The 2020 Dam to Dam ride took on a new format due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

However, that didn’t stop more than 225 riders from participating in a freestyle event this year.

The riders were encouraged to come to Wabash on their own timeframe to ride the route, and they did just that, according to Christine Flohr, executive director of Visit Wabash County.

“The riders were grateful that we still offered an option to participate and honor our 11th year,” she said. “The D2D committee painted the routes so visitors coming into town could still easily follow the routes.

Leigha Carey, Wabash native and 2014 Northfield High School graduate, has opened a new pet grooming business in Wabash called Waggin’ Tails Inn.

Leigha told The Paper of Wabash County that currently her business only offers grooming services, but soon will be expanding to offer boarding and daycare services as well.

Leigha is joined by her mother, Kim Carey, who is currently in training to become a groomer, after being in a corporate job for 12 years.

The newly renovated football field at Wabash High School’s Alumni Field was dedicated during a brief ceremony Thursday, Sept. 10.

Apache football coach Adam Handley and athletic director Floyd McWhirt cut the ribbon at the center of the field with the Wabash football team and other dignitaries looking on.

The field was the first of many construction projects taking place in Wabash City Schools to be finished. It includes field turf and a new scoreboard, and is available for both football and soccer games. Work is continuing on expanding the running track around the field.

“I spent a lot of time out here as they were building this, and I’ll give a shout out to the crew,” Mayor Scott Long said. “I’ve never seen a crew hustle as they did, sewing this field together.

Jones Loflin, professional speaker, author, and trainer will be coming to the Honeywell Center, virtually on Wednesday, Sept. 16, to stream two different interactive leadership seminars via Eagles Theatre studios.

Registration is open via honeywellcenter.org/jones-loflin. Each session is $50 per person with a $10 discount for groups of five or more. To register with the discount, call 260-653-1102.

Loflin, was a former middle and high school teacher. He made the switch to this line of work in 1994. Initially, Loflin started out as a generalist when it came to speaking, and as his career went on, he began to focus in on time management, productivity and work-life balance.

According to Loflin, the books he has written stem from personal experience.

“My books have usually grown out of wanting to grow and develop myself, and then I find something that works and I want to share that with other people. That has certainly been the case with ‘Juggling Elephants’ and ‘Always Growing.’”

When asked what made him decide to pursue this path of being a speaker and author, Loflin said that he asked himself how he wanted his future to look, and then took the needed steps to get there.

Many people and companies alike have been taking steps to be eco-friendly, which means “not harmful to the environment,” as well as implementing more natural ingredients and materials into homes and products.

Visible climate change and more accessible research that shows the harmful effects of many toxins and materials used in everyday life has caused the surge of efforts to “go green.”

In Wabash county, this can be seen in restaurants such as Modoc’s café serving their drinks in reusable cups, and providing paper straws instead of plastic ones, which are attributed to polluting our oceans and waterways and harming wildlife.

Environmentalists are being started out young here in Wabash as well as seen last year when a group of students at O.J. Neighbours Elementary School began collecting plastic caps in order to recycle them into a bench to be placed in front of the school. These students were passionate about preserving the earth and were already thinking of other ways to make changes in our community such as campaigning for more eco-friendly practices in schools and businesses throughout Wabash.

The Paper of Wabash County reached out to Anne Eddingfield, the teacher from O.J. Neighbours who led the group of kids making the above efforts. She told The Paper that many efforts that they planned on continuing have been halted due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Crow’s Nest Antique Mall located in Downtown Wabash is closing its doors after more than 10 years.

The store was opened on June 1, 2010 by co-owners and husband and wife Melanie and Tom Boyll.

Melanie is originally from Wabash while Tom hails from Peru. Both of them worked full time jobs, him at Chrysler and her at Ford Meter Box, they decided to give their dreams a shot.

“I’ve always wanted to do antiques and he always loved coins, so it was a good mix,” said Melanie.

Although they are sad to say goodbye to this chapter in their lives, they are excited to move onto retirement and to spend more time with their grandkids and also spend time traveling.

The north side of the 100 block of East Market Street in downtown Wabash will be getting a new look in the not-too-distant future.

The Wabash Historical Preservation Commission granted the Wabash County Business Alliance Foundation permission to raze seven of the nine homes between 104 and 192 E. Market St. to make room for new, high-end housing.

It also granted permission for the Foundation, an offshoot of Grow Wabash County, to raze the remaining two structures, if or when it gains ownership for those two sites.

Grow Wabash County President and CEO Keith Gillenwater explained to the commission the thinking behind the request.

Gillenwater, who began his current role in 2014, said one of the projects he zeroed in on was the end of East Market Street.

“One of the things that I identified as a weakness for our community was there hadn’t been anything that had really touched that East Market Street corridor at the end,” he said. “There were a lot of houses there that, for the most part, were rental units. Not all of them were occupied. Some were occupied, some were not. But all of them were in a state of disrepair and needed some work done to them.”

After months of anticipation, an iconic eating establishment opens its doors in North Manchester last week.

Penguin Point, already with a restaurant at State Roads 13 and 15 on the south side of Wabash, added a second restaurant in Wabash County with the opening of the North Manchester store Thursday, Sept. 4.

“We are excited to bring Penguin Point to North Manchester,” Penguin Point CEO Pat Hilton said. “There is a lot of opportunity to grow, not only in store count but in our guest service and the quality of our food. We are really looking forward to just improving our overall operations.”

Penguin Point is famous for its tenderloin sandwich, fried chicken, crinkle cut French fries and the double deck Big Wally sandwich, all of which are prominently featured on the North Manchester menu.