Middletown Magazine January 2023

ROAD TO THE OLYMPICS

SUSIE SHIELDS WHITE RECOUNTS SUCCESS & CHALLENGES

Writer / Julie Yates Photography Provided

Susie Shields White is busy living life to the fullest. She and her husband, Jim, enjoy hosting their adult children and grandchildren at their lake house in Michigan, where there is ample room for everyone. The entire family takes part in everything that living on water offers: beautiful views, sunsets, boating and especially swimming. Swimming has always been a huge part of White’s life. While her children were growing up, she drove endless hours to swim lessons, practices and swim meets, both school and club team sponsored. For many years, she taught and coached competitive swimming. However, one thing many people don’t know is that she is an Olympic medalist. White won the bronze medal in the 100-meter butterfly for the US Women’s Swim team at the 1968 Mexico City Summer Olympics.

A recent visit back to her hometown, Middletown, brought back memories of her competitive swimming days. While in the Louisville area she attended her Eastern

High School reunion and got together with old friends. A 1970 graduate, she was able to tour the school and view the athletic trophies. Inside one case is a proclamation stating her title as an All-American high school athlete. This honor is given annually to only the most outstanding athletes in participating sports. It was a bit of a revelation to her daughter, Jennifer, who was traveling with her.

“I hadn’t really told my kids about my swimming career. I had never gone to a high school reunion but had planned on going to the 50th. It got cancelled because of COVID, so the class decided to do a 52nd reunion. My brother, who was less than 15 months apart from me, died three years ago at age 66. I felt now is the time to go and my daughter urged me to do it. She wanted to have a mother-daughter road trip and to see the house I grew up in,” White says.

The 1968 Summer Olympics were notable for many different reasons. They were the first to be broadcast live and in color. The Mexico City location holds the record as

the Olympic site with the highest altitude in the history of the games. Accounts state that some crowds were not always polite to athletes from other countries and some participants took the opportunity to make political stands. But to then 16-year-old Susie Shields, it was the experience of a lifetime.

“There was a whole process to qualify to swim in the Olympics. In today’s world, I would have to pack up and train somewhere on either the East or West Coast, but I was at home. I did well at Nationals (1968; Lincoln, NE). I made the time cuts for the Olympic Trials which were held two weeks later (Aug. 24-28 in Los Angeles, CA.). If a swimmer placed among the top, they were on the Olympic Team. I placed second… I was only beat by about .001 of a second,” White says.

In 1968, there were six weeks between the Olympic Trials and the actual games. So, in the fall of her junior year of high school,

White came home after the trials and immediately headed off for US Olympic Swimming Team training camp. It was held at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs. The location was chosen for its altitude; it was hoped that it would get the athletes used to conditions in Mexico City.

“I had never been away from home for any long period of time- not even for camp. It was stressful and scary. We were all thrown

together with all these kids I didn’t know. Some of the kids knew each other because they had trained together at the same swim club. We were all different and I was a nobody. Everyone was talking about all their trips, and I had never gone out of the country. One of the girls was the legendary Deb Meyer, who set a record for the long distance 800-meter freestyle. Another record holder was Catie Ball, who was considered the best breaststroke swimmer

in the world. I was a sprinter… but even though we all were different, we all worked with the same coach and we had to get used to his style,” she says.

“I came home from training, packed up again and left for Mexico City where I spent two weeks plus some days. During the opening ceremonies, while in the parade, I was struck by how far down United States is in the alphabet. I was there for

the closing ceremonies, too. The Olympic Village was great for the time, but when I see on television and in pictures of what it looks like now, I feel things have really evolved. The village had different areas. There were female dorms and men’s dorms. The different countries ate together. I was so homesick. I told coach Sherm Chavoor, ‘I just want to go home!’ He told me he did too, but I couldn’t leave,” White says.

White still had to prove herself to get to the finals. First, she was required to swim a preliminary event in which 24 women competed. She was in the fifth heat where she placed first. Her performance qualified her to go on the semi-finals. From there, she made the cut to be one of the eight participants in the finals. Her time of 1:06.20 put her in third place and made her a bronze medalist.

The only disappointment was that her race was not televised. Her parents had come to Mexico City to watch her, but friends and

family had gathered in front of the television back home. The networked blacked out worldwide. The cause of the problem was never revealed.

White was 20 years old and in college during the next Olympics. She no longer competed, although she coached in the summers and taught swimming lessons throughout her time at the University of Louisville. When she graduated high school in the 1970s, there were no collegiate swimming program for women.

“When I first got back, I was all over the news. I would be out shopping with my mom, and I’d hear someone say, ‘Look!

There she is!’ The only swimming at the college level was synchronized swimming in Florida, which is very demanding and a whole different sport. I could have continued training on the East or West Coast, but I didn’t want to leave home and I just wanted to get on with life,” White says.

