crashed into the greenhouse, which Dussel and his family had hastily gotten ready to open up to sell their Christmas items.

“It came off M-60 and went through one of the greenhouses. It totaled it,” Dussel said.

Still, the family remained unwavering, and began planning how to rebuild and get the farm market reopened as quickly as possible.

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Two strokes of bad luck have been offset by a string of good things, which has allowed a new building to be erected and the greenhouse restored to full use.

Dussel said the target for reopening the store is April 13.

Looking back, Dussel remembers heading to the start and seeing the fire department and police at the scene.

“They called about 1:20 in the morning on Saturday,” he said. “We get down here and the fire trucks had the road blocked and everything. The one end of the building was totally engulfed.”

Dussel remembers exactly what he was feeling.

“I do not want to do this, but never once thought in my mind that we were done,” he said. “It was that we could get it back going as fast we could. We did not know how bad the damage was that night until the next day.”

Without hesitation, Dussel and his family, along with friends and various businesses, began coming together to rebuild the Cassopolis institution.

“We had gotten to the point that we had to proceed with putting up a new building,” he said.

Then along came a second punch to the gut for Dussel.

“Basically, the car left the road and hit the greenhouse structure, missing the fire instructor by about 50 feet,” Dussel said. “We had just walked out of there. Our intent was to set up temporary placement in that greenhouse to sell Christmas trees, greenery and have Santa Claus come like normal. That all changed that day.”

Dussel admitted that he began to wonder if the cards were stacked against him.

“What else can happen?” he said.

“We were late doing harvest because it was raining and nasty and it just wasn’t getting any better. I tell you, when something like this happens, you really have to step back and ask what is the purpose of all this?”

However, community spirit reminded Dussel why he does what he does. Loyal shoppers quickly rallied around the Dussel family. Dussel’s Facebook page blew up with words of encouragement and pleas to rebuild.

“The community has been great and they are waiting for us to get back on our feet,” Dussel said.

Similarly, some loyal friends showered support by helping rebuild.

“I called several people and everybody was like too far out, and with the economy, everybody was busy,” Dussel said. “Johnny’s Custom Construction really reached out and said they would

drop everything and do what we have to do to get you going. The same way with Judd Lumber. Judd’s has been great. I cannot say enough about Judd Lumber and Johnny’s Construction.”

Although there were no big renovation plans in its future, the 20-year-old Cassopolis business did get some face lifts from time to time.

With a blank canvas to work from, Dussel said there would be some changes.

One of the things that was already done before the fire and accident was adding new concrete in front of the building.

“We had just poured a piece of it, but of course that got ruined by the fire,” Dussel said. “We had planned on

doing some things over the course of the winter. We are always trying to do something new. This kind of forces us to do a lot of things.”

Dussel added that with the new construction, there had to be upgrades to meet new codes.

“We are going to get a little better food prep area because we had to do regulations,” he said. “In the store, we are going to move some things around.

It will seem a lot bigger, but it is only 600 square-feet bigger,” he said.

Through all the bad luck, Dussel has been fortunate to catch a break with the weather through November and December with mild temperatures and very little snow. Even the first days of January helped move the

projects along.

“We got concrete done, and in a normal year, we probably would not have had that done by now,” he said.

“We would have worked a lot harder to get the concrete in here than what we did.”

Dussel said he hopes to open prior to the April 13 grand re-opening so that everyone can get their feet wet and work out any kinks.

And what will be the best part about that first day?

“That we are done with construction,” Dussel laughed. “The comments that we have gotten from people have been all positive. We cannot wait to see all our customers again.”

Made in Michiana | HORIZONS 2019 11

Farm to table

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t’s hard to imagine a job tougher than one that relies on the whims of Mother Nature. In southwest Michigan, those whims inspire a spectrum of temperatures and temperaments from wind, ice, snow and rain to sweltering summertime temperatures.

Nevertheless, across Berrien and Cass counties, farmers’ have persisted and their efforts help to feed not only the people but the economy, providing grapes to fill glasses along the wine trail, apples to fill the super market shelves and so much more.

Fourth generation Niles farmer Steve Lecklider earned his name as the “pit boy” when he was a teenager spending long hours removing the pits from the tart cherries that grew in rife bushels on his grandparents’ Niles farm.

Stationed at a mechanized device in a barn, Lecklider fed cherries through a machine that pushed the

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pits from the fruit.

Today, Lecklider has a new title: farm manager. Since earning the role, he has worked to continue his family’s legacy running Lehman’s Orchards. Lecklider’s title is not the only thing that has changed since his early days helping out on the farm. Looking out on the landscape, the farm now grows more than

tart cherries.

Peaches, multiple varieties of apples, currants, raspberries and grapes now fill out the farm’s acreage in neat rows. The farm functions primarily as a U-pick operation.

From summer through late fall, droves of people make their way to Lehman’s to spend an afternoon picking fresh fruit.

Farmer continues family legacy, fuels new Buchanan business STORY KELSEY HAMMON | PHOTOGRAPHY EMILY SOBECKI

Adapting crops to entice more people to visit the farm for more fruit is only one way the Niles farmer has helped to keep the business thriving. Using creativity and a quest for sustainability, Lecklider has also stemmed a new business from the farm’s produce, called Lehman’s Orchard Brewery and Farmhouse.

The business opened in August 2017 as the first brewery and tap house in Buchanan, offering a variety of products created from fruit on the farm.

Lecklider’s grandfather Ralph Lehman, traded a farm in northern Indiana in 1929 to acquire the Niles farm property that now grows so many varieties of fruit. Ralph and his wife Raphael both served as school teachers in Niles. Their tart cherry crops helped to supplement their income during the summer months.

Eventually, Lecklider, their grandson, took over.

Lecklider did not exactly plan to step in and run the farm. He moved back to the farm after college because there was a nearby job prospect.

“After college, I was looking for some work,” Lecklider said. “I had gone to school to learn how to fix musical instruments and one of the largest music stores was located right up the street [from the farm].”

Lecklider took a job opportunity as a technician with the company. Like his grandparents before him, he also worked as a teacher. When he was not working he played with multiple bands in the area.

“It was multifaceted and fit my training,” Lecklider said.

In between his jobs and playing music, Lecklider helped out on the farm during harvest seasons. As a safety measure, Lecklider said the family made the decision to diversify their crops, adding in other fruit varieties for people to pick from. He said he believes the tart cherry is still

the most popular because it has had the longest running market.

“Multiple generations have come out to pick the tart cherry,” Lecklider said.

Lecklider eventually took on a marketing role, helping to peddle the fruit at markets in Chicago.

“That actually became my primary occupation for about 10 or 12 years,” Lecklider said.

On an average Friday evening at Lehman’s Orchard Brewery and Farmhouse, people are filling the bar seats after a full work week to unwind with a cold craft beer, cider or glass of wine, complemented by a burger, sandwich or soup. Since opening in 2017, Buchanan’s first brewery and tap house – an extension of Lehman’s Orchard — is a gathering place for locals and a destination for out-of-towners.

Looking at the space today, it can be hard to imagine the building’s former life as a vacant factory floor.

Once a Clark Testing Lab, the

building, at 204 N. Red Bud Trail, had sat vacant since 1993 and might have otherwise continued to be an eye sore to local Buchanan residents, if not for Lecklider’s ambition to transform it.

The city of Buchanan had tried to make use of the building. In 2006, they bought the structure with the goal to use it to house the fire, police and city hall services, but they did not realize the investment it would take to make the building habitable.

Major leaks and the need to replace the aging structure’s roof were only two of many issues. For Lecklider, the building’s proximity to his farm was a plus, and he said he saw the potential to give the building life again.

Crafting fruit beers and wines has become another one of Lecklider’s creative passions. Customers can find an array of fruit, session, IPAs, porters and stouts.

“There just aren’t that many other places that have the fruit incorporated

into the different beers,” Lecklider said. “It’s kind of neat to discover more and more of the different products you can use.”

For Lecklider, farming is important not just to Berrien County’s roots, but its future as well. Today, he said agritourism has become an important part of the industry, from the wine trail to his own farm, which draws people from across Michiana to pick farm-fresh fruit.

“It’s vitally important to investigate the different products that will bring people in and experience the local cuisine and stay a little while, and take some of the value-added products with them,” Lecklider said.

Looking to the future, Lecklider expects his family farm will continue to provide farm to table products to locals and visitors alike.

“I think having that combination [of crops and farm products] and always having that link to the land is pretty important,” Lecklider said.

Made in Michiana | HORIZONS 2019 13

It starts with a seed Eckler family cultivates much more than produce STORY ADAM DROSCHA | PHOTOGRAPHY EMILY SOBECKI

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escribing the full scope and reach of Eckler Farms would be difficult for anyone, even Larry and Lucy Eckler.

The Ecklers grow fruits and vegetables for consumption, but also for decoration and for the sake of new seeds and plant variety.

Eckler Farms is both local and surprisingly global. Eckler products serve the most common and private southwest Michigan families, but have also been sought out by celebrities and appeared in movies.

To learn about Eckler Farms and the family behind the whole

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operation, one has to start at the farm itself, just a few miles outside of Niles on Barron Lake Road.

On a plot of about 100 acres of land, Larry and Lucy Eckler grow just about every fruit and vegetable the average Midwesterner looks for during a grocery store trip, or for the always anticipated fall season.

Strawberries, apples, peaches, broccoli, pumpkins, sweet corn, onions and gourds of all kinds await visitors and customers.

The Ecklers experiment with cross pollination, so their unique seeds have been featured in seed catalogues, and sent overseas to

seed storehouses. Sharing seeds and keeping locals fed are high priorities at Eckler Farms.

The Ecklers are also thrifty people, believing that even if you can’t eat the corn or gourd, that does not mean it won’t make a nice centerpiece during the Thanksgiving dinner. And if the ear of ornamental corn doesn’t look nice enough for decoration, it can be burned for fuel in the wood burner, if not shucked of all its corn and used for potpourri.

“Nothing goes to waste,” Lucy explained, sifting through a crate of corn-less cobs waiting to be shipped out and used in a pungent potpourri bowl.

Below the surface of the small Niles farm and fruit stand is a

history, and a desire to provide the best, most informed product possible. Larry does excessive handpicking to ensure customers get the prettiest edibles. He and Lucy make sure they’re not wasteful, and together they try to find new and diverse ways to use their fruits and fruit byproducts.

In the last year and a half, the Ecklers have put significant focus on pumpkin seeds. Larry found a piece of equipment that not only harvests pumpkins, but one that extracts the seeds, leaving them more than 90-percent clean of pumpkin innards. The machine saves Lucy the hassle of cleaning the pumpkin seeds by hand, and also allowed the Ecklers to venture into new uses for the seeds.

Larry is actively promoting the farm’s homemade pumpkin seed oil to deer hunters for baiting purposes. Deer eat pumpkin seeds, and the pumpkin seed oil gives off a pleasing aroma for their powerful noses. Aside from attracting deer, pumpkin seeds and pumpkin seed oil have numerous health benefits for people, and the Ecklers could not be more pleased to offer another nutritious item to their shelves.

“We continually research agriculture products and how they can be used,” Larry said.

From apples to pumpkin seed oil, to oriental corn, the Ecklers try to keep their business full of variety.

Farming is not easy, however. Some seasons are difficult with weather, insects, invasive species and financial challenges. But farmers do not keep their hands to the plow and boots in the dirt because of the easy life and killer profits.

“What’s the old saying? ‘You can take the farmer off the farm, but

“

you can’t take the farming out of the farmer?’ In other words, it’s in your blood. Good times and bad times,” Larry said. “It’s something you enjoy doing because when you put a seed into the ground and you see it come to fruition exactly how you wanted it to be, or better, then you know you’ve done a good job.”

Larry Eckler was planting his first seeds at 9 years old. Now 65 years old, Larry has been planting for 56 years. For the last 20 years, he and Lucy have shared the fruits of their ground and labor with the Niles community, as well as visitors from out of town, and out of state.

The farm is slowly and surely being passed to the next generation as Larry and Lucy’s daughter and grandchildren continue to help and learn the way of the planter.

Like seeds themselves, the Ecklers have put down roots in their community and blossomed into a healthy, homegrown staple of diet and esthetic.

What’s the old saying? ‘You can take the farmer off the farm, but you can’t take the farming out of the farmer?’ In other words,

it’s in your blood. Good times and bad times.”

—Larry Eckler

Made in Michiana | HORIZONS 2019 15

Growing young minds Amazing Acres offers seasonal fun, farm education STORY SARAH CULTON | PHOTOGRAPHY EMILY SOBECKI

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n a brisk fall afternoon, the wind whipped Roni Hoff’s hair against her face. As she shifted her body to shield herself from the cold, her gaze landed on a rust-colored barn, with a nearby stable for pony rides and rolling green farmland, the sight of which brought a smile to her face.

“You know, it didn’t use to look like this,” she said, her mind taking her back more than 20 years.

“None of this was here. It was a blank barn, and it was just as disheveled as you can imagine, just a terrible looking place. Just the work to get it in shape was daunting. But it’s very different now.”

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Hoff and husband Rick together own Amazing Acres, 18430 US-12 E., Edwardsburg. Purchasing the property in 1999, the couple rehabilitated the property and opened the 90-plus acre farm to the public in 2001 for a fall fun farm that offers several family-friendly attractions including a pumpkin patch, hayrides, a barnyard, a corn maze, zip line and more. The farm’s season runs from midSeptember to the end of October.

“We love bringing in new people to the area so that they can experience life in this area,” Hoff said.

“We have something here for everyone, from little ones to grandparents.”

The Hoffs initially bought the property Amazing Acres sits on to grow pumpkins, which they had previously been renting property to do. When the Edwardsburg farm came up for sale, the couple jumped at the chance to buy, later turning to agrotourism to help the property pay for itself.

Each year since opening, the farm has added new attractions to draw in more visitors and bring awareness to local farming.

“We come up with ideas that will entertain our clients, but also educate them on farming,” Hoff said. “That’s really our main focus — education through entertainment.”

Much of Amazing Acres is all about teaching its younger visitors — including school groups — about farming, focusing on subjects like animal husbandry, animal care and behavior, crops and farm-to-table eating, among other topics.

