Many brides and their loved ones from all over flocked to downtown Wabash on Sunday, May 16, for a Wedding Walk, hosted by Wed Wabash.

“The goal of this event is to bring awareness of Wabash as a wedding destination for not only weddings, but all things wedding related, like bridal parties, bachelorette parties, and everything,” Lisa Downs, owner of Ellen’s Bridal and Dress Boutique and founder of Wed Wabash told The Paper of Wabash County. 

Joshua Parker, a Huntington native who relocated to Wabash, is a lifelong musician and one of the newest on the music and entertainment scene in the county.

Parker is the owner of Unique Beatz, a broadcasting and media production company. Although the company has been around since 2003 as solely a DJ service, the brick and mortar building opened on March 27 and now offers more services and broadcasts two country music radio shows.

“I actually started Unique Beatz back in 2003 and it was just a DJ service, and we still are a DJ service but we added an online radio station along with it,” Parker told The Paper of Wabash County. “We play independent artists from all over the world. For instance, Whey Jennings, who is the grandson of Waylon Jennings, or T. Graham Brown, those are probably our two biggest artists that are on a mainstream level that we play as independent artists.”

Unique Beatz Radio is internet based, using a platform called Spreaker and made available on most streaming apps, allowing people from all over the world to listen. Parker is hoping to gain a more local audience, though.

Four local enterprises celebrated their grand openings in recent days.

Two of the enterprises are local businesses, while one is a non-profit and the fourth is a healthcare facility.

The two businesses, Poole’s Performance Market, 1315 Cass St., and JoJo’s OlFactory & Co., 36 W. Canal St., and the non-profit, Babe of Wabash County, 88 W. Hill St., had their ribbon cuttings on Friday, May 7, while the healthcare facility, Wellbrooke of Wabash’s Memory Care site, The Legacy Lane, had its ribbon cutting on Monday, May 9.

Abigail Poole and Taylor Poole cut the ribbon at Poole’s Performance Market.

Keith Gillenwater, President and CEO of Grow Wabash County, welcomed the business to Wabash.

Poole’s Performance Market, previously known in the past as Cathy’s Natural Market and INGUARD Health, is putting its own spin on the health food grocery store. In addition to keeping the daily lunch specials made popular by its predecessor, 

Poole’s has expanded its menu to include protein smoothies, acai bowls and protein cold brew.

The store also has plans to expand its produce section and implement a deli section featuring meats and cheeses from its sister store, Poole’s Meat Market.

NORTH MANCHESTER -- Manchester Jr.-Sr. High School business teacher Shelly Leifer received the surprise of her career Tuesday, May 4, when she was named the Indiana Small and Rural Association (ISRA) Teacher of the Year.

MJSHS Principal Jon Lippe organized a surprise pep-session for teachers during Teacher Appreciation Week, however, Leifer was the only teacher that had the spotlight.

“I’m a little overwhelmed right now,” Leifer said. “This is really an honor. You could have picked anybody in this school. I just love what I do.”

“(Shelly) is a woman of impeccable character and the type of role model that today’s students desperately need,” Lippe said in a letter of recommendation to the ISRA. “I believe that Shelly Leifer is very deserving of this honor.”

Leifer, a 1986 graduate of Manchester High School, didn’t begin her teaching career until 2012 where she taught at Northfield Jr.-Sr. High School for one year before going back to her alma mater and helping restart the business program.

The Wabash County Solid Waste Management District had its annual Spring Clean-up Tox Away Day on Saturday, May 8.

The event was for all Wabash County residents to safely dispose of toxic waste items. The items accepted at the event were electronics and electrical devices including televisions, Freon and non-Freon appliances, tires, home chemicals, paints, auto fluids, batteries, mercury and mercury containing devices, propane and other compressed air or gas tanks, and expired and/or unused medications and used needles.

Jen Rankin, Executive Director of Wabash County Solid Waste Management District, told The paper of Wabash County that this year’s event had seen roughly 200 cars pass through.

“We normally do 400 at an event like this, I do about 400 in four hours, but I’m having another one next week in Manchester, so I believe that the people from the north are probably going to go to that,” she said.

Tox Away Day has been happening since the early 2000s according to Rankin.  

“I know that we have done this event every year for at least the last 14 years, but I know we did it before that as special events.”

During the Tox Away Day, the most commonly dropped off items are chemicals and paints, although they receive large amounts of other things as well.

Members of the Wabash City School board met on Monday, May 3, to conduct business. During this meeting the board:

Approved the following teachers as IREAD3 summer school teachers at $30 per hour from 8:15 a.m. - 12:15 p.m. June 1 to 11, 2021 for a total of 36 hours: Heather Dutton, Sarah Kirkpatrick, Barb Morgan, Cassie Grove

Approved recommendation to hire Alex Parnin as an Aventura Summer Camp Coordinator at O.J.  Neighbours. Parnin will receive $3,000 to plan and implement camp May 28th (training day) and June 7 to 25.

Approved out of state field trips to Cedar Point on May 21, 2021 for Math and Science Day for WMS 7th grade science students and WHS dual credit calculus students.

Approved the following teachers to teach summer school for grades 7-12 at $30 an hour from 8-11 a.m. June 1 to 28: Jen Smith, James Burns, Erin Sapusek, Ben Backer

Officials at Manchester Jr. Sr. High School have announced Elijah Burlingame, Trescott Duffy and Gavin Mize as valedictorians and Torina Runkel as salutatorian, for the Class of 2021.  All four of these students showcase immense academic acumen coupled with extensive involvement in extracurricular activities and community organizations. 

Burlingame has maintained highest honor roll and Academic Excellence from 2013 to 2021. He has been a member of the National Honor Society for the past two years and is receiving an Academic Honors diploma.  His individual awards include four-time Squire Award winner and was a Rotary award winner. 

In community groups and organizations, he has been active at his church and in his youth group as well as FCA.
His extracurricular activities and athletic involvement include Varsity Wrestling for four years, where he was Academic All-State, All-Academic team, and two-time wrestling captain. He participated in soccer for two years and Science Olympiad for three years in high school.

After high school graduation, Burlingame plans to attend college to study chemical engineering. 

He is the son of Matt & Julie Burlingame and his grandparents are Jim & Connie Lennert and Dick & Jane Burlingame.

Duffy has earned Academic Excellence and highest honor roll during all four years of high school.  He is a member of the National Honor Society. He has been actively involved with the First Brethren Church.  He was also involved with team-based volunteer work and was a member of the Squires of the Round Table Wrestling Club.

The City of Wabash checked off another item on its to-do list for the creation of a housing project at the site of the former GDX plant.

The Wabash City Council, during its meeting on Monday, April 26, passed a resolution requesting the city’s Plan Commission to consider changing the zoning of the Stitt Street site. The commission was expected to consider the matter when it meets May 5.

The city is requesting the commission change the site from its current Light Industrial zoning to a Residential 4 (R-4) zoning to allow for both single family and multi-family housing units.