After graduating, White taught in inner city Louisville. She married her husband, Jim, and the two of them moved to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania for him to continue his education at Carnegie Mellon University. Together, they have lived in six states but traveled back home often. She taught 4 and 5 year old children for a total of 32 years. While raising her own children, she took time off and immersed herself in the demands of being a swim parent.

“I thoroughly enjoyed it all. For a family to do swim team and club swim, you must be all in. It’s a passion. We are water people! Some of my grandchildren are in competitive swimming now,” she says.

“Would I do it all over again? Yes! In today’s world I would probably have to leave home to train but back then, it was a wonderful time in my life. I was strong and athletic. I heard a young athlete say, ‘I hit my spunk at the right time!’ That’s how I felt. I did it and that’s it,” White says.

Roo’s Wish

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FOSTER CHILDREN WITH BELONGINGS, COMFORT AND OWNERSHIP

Writer / Julie Engelhardt Photography Provided

Charlene Shipley is a woman with big ambitions, and an even bigger heart. Shipley assists children in Louisville, and throughout the state, in many remarkable ways.

She is the head of the nonprofit organization called Roo’s Wish, which provides a myriad of supplies and services for foster children. The organization is named after her adopted daughter, Roo, who became a member of the Shipley family when she was a little girl.

Shipley and her husband, Jerry, have three older children who are in their teens and 20s. The thought of fostering or adopting never really crossed their minds until they

entered into a discussion with a friend one day.

“We play softball for Southeast Christian Church, and one of our teammates was as social worker,” Shipley says. “She began talking about foster care and the need for good homes, and we were like, ‘okay, we’ll do it!’ even after our friend said it’s a lot of work.”

Shipley’s first impression of caring for a foster child was to help them for a while, then maybe help the mom, and then return the foster child to their birth parents.

“I really didn’t understand how complicated

it could get,” she admits.

The Shipley’s first experience with fostering, in 2013, focused on caring for teenaged children, doing what is called therapeutic foster care, or taking in kids that the state cannot place.

“We didn’t enter into fostering with thoughts of trying to adopt,” Shipley says.

Then one day, the Shipleys received a call about the three-and-a-half-year-old child, Roo. The agency did not have specifics about Roo, but there were a few diagnoses they were considering, one of them being autism. She was also completely non-

verbal at the time. The Shipleys gave her a warm, nurturing home and they eventually adopted the little girl. Shipley says that Roo has flourished and over the years and is such an important, integral part of their family. Roo is now nine years old.

Shipley explained that parents must attend continuing education classes in order to keep up their status as a foster parent. It was during one of these sessions that Shipley came up with a brilliant idea to help foster children.

“We were going to our class one day and that’s when I saw a trash bag in the hallway of the building where our class was held, filled with a child’s belongings. I knew that the child was either relocating or just entering care,” she says. “I said to my husband, ‘this is kid is going through the worst thing in their life, and literally transporting his or her life in a trash bag.’” At this point I became overwhelmed by just thinking about what we can do to help

children in foster care.”

When Shipley saw the bag, she said it was like a lightbulb had gone off in her head.

“I can collect duffle bags; my friends can collect duffle bags and they’ll bring them to me!” she explained. “I was lying in bed at night, so overwhelmed by where to start, where to help, because I was seeing so many things that were wrong.”

The idea finally clicked in Shipley’s brain. Her idea was to make it a six-week project and collect 100 duffle bags. She wanted to donate them to Benchmark Family Services, the agency they’d worked with to foster their children.

“I went home and made a flyer and posted it on Facebook,” Shipley says. “Everybody responded. Everyone had duffle bags or luggage, and nobody knew that foster kids we just getting trash bags to transport their belongings. Some people were like, ‘I have luggage—what size do you want?’ We said we’ll take anything. We want to make sure that we have plenty of stock on hand.”

During those six weeks, Shipley said that they also accepted blankets because they wanted to give the children something they could call their own.

“When children transfer homes or are taken out of care, they come with the clothes on their back,” she says.

Although her goal was to collect 100 suitcases initially, the response was incredible. They ended up with 2,500 suitcases during those first six weeks. Shipley says that it was all due to the community stepping up and donating the luggage. They had pieces coming from all over the country. They’ve also had donations from California-based luggage company Biaggi Luggage, which has been featured on the television show “Shark Tank.” The luggage owner’s wife reached out to Shipley. Coincidentally, the company’s main warehouse is in Louisville.

At first, the Shipleys kept the luggage in their home, which was an amazing feat in and of itself. She said they had suitcases and duffle bags reaching from the floor to the

ceiling on both floors of their home. They were able to find a warehouse where they could keep their stock, but she explains that the luggage is in such demand that they are sending pieces out all the time, so there really isn’t any type of backlog these days.

Because of the outpouring of community involvement, Roo’s Wish has been able to do so much more for foster children and families beyond providing luggage and blankets.

One project involves remodeling foster visitation homes throughout the state.