Hoff said that the farm uses its many attractions to make the learning experience fun for visiting children, so that even city children can learn to care about farming and its importance to local communities.

Making Amazing Acres an educational venture has been a passion of Hoff’s.

Having grown up on a working cattle farm, she said she knows first-hand how important it is to teach children about farming and the land.

“If we lose the farms, we lose our source of food,” she said. “I think growing up, I learned care and concern about animals and the world around me. I don’t want to lose that. I don’t want children to lose that.”

Though Hoff believes it is essential to get local children interested in agriculture, she does not hide the fact that working a farm is hard work.

During the fall season, Hoff’s day begins at 5 a.m., starting her morning by feeding all the animals on the farm and getting ready to greet visitors by 8 a.m.

She then works with student groups until around 2 p.m. For Hoff, this is the best part of her day.

“We get to teach the kids the difference between sheep and goats and teach them things like map reading skills, which is a

lot of fun,” she said. “I think the biggest thing they get to learn about is teamwork, which we put a big emphasis on.”

The rest of her day is spent planning and caring for the farm. Outside of the attraction portion of the farm, Rick Hoff sharecrops corn, soybeans, hay and alfalfa, which are used on the farm and sold locally.

“It’s a tremendous amount of work,” Hoff said. “The only time we aren’t actively doing something is in January.

The rest of the time, it is dedicated to planning, building buildings, and all the other things that we need to do the rest of the year.”

Despite the hard work and sometimes 18-hour days, Hoff said it is worth it to see her farm in peak season, filled with children and families having fun and learning together. One of her favorite things is to watch children grow up as they visit the farm year after year, noting their growth on the farm’s giant measuring pumpkin.

When she looks out on her land now, with the memory of what it was when she and her husband first bought it, Hoff said she can hardly believe that the formerly rundown barn and unruly fields bring in thousands of children looking to have fun and learn about farming.

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Bags to mats STORY ADAM DROSCHA PHOTOGRAPHY EMILY SOBECKI

Buchanan woman helps the homeless with grocery sacks

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n a planet fraught with problems — pollution, global climate change, homelessness, poverty — many people are coming up with creative solutions. Mary Cramer is one Michiana local who was troubled by a global problem, happened on multifaceted fix and started crafting her own local contribution.

Disposing of and recycling plastic trash is an ever-looming problem for the average citizen. For the average grocery shopper, however, plastic grocery bags might get a second use after that Saturday trip for eggs and milk, but very rarely do the bags get a third run. Some shoppers have adopted the sturdier, reusable bags, but many still rely on the infamous, environmentally unfriendly totes.

So when Mary came across a YouTube video outlining how to loom plastic grocery bags into padded mats, she knew she was on to something. Her cousin in Texas made iterations of such mats and passed them out to homeless people in her area so they had something to lay on, as opposed to the hard, cold ground.

Quickly, Mary’s husband, Larry, made her a simple loom to start making mats of her own. Since June 2018, Mary has made nine mats, each about three by five feet and consisting of anywhere from 700 to 900 plastic bags. She has taken her creations to homeless shelters, libraries and various outreach ministries, like Redbud Ministries in Buchanan.

“It takes about six to seven hours to finish a mat,” Mary said. “I could finish two or more a week, if that’s all I did.”

Made in Michiana | HORIZONS 2019 19

Mary is thorough and organized in the craft of bag weaving. She cuts off the handles and the bottoms of the bags to turn them into simple loops. Next, she flattens and stacks them, then proceeds to loop the bags end to end. As the bags are looped into a long strand, Mary winds it into a ball that she calls a “plarn ball.” When Mary starts creating a mat, she has strands of plastic bags attached to each of the 30 pegs of her loom, and then she weaves the strand from her plarn ball, gradually creating tightly knit sections.

Although the matted creations are a creative and worthwhile afterlife for old grocery bags, Mary is particular. She is thorough in her effort to use only the cleanest bags, often getting donations from grocery stores and shopping centers. Those that are donated for a second use are submitted clean, or cleaned before being woven on the loom.

As fascinating as the process is, the time and number of bags it takes to finish one mat does not lend itself to speedy production, so Mary has trained others to pick up the project as well.

A small group of fellow church goers at Portage Prairie United Methodist Church, Mary and Larry’s home church, started a bag weaving group under Mary’s tutelage.

At the group’s first meeting, Mary’s attention was split between her own speedy work, and instructing others. The sound of flapping and crumpling plastic filled the church basement, as did the chatter of longtime church friends eagerly learning the ways of a new, unorthodox ministry.

The group has five looms of its own, and plans to collect bags and disperse mats within the greater Niles community, perhaps as far as Chicago, according to PPUMC Pastor Rap Posnik.

“It may give a sense of accomplishment and connection,” Posnik said. “I feel it’s important in connecting us to all of God’s people.”

20 HORIZONS 2019 | Made in Michiana

Connection is important to Posnik.

He has worked with the Center for the Homeless in South Bend and sees how hands on work is often better than throwing money at a problem. And as a motorcycle traveler and camper, Posnik also knows how uncomfortable sleeping on the bare ground can be.

“These bags give a decent thickness off the ground, and an insulation barrier to boot.

I think someone would cherish a mat like this,” he said.

Pastor Posnik is grateful for the church’s new small group of bag mat weavers, and Mary is thankful for them as well.

“I’ve been praying for a group of women to do what we’re doing right here,” Mary said.

Care for the poor, stewardship of the earth and creatively serving the local community make up a new endeavor for one Michiana local and her church. All it took was some old grocery bags and a YouTube video.

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22 HORIZONS 2019 | Made in Michiana

Sparking interest Adolescent business owners use welding skills to craft unique creations STORY & PHOTOGRAPHY KELSEY HAMMON

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nder a spray of white-hot sparks, leaping and bounding within inches of their protective helmets, Baylee Davis, 12, and Trinity Heighway, 14, melt and mold metal into something new.

With strength and finesse, the girls turn old horseshoes into delicate, yet rustic looking crosses, artful wine holders and signature picture frames. Bits of broken china and rusted tea kettles pillaged from antique shops are transformed into tinkling wind chimes. These are just a few of the creations that Davis and Heighway construct for their business, B & T Design.

“It was supposed to be a one-time experience,” Davis said, speaking to the first time they tried their hand at welding.

Heighway agreed.

“It was kind of a surprise,” Heighway said.

“I didn’t realize we would love it as much as we did.”

Davis’ stepdad Rick asked permission at his job to show the girls how to use some welding tools. At first, he said they were scared of getting burned, but curiosity helped them to overcome their initial fear. Then they started a business.

“At first, I thought they were crazy,” Rick said.

“Dad!” Davis said, scolding her stepdad.

Davis is an Eastside Connections student and Heighway is a Niles New Tech student.

Besides a passion to weld, the girls share a love for riding their horses, Honey and Clyde.

What they do not spend on new materials for their business is used to provide for and pamper their horses.

The girls sell their wares at local craft shows and online via Facebook. While they let inspiration help them to create their next product, they also take customer requests.

Besides keeping up with their business orders, Davis and Heighway lead busy lives.

Both girls like representing their communities in local scholarship pageants. Their parents marvel at how the girls seamlessly transition from a tiara to cowboy hat to welder’s mask.

As to what they like about operating their own business, the girls said it provides them with creative freedom.

“I like having the responsibility in something and knowing that we created it and it is this thing we share,” Heighway said.

The passion was initially sparked by respective projects the girls were working on for the Berrien County Youth Fair. Heighway won an “A” for a picture frame she made out of horseshoes. The frame held pictures of her father, Christopher Heighway, who passed away in 2017.

From their fair projects, the girls began welding as a hobby and eventually a business.

They have run B & T Design for a little over a year.

Trinity’s mother, Bridget Heighway, said B & T Design work has not gone unnoticed. At a recent Wine, Women and Welding seminar, sponsored by the Goodwill and Lippert Components, event organizers asked to share a wine holder crafted by B & T Design.

“I thought that was a very cool element because they were empowering grown women,” Bridget said.

When it comes to running their business, the girls have learned to trim costs by utilizing locally donated or recycled materials to make their works of art. A number of the horseshoes used for their creations come from local ferriers

— people who shoe horses.

“Generally speaking, the horseshoes get thrown away,” said Baylee’s mom Becky Wicks. “So, they [ferriers] will save them up and donate them to them. So, they do a lot of recycling of the products.”

While Davis and Heighway enjoy welding, they said not many of their peers have the same hobby.

As their welding skills continue to advance, Heighway and Davis hope they can eventually take on new projects. Heighway hopes to one day create a horse sculpture using horseshoes.

Bridget and Becky noted that welding is something that takes particular finesse and strength.

“It takes a lot of upper body strength. You have to be steady,” Bridget said. “There are really subtle differences to how the metal settles and binds. [These] are not big burly girls. …

It is pretty powerful that they are pushing through those barriers.”

Davis and Heighway hope that their business can remind others, especially girls, that they do not have to have a conventional hobby.

“I would say just follow your passion,” Heighway said. “Try doing new things, even if you are doubtful.”

Made in Michiana | HORIZONS 2019 23

HORIZONS 2019 | Made in Michiana

DOUGHLIGHTFUL CREATIONS Niles sisters see future in cookie batter business STORY SARAH CULTON | PHOTOGRAPHY EMILY SOBECKI & SARAH CULTON

S

isters Jamie Coulston and Joanna Pugh grew up on their mother’s famous sugar cookies.

As children, the pair would watch over their mother’s shoulder as she worked, filling the family kitchen with the smell of sugar and butter. They would observe the cookies rising in the oven, and once they were done, the sisters would barely wait until the cookies were cool to have a taste.

“Our mom would always make this same sugar cookie recipe. She would give it away to everyone,” Coulston said. “Christmas time was crazy. It was days in the kitchen baking. … It is something we love.”

Now as adults, the sisters are keeping their mother’s recipe and baking traditions alive —

just without the oven.

Last year, Coulston, 30, and Pugh, 28, opened The Dough Parlor, a currently online based business that sells edible cookie dough in an array of flavors, from the classic chocolate chip cookie dough to monster cookie to a number of seasonal flavors. And, of course, one of their most popular mainstays is their mother’s sugar cookie recipe.

Coulston brought the idea of starting a cookie dough business to her sister after hearing about cookie dough bars that have been popping up online and in bigger cities like Chicago and New York City that have the sole purpose of serving raw cookie dough scooped as though it was ice cream.

Made in Michiana | HORIZONS 2019 25

“I’ve never really liked cake. Even for my birthdays growing up, my family would make me cookies instead of cake,” said Coulston, who had previously worked with Pugh on a cupcake business, Craven Cupcakes, based on their maiden name of Raven. “So, when I heard about this raw dough thing, I thought, ‘That is something I can get behind.’”

Raw cookie dough is typically unsafe to eat due to a risk of salmonella from raw eggs and E. coli from untreated flour, according to the Food and Drug Administration. However, in recent years, cookie dough shops like The Dough Parlor have been working to satisfy the urges of everyone who has trouble stopping themselves from licking the mixing spoon before putting a batch of cookies into the oven. The Dough Parlor’s cookie dough is eggless and uses heat treated flour, which makes it safe to consume raw.

“Some people are skeptical about it, but I always say, ‘how often do you want just to eat a spoonful of dough when you are baking?’” Pugh asks. “This makes it safe to eat.”

Unlike dough shops in bigger cities, The Dough Parlor operates out of Pugh’s kitchen, with customers ordering dough on the business’ Facebook page and picking it up at Pugh’s home.

Due to the small-scale nature of their business, each batch of orders requires days of preparations in tweaking the recipes, preparing the kitchen and mixing ingredients.

“It’s not like we can just take a recipe and follow it,” Pugh said. “Because we take out the eggs and

26 HORIZONS 2019 | Made in Michiana

heat treat it, the dough is not as creamy, so we have to be creative and find that perfect balance to either add more butter or sugar or whatever to make something really delicious.”

Perhaps the most labor-intensive aspect of the work is heat treating the flour, which takes nearly a full day of prep work.

“There is a lot of love in that,” Pugh said. “When you bake flour, it becomes a hard sheet. So, we have to break it and grind it through a sifter. So, we always say that we massaged it with love.”

The biggest job the sisters have done so far was at the 2018 Niles Apple Festival. For that job, the sisters worked with 100 pounds of flour, which all had to be treated in small batches.

“We are just starting out, so we only use what we have, so each time we did like two cups at a time, which was a lot of work,” Coulston said with a laugh. “If we ever get our own shop, we are going to build a machine that does this for us.”

Despite the hard work, the sisters say it is worth it because it allows them to work together as sisters and best friends and to carry on their family’s baking traditions in their own ways.

Coming from a large extended family, cooking of all kinds was a tradition, but the sisters’ family especially loved to share sweets recipes. Pugh and Coulston have worked to incorporate some of those family recipes into their business, from their mother’s sugar cookie recipe to their Aunt Niser’s cookie recipe, which features oatmeal, peanut butter, butterscotch and chocolate chips.

“It’s really cool that we were able to take our

mom’s recipe and rework it to make it a dough that can make people smile,” Pugh said. “We love to feed people. We love to make people happy through their bellies. [The Dough Parlor] is a way for us to do that and also do something that hasn’t been done here before.”

Going into the future, the sisters have high hopes for success, based on the response they have already had online and on their Facebook page.

Ultimately, the sisters hope to one day open a storefront. However, their more immediate goal is to open a food truck for the business, where they can travel to different areas and festivals to sell their dough.

“We literally just started talking about this,” Pugh said. “We think this portable thing would be really cool because we could go anywhere, to any event — graduation parties, weddings, anything really.”

“Plus, the great thing about that is that then the whole city of Niles will know about us,” Coulston added.

Having grown up and spent their entire lives in Niles, Coulston and Pugh said they plan to keep their business in the area, hoping to bring some big city flavor to the small town.

“We love this setting,” Pugh said, her face lighting up as she talks about her home town. “We want to see the city grow and progress, and we want to be a part of that. We really want to bring some life to the downtown area. And with all the life that is coming in already, we think it is a good fit for us.”

“

We love to make people happy through their

bellies.”

