Wabash City Schools Superintendent Jason Callahan was named the Indiana Association of Public School Superintendents (IAPSS) Superintendent of the Year for District III.

Callahan is serving his 9th year as superintendent of the Wabash City Schools’ district.

“I am very humbled by the recognition,” said Callahan.

“I believe the award is truly an acknowledgement of our students and our staff who work hard at our district vision of building a legacy of opportunity for all.  Our district work to increase the educational attainment of this community through the expansion of both our early childhood education programming and our early college programming has developed a regional and state reputation as being a premiere educational system in the State of Indiana.  Earning this award demonstrates this growing awareness.”

The City of Wabash has made great strides in recent years, and state officials are taking notice.

On Thursday, Sept. 12, Lt. Gov. Suzanne Crouch and the Indiana Office of Community and Rural Affairs have named Wabash, along with the City of Rushville, as mentors to the Town of Edinburgh in the newly launched Peer program.

The goal of the program is for local leadership to gather best practices and the necessary tools to advance an innovative vision through in-person assessments, stakeholder conversations and peer advisement.

Exactly how that is accomplished remains to be seen.

Mayor Scott Long told The Paper of Wabash County that he believes the mentorship program will involve visits to the three communities by various stakeholders of each municipality.

“First and foremost what I want to do is figure out what exactly that community is looking for?” he said. “What do they want to single out or be the first project that maybe what they want to work on. That would determine who I would include on my team.”

Northfield Jr. Sr. High School students flooded the gymnasium with a sense of excitement on Wednesday, Sept. 11.

Music was blaring, the main lights were off and concert lights were illuminating the room.

To someone just walking by, it looked like a rave was about to take place, but the purpose of this convocation was much more serious than fun music and lights.

The Get Schooled Tour was visiting to talk to the students about mental health in efforts to reduce the stigma around the sensitive topic.

As students entered the gym, they were told to connect with a polling system on their phones so they could participate in answering questions that would be asked throughout the presentation.

Right inside the main entrance of the Wabash YMCA, stair climbers were set up for people to participate in the 9/11 Stair Climb Challenge.

Since the tragic happenings of Sept. 11, 2001, firefighters and regular citizens have been climbing the equivalent of the 110 stories of the World Trade Center in remembrance and honor of the firefighters who lost their lives heroically saving others from the buildings.

Many people wear full firefighter gear as they climb, while others simply climb to ensure that the 343 fire fighters who sacrificed their lives are never forgotten.

Former firefighter, Dick White, for example, said he was unable to climb the full 110 stories, but still climbed as much as he could to honor his fallen brothers.

A 10-year tax abatement for M&R Brothers LLC was approved Monday, Sept. 9, by the Wabash City Council.

The firm, which does business as Wendt & Son, sought the abatement for a new building that it is constructing.

Prior to the vote, the council had a public hearing on the matter. The hearing was needed, according to Wendt attorney Doug Lehman, because abatements are generally sought before a project is started.

“The whole idea is giving tax abatement will give incentives to somebody for doing something they might otherwise not do,” he said. “So, if you’ve already done it, there’s no point in giving you an incentive to do it.”

However, Indiana statute recognizes that there are some occasions that might be appropriate to waive that “technicality,” he said. If a council opts to waive that requirement, a hearing is needed.

Early in the morning on Friday, Sept. 6, volunteers from the Wabash River Defenders were busy preparing for two buses full of over 100 Wabash Middle School seventh graders to arrive for an educational river float beginning at the Lagro Bridge.

Mike Beauchamp, president of the Wabash River Defenders was there when the idea of the Defenders was born.

“In the little Lagro café, 10 years ago this spring,” Beauchamp told The Paper of Wabash County about when it all started.

“We didn’t know each other, but there were four or five of us that were real river rats, and we got to talking over coffee and we said ‘This river is the greatest thing and we need to give some help to this river and clean it up. We thought, with the five of us, we might get our friends involved and get 25 people and start to work on this river. By July 2019, we had 400 people in this river from Huntington County to Miami County.”

The River Defenders continue to grow and do good for the Wabash River.

“We have taken 130 tons of debris out of that river, including over five thousand tires,” said Beauchamp.

With all of the success of this team, the River Defenders continue to widen the scope of their services.

Indiana has launched a $2.1 million campaign to help educate you people about the dangers of vaping and to encourage them to stop.

Gov. Eric Holcomb and State Health Commissioner Dr. Kris Box unveiled the campaign on Thursday, Aug. 29.

The efforts have been named “What’s Beyond the Haze” and involves social media, text and school-based measures to spread the word.

“Part of it is just the awareness that what we are peddling and what we are sharing and getting people addicted to is so harmful so this is a full court press and it starts today,” Holcomb said in announcing the campaign. “We know we have our work cut out for us as vaping continues to grow. This will be a real blitz, making sure we’re reaching out to every corner of the state.”

The campaign comes at a time when some 200 people nationwide have been hit by a vaping-related illness. In Indiana, 24 people between 16 and 29 years have taken ill, including four under 18.

Midwest Eye Consultants of Wabash did a Teacher appreciation giveaway leading up to the 2019-20 school year.

Once the giveaway was announced, the public was invited to submit teachers who they thought deserved to be a recipient of the giveaway. Winners received a $100 gift card to help purchase classroom supplies.

“We do an annual Back to School giveaway. However, in the past, it was focused more at giving school supplies to students. We’ve found that there are many wonderful community resources for this already, so we wanted to shift our focus and give back to the teachers who put so much time, effort and resources into children,” said Marketing Manager Kara Teel.

There were 65 nominations in total ranging from all over Indiana to northwest Ohio.