“We started remodeling foster visitation rooms which are basically where the foster children spend time with their biological parents,” Shipley says. “These rooms didn’t offer a lot of ways to interact with the child. They were very run down.”

The first room they remodeled was in

Meade County, and to date, they’ve renovated 13 rooms.

Again, their ability to do projects such as this is because the community jumps in to help.

“Everything we do we post on social media, and somebody knows someone who can do something to help,” Shipley says. “We also do an Amazon link. Everything we need is on that Amazon page, and people can go on there, buy it, and ship it to us.”

That is how the room remodeling was made possible. People donated supplies, paint, toys—you name it. The physical work was done by Shipley, her husband, family members and friends.

Four years ago, Roo’s Wish began another project by collecting Christmas stockings and stuffing them with items and passing them out to foster agencies. Many of the

items are also provided through their Amazon account. Shipley says that finding enough items is a year-long project, beginning in January, when they can purchase discounted items after the holiday season. Last year they provided over 2,500 stockings that were filled with gifts.

They have also done motivational events at the Muhammad Ali center, featuring guest speakers who have all had a similar past as these foster children, giving them advice and hope, talking about how to never give up.

Roo’s Wish continues to grow thanks to the generosity of the communities they service, and their mission is to improve the journey of a foster child any way possible.

To find out more about Roo’s Wish and how you can participate, you can visit their website, roos-wish.com.

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BACK IN ACTION

POPULAR STATION LRS 102 REVIVED THROUGH STREAMING

Writer / Carrie Vittitoe Photography Provided

hands from one corporate outlet to another.

Changing ownership often meant that the radio music format would change. When it began playing soft rock, Coyle says there was an outcry among listeners, which resulted in it returning to its classic rock format. Some years later, Coyle says LRS was taken off and replaced by The Max 102. The resulting backlash from listeners after this change made executives bring back LRS on 105.1. It was at this point that Coyle came on board.

“I was part-time news and traffic for morning and afternoon drives for a while and then came on as fulltime promotions director and on-air personality. I was with them through 2008 when it went off the air,” Coyle says.

If you are of a certain age, you likely remember listening to the radio station for hours and hours at a time, just waiting for your favorite song to come on. As soon as you heard the first few notes of the beloved tune, you scrambled to hit the record button on your cassette player, which allowed you to listen to your favorite song whenever you wanted. There was no Spotify or iTunes or digital music; there was no such thing as music on demand.

It is entirely possible that LRS 102 FM was the station you listened to nonstop in order to hear those favorite songs. Although LRS left the FM airways in 2008, it came back a few years ago as a streaming radio station, offerings fans of The Walrus the opportunity to hear a lot of what made the station so popular.

“LRS was the first stand-alone FM radio station in the Louisville market, launched in 1964,” Jim Coyle, owner and on-air personality, says. Under the guidance of Clarence Henson, the station was used as the city’s radio school to teach people how to engineer FM radio, hence the name Louisville Radio School. Henson turned it over to his daughter, Lisa, who transformed LRS into the rock station people remember it as. The station continued to be privately owned into the 1990s. It was at that point that the station began changing

Coyle has always loved radio. He grew up in the Philadelphia/ South Jersey area and loved sports. “I used to listen to Philadelphia Phillies games when a gentleman by the name of Harry Kalas was the announcer,” he says. Rather than going to bed, Coyle would tune into games that were being broadcast from the West coast. He admired Kalas’ voice and his detailed descriptions of the plays and field. “At an early age, I was walking around with a tape recorder and a microphone, interviewing people at the house and trying to create my own radio shows,” Coyle says.

After getting into radio as a profession, Coyle realized that one of the best things about the job is connecting with listeners within the community, which is what promotions work is all about. Not only are promotions giving out t-shirts and concert tickets or creating fun contests for listeners, but it is about raising awareness or funds for important causes. One of Coyle’s favorite LRS community events that not only engaged listeners but had a greater purpose in the city was the Kentucky Special Olympics Polar Bear Plunge.

“You’re gathering people together, you’re helping bring awareness to a cause that needs attention and the funds that you’re raising are being used right here in the state,” he says. “Things like that have been very rewarding for me.”

Another event in LRS history that was both promotional and charitable was the Bridge the Gap campaign that would take place during the holidays to raise funds for local families in need. The call letters ‘LRS 102’ lit up the Big Four Bridge before it became a pedestrian paradise.

When LRS went off the FM dial in 2008, it wasn’t because ratings were low. “We had a good company that came in and purchased the property and was really restoring a lot of the individual power to the station instead of being heavy from the top down,” Coyle says. Unfortunately, the company investors were heavy in real estate and banking, so when the subprime market blew up and the recession occurred, LRS was one of the casualties.