—Joanna Pugh

Made in Michiana | HORIZONS 2019 27

28 HORIZONS 2019 | Made in Michiana

MIKE SHELTON

JIMBO SHELTON

JOE SHELTON

THE BUSINESS OF

HARD WORK Shelton’s Farm Market epitomizes the fruit of Michiana

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enerations new and old of Michiana have heard the of the Shelton name.

Shelton’s Farm Market has been a Niles staple of fresh, locally grown and produced food for the last 60 years. It has outlasted dozens of other local produce stands that were competitors in the early days, weathered the coming and going of various major grocery stores and remained a humble, but hard-working presence in the community.

But like the apples and grapes picked from their farm, the name Shelton is a product of the land of Michiana, grown from hot days of back aching labor, pulled up from the dirt and set on display for all to see.

The Sheltons, as Michiana knows them, started in Alabama as cash crop farmers, or “hillside cotton growers,” as Jim, the oldest of the remaining Sheltons, described it. His parents — Ethan, a son of the south, and Rose, a Hungarian immigrant — met in Chicago, got married and then moved down to Ethan’s home in Alabama for 17 years.

STORY ADAM DROSCHA | PHOTOGRAPHY EMILY SOBECKI

The couple moved their family back to Chicago in 1945 for better medical treatment when one of Jim’s brothers was very ill. The Sheltons stayed in Chicago for four years until one of Ethan’s sistersin-law piqued his interest by bragging about a fruit belt region in southwest Michigan.

As a country boy and farmer himself, Ethan wanted to move his family out of the city, so they found a 40-acre plot of land in a little known, but profitable area of the country called Berrien County, Michigan.

“Berrien County was a garden of Eden in 1947,” Jim Shelton said. “The thing that attracted us was the amount of different crops you could grow here due to the climate being next to Lake Michigan.”

“This is a very fertile fruit belt,” said Mike, Jim’s son. “Tree fruit doesn’t grow everywhere.

We have a little micro climate here with Lake Michigan and the lay of the land,” The climate was right for the Sheltons, but the climb from a 40-acre plot and small, roadside

farm stand shaded by a couple of trees to a 300acre operation with a full store on the main drag between Niles and South Bend was long. The Shelton stand was not the only one along their stretch of road, and some of the neighbors and competitors didn’t think the new family with the little stand would make it more than a year. But Jim, his younger brother and partner Joe, and his son Mike all attributed their success to the same thing: hard work.

“All we did was work for the first few years,” Jim said.

Jim recalled one neighbor telling him how the neighbors were making bets against their success and bickering over who would get to buy their land when they went under. “‘I told them they’re nuts,’ (the neighbor) said.

‘Because every time I go by here, people are working,’” Jim recalls.

That neighbor offered to help out the Sheltons if they were short on the payments that year, but they weren’t.

Made in Michiana | HORIZONS 2019 29

NICK SHELTON The farm grew, and as it did so did the variety of fruits and vegetables the Sheltons offered, as well as their shrewdness, as Jim recalled. There were price battles over sweet corn, the discovery that other markets were swindling them out of money from their peaches, the purchase of the first commercial lot south of U.S.-12 to outsell their competitors, and finding which fruits to specialize in so customers would continue coming to them. The Sheltons grew smarter, but their knack for working hard did not change.

“It wasn’t that we were that much smarter, it was that we worked harder, and we took care of our customers,” Jim said.

Being a family business meant learning about hard work and customer care from family. Jim and Joe learned from Ethan. Mike learned from his father, then passed the work ethic down to Nick, now the mayor of Niles, and his other

30 HORIZONS 2019 | Made in Michiana

children. Joe taught his daughters, and today works side-by-side with his son-in-law, Chad Geister.

“I remember I was about 15 or 16 years old, and Jimbo set me down and he taught me what integrity was,” Mike said. “I think the definition back then was just to always do the right thing.

Over the years we’ve always tried to do the right thing.”

Doing the right thing and operating a farm and market with integrity was not always the easy road. For the Sheltons, integrity meant keeping prices low and quantity and quality high. Integrity meant, and still means, providing as much locally grown produce as possible. The insistence on hard work and integrity is what still sets Shelton’s apart.

“It’s safe to say we sell the most local produce in the area,” Joe said.

CHAD GEISTER “That makes us different,” Nick said. “We do a better job of selling all of the local produce in the area. If it’s grown locally, we’re carrying it.”

Shelton’s Farm Market officially opened in 1959, and in the decades since, Shelton’s has continued to grow in its offerings without sacrificing the fundamentals that got them started. With a full-service meat counter, a garden center, extensive cheese selections, natural foods, produce, groceries and a wholesale department, the modern market looks different than the early days. But Shelton’s still specializes in local perishable food, continues to look after the interests of the customers and perseveres in the business of hard work and integrity.

The family-owned and family grown farm market is a testament to the reality that the purity of the fruit is determined by the integrity of the soil and care for the roots.

Made in Michiana | HORIZONS 2019 31

32 HORIZONS 2019 | Made in Michiana

trail BLAZING A

N

early 40 years ago, not long after having moved back to Dowagiac where he had spent many of his formative years, resident O’Larry Collins stood in a line, allowing his mind to wander as he waited to reach the front.

It was then, in such a seemingly mundane moment, when from the corner of his left eye, he caught sight of a small piece of stucco board that would inform his work for the rest of his life. The board had been burned, its scars forming the shape of a deer.

“I saw that and thought to myself, that is really sharp,” Collins recalled, leaning back in his chair as he smoothed a silk scarf around his neck. “I started picturing it big — bigger than it was. I didn’t even know what wood burning was, but I thought I had to do that.”

Collins, 70, of Dowagiac, is the owner and artist at Art Enuh Suit (named after the southern pronunciation of “Art and a Suit”) located on Front Street in downtown Dowagiac, where he sells his wood burned art and pre-owned men’s clothing.

Though the store is but a small doorway on Front Street, if a visitor were to walk past on the weekend, they would not be unable to miss it, being drawn in by the smooth jazz notes spilling out into the streets.

Once customers enter the building, they will be greeted by Collins, typically sporting 1940s style jacket and hat over a pair of overalls, who is always prepared to

Dowagiac artist uses wood burning to tell stories STORY & PHOTOGRAPHY SARAH CULTON

share a story or two — though he believes his artwork can do that just fine on its own.

“My work tells a story,” he said. “It doesn’t matter what kind of story. It tells a story. I don’t care if it is a barn. I don’t care if it’s a person or an animal or a rotten banana. It is going to tell a story. There is a reason that I do this.

BACK TO THE BEGINNING The story of how Collins began telling stories through art goes back to his childhood. The artist, who specializes in wood burning, spent his earliest years in Rolling Fork, Mississippi before moving to Dowagiac when he was 9 years old. As an adult, he spent time in Chicago, before settling back in Michigan.

It was when he was in the first or second grade that Collins could recall drawing his first picture. He remembers sitting next to a boy in his class named C.W., and looking over the boy’s shoulder to see him drawing a picture. C.W. shared a piece of paper with Collins, and the rest is history, he said.

“I’ve been doing art all my life, ever since I first saw a kid draw something and I wanted to try it,” Collins said. “I knew I had to do it.”

From there, Collins would spend the majority of his time fostering his love of art. At the former McKinley Elementary School in Dowagiac, Collins said his teacher Mrs. Wright would allow him to draw and teach him about art while other students worked on different projects.

Made in Michiana | HORIZONS 2019 33

“I think she knew I was an artist before I did,” Collins said.

It would be many years later when, as an adult, he would come across the deer-burned stucco board that changed the course of his career. Collins said that once he saw what wood burning could do, he borrowed his father’s soldering iron to try his hand at the practice.

HONING HIS CRAFT In his shop, hidden behind stacks of other works, Collins still keeps one of the first pieces he can remember doing — a portrait of American jazz singer Sarah Vaughan. “[There were] wood burner [tools], but I didn’t know anything about wood burning,” he said. “When I first started, it was really hard. I thought to myself, ‘I can’t do this.’ Then a couple of days later, someone said to me, ‘what do you mean you can’t do it? You can do it. If you want to quit, do it first and then it if you don’t like it, quit. Don’t quit before you finish it.’ I got back on it, and I finished the picture. Then I could say, ‘I did it,’ and then quit or keep going.”

He kept going.

After that, Collins said he no longer doubted his abilities, and in the decades since then, he has told many stories through his wood burnings. His version of the last supper holds a special place in his heart due to his faith as a Jehovah’s Witness. Other pieces depict weathered

34 HORIZONS 2019 | Made in Michiana

barns and old friends. His favorite piece is titled “For Who?” “For Who” depicts a billboard of a smiling white family next to a message declaring “There’s no way like the American way” and that “America has the highest standard of living.” The billboard is juxtaposed amongst the nation’s poorest waiting in line for food. Collins said it is his favorite work, which took him more than six months to complete, because it asks “For Who” America has the highest standard of living.

“It sure isn’t for the people in that soup line. I think that is what moves me to do this kind of work. It makes you feel for those people,” Collins said. “All I can do

is express it. That’s why I love art, because I can express that and tell those stories.”

While art may be his first and greatest love, fashion is Collins’ second, saying that clothing can tell the story of a man just as well as any artwork could. The back half of Art Enah Suit is dedicated to men’s thrifted clothing, the pieces echoing back to the jazz era, with sharp suits, silk scarves and trilby hats.

“I’m a clothing fanatic,” Collins said.

“I love men’s clothing. It’s getting harder to find. There aren’t many men’s thrift stores, so I wanted to sell some of my own.”

The pieces Collins sells are inspired by his personal style, which is not only

heavily inspired by old Hollywood stars such as Cab Calloway and Clark Gable, but also more modern pop culture figures such as Cosmo Kramer from Seinfeld.

In his store, Collins prominently hangs a black and white photo featuring many male members of his family, wearing sharp white suits and structured fedoras.

“I’m a dresser. We are dressers in my family,” he said. “I think it’s another way, when you didn’t graduate from college or get educated or whatever, to try to show who you are, that you fit in the world somewhere. It’s a substitute for so much that you couldn’t do or wasn’t allowed to do. I think that is a lot of it, to dress and feel like you are someone.”

Art and story can be found in everything, from paintings to fashion to music — even cleaning can be an art if it is done with passion, Collins said.

Going into the future, he said he plans to keep that mindset and look at the world with artistry with his art and his clothes. To Collins, the key to making that happen is to never give up on art, the same way he never gave up on learning how to make large wood burnings a reality after he saw that stucco board deer so many years ago.

“An artist, it’s just natural. I couldn’t not make it my career,” he said. “I tried to quit before, but I couldn’t quit. The only way I can quit is to go blind.”

Made in Michiana | HORIZONS 2019 35

36 HORIZONS 2019 | Made in Michiana

MODERN MANUFACTURER STORY KELSEY HAMMON | PHOTOGRAPHY EMILY SOBECKI

For Delta Machining, robots are key to job growth

M

odern technology has revolutionized society and left a trail of obsolete equipment in its wake. It is hard to picture a time when we picked up a map instead of punching an address into our cell phone or listened to the squeal of the internet connection.

With the advent of machines that can turn on our lights, lock our doors and play our favorite song with a mere voice command, it may seem that these advances have made life simpler and safer. However, on the factory floors, some fear technology could mark an end to a variety of jobs.

For one Niles company, utilizing a fleet of machines has given their business an edge that has aided customer demand and allowed for the addition of more workers in human form.

Looking out on the factory floor of Delta Machining in Niles, machines resembling industrialsized ovens are whirring away. The company uses roughly 50 to 60 computer controlled machines, equipped with a belt that carries more than 120 tools.

Much like an oven, these robots, known as CNC

machines, are cooking up the next product batch, while company employees attend to other tasks.

Tucked along Reum Road, Delta Machining started with humble roots in 1978. Founders Wannis Paris, Bill Robison and Barry Freeman can recall being doubted by neighboring manufacturers.

With more than 40 years of experience under their belt and a growing business that has found a niche creating refrigerator and air compressor parts for industrial machines, the entrepreneurs have proven the skeptics wrong.

Parris, the company’s president, said the business could in part attribute growth to technology and the robots that can keep up with a growing workload.

“Technology generates jobs here. It does not take away jobs,” said Parris, the company’s president. “Everybody thinks of a robot as taking away more work. Well, you got to have skilled people that will maintain those robots, install them and maintain them to be used for all the different applications.”

Customers also put confidence in a manufacturer that is up to date on modern technology, Parris said. “[Then] there’s more work coming,” Parris said. “We have to have the ability to get it done and that means

applying technology and skills.”

Parris said the company has plans for expansion in the works. Within the next three to five years, they hope to add on to their factory floor and hire 20 more employees.

TAKING A CHANCE Parris grew up on a farm in Alabama. He was in his 20s when he packed his bags and moved to Niles to pursue his first manufacturing job at Henco.

The once burgeoning company produced aerospace parts, teaching him some crucial tricks of the trade.

It was through Henco that Parris met Robison and the two became friends. When a customer at Henco suggested the pair go into business for themselves, the entrepreneurs decided to take a leap of faith and follow the advice.

They opened Delta Machining at a facility on Carberry Road and shared the facility with Pieta Tool.

Not everyone believed that the young businessmen had any idea what they were doing. It was there that Robison overheard one of the other company’s associates remark: “Those hillbillies won’t last a year.”

Parris laughs when he recalls the comment. He said he harbors no ill feelings toward the company and they even beaome friends after that incident. Still, Parris said the associate did not realize Delta’s potential.

Made in Michiana | HORIZONS 2019 37

“They were great people and really skilled people in their trades,” Parris said. “They just misjudged us. … They did not realize our ambition, I guess.”

MODERNIZING THE FACTORY FLOOR When Parris, Robison and Freeman first went into business, they did not have the luxury of coding a robot to create parts. Instead, they spent hours of tedium making goods with hand-cranked machines. In stark contrast, Parris said the factory’s CNC machines move at 2,000 inches per minute.

By 1981, the company had purchased three CNC machines. Within five years, the company expanded. Two additional buildings were purchased at Reum Road, where the company is located now.

Parris’ son, Keith Parris, currently a sales manager for Delta Machining, has worked for the company for 32 years. In that time, he said he has seen

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the company continue to evolve with the changing technology.

