Empower Hour Lunch & Learn series planned

Grow Wabash County and Freedom Academy have partnered to launch the Empower Hour Lunch and Learn series featuring programming on various leadership topics.

The Empower Hour series will be facilitated by E. Jake Gamble.

Gamble is an executive coach, corporate trainer, leadership/performance advisor, and underdog advocate. His extensive list of customers includes universities, small businesses, and large scale corporations with annual budgets of $100 million or more.

“After listening to employers’ needs for practical, realworld leadership training for both new and experienced leaders and supervisors, Jake Gamble and I developed two leadership development programs to address the skill gaps and development needed,”

Anita Shepherd, director of operations and client services for Freedom Academy, said. “Making a Difference: Influential Leadership Development Series provides tools to help the influential leader grow as a leader, and our LeaderSHIFT: Empowering Your Team For Performance Development

Series, provides tools for the leader to empower their teams for better performance.”

The workshops will meet on the second Tuesday of every month between June 13 and October 10 (except for July 21) from 11:30 a.m. – 1 p.m. in the Grow Wabash County conference room, 214 South Wabash Street in Wabash.

The series will include workshops and engaging conversations on the following topics:

Keeping It Real (Transparency in Leadership)

How Effective Leaders Handle Criticism

Creating a ValueDriven Culture Giving and Receiving Feedback Resolving Conflict

“When we talk with our major employers and investors about talent development, their top requests are leadership and professional development,” Tenille Zartman, vice president of Grow

Wabash County, said. “We are excited to expanding our leadership development programming to serve more young professionals and emerging leaders in Wabash County with the help of the Freedom Academy team.”

Registration for this series is open. Admission for this workshop is $25 per session per person.

Registration can be done online at www.growwabashcounty.com/empow er1 or by contacting Grow Wabash County at marketing@growwabashcounty.com or by calling 260-563-5258.

Meeting planed for local caregivers

Officials from Babe of Wabash County and the Community Foundation would like to contact all home caregivers, nannies, and babysitters who provide childcare for young children or children not old enough to care for themselves.

12,000-plus Easter eggs to be hidden for First Friday hunt

First Friday-goers can attend a free, annual Easter Egg Hunt, provided by Bachelor Creek Church, with more than 12,000 eggs hidden throughout Paradise Spring Park starting promptly at 5 p.m.

Registration is required at a booth onsite and opens as early as 4:30 p.m. Eggs will be filled with candy and 50 eggs will contain a single prize ticket, which are eligible to redeem for a larger prize.

Paradise Spring Park is located at 351 W. Market St., Wabash, IN 46992.

For the duration of First Friday, attendees can visit a variety of Downtown Wabash businesses for the Bunny Hop Shop: a passport-style event for shopping, dining, creating and more. One participant, upon passport submission, will receive $20 in Downtown Dollars. Downtown Dollars are cash vouchers eligible to be spent at more than 30 businesses in Downtown Wabash. For every $1 spent at a locally owned, small business, 67¢ stays in the local economy.

Downtown Wabash First Fridays are made possible by generous Top Level Sponsors: Pettit Printing and Crossroads Bank; and Mid Level Sponsor: 95.9 KISS FM. April’s First Friday is sponsored by Bachelor Creek.

Childcare is hard to come by. The waiting list to get into preschools is long. While Wabash County has several wonderful certified preschool and daycare options, finding certified athome childcare is much more challenging. Babe and the Community Foundation are partnering to develop a solution.

On April 18, there will be a meeting at Babe of Wabash County at 6 p.m. for all homecare providers, nannies, and babysitters. Dinner will be provided. This meeting will give caregivers a chance to learn how they can improve their earning potential, get approved to accept state vouchers from lowincome families, maximize their voucher income, join a network of other childcare providers, learn about the possibility of a substitute pool to minimize disruptions in care, and earn credit for what they know and learn about children.

When a family cannot find quality child care, it affects the family, the employer, and ultimately the community. The Community Foundation has compiled a list of qualified childcare providers through a website called First Five Wabash County (firstfivewabashcou nty.org.) Right now, the website mainly lists preschools and daycares. We want to add qualified homecare providers to this pool and need your help.

Babe of Wabash officials are hosting a call-out to all at-home childcare providers, nannies, and babysitters. You are a champion for children and serve an essential role in our community! You make it possible for parents to go to work to support their families.

If you want to attend the meeting, please RSVP to katey.till@babeofw abashcounty.org, Julie@cfwabash.or g, or firstfive@cfwabash.org