Coyle remained in radio in various talk formats, but he was frequently recognized by the public as ‘Skinny J’ from LRS. People would frequently ask him if LRS was coming back. He felt certain that another station would acquire the rights to LRS because of its history and popularity, but when years went by without that happening, Coyle began looking into a rebirth of LRS by his own initiative. He quickly realized that a relaunch as an FM station was out of reach.

“I decided that digital streaming was a better financial and technical option,” he says.

Launching an FM station in Louisville would have been an extraordinarily expensive venture because it would involve rights to the station name and bandwidth and the value of the station’s sales and advertising. It would also involve the physical equipment: a tower, condensers, compressors and vehicles. However, for a few thousand dollars a year, as compared to millions, Coyle was able to make LRS a streaming station on Feb. 20., 2019.

LRS 102 is not a streaming service like Pandora or Spotify; listeners can’t create their own list of songs to stream. The new LRS has jockeys just like a traditional FM station that pull their own music and help break new bands onto the local scene.

“As long as you have a phone signal, you can get the station,” Coyle says. “There’s no static. You can listen all the way to Cincinnati, to Atlanta and even to Philly.”

In many ways, streaming has allowed LRS 102 to be a tighter, more efficient machine that can take advantage of press conferences and other pop-up events. “We are mobile. We can broadcast from just about anywhere with 10 minutes notice,” he says.

One of the best things about being a small, locally owned streaming station is that listeners get to hear a wider range of music than just what a corporate team thinks will be popular. Rather than playing the same songs over and over, jockeys at LRS can play B sides and deep cuts. “Our goal is to play a variety of rock music from the beginning of the station until now,” Coyle says.

More and more artists are releasing music directly from their websites and are very interested in partnering with small stations like LRS to get their music out to the public.

The team at LRS is chock full of radio veterans, including Chris McGill, Hippyhead, Leesa Mitchell and Nubbins. In addition to experience, they bring their own unique personalities and musical interests to listeners.

Being a small outfit also means that promotional partners don’t have to go through a lot of rigamarole to get an ad or promotion set up. There is no corporate office in another state that must be consulted. “I’m the owner, the morning show guy, the promotions guy. I can make those decisions one-on-one with a client,” Coyle says. “It makes us more accessible and easier to deal with.”

In addition to simply waking up every day and playing great music, Coyle loves the response from the public to the resurrection of LRS. “The reaction from people is absolutely amazing. It’s so exciting and gratifying. It reaffirms every day that what I’m doing is the right thing,” he says.

Listeners can find the jockeys not only broadcasting downtown at 816 East Broadway, but also hear them via their smartphones by downloading the LRS app. The station also has a Facebook page and website: LRS102.com.

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RememberingROSCOE GOOSE

Writer / Dave Matheis Photography Provided

The recent upset by Rich Strike in the 2022 Kentucky Derby brought renewed attention to the biggest long shot to ever win horse racing’s most famous race. Donerail won the Derby in 1913, and many locals know that the jockey aboard Donerail that day was a native of Louisville, Roscoe Goose. Few may know that his younger brother Carl was also a jockey. In fact, Carl won the Kentucky Oaks in the same month of May when Roscoe won the Derby, on a filly called Cream (the Oaks was run later in the month at that time). To avoid confusion with his brother, Carl rode under the name of Carl Ganz, a variation on the spelling of the family’s German surname before it was anglicized as Goose. Roscoe himself won

the Oaks in 1916 with Kathleen.

Roscoe and Carl were among the fourth generation of the Goose family to live in the Louisville area. William Ganz, later Goose, their great-grandfather, moved here from Pennsylvania around 1790. He thrived as a wheelwright, wagon maker and furniture maker. The Goose family became large landholders in eastern Jefferson County around Jeffersontown. One of William’s grandsons, Rufus, served with the Union Army during the Civil War. A wound he suffered during the war eventually caused him to go blind. He struggled with his disability to make it as a farmer and would eventually move into a veterans home,

leaving his wife Catherine to raise the family on her own. She moved the family into Louisville where they struggled to make ends meet.

After the brothers’ successes in 1913, they pooled their resources and bought a home for their mother, Catherine, on South 3rd Street near the track. Unfortunately, she died shortly afterward. Roscoe and his wife Fran would live in the house for the rest of their lives. The house still stands today.

In 1915 Carl was riding horses at Latonia Race Track in Northern Kentucky. One of his horses fell in a race. Carl fractured his skull in the fall. He died later that night

Roscoe with his winning horse Donerail

without regaining consciousness. He was 22. Jockeys were not required to wear helmets at the time and jockey safety was not a high priority. Roscoe retired as a jockey in 1918. According to Earl Ruby in his book “The Golden Goose,” Carl’s death played a large role in Roscoe’s decision to quit. Roscoe Goose went on to be a successful trainer, a bloodstock agent and a good investor. He became a wealthy man. After his brother’s death, Roscoe was a champion for improving jockey safety, including making helmets mandatory.