“It constantly seems like it is changing or upgrading,” Keith said. “Sometimes we have gotten rid of some of the machines that are too old and not worth having.”

Keith credits his father for investing in technology.

“Sometimes on a yearly basis [he reinvests in technology],” Keith said. “He’s always been able to get another machine in or other technology that keeps us a little ahead of the wing.”

There are aspects of using modern technology that can make things a little more complicated.

One thing the company struggles with is finding more workers, especially younger workers interested in picking up the tricks of the trade.

Delta tries to inspire younger workers to get involved in the company, offering help with

tuition to workers who want to get job experience while pursuing a degree.

Using machinery means those who start out on the factory floor have to understand how to use coding to tell the machines what to do (one wrong number and the machines could be damaged).

While the company wants youth with technology experience, having an understanding of how the manual tools work to create a part is also essential.

In 2018, Delta celebrated 40 years of business.

Since its start, the company has grown from three entrepreneurs to employing almost 80 people.

Parris said plans are in the works to expand the building and hire more people. As to whether machines played a role in that growth, Parris said technology had been a friend, not a foe.

“If it were not for us keeping up as well as we do on technology, we would be outdated,” Parris said.

“We would not be where we are at.”

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CONNECTING &

ENERGIZING Michiana STORY ADAM DROSCHA PHOTOGRAPHY ANN REIFF

Midwest Energy brings new tech to rural communities

R

ural communities remain what many describe as the loveliest parts of Michiana. With rolling hills, fields seemingly without end and thick woodlands that appear untouched by time, these rural areas are reminders of the beauty of country living and a simpler time before industry and dense cities.

Rural communities are also a reminder of how overlooked one portion of the population often is when it comes to technological, energy and communication updates. Midwest Energy and Communications, headquartered in Cassopolis, is working to keep Michiana up to date on the newest technologies in energy and communication.

By bringing new tech and communication opportunities to the overlooked and underserved regions of Michiana, Midwest has carried on the mission of early energy co-ops that began bringing electricity to rural areas in the 1930s. Like many homegrown businesses and services, Midwest is not only focused on profits and expansion, but a deeper mission: serving neighbors and setting an example.

“Our business model gets at the notion of service,” said Midwest Energy and Communications president and CEO Robert Hance.

“When you’re more area-based and homegrown, you have an attachment to the area and the folks there.”

Midwest has been working for the last several years to bring fiber optic internet lines to rural Michiana, a project that larger, incumbent internet and communications companies do not see as financially beneficial. Hance sees the effort of Midwest as a direct connection to the electric co-ops that came about as a result of President Roosevelt’s New Deal programs in the ‘30s, except now the focus is communication and connectivity.

“There’s a very deep connection to our roots. This thing we’ve gotten ourselves involved with is very powerful because it’s driven by consumers. It’s not driven by us as an organization,” Hance said.

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The amount of data used by any internet device and user has grown exponentially in the last decade, for people living in rural communities included, yet it is the rural communities that are left behind, according to Hance. Since Midwest started the concerted effort in 2014 to bring fiber optic internet to rural service areas throughout Michiana, more than 8,000 subscribers have been serviced. By the end of 2019, any electric consumer of Midwest will have access to fiber optic internet options.

“You hear from the incumbent companies that it costs too much money, and that’s why they don’t do this. Well, we’re doing it, and we’re making it work,” Hance said.

Hance has been an advocate of electric coops across the country. Because of his work with legislators and policy makers, rural co-ops have received funding, previously unavailable, from the FCC to undertake efforts like bringing fiber optic lines to rural Michiana.

Midwest’s orientation toward consumer driven service did not stop with fiber optic internet lines, however. In December 2018 Midwest’s community solar energy array went live, providing natural, renewable energy for Midwest subscribers who want to be more environmentally conscientious.

Although Hance is candid that renewable energy is not yet capable of being the sole source for electric companies, the Midwest solar array was a new step toward green energy for the Cassopolis company and its customers.

“There are a lot of people, whether or not they perceive that they’ll make money, that just feel really passionately about renewable energy. They want to play a part in that arena. What community solar displays like this do is they give people a meaningful way to participate in renewable energy, without having to make that big upfront investment,” said Midwest’s vice president of corporate communications Patty Nowlin.

As electric, energy and communications technologies continue to advance, Midwest Energy and Communications is driven by the mission not only to bring those technologies to Michiana, but to remain a part of Michiana itself.

“When I think of ‘made in Michiana’, that’s who we are. That’s who our employees are,” Nowlin said. “Many of our employees are members of the co-operative — they’re our customers as well as our employees. We are the local community.”

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Lines

BETWEEN THE

Artist channels creativity into signature tattoos

STORY KELSEY HAMMON | PHOTOGRAPHY EMILY SOBECKI/PROVIDED

A

mber Olsen was a student at Brandywine High School when sometimes it seemed the stress of everyday life was suffocating. It was in these moments when she would pull out her sketch pad and skip class to take refuge in the art room. As she drew, these stresses evaporated for the moment.

Today as a tattoo artist for South Bend’s Stillhouse Tattoo & Piercing, Olsen faces a whole new set of pressures: creating a permanent work of art that her clients can wear with pride. The job calls for late night hours spent sketching, erasing and creating.

Still, when she holds the pencil or tattoo gun in her hand, the rhythm of creating art still has the power to make everything else melt away.

“Art has probably been the only consistent thing in my life forever,” Olsen said. “I think I suffered really badly from anxiety and depression as a teenager and art — when I was into it, nothing else mattered. It sounds cliché, but it really was like an escape for me.”

Olsen has served as a Michiana tattoo artist for a number of years, channeling her passion for creating iconic tattoos. She has developed a reputation for making tattoos that pop. While a glance through her sketchbook shows that no two artistic styles appear the same, the artist is well known for her use of bright colors, creativity, watercolor style and knack

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for being able to conjure up a reaction from the tattoos she creates.

“Some people are like, ‘I can always tell when it is your tattoo,’ and that kind of blows my mind,” Olsen said.

Olsen believes her color pallet is part of what gives her style a signature look.

“I noticed I will always pick a blue-red over an orange-red or I will always pick a teal blue over a true blue,” Olsen said. “It’s just weird little preferences that are so consistent throughout all my tattoos that now have become a style.”

However, Olsen said she never saw herself growing up to become a tattoo artist. It was an ex-boyfriend with a penchant for homemade and poorly executed tattoos that first connected her with the craft.

“I remember thinking, ‘I could do better drawings than that and I could make money at it,’” she said.

He was her first subject and she tattooed a peace sign with a Godsmack sun around it when she was 17 years old. Fortunately for her, Olsen said she made it out of the relationship without a lousy tattoo to show for it.

While studying art at Southwestern Michigan College, Olsen decided to take on an apprenticeship in a tattoo shop.

“I just kind of stuck with it,” Olsen said.

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Olsen persisted, starting with an apprenticeship at Body Art Gallery in Mishawaka and then on to Paparazzi Tattoos. Olsen asked Stillhouse for a job, but at the time they turned her down. When Stillhouse did offer her a job when she asked again, Olsen felt it was a turning point in her career. It was at Stillhouse where Olsen said she got the opportunity to work with longtime tattoo artists who could give her pointers for improvement.

“I owe pretty much everything I have to this shop,” Olsen said.

Since the early days of her career, Olsen has developed a knack for crafting tattoos that can capture a moment or conjure a deep emotion.

Take for example a client who was on a mission to not eat meat. The woman approached Olsen with a unique request: create a tattoo that would make her feel too guilty to be tantalized by bacon and barbecue.

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Determined to help her stick to her conviction, Olsen crafted a brown-eyed baby calf wearing a crown of colorful flowers. The tattoo did the trick. Looking at a rendering of the tattoo, it is hard not to feel a pang of guilt for ever eating a cheeseburger. This reaction is part of what Olsen believes turns a tattoo into a pure form of art.

“When a client comes to you with their vision, I think what a tattoo adds to that vision, that’s art,” Olsen said. “That’s why people come to me. People like my artwork and they want me to do my thing with it.”

Olsen has gone on to make a mark on many Michiana icons, including WWE legend Dori Prange, otherwise known as Ruby Riott. Prange got a dove tattoo from Olsen when Olsen was just a teen. Olsen confesses that Prange said she eventually got the homemade tattoo covered up, but she returned to Olsen to get another tattoo inspired by a Less Than Jake album cover.

Olsen said her job provides her freedom to not only use her art but also to be with her children, Vegas, 10, and Revy, 2.

“I can build my own schedule, so I don’t work past 2:30 p.m. I can go pick my kids up from school and have the afternoon with my kids,” Olsen said.

As Olsen continues to advance her career, she hopes to one day have the opportunity to open her own shop.

Additionally, she said she hopes to one day have the time to spend on creating other mediums like painting.

Until then, Olsen believes the job offers her freedom that her love of art often has.

“I feel like I don’t have to compromise who I am as a person to please a corporate setting. That was really important to me,” Olsen said. “I want to be who I want to be.”

To check out Olsen’s art work, visit her Instagram page at @artbyamberolsen.

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Tight-knit community STORY TED YOAKUM PHOTOGRAPHY EMILY SOBECKI

Dowagiac yarn shop weaving people together

T

here is an unmistakable sense of warmth that envelops customers of Dowagiac’s Yarn on Front as soon as they walk through the glass door up front.

Wooden shelves chock full of fuzzy, fluffy bundles of string — an array of shades, ranging from brilliant ruby to calming lavender — immediately draw the eye.

Hanging throughout the shop are neatly-woven scarfs, hats, mittens, even tiny baby booties, which are equal parts protective clothing and works of handmade art.

Surrounded by such comfortable-looking items, the shop’s visitors will want to grasp one of the bundles of yarn or pieces of apparel with their own hands, to feel the tiny fibers rub gently between their fingers. Thankfully, customers are free to give in to their temptation — the store’s wares are free to touch, after all.

What keeps Yarn of Front’s dedicated fellowship of the string coming back to the downtown shop time and time again is not fuzzy feelings generated by feeling the store’s fuzzy inventory, though.

It is the sense of belonging and comradery that hits them as soon as owner June Nemeth hears the chimes on the door ring, pops her eyes up from whatever mass of yarn she is patiently working on at the moment and gently greets the familiar face making their way inside by name.

“For me, it’s not about selling yarn and making money,” Nemeth said about her shop, while taking a brief respite from the bundle of spruce green and rosy red yarn she was working on at the time, a metal crochet hook still nestled tightly between her left thumb

and index finger. “It’s about doing something for my community. It’s about bringing people together.”

Surrounding Nemeth at the small table near the back of the shop were her partners in yarn, employees Kelli Mullin and David Hollister.

All three were busy working on their respective projects at the time — Nemeth’s was a scarf inspired by the late Carrie Fisher and her immortal “Star Wars” character, Princess Leia. Each wore trophies of a previous project they conquered — scarves, in Mullin’s and Hollister’s cases, and a purple sweater, in Nemeth’s.

Popping in and out throughout the early afternoon were customers stopping in to find another colorful yarn for their own work-in-progress, who would inevitably take a seat at the table or one of the rocking chairs surrounding it themselves, taking out some needles to quietly work on their own creations.

If the scene that February afternoon was any indication, Nemeth and her shop are indeed bringing people together, knitted together by a common passion.

FOR THE LOVE OF YARN Yarn on Front’s development into a destination for yarn lovers is quite an achievement for Nemeth, who did not know anyone else who was into the hobby before she opened the shop in late 2016, she said.

The Sister Lakes resident has been in love with the world of yarning since she was a teenager. She first learned how to knit at 16 years old when living in Australia, picking up the craft from a woman she was doing some babysitting for then, Nemeth said.

“Being a lefty, there [were] some challenges, but we worked it all out,” she said, chuckling softly at the memory.

Nemeth would later learn knitting’s counterpart, crocheting, which, among other differences between the two techniques, requires only a single hook instead of a pair of needles.

Though Nemeth put down her needles for about 10 years after starting grad school, she later picked up the hobby again after coming across her craft box during a particularly hectic time in her life, she said.

“There’s something about knitting and being able to let your mind finally rest,” Nemeth said, after gazing up once again from her crocheting. “You gain some perspective. It’s very calming. It’s a good way to deal with anxiety. I’m ADD, and this is about the only thing I can stay focused on for any length of time — granted, I’m always bouncing around between 50 different projects.”

In 2014, Nemeth found herself at a crossroads in life, trying to decide if she wanted to continue her career as a rehabilitation counselor or head down a different path. At the same time, the yarn shop she had frequented in St. Joseph had just closed its doors, while a small clothing store in downtown Dowagiac had moved out of its storefront beneath the local Masonic Lodge.

It was then an epiphany struck Nemeth, she said.

“I said, ‘that’s what I need to do. I need to open a yarn shop, right there [in Dowagiac],” Nemeth said.

“That’s when the idea formed. It took two years, but two years later, I was opened.”

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Opening on Small Business Saturday in 2016, Yarn on Front quickly became a destination for yarn lovers across the Michiana area, with customers traveling from as far La Porte, Indiana andVicksburg, Michigan, to browse the assortment of yarn, to develop their skills in one of the shop’s workshops or to participate in the weekly yarning night, where customers gather to work on their projects together.

To keep up with the growth, Nemeth asked Hollister — a regular at the shop who also volunteers with a knitting group at the Niles Library — if he was interested in working for her six months after opening. Hollister learned knitting during an afterschool workshop at his high school library, wanting to pass the time while waiting for his mother to pick him up, he said.

“I said, ‘why not?’ and fast forward, here I am,” Hollister said.

Like Nemeth, yarn has helped the Niles resident cope with adversity in his life, including issues with depression and anxiety, he said.

“This is something I can do, and I enjoy doing,” Hollister said. “I feel like I’m contributing in some way by sharing what I have, rather than just sitting at home, rotting. … I feel good about myself when I help someone find something they like doing.”

Mullin is a recent addition to the Yarn on Front family, coming on board in October. Mullin was also a regular before Nemeth hired her, first hearing about the store while looking for sock yarn from the Facebook page of a local yarning group she had joined, she said.

“At least four people told me, ‘go to Yarn on Front!’ so I did,” she said.

Mullin learned both knitting and crocheting, though in the opposite order of Nemeth, picking up the latter from her older sister in 1977 and teaching herself the former in 1982, she said.

SELLING INSPIRATION The trio’s combined knowledge of yarn comes in handy when assisting the variety of customers who stop

by Yarn on Front, from the newbie looking to find a new hobby to the veteran who needs to stock up for their next fiber creation.

There is no shortage of yarn for either type of customers to choose from. Nemeth stocks yarn from 36 different vendors, made from natural fibers such as cotton, alpaca fleece and cashmere wool, each with at least 10 different shades.

The shop also sells a variety of different needles, hooks and other tools — as the owner puts it, “everything you need to play with yarn.”

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“The hardest part of this is making the decision of what to bring in,” Nemeth said, glancing at a list of her inventory on the iPad behind the front counter. “My fiber heart wants it all!”

“When June asks my opinion on which one of these [new yarns] we should bring in, I ask ‘am I appealing to business you or knitter you?’” Hollister added with a laugh, while busily working on the project in front of him.

Nemeth and her staff are always hard at work creating samples to display around the store. In addition to decorating the store, the three hope the fuzzy clothing items get the gears turning inside the heads of customers who are looking for a new project to tackle.

“You put a crafter in a comfortable environment, surrounded by yarn, they’ll take some of it home,” Hollister said with a grin.

But what motivates Nemeth and the rest of the Yarn on Front team is not the chance to sell fancy fibers, but to pass on their knowledge of knitting and crocheting to others and to build a home for the yarning community.

Every month, Nemeth and her team teach a series of workshops that show participants how to create a particular piece of clothing, such as a scarf or poncho, while at the same time helping students learn new skills, such as color work or mosaic knitting, Nemeth said.

They also offer one-on-one instruction for beginners, intended to show them the basics before they can start participating in group classes.

At the same time, the weekly yarning nights — which take place on Wednesdays — have continued to grow in

size since Yarn on Front’s opening. Some nights as many as 20 crafters have come to work on their projects, share some pointers on how to improve their work and share plenty of pleasant conversation and laughs.

Naturally, many friendships have been formed inside the small downtown yarn shop, which has created a strong community around it, Nemeth said. In fact, the staff and a group of regulars plan to take a three-day retreat to Holland to work on their projects together.

For Nemeth, the best part of the job is introducing new people to yarn and witnessing their growth, she said. The store owner can rapidly rattle off the names of her customers, which projects they have recently finished and how great it was to see them come out of their shells or discover confidence they never knew they had.

Nemeth beamed as she mentioned one particular example of this back in November, when Yarn on Front participated in the nationwide 10,000 New Knitters day, an event sponsored by yarning company Skacel to encourage new people to learn the craft. In addition to giving away free yarn and needle kits to customers, Nemeth, her staff and a number of regulars who volunteered to help taught nearly 40 novices how to knit that day, which the owner described as an awesome experience.

“We’ve had some [participants] who’ve continued to come back,” Nemeth said. “They finished their first project, and they’re all excited and planning the next one. That’s what we do here. It’s about inspiration and bringing them into the craft. It’s not just for your

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Niles distiller explains

HOW TO MAKE BOURBON STORY & PHOTOGRAPHY KELSEY HAMMON

P

ass through the threshold of Niles’ Iron Shoe Distillery and one immediately detects the heady scent of booze in the making – it smells a bit like freshly baked bread and an all-night frat party combined.

In a lofty and former garage space off of the building’s restaurant and bar, owner Howard Tuthill can be found monitoring silver-colored stills where his latest batches of bourbon and vodka are beginning to

take shape.

While the distillery had not officially opened its doors at the time of this how-to lesson in January, Tuthill was well into the production stage and hoping to open for business sometime in 2019.

While most spirits start with basic ingredients — water and grains — it takes patience, care and science to create the final product. We asked Tuthill to show us how he made his latest batch of bourbon.

Made in Michiana | HORIZONS 2019 55

STEP 1 Tuthill first takes corn and malted barley and grinds it into a flour, which is added to a mash tank, mixed with water and heated.

“Essentially, what we are trying to do there is convert the starches in the grain to sugar because yeast eats sugar [and] the byproduct is alcohol,” Tuthill said.

Enzymes are added to help convert the starch to sugar. The mixture is cooled and transferred to a fermentation tank.

STEP 2 Inside the fermentation tank, yeast is added to eat the sugar and create alcohol. It takes about four to five days for the substance to ferment. A glance inside the tank reveals a yeast-yellow and bubbling surface akin to slowly boiling grits.

“It’s bubbling and the yeast is doing its thing,” Tuthill said. “It kind of pushes some of the solid grains up to the top.”

STEP 3 Inside the still, the alcohol will be distilled by heating it.

“Alcohol has a lower boiling point than water,” Tuthill said. “So, we heat it up. The alcohol turns to a vapor first. The vapor climbs up the still, goes over into the condenser.

It goes into these tubes and I circulate cold water around it and that condenses the vapor back into a liquid.”

That liquid is collected and distilled a second time.

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Cheers!

What sets a craft distiller apart from the name-brand spirit makers is that every batch will have a slightly different taste, due again to the expansion and contraction of the barrels at varying temperatures.

While bigger industry operators move the barrels to a different part of the warehouse to account for temperature change and provide for consistent flavor, Tuthill likes the variety in taste that is discovered in each barrel when left natural to react to its environment.

“When you get that batch, that is the only time you are going to get a batch that tastes exactly like that,” Tuthill said. “That’s what makes it craft.”

The entire process, excluding the aging step, takes about a week to a week and a half to complete.

Tuthill is hoping to add more subtlety to his What is the difference bourbon flavors by using a different variety of between bourbon and whiskey? corn. He plans to grow a bloody butcher red Bourbon has to be 51 percent corn corn variety on some Michigan City property and aged in a new American oak he owns and use it for an upcoming batch. barrel. Whiskey is any grain Tuthill and his wife Laura moved their alcohol that is aged in a new family from Colorado to southwest Michigan American oak barrel. in 2017. Their work on the distillery site, located at 3 N. Third St. has revived a vacant After a second distillation, the bourbon goes into the barrels. building that most recently housed a muffler shop It is clear as water from a mountain stream – but it won’t stay into a brand-new business, complete with a vibrant blue that way. and white mural outside. The mural features bags of grains and stills, showing people the process of creating spirits.

Tuthill is the former owner of the Whistling Hare Distillery in Westminster, Colorado, so he knows a thing or two about making craft adult beverages. His vision for Iron Shoe is a place for distilled rum, whiskey, vodka and liqueurs. A food menu with eats like gourmet burgers, salads and appetizers will also be available.

The clear bourbon is poured into a 30-gallon new America oak To share his knowledge of craft spirits with the community, Tuthill hopes to offer tours of Iron Shoe Distillery eventually. barrel that has been charred on the inside. As the barrel sits for Until then, he will be honing his craft and turning corn, up to a year, the wood will expand and contract with changing grains and water into a Niles made signature spirit.

STEP 4

STEP 5

temperatures, forcing the clear liquid through the blackened surface and into the wood. This process gives the bourbon its distinctive caramel color and flavor.

Finally, it can be bottled and poured into a glass.

“When it goes into the barrel, I barrel it a minimum of 120 proof and then I bottle it at somewhere between 80 or 90 proof,” Tuthill said.

STEP 6

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Made to

ROCK

&ROLL

Guitar straps made in Buchanan found worldwide STORY ADAM DROSCHA | PHOTOGRAPHY EMILY SOBECKI

T

o everything in life, there are always the unnoticed components and overlooked items. Tablecloths are overlooked for the food on top of them, bookshelves ignored for the literature they hold, and toy boxes forgotten for the play things within them.

But when Jen Tabor goes to a concert or a show, she is not only admiring and listening to the music, but she is looking past the guitars and long hair to check out the strips of fabric that keep the whole thing going.

Tabor is the owner and founder of Souldier, a guitar strap designer and manufacturing business she started in Chicago in 2004. For 12 years Souldier operated out of the Windy City until Tabor decided to move closer to family and a smaller community in need of a stable employer.

Souldier landed in the back corner of a warehouse in Buchanan, where strips of leather and felt of ornate designs hang from racks and shelves, human hands and sewing machines run in a low humming rhythm and rock and roll plays in the background to remind the staff where their hard work could end up.

Tabor’s guitar straps can be seen all over the world on stages big and small. Names as big as Neil Young, Aerosmith, Jimmy Page, Jeff Beck, Wilco and countless others have not only used her guitar straps, but sought her out for designs, fabrics and a specialized esthetic.

During a performance at the celebration of Queen Elizabeth’s birthday, Shawn Mendes used a Souldier guitar strap to carry his Gibson ES355 ebony Bigsby. Tabor may be used to seeing her straps on all types of people and stages, but occasionally she is still surprised.

“I’m very grateful (customers) like the product.

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I’m still shocked in the places it ends up, and very humbled by it,” Tabor said.

Tabor started her guitar strap business simply.

She made a small collection of her products and brought them to one music store in the greater Chicagoland area at a time. Her connections from her own years of performing and working at various music stores served her well. For the first few years she hardly saw Souldier straps, but after some time, and lots of selling at music festivals and craft shows, Souldier straps were everywhere.

“I got here with hard work, with passion and by supporting the people who supported me,” Tabor said.

Although she leaned hard into her work and self-promotion, Tabor made it far by the investment and recommendation of specific customers like Wilco, Stone Temple Pilots and others who purposefully passed her straps along. Those artists, she knows, would not have passed her creations on if it were not for her perseverance and risk taking. Encouragement to hard work, self-promotion and taking risks is the core of any advice Tabor gives to other crafters and creatives.

“If you know what your path is, always be looking for an opportunity, the slightest opening, and just go down that path,” she said.

“The willingness to take risks is what’s paid off — the willingness to take risks and willingness to fail.”

Moving Souldier to Buchanan was something of a risk for Tabor, but one that was worthwhile and eye opening. Tabor sees Buchanan as a more relatable place, and one that is more centrally located for her travels and work.

“Most of America is closer to Buchanan than it is to Chicago. It helps me understand all perspectives to reach more people,” she said.

Operating out of Buchanan has made it easier for Tabor to get to different hubs of music and concerts.

Being between Chicago and Detroit makes for shorter trips but allows her family to stay in the quiet of the rural Midwest. Tabor’s employees from the Buchanan area, as well as the people she has met locally, made the move all the more worthwhile.

Buchanan has also become a creative parameter for Tabor. She believes creating parameters and guidelines in any line of creative work brings artists and crafters to their most authentic work. As Tabor has strived to stay true to her original vision, Buchanan fits her familial, locational and creative needs.

“The more you define the character of what you’re making, the more branding you can pass along to your customer,” Tabor said.

So, Jen Tabor might be looking around at a concert or show and noticing the guitar straps because it is possible she designed or made them, but also because they represent the intersection of creativities and the journey of her art from a hidden corner of a warehouse in Buchanan to stages in front of thousands of people.

Guitar, bass and mandolin straps may be commonly overlooked by the layman’s eye, but they keep the rockers standing and the music playing.

CELEBRITY SIGHTINGS

Souldier Guitar straps have been seen on major musicians for many years. Some famous names that may ring a bell: • Neil Young • Stone Temple Pilots • Aerosmith • Jimmy Page • Wilco

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HORIZONS 2019 | Made in Michiana

Layer by layer Niles company coated with family tradition, legacy STORY ANDREW MENTOCK | PHOTOGRAPHY EMILY SOBECKI

W

hen former Sen. John Proos visited NCP Coating in 2018 to help the privately-owned Niles business celebrate its 70th anniversary, company leaders Nat and Ben Hannewyk were presented with a special legislative tribute and took part in several photo opportunities with the then sitting state senator.

Throughout its tenure, this family-driven business has quietly been a staple of the Michiana community, while providing clients from across the U.S. and internationally with high-quality coatings for military vehicles, naval ships, industrial equipment, forestry and more. NCP Coatings is so accomplished that when locals are introduced to the company, they are generally surprised that they have never heard of it before.

“Once people learn that we’re here, they’re like, ‘how have I lived here my whole life and didn’t know about this place?’” said HR Director Lisa Muñoz. “We get that a lot. We’re shipping all over the world. You know, it’s pretty cool, and we’re competing with some really big companies.”

Other than the boxes and cans their products are shipped in, NCP Coatings and its roughly 90 employees manufacture everything in the Michiana area and mostly at 225 Fort St. in Niles. Its other location is in Mishawaka, which is where most of the company’s forestry coatings are produced.

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NCP Coatings is currently in its third generation of the Hannewyk Family. Originally named Niles Chemical Paint, the company was founded in 1948 by C.M. “Marvin” Hannewyk II. “My two older brothers, Nat and Ben, kind of run the ship at this point,” Muñoz said. “My brother Ben is our CEO and my brother Nat is our COO.” Their father, Neil, is still the president, but Muñoz said that he is mostly retired.

The Hannewyks’ multi-generational tradition of working together has produced a family-centric culture for all of its employees, which Muñoz says includes excellent benefits, an above industry-standard minimum wage and a commitment to weekends off.

“We’ve got a lot of families here, myself included,” Muñoz said. “I’ve got a 2-year-old.

We want people to be able to enjoy their time away from work so that they can come back refreshed and able to make the best paint that they can.”

Another benefit that comes with being a part of the company is its annual employee appreciation party in August and annual Christmas party during the holiday season.

“During the employee appreciation party in August we put up a huge tent,” Muñoz said.

“We have food catered. We give away vacation days, $100 bills and other prizes from our vendors. We also give away 20-year watches if anybody has been with us for 20 years. I think we gave away two this last year, and we had five people retire this year, one of which was here for over 40 years.”

Many of NCP’s employees attended Brandywine, Niles or Buchanan schools, which is one of the reasons the company gives back to the local community. Muñoz, who graduated from Niles High School in 2003, is always on the lookout for local philanthropic opportunities. She frequently has NCP Coatings donate to the Niles Education Foundation, Project Graduation, area athletic teams and programs, the Niles-Buchanan YMCA and other charitable causes in the greater Niles area.

“I really try to keep a pulse on what’s going on in the community and make sure that we’re contributing to it,” she said.