Roscoe became known for helping new jockeys get their start. During the Churchill racing meets, he often let jockeys stay in the third floor of his home. One of the jockeys he helped was Eddie Arcaro, perhaps the greatest rider in American racing history. Arcaro was 13 years old when he first met Roscoe, who connected him to a couple of reputable trainers. Arcaro writes the following in the forward of “The Golden Goose”: “Several years later I began coming

back to Kentucky around Derby time. Roscoe went out of his way to provide me with several good mounts. He even insisted that I stay at his big home. Later it became quite a ritual, going to Roscoe’s home for dinner after the Derby. Everybody came by. I mean everybody. He would have become a track legend and turf writers’ favorite if for no other reason than his affability, generosity, good humor and acute horse sense.”

Roscoe still has relatives in the area. One of them is Sallie Cheatham Smith. She is the daughter of his first cousin. Smith has extensively and passionately researched the Goose family history over the years. Now 84, she knew Roscoe personally. She first met him in 1957 at his induction into the Kentucky Sports Hall of Fame. He was one of the first 10 entrants into the Hall of Fame. After that, Smith had regular contact with him until his death.

Carl (Ganz) Goose

Roscoe began visiting Smith’s family farm in the late 1950s with Ruby, who was working on the book that would become “The Golden Goose.” The pair would talk to Howard Cheatham, Smith’s father,

and Goose relatives about the extensive history of the family in the area. Later, Roscoe would become a regular attendee at the Sunday family dinner prepared by Smith’s mother, Irene Goose Cheatham. Smith remembers watching out the window of her room as he drove up the long driveway in his oversized Cadillac, barely able to see over the dashboard. She worried about him driving off the high embankment on the side of the driveway.

When Roscoe found out that Smith’s family was selling the farm, he took a personal interest in where she, now a young adult, would be moving, and wanted to make sure it was suitable for her. He even did his own inspection of the house she was moving to and gave it his seal of approval. As a housewarming gift, he gave her a large

print of a painting of My Old Kentucky Home. The print still hangs in Smith’s home today. The art piece was given to Roscoe by its painter, Haddon Sundblom, best known for his work in advertising. Specifically, he created the famous image of Santa Claus that Coca-Cola began using in its advertising in 1931.

Smith, her husband and her two children visited Roscoe and Fran many times at his home on South 3rd Street. She remembers that he loved to garden and tended a beautiful flower garden in his backyard. He was also a cat lover, particularly of black ones. Her family went home with at least one kitten over the years. Roscoe and Fran would give Smith many small gifts. She remembers them as kind and generous people. Fran died in 1966. The couple had been married for more than 50 years. Roscoe died in 1971 at the age of 80.

There is another famous incident involving Roscoe Goose. In 1961 Jimmy Winkfield

was an invited guest at a banquet that took place a few days before that year’s running of the Kentucky Derby. Winkfield, an African American, rode two consecutive Kentucky Derby winners in 1901 and 1902. In fact, he was the last black jockey to win the race. Before 1900, black jockeys were commonplace in American horse racing. Early in the 20th century, they were forced out of the sport. Winkfield moved to Europe and became a very successful jockey and trainer there.

The 1961 banquet was in the thensegregated Brown Hotel. Winkfield and his daughter were prevented from coming in, despite the fact that he had been formally invited. He was eventually allowed in, but his daughter and he sat by themselves at a table, ignored by everyone - everyone except Roscoe Goose. Roscoe recognized him, an old friend from his early days in racing, and sat and talked with him for some time about their old racing times together. Winkfield’s daughter later publicly thanked him for his

graciousness.

It is somewhat ironic that Winkfield’s problems would be at the Brown Hotel. Roscoe was a good friend of the hotel’s owner, J. Graham Brown. According to Smith, Roscoe served as an occasional bloodstock agent for him, advising him on what horses to buy and not to buy.

Smith has a paper from the St. Louis Genealogical Society dated 1979. It purportedly traces Roscoe and Carl’s (and her) ancestry back to Malcom II, King of Scotland, and Ethelred, King of England. Both men ruled their respective kingdoms in the 11th century.

Royal blood or not, Roscoe was a loving and loved man who was generous with everyone. He will forever be remembered for pulling a whale of a surprise with a horse called Donerail in 1913.

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Roscoe Goose

Tips for New Year’s Resolutions

Writer / Stanley Hewson Photography Provided

It’s resolution time. It’s the time of year when we look to better ourselves. The attempt to better oneself is a worthwhile pursuit.

People make these attempts through myriad ways. One of those ways is the well-known New Year’s resolution. Is there something magical about making a decision to better yourself on January 1, compared to any other time of the year? Probably not, but the symbolism behind it may provide a little something extra to help you succeed with your goals.