NCP Coatings also donates its high-quality, industrial-grade paint products to local organizations, such as local baseball facilities, the Berrien County and Cass County fairs and the St. Joseph Lighthouse, which needs a tough coat because of the beating it receives throughout the year.

Going forward, Muñoz said her family’s business plans to stay a family business.

Their model has served the company well for generations, and with any luck, it will do the same for decades to come.

“We’re just hoping to be here for another 70 years,” she said, “and as long as we continue to make high-quality products, I think we will continue to have [dedicated] customers.”

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FABRICATING COMMUNITY

Lake Michigan College Fab Lab offers creative outlet in Benton Harbor STORY ADAM DROSCHA | PHOTOGRAPHY EMILY SOBECKI

64 HORIZONS 2019 | Made in Michiana

A

t Lake Michigan College’s Benton Harbor campus sits the Hansen Technology Center, a newer, architecturally creative building with a cavernous entryway.

Through the front doors and just past the long, curved front desk is a tall room with dozens of machines, buttons and oddball pieces of technology that would make a science person go gaga and a technologically incompetent person afraid to bump into something too hard. To the public, this room is simply called Fab Lab (short for fabrication laboratory), and according to Candice Elders, the executive director of marketing and communications at LMC, the Fab Lab is for technologically literate and illiterate folks alike.

“It’s a very unintimidating atmosphere,” Elders said. “Whether you’re a longtime tinkerer working on a prototype, or you just have never made something before, it’s a really great environment,”

“Fab Lab is an open concept digital studio for people to utilize the equipment here to complete their home projects,” said Chad Dee, director of the Hansen Technology Center. “If you can think it, you can make it here in the lab.”

Fab Lab was a concept and brand that originally began at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Since its inception, Fab Labs all over the world have opened, many of which are still tied to the original network started by MIT, as is the lab at LMC’s Benton Harbor campus. The Hansen Technology Center Fab Lab opened in spring 2017.

The public portion of the Fab Lab is split into five divisions with a sewing department, laser department, vinyl cutters, a woodshop and 3D printing. At the center of it all are design stations where visitors can conceptualize projects with the available software.

At the Fab Lab, people make everything from cosplay costumes,

figurines, variations of wood products and even arcade games.

It takes about five to 10 minutes to learn anything in the laboratory, according to Dee, and once the basics are learned the possible outcomes are endless.

“The great thing about it is you can get ten 10-year olds in here, give them all the same project, give them very vague instructions and they’ll come out with 10 completely different projects,” Dee said. “And that’s what’s cool – you let the creativity take over and you don’t have any boundaries.”

The scope of odds and ends made in the lab is as vast as is the diversity of people who utilize the space.

Fab Lab is not just for children.

In fact, adults who come to the lab utilize the facilities to support their businesses and various craft projects. Lowell Winans is one older local gentleman who uses the laser engraver to cut ornate designs into fine cuts of walnut.

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“I was doing this woodworking stuff, and I was looking for a place to do my laser burnings, and I found out I could come over here and do this for $5 an hour,” Winans said as the fresh of scent of lightly burnt wood was still hovering in the air around the laser station.

People like Winans are who Fab Lab technician Samuel Cray most enjoys seeing come to the lab. Cray, who has worked in the Fab Lab for about a year, likes seeing the public utilize such a valuable resource.

“A lot of people don’t have access to this somewhat expensive equipment, nor would they ever have an opportunity to get close, let alone use it,” Cray said. “What I really love about the Fab Lab is its community access. Anyone can come in and use it, especially people who are really interested in knowing how to use the equipment and how it works.”

The LMC Fab Lab has also opened new avenues for campus groups.

Lilah Cray, the president of LMC’s cosplay club (and wife of Samuel Cray), was able to move the cosplay club as a result of the easy use of Fab Lab’s sewing department. The club originally met in the cafeteria, but the opening of the Fab Lab gave the 66 HORIZONS 2019 | Made in Michiana

group more room to work and more resources to work with.

“Moving here we got a lot more space, we have more supplies and we got three new sewing machines. It was amazing,” she said.

As an easily accessible, navigable and usable community resource, LMC’s Fab Lab has opened new creative doors for young and old, tech savvy and not so savvy and Lake Michigan College itself. It’s a new way for Michiana makers to conceptualize, craft and cut their ideas in a no judgment, no stress space with other creators and learners.

“It can be a think tank where you just conceptualize your project, or you may not even have a project yet,” Dee said. “But there’s also people in here that know exactly what they want to do. They go and do it and 20 minutes later they’re out the door.”

LMC Fab Lab is open to anyone from 4 to 8 p.m. Monday through Thursday. Lasers, lathes and other machines can be rented for halfhour minimums and pricing between $5 and $15. For more information about opportunities, registration and events, Fab Lab can be found at lakemichigancollege.edu/ community/fab-lab.

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CREATING A

voice

Niles man uses greeting cards to express himself STORY SARAH CULTON | PHOTOGRAPHY EMILY SOBECKI

N

iles native Ian Ernsperger has never been the best with words.

As an adult man living with autism, he has always had a different way of relating to the world than the average person, preferring visual mediums over verbal ones to express himself.

Ian, 29, has now turned his unique form of communication into a business. As the creative force behind Sour Patch Art, Ian designs greeting cards that are sold at various locations in Niles and southwest Michigan. Through his business, Ian can bring his inner thoughts to life — from a set of faces showing off his every possible emotion to a winter scene of moose and penguins skating together over an icy pond. Ian also enjoys artistic success outside of his business, as he has won competitions and been displayed at the Buchanan Art Center with his works.

“I like to draw,” he said. “I like to draw animals most.”

When he was first diagnosed with autism at the age of 3, Ian was mostly nonverbal, according to his mother, Carolyn. As he had difficulty communicating with others, his mother gave him paper and a pencil and told him to draw what he was thinking and feeling, as a way of expressing his wants and needs.

“If he was angry or upset at something because he didn’t talk too much, I would have him draw to kind of figure out what was causing that,” Carolyn said.

“That’s how it all started — along those lines.”

Ian said art is important to him, as it has helped him feel understood.

As Ian’s communication skills improved, drawing became more than just a means of communication.

Art became a way for him to relax and express himself.

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As he grew up, his love of art was fostered by his family and teachers. One of the first drawings Ian ever shared was on a teacher’s chalkboard at Brandywine Elementary School. After a field trip to the Potawatomi Zoo, he drew his two favorite animals — a lion and a flamingo — and impressed the teachers with the details in his images, according to his mother.

From there, he was given many opportunities to experiment with art in school, learning many mediums such as Papier-mâché, wire sculpture, scratch boards and painting. However, drawing always remained his favorite way of using art to express himself — and animals have always remained his favorite subject to draw.

Now, he never goes far without a pencil and paper, ready to draw whenever the mood strikes him.

On an unusually sunny day in December, Ian sat at a red and white desk in his room and demonstrated how his creative process works. Armed with little more than a stack of standard computer paper and a

mechanical pencil, he went to work, designing what might eventually become his next greeting card. Less than five minutes later, he held up the rough draft of his product, an image of his dog, Dempsey, wearing a Santa hat, smiling contentedly under a Christmas tree.

“He’s a Boxador,” Ian said of his dog as he proudly displayed the image. “Check it out.”

“He draws all the time,” Carolyn added. “It is what makes him happy. It’s part of who he is.”

Ian made his first greeting card in 2005, a line drawing of nine reindeer pulling Santa’s sleigh full of presents across the front of the card. His family chose to use the image as the family’s Christmas card that year, and when family and friends saw Ian’s name as the artist on the card, Carolyn said their phone started ringing off the hook and wanted to know if Ian would be designing next year’s card as well.

“People really responded well to [the cards],” Carolyn said.

From then on, Ian designed the family Christmas card, eventually expanding to other holidays such as Thanksgiving, Easter and Valentine’s Day. In the last two years, Ian began selling his cards at local businesses, increasing in popularity each season.

However, no matter how many cards he makes or sells, Ian said that first Christmas card remains his favorite because Rudolph is leading the sleigh “like a flashlight.”

Ian said he is happy knowing that he can put a smile on people’s faces when they use one of his cards. “[It feels] nice,” he said. “It’s the right thing, I guess.”

Going forward, Ian plans to continue to design and sell cards, and his mother hopes that he can one day turn the business into a full-time gig, while also staying local.

“He is really talented, and this is how he knows best how to communicate,” Carolyn said. “It’s great that he can share that.”

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HORIZONS 2019 | Made in Michiana

For joy and

legacy

Niles man practices coopering, blacksmithing STORY ADAM DROSCHA | PHOTOGRAPHY EMILY SOBECKI

Made in Michiana | HORIZONS 2019 71

F

red Rogers is not just a name that belongs to the friendly old guy on TV wearing a cardigan.

The Fred Rogers from Niles is a craftsman, a blacksmith, a musician and a local creative who is interested in the old way of making tools, household items, and knickknacks.

But he doesn’t do it for the money or the recognition. Fred makes things with his hands simply for the joy and the legacy of the task.

Fred and Diane Rogers’ home is filled with knickknacks, furniture, even instruments of Fred’s own design and making. The various items hanging from the walls and racks in the Rogers home are not only the testaments of Fred’s creativity and ability, but also to the festivals, events and memories from the Rogers’ travels and years together.

Right next to the front door of their humble home sits a table with several large, handcrafted utensils Fred forged in his own blacksmith shop.

Hanging in the living room are a couple of leather sporrans Fred made to wear with the rest of his Scottish garb. Piled by the sporrans is the latest collection of Fred’s buckets, butter churns, and piggins from his coopering hobby. Hanging on another wall is a photograph of Friends Good Will, a ship Fred and Diane crewed for a few years, during which time Fred forged hardware such as hinges for various parts of the ship. On a cabinet in the dining room is a collection of a couple dozen ornate pens Fred made for his personal use.

Throughout the house a visitor will notice an unusual number of gourds and items made from gourds. Fred has made everything from Native American flutes, to a dulcimer, to a set of bag pipes, and one resounding chime contraption with a long, skinny spring hanging from its bottom. In the back screen room are gourds drying out for later use.

Fred and Diane’s home is its own museum of crafts and ideas from Fred’s brain and hands. It’s a museum, not a shop, because Fred does not sell his items. Festivals, presentations and historic reenactments are all on Fred’s agenda, but setting up a table with

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price tags for his crafted items is not part of the deal.

“I haven’t sold anything. I’ve never tried,” Fred said. “I’ve never felt the need to make stuff for sale. I just like to make stuff.”

Fred is an oldtime artist because he does his crafts for the love of the crafts themselves, and also because he is a “method man.”

It’s not just the end product that interests Fred, but it’s the process, the learning and the time it takes to do the work.

“I’m more interested in the techniques and process of making these things,” Fred said.

Fred’s specialty is 17th, 18th and 19th Century blacksmithing, and his coopering method belongs to the same time period. Although none of the items made in his forge are made from real wrought iron, they have the black, rustic look of something dug up from a long forgotten pilgrim village.

Fred’s buckets, butter churns and piggins are like items found in a 19th Century general store. The best part is they are all useful.

“I was drawn to coopering because it was something different,” Fred said. “I have a knack for it, I enjoy the process and I end up with something incredibly functional.”

Behind the Rogers’ house is a large backyard. On the south end is a 10x10 foot shack where Fred does his personal blacksmithing and coopering. Naturally, the shed is partly of his own making.

But Fred can be seen at work and at play in other places in southwest Michigan as well, whether with the South Shore Concert Band clarinet section, playing bagpipes for a variety of community events or assistant teaching introductory classes at places like Tillers International in Scotts Michigan and Water Street Glassworks in Benton Harbor, the places that equipped Fred to pursue his blacksmithing and coopering interests.

Fred has gone on to share his skills with the next generation of south Michigan’s amateur blacksmiths, coopers, crafters, preservationists and do-it-yourselfers.

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HEATING MICHIANA

Round Oak Stoves a memento of Dowagiac STORY ADAM DROSCHA | PHOTOGRAPHY EMILY SOBECKI

I

n conversations about manufacturing in Michigan, a few names and products are likely to come up — Ford, Packard, General Motors, and really anything relating to automobiles from Detroit will likely be mentioned. But from the much smaller Michigan city of Dowagiac came an invention and brand that can still be found around the country.

Round Oak Stove Company, founded by Philo D. Beckwith, may be long out of operation, but its legacy is still strong in Michiana and its heavy iron creations still treasured finds for collectors.

Round Oak started as its own business entity in 1871. Founder P.D. Beckwith was a foundry man and machinist who was as eclectic as his various inventions and famous stoves.

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“Beckwith is a great character in southwest Michigan history. He was a great entrepreneur,” said Steve Arseneau, director of the Dowagiac Area History Museum. He was a guy who grew his business, but lived modestly and continued to invest his earnings into the company and Dowagiac.”

Beckwith had been experimenting with various stove designs for personal use in the 1860s, creating his first in 1865, and designing and manufacturing another in 1868 for the Michigan Central Railroad depot in Niles. His stove design was well liked for its efficiency of use, durability and reasonable price. Before long Round Oak was the most sought-after stove on the market.

Beckwith’s stoves started simply.

The first designs were simple and practical, not venturing far from the black iron mold. A few models in, however, Round Oak stoves became associated with a sleek, ornate look like that of a luxury car. Domes, doors and racks of nickel plating were added, which continue to make Round Oaks attractive finds for museums and collectors.

The well-priced, fashionable and efficient stoves made their way across the Midwest rapidly, and spread across the country and into Canada as a result. By the 1900s, Round Oak stoves had reached both coasts.

As the Round Oak Stove Company market expanded, so too did the amount of people the company employed. By the 1880s the company employed nearly 200 people, and the company came to employ more than 300 at its height. Round Oak was not only testament to the ingenuity of P.D. Beckwith, but to the scope of the industrial revolution in the 19th Century.

The decline of Round Oak Stove Company, however, was inevitable.

The company continued to grow into the 1920s until the Great Depression hit, the first major blow to the company. Round Oak encountered a few brief resurgences during WWII and with the production of newer designs of steel ranges, but the company could not keep up with new technologies and competitors.

Round Oak was sold to the KaiserFrazer Corporation in 1947, and its name and assets were eventually sold to Peerless Corporation of Indiana.

The last remnants of Round Oak went out in 1967, but the famous ornate wood burners of Beckwith’s original design had long been out of production.

In modern times, Round Oak stoves are collectors’ items and physical memories of a simpler time.

The classic designs with the cylinder body, nickel plating and famous DoeWah-Jack chief mascot are sought for historical museums, displays and exhibits, as well as collectors with

vintage tastes.

The Dowagiac Area History Museum has one of the largest collections of the stoves from its hometown industrial heyday, as well as dozens of pieces of Round Oak memorabilia and artifacts from the company and its statesman founder.

Round Oak’s history is the focal point of the museum’s ground floor, where visitors can see the progression of the stoves’ size, style and marketing.

Dowagiac natives still have family roots connected to the stove company.

According to Arseneau, Round Oak

Stove Company was once large enough to employ one out of every two men in Dowagiac.

“That’s part of the reason the name Round Oak still resonates with people today,” Arseneau said.

Dowagiac may never find itself again at the center of an economic boom or industrial revolution, but it will always have the credit of a sturdy iron stove that kept a growing country warm at the turn of the century, through two world wars and a Great Depression.

The automobile industry is a big claim to fame for Michigan, but Michiana’s

Made in Michiana | HORIZONS 2019 75

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THE SEASONED

ARTISAN

Niles man spends retirement hand-crafting knives, woodwork STORY ANGIE MARCINIAK | PHOTOGRAPHY EMILY SOBECKI

Made in Michiana | HORIZONS 2019 77

D

escending the stairs to the study in the lower level of artisan Terry Truesdell’s Niles home, visitors are charmed by warm wood-planked walls, an oversized dog named Dood and Truesdell, typically sitting in a cozy arm chair finishing off the last bit of his drink.

It’s the type of room that one might imagine a woodworker like Truesdell to have in his home, and this particular room is his own labor of love, as is the whole house.

Books and photographs line the sturdy walls and a desk sits patiently waiting for the next big idea or design to begin to take shape on its surface.

The now-retired artist has crafted a life for he and his family, through his many business ventures and hobbies alongside his wife, and partner, Judy.

Truesdell cannot remember a time he was not working with his hands – making something from sheets of plywood or blocks of wood. He fondly recalls the trinkets and toys he made with his first jigsaw – a gift he received when he was 5 or 6 years old.

His grandfather and great-grandfather were woodworkers themselves, his father a restorer of antique furniture. Today, Truesdell finds himself making the most of his retirement making one-of-a-kind knives, walking sticks and wooden spoons and paddles to sell through his business, the Seasoned Artisan.

Prior to retirement, Truesdell designed bookshelves and bookstore interiors. He and his wife owned and operated a 24,000-square-foot manufacturing facility in Niles where they built shelving and retail displays for magazines, books and music products for stores like Meijer, Walmart and Kroger.

Now, most days Truesdell can be found in his 240-square-foot workshop, just steps away from his home, near the banks of the St. Joseph River.

With everything within an arm’s reach, Truesdell finds solace among the walls of his tiny workshop.

“I am a lot more efficient and organized here in 240 square feet,” he said, reaching out with both hands stretching to almost reach the length of the room.

Another benefit of the small space is not having to take too many steps to get from one area of the shop to another, which is good for his retired lifestyle.

Though his passion for woodworking is not far from the forefront of his creative mind, Truesdell enjoys making knives, and has really fallen into a comfortable rhythm producing them.

“Since they are each handmade I don’t really want to get into a production situation,” he said.

One late November day, Truesdell had just finished one of the largest orders he

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FUN FACT Among the many people who have owned Terry Truesdell’s handmade knife sets is the late Roger Ebert, the famous movie critic. Truesdell and Ebert met in the 1980s at one of Truesdell’s former businesses in New Buffalo, and became fast friends.

When Ebert married his wife, Truesdell gifted the couple a set of handmade knives.

has ever accepted – for a man from Indiana who wanted three sets of steak knives for his children for a Christmas present. He can make a knife – start to finish – in about six hours, so the 18 knives kept him a bit busier than he usually prefers.

Each Seasoned Artisan creation is stamped with the TRUESDELL name with his greatgrandfather’s tool stamp. This Truesdell family prized possession has been leaving its mark on original creations since the late 1800s.

While all of the knives Truesdell creates are available for purchase, there is one other way to score a Seasoned Artisan original.

“We haven’t purchased a wedding gift in about 35 years,” Truesdell said. “Our signature gift is a set of knives.”

Among the lucky couples to receive a set of knives made by Truesdell was his good friend, the late Roger Ebert, when he married his wife Chaz, in 1992.

Truesdell and Ebert became good friends after meeting in New Buffalo – where Ebert spent summers and the Truesdells had a business they ran for a few years in the early 1980s, called Dockside Workshop.

Pointing to a sign with the same name hangs proudly in Truesdell’s small shop behind his home today, and there’s another story to go with that – explaining how he procured the beautiful stained glass sign for some work he had done for another artisan in New Buffalo.

Truesdell’s 70-plus years of life have been full of successful manufacturing businesses, artistic endeavors and family businesses — all right here in Michiana.

He has a story to go with every one of the milestones of his life, a storied life as much a treasure as one of his unique creations.

An avid reader and fisherman, when Truesdell is not working in his shop, he travels to one of a few favorite getaway destinations, with a book, a fishing pole and his trusty dog, Dood.

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BUILDING YOUR OWN

PATH

SMC Construction Trades program offers hands-on alternatives to students

S

STORY SARAH CULTON | PHOTOGRAPHY EMILY SOBECKI

outhwestern Michigan College’s Larry Wilson is a man with a vision.

As he showed off a small, unfinished modular-style building on the edge of the college’s campus, he saw past the barren walls and exposed insulation and wiring. Instead, he envisionerd a home.

“You’re now standing in the master bedroom, which just so happens to be the only bedroom,” he said as he moved through the 504 square-foot building. “This would be the living area.

That the bathroom, and shower would go right there.”

The space is smaller than a two-car garage, but that doesn’t stop Wilson, 66, of Niles, from seeing life in the area, complete with kitchen cabinets that do not yet exist in the building.

Having worked in the construction business for more than 40 years, Wilson has cultivated that vision over the course of decades. Now his mission is to pass on his vision to the next generation, which he is doing through a curriculum that includes letting students design and build the very building in which he is standing.

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“It’s amazing what you can fit inside a small space,” he said, a grin of pride creeping over his face. “And this was all designed by students.”

Wilson is the head of SMC’s Construction Trades Green Technology program, a two-year degree program designed to provide students with the theoretical and applied knowledge necessary to gain employment in the construction industry.

SMC offers both an associate in applied science and a certificate in Construction Trades Green Technology. With the program, SMC is one of only seven schools in the country to offer the Certified Green Professional exam.

For Wilson, the program offers students a different track from a traditional four-year degree and the chance to have a fulfilling, hands-on career.

“Everyone told their kids to be doctors and lawyers and CPAs and forgot that somebody needed to fix your toilets and build your houses,” Wilson said. “You can make some pretty good money fixing people’s toilets and houses. That’s why this is all worthwhile.”

“

Everyone told their kids to be doctors and lawyers and PAs and forgot that

somebody needed to fix your toilets and build your houses.”

—Larry Wilson

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THE CURRICULUM The program, which is focused on green building and making structures energy efficient, is built in three phases: the certificate phase, the associate degree phase and the bachelor’s degree phase, according to SMC recruitment materials.

In the first phase, which Wilson describes as “learning how the sticks go together,” is hands-on and will qualify students for jobs as general construction workers.

Students spend a year learning construction techniques, blueprint reading and construction math. From there, the students apply their skills in the community by building structures, such as the modular currently on SMC’s campus, for organizations such as Habitat for Humanity or the Boy Scouts of America.

“We try to do community-minded things,” Wilson said. “We don’t try to take jobs away from construction workers.”

The second phase of the program involves earning an associate’s degree in applied science through the Construction Trades Green Technology program, which will qualify students for jobs as contractors, safety inspectors or crew leaders.

During this phase, students learn the science behind construction techniques and the business aspects of construction.

The third phase of the program is optional and involves students transferring to Ferris State University or another four-year college for a bachelor of science in construction management, which will further prepare students for commercial work as superintendents, project managers and project engineers.

Over the more than a decade that the program has been running at SMC, more than 120 students have successfully graduated from the program, by Wilson’s estimate.

Though some would not think that a degree was necessary for construction work, Wilson said the SMC program allows students to hone their skills and qualifies them for advanced work.

“They aren’t just labor,” he said.

“They are capable of being job site crew leaders. One of my students came to me right before graduation with an offer letter from a construction company to be a project manager. The

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number on that page was bigger than my pay. … I’ve got graduates running multimillion-dollar projects right now.”

SUCCESS STORIES In the fall of 2016, Carlyn McClelland, 38, of Elkhart, was looking for a change.

A former probation officer, she said she knew that she could not see herself sitting behind a desk as part of her career any longer. She also happened to be living in a 100-year-old house that needed repairs, which is why when she learned of the construction program at SMC, she decided to give it a try.

“I went back to school as a mom just looking to learn how to fix her house, and they gave me dreams,” she said. “They turned what I thought was going to be a hobby into a career. It has really shaped me into the person that I am today.”

McClelland is just one of many success stories to have graduated from the SMC construction program — off the top of his head, Wilson can name nearly 10 that make more in a year than the average salary of a doctor or a lawyer.

McClelland graduated from the program in May 2018, and upon her graduation was working for the college.

She said she found the program helped her to discover her passion and calling, adding that she wished she had known about a similar program when she went to college for the first time in the early 2000s.

“I’m glad that there is so much emphasis being put on the skilled trades right now because that is where it needs to be,” she said. “This is a course of study that will pay students a living wage without sending them into a lifetime of debt to get there. These are life skills, and even if you are never going to into the industry, no one can ever take that away from you.”

Another student success story can be found in Victoria Knight, 23, of Niles.

She began her college journey at the University of Saint Francis, in Fort Wayne, Indiana, studying nursing.

After racking up a bill of $30,000, Knight returned home to decide what she wanted to do with her life. It was then when she stumbled upon the SMC program description online, and every class seemed like something she wanted to do.

“I wished I had been doing this all along,” she said. “There are endless opportunities.”

Now that Knight has graduated from the program, she is working on her bachelor’s degree at Ferris State University and is working on several projects including being Century 21 affiliated in real estate, working with Edwardsburgbased business Carmi Creations and working her own business, Resfeber Restorations.

Both Knight and McClelland said they were grateful to the SMC Construction Trades Green Technology program and to Wilson for mentoring them along the way.

“He’s teaching things in a different way,” McClelland said of Wilson. “When I went to Michigan State [University], I was just one face in a sea of 50,000 other graduate students. At SMC, my instructors knew who I was. They cared about my performance in the class, and they were really willing to talk to me about the things that made me who I was.” “[The program] prepared me for everything,” Knight added. “It’s not just the classes that I sat through, but the relationship Larry gained with his students. I know that even today, I could call him and he would help me. All the instructors are knowledgeable beyond belief, and it was very beneficial. They made it so that you really wanted to be there.”

THE LOVE OF TEACHING Seeing students like Knight and McClelland succeed is what makes Wilson’s job as a SMC instructor fulfilling.

“They get here that first Tuesday after Labor Day and some don’t even know where the on/off switch on a camera is,” he said. “They walk out of here the first Saturday in May two years later with a degree, and that’s just great to see.”

Going forward, Wilson said he expects to continue to see the Construction Trades Green Technology program grow, as more young students realize the opportunities to be had in the program and the money to be made in the construction industry.

Until then, Wilson said he would continue to do what he loves, teach and mentor students.

“My passion has always been construction, and I like to think that spills over to my students,” he said. “I’ve got 40 years of training and knowledge, and now, I get to give that to someone else.”

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FINDING AN EDGE Artist looking to change the look of the small-town art scene STORY SARAH CULTON | PHOTOGRAPHY EMILY SOBECKI

Made in Michiana | HORIZONS 2019 85

T

he image of Christina Casperson is not what most people would conjure up in their minds when they think “small town artist.”

With a worn leather jacket obscuring a skull-laden band tee underneath, the 31-year-old brunette’s style is less “small town charm” than “big city edge,” and she has her studio of work to prove it.

Among the self-completed artworks littering the walls of her garage apartment/studio, visitors will not see a single landscape of Lake Michigan.

Instead, they will see a mix of styles and mediums, from several metal-style album covers to a colorful, screaming self-portrait to a clown creepy enough to put Pennywise from “It” on edge.

“I can’t really describe my style,” Casperson said on a Friday afternoon inside her Niles apartment. “I like when I see that people stare for a really long time. Sometimes, people are lost for words. I think it brings out an emotion people can’t describe.”

Born in California and raised in Niles, Casperson has been invested in art for her entire career. She studied art at the Laguna Beach School of Art and Design and Western Michigan University before moving to Chicago for six years to practice her craft.

Known to always be up for a new challenge, Casperson said her most recent task has been to integrate her big-city style into the small-town art scene and encourage other young artists to pursue their craft.

“I’m hoping that I’m inspiring people with my art,” she said. “I want

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to connect with people through my art. That is my goal.”

Casperson cannot recall a time when she didn’t love art. For as long as she can remember, she has been experimenting with different styles and mediums, always becoming inspired as soon as the sun goes down to create for hours on end.

“I’ve always been creative with myself,” she said. “What I make is so hard to explain. It’s all about my mood and what I’m thinking about that day. … But I’m almost always working on something.”

While working in Chicago, Casperson created many album covers for underground and metal bands and formed her style in her personal art before she moved back to the Michiana area to be close to family. Though she said she learned a lot from her time in the city, she feels Niles is the right place to grow her art business.

“Maybe I was getting too old for Chicago or something,” Casperson said. “I wanted to settle down a bit. I feel like in Niles, and I’ve always told people, it is what you make it. I felt like there was a good opportunity for me here because it is not as fast as it is out there. I felt like I could do a little bit better out here.”

Since returning to Niles, Casperson said she has been integrating herself into the community, working as a forensic artist for the Niles Police Department and building up enough clients that she was recently able to take the jump into becoming a full-time freelance artist. Now, she is looking to become a member of the Downtown

Development Authority and to become more involved with other local artists. Though she initially feared that her art style would not be accepted, she said she has been surprised and inspired by the community.