Regardless of what your resolution may be for 2023, it’s important to realize that there are certain things you can do to increase the probability of success. Maybe your resolution is wanting to eat better, or maybe it is to exercise more often. Maybe it’s specific to relationships. Maybe you want to be a better friend or parent. Maybe you’d like to learn a new skill, or some other bit of knowledge that will help you live your life in a more productive and meaningful way. Maybe it’s just a resolution to spend your time more wisely by watching less TV, and to spend more time with friends, more time outdoors, more time reading, and more time doing things that aren’t just an attempt to numb and distract yourself.

SET REALISTIC GOALS.

Micro-goals that lead to your big goal. If your focus is on a goal that is too big, you’re more likely to give up. However, if you have a series of micro-goals leading up to a bigger goal, then your likelihood of persevering increases. You’ll eventually reach the big goal by focusing on all the small goals in between. Figure out what those stepping stones for your resolution are and focus on one at a time.

DEVELOP EXTERNAL ACCOUNTABILITY

through a friend or family member.

STRENGTHEN YOUR INTERNAL ACCOUNTABILITY, OR GRIT.

Grit is the biggest determining factor for whether you will succeed in your goals. Take steps to learn how to strengthen and develop grit.

BE HERE NOW.

Reside in the present more often. Stop dwelling on past failures. Stop obsessing over how far you have to go. Make a conscious effort every day to be in the present moment, and meditate daily on what your objective is for that specific day. Don’t lose sight of why you made the resolution to begin with.

STAY POSITIVE.

A negative mindset can derail even the most successful people. Be grateful for all the things you have, and for all the opportunities you have. Make the best of every situation as you move forward in the progress towards the achievement of your resolution.

BE ACTIVE, BOTH PHYSICALLY AND MENTALLY.

With more activity comes more focus and more energy. Move your body and engage your mind. In turn, you’ll be better equipped to reach your goals.

WHATEVER YOUR RESOLUTION MAY BE FOR THE COMING YEAR, HERE ARE A FEW SUGGESTIONS AND TIPS TO HELP YOU ACHIEVE THOSE GOALS:

FEEDING HOPE

LOUISVILLE LIFELINE CENTRE IS A CATALYST FOR CARE

Writer / Christy Heitger-Ewing Photography Provided

If the past couple of years have taught us anything, it’s that sometimes in life we are faced with situations that are beyond our control—pandemics, hurricanes, famines, job loss, political unrest and the list goes on. Lifeline Christian Mission, which has been around for 40+ years, knows this all too well. That’s why the mission is committed to packing nutritious meals and donating them to those in need, wherever that might be. Sometimes those meals are sent to locations in the United States and other times to countries such as Haiti and Kenya. These meals are a source of stability and sustenance for adults and children whose lives are in turmoil. In short, these meals spark hope for a better future.

As one mother in Grand-Goave, Haiti, says, “I want to thank the volunteers with

Lifeline. When I was so sick, this food helped me a lot. I had just given birth and I was not well. I became very ill…The food did so much for me. Without this food, I would still be sick.”

Keri Owens was introduced to Lifeline four years ago when she participated in a Lifeline meal pack where she helped package meals for Uganda in partnership with Life in Abundance. When Lifeline decided to open a Centre in Louisville, Owens joined the staff as the director. The Louisville Lifeline Centre officially opened in April 2021. Initially, Owens wondered what to anticipate in terms of community response, but she has been pleasantly surprised.

“What we discovered is that people want to serve, and they want to serve together,” Owens says, noting that the Centre seemed to open at just the right time in the sense that people had grown tired of being stuck

inside their homes for such a long stretch of time during the pandemic. “People want to have conversations with people across from them.”

At Lifeline Centre, volunteers pack three types of food in the meals: oatmeal, rice and beans and rice and dehydrated veggies. The oatmeal bag contains oatmeal, sugar, cinnamon and a vitamin powder that has 21 essential vitamins and minerals. They include a heaping scoop of soy protein because, pound for pound, soy has three times more protein than red meat.

Each container holds 20 pallets, which equates to roughly 286,000 meals. Each meal or bag has six servings. In third-world country standards, that feeds a family. There are 216 meals in one box. Each meal costs 25 cents; each box costs $54, which includes shipping.

“Through the generosity of local businesses who partner with the Centre, and participants funding the meals they pack, Lifeline is able to share nutritious meals locally and globally to help children and families who struggle with food insecurity,” Owens says.

Packaged meals are shipped in sea shipping containers on boats. Upon arrival, the container has to be cleared through customs before being loaded onto a truck. Once the meals arrive at the final destination, the meals are distributed based on the distribution plan determined by the local ministry.

It truly is the volunteers that keep the mission humming. Right now at the Louisville Lifeline Centre, there are five static days a week that volunteers pack: Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday mornings at 10 a.m. and Tuesday and Thursday evenings at 6 p.m. Other times are filled with what are called ‘private packs,’ which is where people book the Centre themselves, fully funding and packing the meals, then taking them to their mission partner.

“These are organizations who want to do team building or small groups who want to run a campaign and raise some funds to come in and pack meals together,” Owens says. “We then send the food to where the need is.”