“It’s kind of nice to do things here because you are helping your community,” Casperson said.

“In Chicago, you aren’t helping your community in the same way as if you are in a small town.

It makes me want to be more involved in the community. It makes me more driven to help people, with things like signs and designs.”

One example of this is when Casperson designed a beer logo for Baroda-based Round Barn Brewery in 2018. The logo, created for a barrel-aged Russian Stout beer called Catharsis, features a solid white figure with a wispy beard floating in a haze of bright blue and purple.

Now, Casperson said she is looking for more opportunities to use her art for the community.

Most recently, she said she plans to do some artwork inside of Niles’ Brass Eye. The challenges Casperson sets for herself extend beyond becoming a more involved community member. She is also working to expand her art into avenues outside of her comfort zone.

In 2018, she began offering pet portraits, which she said was a departure from her typical, outlandish style. The series, which has garnered a lot of attention and several commissions, was inspired by Casperson’s rescue Pomeranian, Boogie, a pitch-black ball of fluff that follows her everywhere.

“My whole thing with dog portraits is capturing the personality of the dog,” she said.

“That’s what is really important to me. I feel like photos don’t do pets justice. No matter what the color of the dog is, a picture can’t capture that. … I really liked the idea, and I’m glad that other people want it too.”

Her next project involves working with other artists to start a toy company that will create character pieces for tabletop games such as Dungeons and Dragons. Though the project is still in the planning stages, Casperson has big ideas for the company and is hoping to design different lines of figurines — including a punk girl line.

“I’m definitely excited about this business,” she said. “It’s still really new, but I think it has the potential to be something really cool.”

No matter where her career takes her — whether it is creating pet portraits, album covers or tabletop figurines — Casperson said she will always pursue art and hopes to influence and better the community through her art.

“My goal is to inspire people around town not to be afraid to express themselves,” she said. “I know growing up, I was always kind of afraid to put that out there. I hope kids are more comfortable with being themselves, rather than playing things down to make other people more comfortable. I would really want to inspire people to be the artist they want to be rather than the artist that they think is going to be accepted.”

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88 HORIZONS 2019 | Made in Michiana

SOLVING THE

PUZZLE Niles duo brings escape room business to Buchanan, South Bend STORY & PHOTOGRAPHY SARAH CULTON

S

itting in front of a monitor in a separate room, Niles resident Matt Herm watched as a group of people poured over documents and suspect lists strewn about a table. Two of the group broke away, searching through file cabinets, turning over coffee cups and flipping through newspaper clippings to help the group solve the case at hand.

Seeing the group struggling to find the answers, Herm typed a short message on his computer, which then showed up on a screen inside the other room.

“They just need a little clue,” Herm said, swiveling in his chair to face his cooperator Aaron Smith. “Now they can get a little closer to solving the next puzzle.”

The whole scene seemed like something out of a spy movie, which was by design. The group was working through an escape room themed around the story of a Cold War era spy.

“You really become one with the story,” Smith said, perched on a stool next to Herm. “It’s like a real-life game of Clue or something you would see out of a movie. It brings you into that environment.”

Herm, 29, and Smith, 28, both of Niles, are the business operators of Outsmart Escapes, an escape room business with locations in Buchanan, South Bend and Elkhart. The pair opened their first escape at Tippecanoe Place in South Bend in 2016.

At the time, the escape room was one of the first in the Michiana area and one of fewer than 500 in the country. Since then, the industry has boomed with escape rooms popping up everywhere, becoming a

favorite activity for people of all ages. Now faced with a successful, but uncertain industry, Smith and Herm said they are working hard to flex both their business muscles and their brains to come up with best puzzles and experiences they can to keep up with demand.

“It’s a new industry, so the learning curve is a lot higher than with other businesses,” Herm said.

“But we have been doing well.”

As both Herm and Smith have been involved with the Niles Scream Park, they began researching escape rooms first as a way to add a new attraction to the haunted park, according to Smith. However, once they looked into it, they thought there was a market for escape rooms year-round in the Michiana area. It was a gamble that paid off as all three of the Outsmart Escape locations have achieved success in a relatively short amount of time, they said.

Currently, Outsmart Escapes has six escape rooms at their three locations, each centered around a specific theme. Most recently, the pair opened a Titanic-themed room in South Bend and a jail-themed room in Buchanan.

The objective of an escape room is to solve a series of riddles and puzzles using physical, hidden clues. In the case of the Cold War spy room, clues and puzzles lurk in many places — underneath a coffee cup, behind a two-way mirror or hidden among a stack of papers.

“For the most part, we come up with a theme and develop all of our own [puzzles],” Smith said.

“We try to make it as immersive and authentic as possible.”

The immersive, authentic nature of the escape room experience can be attributed to the growth of

the escape room industry, according to both Herm and Smith.

“Spending time together is something of a novelty these days because everyone is kind of glued to their phones, and it’s hard to get people in the same room,” Herm said. “People used to have game nights, and this is a way for people do still do that even though no one does those kinds of things anymore. It is bringing back that kind experience for people to spend time together and accomplish something. This is both quality time and fun.”

However, even with all the growth of the industry, Outsmart Escapes’ future is still unknown, as Herm said that the business currently does not plan to expand further than it already has. He and Smith are taking a “wait and see” approach to the escape room industry, as the demand of the industry could change in a moment — from the technology to the puzzles themselves.

“It’s a fresh industry, and its evolving really, really quickly,” Herm said. “The industry is still figuring out what it wants, but I do think people want this immersive experience. I think we have done the right thing there.”

Despite being young business owners in a relatively new field, both Herm and Smith said they are excited for the future of Outsmart Escapes, and they hope Michiana residents will continue to want to solve their puzzles and follow them going forward.

“It’s exhilarating in a way,” Herm said. “Anytime you start something new, it kind of becomes your baby, and you want to see it succeed.”

“In this business, you certainly get to share your creativity with others,” Smith added. “You have a lot of fun, and that’s what we want to encourage for

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90 HORIZONS 2019 | Made in Michiana

Perfect harmony

Niles Area Community Orchestra offers free music for community, place for musicians to jam STORY & PHOTOGRAPHY KELSEY HAMMON

I

f not for the Niles Area Community Orchestra, Larry Lee’s cello might be locked inside a case gathering dust in the back of a closet.

Instead, on an average Sunday as the music swells from a basement practice room in New Apostolic Church, Lee, 82, is poised at his cello, alongside more than 30 other musicians from the community orchestra. For many musicians, like Lee, the band has provided a chance to reconnect with a passion for music and bring life to instruments that otherwise would be dormant blocks of wood and brass.

“This gives me a place to play,” Lee said.

The orchestra performs several free concerts a year for the Michiana community – the most popular being their Christmas concert at the Niles District Library that draws more than 200 people to the show. While concerts are free, those who come to listen are asked to bring food to donate to the Niles Salvation Army.

The orchestra performs songs across a variety of genres from the classical Christmastime melodies to Broadway and pop numbers.

At the head of the musical organization is Valerie Rumpf, of Granger, a longtime music lover, conductor of the group and Niles business owner. At each practice, Rumpf can be found guiding musicians through each note.

For Rumpf, music has long provided harmony in her life and she wanted to give that gift to others, too. Rumpf is one of the founding members of the orchestra, which got its start when congregants from New Apostolic Church gathered to play music. She credits her husband David, who also plays in the orchestra, for coming up with the idea to invite people from across the Michiana community to get involved.

“We wanted to keep it growing,” Rumpf said.

“It was really neat because it was something people wanted to be able to do. It’s been a joy.”

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92 HORIZONS 2019 | Made in Michiana

Musicians who take part in the orchestra also get to give back to the community on two levels: by providing free concerts and collecting food donations for a local pantry.

“It’s a win, win for everybody,” Rumpf said. “We are helping people in need and we offer enjoyment and music to others. Our following has grown so much.”

The orchestra sees a range of musicians of all ages and skill levels. The youngest musician is a 13-year-old who plays chimes. While a few other orchestras exist in the Michiana area, some require the musicians to try out.

Without the Niles Area Community Orchestra, Rumpf said some might not have a place to play.

“I think that if we did not have this going that not as many of them would be playing right now,” Rumpf said. “[For] a lot of them the last time they played [an instrument] was in school. When they heard about it, they wanted to get back into playing. Some learned how to play so they could be in the group.”

Lee is one example of someone who revived their musical talents to take part in the orchestra. While Lee played the piano as a child, he said he found his real passion for playing music later in life.

“When I was in school there was orchestra and band, but I did not have enough sense to join either one of them,” Lee said.

Lee discovered it is never too late to find the joy that comes with picking up an instrument. He was 55 when he first began taking cello lessons, after his father, Hugh, found the second-hand instrument in a thrift store for less than $5. He started taking music lessons with musician Carol Bullock from the South Bend Symphony Orchestra.

Lee has been part of the Niles Area Community Orchestra for many years and said the primary thing he gets out of the experience is lots of enjoyment.

“It’s fun to be together with other players,” Lee said.

“We enjoy each other and visit.”

For Rumpf, however, music has long been part of her life. Her father was a musician, playing trumpet for the Navy’s Honor Band. Rumpf first started performing music on the piano when she was 8 years old. She earned a bachelor’s degree and master’s degree in music from the Indiana University of South Bend.

When Rumpf started a family of her own, each of her five children learned to play an instrument. The family also formed their band and frequently jammed together.

“They do music. Their children are doing music. It is kind of a family thing,” Rumpf said.

Rumpf ’s children also play in the Niles Area Community Orchestra.

Rita Schenk, Rumpf ’s daughter, plays violin and viola in the orchestra and her son, Richard Rumpf, plays the cello. The family said music has helped to shape their lives.

“This is a dimension to life you can’t replace with anything else,” David said. “The musical experience is a totally different experience. A lot of people think, ‘I just don’t have any music in me,’ but that’s not true. There are few people that with guidance and training can’t do it.”

The orchestra is always seeking new members to be part of their organization. Those interested are invited to try out or merely attend a concert and listen to the Niles Area Community Orchestra play.

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100HORIZONS 2019 | Made in Michiana

Made in Michiana | HORIZONS 2019

HORIZONSindex APARTMENTS & REAL ESTATE Integrity Realty Debbie & Brian Floor..................................................21 Pawating Village…………………………………………...................…………..60 Ruoff Home Mortgage…………………..................………………….…………32

FOOD & ENTERTAINMENT The Boulevard Inn & Bistro……………………................…………………….39 Four Flags Area Apple Festival……………………………...............………..70 Wings Etc……………………………………....................……….………….…….35

AUTOMOTIVE Division Tire & Battery……………………………...................……………….…31 Jim D’s Body Shop…………………………....................………………………..70 Wesner Automotive…………………………...................…………………….…39

HOME IMPROVEMENT & AGRICULTURE Cass Outdoor Power……………………………….……….................…….…...67 Dowagiac Heating………………………………...........................................76 Flo N Grow……………………………………………………....................…….…43 Greenmark Equipment…………………………………………..................……90 Hale’s Hardware…………………………………............................................53 Hannapel Home Center……..……………………………..................………….43 Midwest Roofing……………………...…………………………...................……21 Williams A-1 Tree Service………………………………………….....................67

BUSINESS PROFESSIONALS & SERVICES Cut Above Wood Designs…………………………………..................………..76 East Main Gardens………………………………………….…...................…….90 Flowers by Anna…………………………………………………….....................90 Gateway Services……………………………………....…..............……...........90 Lyons Industries…………………………………………....................………….103 North American Forest Products…………………….…………….................31 Redbud Roots…………………………………………....................……………...43 COMMUNITY BUSINESS Berrien County Sheriff’s Department……………….............……..………...22 Buchanan Farmers’ Market……………………………………..................…..47 Cass District Library………………………………...………….....................….22 City of Dowagiac……………………………………………..................…………67 Fernwood Botanical Garden……………………...............…………………....67 Krasl Art Center……………………………………………….............................43 Niles District Library…………………………………………….................……..32 Niles-Buchanan Meals on Wheels…………………………...............……….39 Southwest Michigan Community Ambulance Service……..................60 United Way of Southwest Michigan……………………………..............….…3 Western Michigan University Fort St. Joseph…………………............…..35 YMCA of Southwest Michigan……………………………….........................90 EDUCATION Brandywine Community Schools…………………………................………..15 Cassopolis Public Schools…………………………………….................……..22 Dowagiac Union Schools…………………………………...................……….32 Edwardsburg Public Schools………………………………...............………..52 Indiana University South Bend…………………………………..............…...90 Lake Michigan College………………………………….................……………...4 Niles Community Schools……………………………………………..................2 FINANCIAL SERVICES 1st Source Bank……………………………………………………......................60 Dowagiac Area Federal Credit Union……………………..............………...47

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INSURANCE Cindy McCall Insurance Agency……………............................................31 Insurance Management Service…………………………………..............….35 Kemner Iott Benz………………………………………………..................……..90 Tom Rasler Insurance………………………………………...................……….47 MEDICAL Cass Family Clinic Network……………….................…………………………35 Dr. Beckermeyer, DDS……………………………………...................…………70 Great Lakes Eye Care……………………………………...................………….54 Niles Vision Clinic……………………………………....................……………….32 RETAIL & ANTIQUES Shelton’s Farm Market…………………...……..................……………………..21 Vite Greenhouses…………………………………….....……..................………90 Yarn on Front……………………………………………………….....................…47 Zick’s Specialty Meats………………………………………………...................60 SENIOR LIVING Berkshire of Niles & Four Flags Apartments..………………….............…..21 Brown Funeral Home……………………...................................................51 Cass County Council on Aging…………………………………................…...21 Halbritter Wickens Funeral Home……………………..............……………..70 Riveridge Rehabilitation & Healthcare………………………….............…..90 West Woods of Niles……………………………………………...................……76 UTILITIES Amerigas…………………………………………………….…....................………39 J&H Oil…………………………………………………….…………........................31 Midwest Energy & Communications……………………….…….................104 Niles Utlities…………………………………………………….......................……101

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104HORIZONS 2019 | Made in Michiana