All ages and abilities can serve. In fact, children have birthday parties at the Centre to raise funds for their birthday party meal pack.

“Those are my favorite,” she says. Kids (and adults) start a fundraising campaign, share

the URL with friends and family members, and people can donate to the party using that link. “We had one kid raise $800!”

The children come to the Lifeline Centre and pack the boxes they have funded, then enjoy their birthday cake.

“It’s exciting to see kids joyfully give their time and money to provide meals for hungry kids around the world!” Owens says. “It’s amazing to see these kids at their birthday parties get so excited to not get a present but instead to pack meals.”

Recently, the Centre had a nonprofit that works with autistic children come in to the mission to pack because they are always looking for opportunities to serve. The nonprofit plan to make it a regular occurrence because those who participated enjoyed it so much. Children get involved in other ways, too. For example, currently the Centre has an Eagle Scout doing a project with Lifeline.

“The Eagle Scout did the research to find out who would take the food. He’s almost like an intern,” Owens says.

The Centre also has something called the Feed the Funnel project in which people donate money towards the mission. Owens has seen boys and girls do campaigns where they take an empty food bag and fill it with coins. Other children bring in their piggy banks and dump their coins into the funnel.

Earlier this year, Lifeline hosted a youth serve day where youth came in and packed meals for area food pantries and shelters. Owens is hoping to do more private packs in 2023 because she feels that doing so brings the experience full circle for everyone involved.

“People have a bigger stake in what they’re doing during those private packs,” she says. “It’s not just coming in, packing meals and leaving.”

Joey & Larry Craig

Another goal for 2023 is to secure additional anchor partners as they are integral to keeping the wheels moving.

“These are people who want to have a stake here,” Owens says. “We pack for local and global needs. Food insecurity is a huge problem.”

According to Lifeline Centre, a child dies from hunger every 10 seconds. Additionally, nearly one in three people in the world did not have access to adequate food in 2020, which is an increase of almost 320 million people in a single year. But thanks to the scores of volunteers who contribute to Lifeline since 2007, the Centre has sent millions of meals to more than 30 countries, including the United States.

Not long ago, a gentleman stopped into the Louisville Lifeline Centre. He was so blown away by the mission of the nonprofit that he donated $10,000.

“He told us, ‘What you guys are doing here is amazing, and I want to be involved,’” Owens says.

Owens is eager to see what 2023 will bring. They hope to get mission trips started back up again, post-pandemic.

“At some point, people who pack meals here could actually go deliver the food,” Owens says.

“Hunger is rising. Poor nutrition is a serious problem in Haiti. In receiving nutritious food from Lifeline, people recognize it is a gift from God and a huge blessing,” Hugueneau Fontus, Lifeline Assistant Director, says.

Louisville Lifeline Centre is located at 3231 Ruckriegel Parkway, Suite 101, Louisville, KY 40299. For more information, call 502-2362084, email mealpack.louisville@lifeline. org or visit lifeline.org/louisville-centre.

TWO-MONTH RESOLUTIONS

Writer / Stanley Hewson Photography Provided

Every year brings new opportunity, and a symbolic fresh start to rethink how we live our lives. Of course, change can be made at any time for any reason, but we are creatures of habit and are part of a cultural collective. For this reason, most of us choose to see the start of a new year as the best (and perhaps only) moment each year to make some changes.

Resolutions are easy to come by, but not that easy to stick with. Again, that’s probably

because we are creatures of habit, and in order to change things up, we have to create new habits, which can be hard. The good news is that habits are usually formed after only about two months. So, psychologically it is probably much easier to commit to doing something for two months than it is to commit to doing something indefinitely. By the time those two months have passed, the new behavior will be more or less automatic and require much less effort than it did in those first two months.

So this year, make your resolutions only for two months. That’s all you really need.

RUMOR HAS IT

RUMORS RESTAURANT STILL GOING STRONG AFTER MORE THAN THREE DECADES

to Florida. Plus, Gus is from the west coast— Oregon and California area—so he wanted something that reminded him of his past.”

whole lot of fun. It was small initially, but as the restaurant’s popularity grew, so, too, did the offerings.

Writer / Christy Heitger-Ewing Photography Provided

They say food brings people together, and such was the case for Cheri and Arlen Gustafson as they met years ago when the pair both worked in the restaurant industry. Cheri, born in Louisville and raised in St. Matthews, began waiting tables and met Arlen (aka Gus) when she was 24 years old.

“We just clicked,” says Cher Gustafson.

After they married, they started devising a plan for opening a unique restaurant of their own—one that wasn’t a franchise. In trying to determine what kind of fare they wanted to serve, they decided to go with what they loved to eat.

“When we travel, we love oyster bars and boiled shrimp houses,” Gustafson says. “We go

In 1985, they found an old pizza place in Middletown, then gutted it so they could put their own stamp on it. They wanted to create a “getaway” restaurant with a beachy, vacation vibe—a place where when people stepped inside, they felt transported to a happy place. They installed wooden walls and floors and pastel colors that offered a Caribbean flare.

Cheri and Gus had a tough time coming up with a name for the establishment. Like selecting a baby name, one of them would throw out a suggestion and the other one would shoot it down. Back and forth it went. A couple of weeks before they opened, they still hadn’t landed on a name. When they chatted with different people in the community, they got a chuckle out of the speculation and wild stories people were circulating about what the building was becoming.

“We thought some of the rumors were funny, so we decided to call the place Rumors!” she says.

Creating the menu was much easier and a

“One of the things we hit out of the park from the start is our chicken wings,” she says. The item has been a mainstay on the menu since day one, and customers rave that the wings are some of the best they’ve ever tasted.

“We try to make it as true to a buffalo wing as possible, and we never have changed our recipe,” she says. That strategy clearly has worked as they were featured in the Buffalo Gazette the year they opened. The article said “This is the only place outside of Buffalo, New York, where you can get true buffalo wings.”

Being a seafood place, they of course sell fresh shrimp, steamed oysters and oysters on the half shell.

“We are one of the few restaurants that offers that and for good reason. It’s hard to do,” Gustafson says.

Peter Rastocny and his family have been loyal customers at Rumors for 20+ years. They love the family atmosphere, the

Owner Cheri Gustafson

fabulous food—especially the wings, soups, fish and fettucine alfredo—and the fact everyone knows them by name.

“I especially love their Manhattan clam chowder Very few places around here make it so when they do, they call my house to let me know it’s going to be on the menu that weekend,” says Rastocny.

Over the years, Rumors has added a salad section to the menu as well as sandwiches and more entrees. Now, their diverse menu includes more than 80 items. They also have children’s meals and a full bar so that everybody in a party can find something that meets their dietary needs.

“Middletown used to be a little country town, and now it’s a thriving metropolis,” Gustafson says. “We’ve grown with the community.”

Customers of all ages come to Rumors to celebrate milestones such as birthdays, anniversaries, high school proms and reunions.

“We are proud to have reached that type of status—to be that important in people’s lives,” Gustafson says. “I can’t be thankful enough.”

The restaurant itself has also evolved through the years. When it first opened, the outside had a little patio over on the side.

“There used to be a putt-putt golf course and we had little wooden tables over there, but we were so busy that after the first year, we turned it into a lounge,” Gustafson says. Now that that area acts as an additional dining room, the other side is used for a patio.

Through the years, other seafood places have come and gone but Rumors has stood the test of time. Things felt especially dicey in the spring of 2020 when COVID-19 first hit, throwing every business owner into a tizzy.

“Nobody was mentally or physically prepared to operate a restaurant during a global pandemic. What we endured

was tough,” Gustafson says. “After the initial shock, we just had to step back, say, ‘Okay, this is the hand we’ve been dealt,’ and figure it out. We had to adapt quickly.”

For instance, it had three days to transition from operating as a sit-down establishment to a carryout-only place.

“We got through Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday okay, but those days are nothing like the weekend,” she says. “There we were—a seafood restaurant on the first Friday in Lent. We got our butts handed to us on a platter, but after falling on your face, you figure out how to do it right.”

Though Rumors never planned to be a carry-out restaurant, it was forced to adapt during COVID and quickly organized an efficient carryout system.

While many restaurants have struggled to retain employees during the pandemic, Gustafson says that the majority of their

team has been with them for a long time. In fact, their manager only recently retired after 35 years at Rumors. A handful of other employees have also stuck with them since Rumors first opened its doors.

“I love our family of workers here,” she says. “We all work well together and get along like a family does. We argue, bicker, cuss each other out and hug each other.”

Gustafson feels fortunate to have been a restaurant who weathered the storm and came out the other side. That’s due to the steadfast support of the community. Customers would pull into the parking lot to pick up their takeout order and holler, “‘We want you all to be here when this is over!” The way they did that is by showing up—over and over and over again.

“I’m going to cry just thinking about it,” she says. “It was such an emotional time. We’d see the same customers over and over, and they’d take care of the help royally because

they knew everyone was struggling. The outpouring of this community to keep the local businesses going was unbelievable.”

It’s that hometown feel that Cheri and Gus appreciate so much, and why they never plan to budge.

“Everybody in Middletown knows everybody else. Many families have gone away and come back to raise their families here,” she says. “We’ve watched people come in here with their little kids. Now those kids are grown and are bringing their little kids! I can’t imagine picking a better place to put our restaurant. I’m glad we chose this location years ago. My husband and I could not be more thankful. This is what we were meant to do.”

Rumors Restaurant, open for lunch and dinner, is located at 12339 Shelbyville Rd., Louisville, KY 40243. For more information, call 502-245-0366 or visit www.rumorslouisville.com.

High Blood Pressure

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