Outdoor Living

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Goshen

Dam Pond

Dr. Carla Gull blogs at www.insideoutsidemichiana.com and podcasts as Loose Parts Nature Play. She is often seen with her four tag-along explorers in the greater Michiana area. As our thoughts turn toward gratitude in the month of November, I find nature is often on my list. At the beginning of the year, I wrote down three things daily for which I was grateful. Especially in this pandemic year, nature made my list. Here is a recap of my nature gratitude this year: • Daily, nearby nature is powerful! We watched the pond, noticed changes in the trees, and observed the birds during neighborhood walks or bike rides. • Nature allowed us social time—meeting friends at Wellfield, backyards, at the pond or beach, over fires, creek stomping, and for community star gazing. • Each season offers unique opportunities— we enjoyed the snow, maple sugaring, yard work, and frogs! • We enjoyed our woods in the backyard, pond out front, local nature spots, visiting Lake

Michigan beaches, and visited family on the

Big Island of Hawaii. After quarantine, snorkeling, star gazing on top of Mauna Kea, local foods, lava flow and steam vent visits, and hiking at state and national parks filled our interests. • Birding is fun with local bird walks and workshops! We saw long-eared owls near Middlebury with about 70 people trekking through the snow, brush, and bog to see them. • Weather, whether it be snow, a storm, watching the rain, sunshine, or just plain good weather, lifts my mood. • Live animals are always a hit—finding frogs and tadpoles, encountering turtles, visiting baby raccoons at my uncle’s house, going fishing, etc. • Getting out at night is a fun time to explore!

There is something magical about safe spaces in nature in the dark. • Simple things like yard work, building forts, or playing sardines in the woods are good for our family. • Cooking over a fire is tasty and bonding. • Seasonal foods are delicious—morels and black raspberries! Spending time with family while on the hunt is priceless. • Canoeing may be my new birthday tradition.

Love floating down the river!

East Park If you notice that East Park is being dug up, it’s not vandalism—it’s progress. The Landscape Committee and Middlebury Park Staff have created a vision to improve this park. Look for before and after pictures of this renovation in a future edition of inMiddlebury.

The lights on the tree in Memorial Park will be turned on for the first time Saturday, December 5, at 7 p.m. It will be a more subdued event this year due to the pandemic, but it’s still a great time to have a family picture taken by the tree as Christmas music plays in the backbround. There will be no craft this year, and no refreshments will be served, but you can bring your own thermos of hot cocoa and enjoy the ambiance of community fellowship. “Why is this log in the middle of my trail?” The park staff moved some logs in strategic areas in Riverbend Park along the trail going into the woods from the limestone trail. You may recall how the last two spring floods moved a lot of the limestone from the trail and carried it into the grass and the log exhibit area. These logs will act as water bars to slow and divert flood water to prevent this from happening again. Metal stakes will be placed into the ground to secure the logs in place and we will use some rock to help divert the water from undercutting the log. There is still plenty of room to walk around the logs and even take a bike or stroller through. This may be a temporary option, but if it works it could be permanent and we may even add some soil and plants to the tops of the concave sections of the logs.

New Trees! Fifty new trees will be planted in 2021 at no cost to our town through a grant from the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative and the St. Joseph River Basin Commission. A survey was conducted of our current tree canopy, and the town, park department, and tree board have been given a list of priority placement sies. Trees can increase a property’s value by 10 percent, and they help absorb rain water that would otherwise flow into the storm drains, carrying pollution into the Little Elkhart River and on downstream.

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When I first contacted Northridge Middle School to ask their principals to nominate a teacher or team of teachers for this month's Teacher Spotlight, I was blown away at their decision to bring attention and appreciation to their custodial and cafeteria staff. What a truly wonderful nomination! Knowing how much my own home and personal space sanitation has increased since last March, I can only imagine how difficult it must be for these staff members to do that for a much larger population with so many more square feet to cover. Things this year have been very different for the NMS custodial staff. They've been short staffed from the start and have had a difficult time finding any new help. They spend much time disinfecting (all day, every day). As well as double the lunch duty because they have the regular cafeteria being used along with the school's main gym. It's a lot of space to clean up. They have had to do so much furniture moving this year. They have moved every single piece of furniture in the building multiple times to meet the social distancing needs. It's an old building and often needs repairs, and they find it's very hard to find time for those repairs but they are doing their best to keep up with it. Building Manager Crystal Wolkins states, "There has been a ton of overtime and a bit of stress and this is overall very tiring. But we are doing it and we are grateful to be working with such a great staff. We do what we can to keep them and the students as safe as we can." Crystal also adds, "The staff here has been very willing to help with whatever we need. They have students cleaning their desks for us at the end of the day and many are having students empty their trash for us, too. Our principals are very supportive and often ask what they can do to make this job easier on us. We were recognized on custodial day this year and gifted with nice handwritten cards and treats. All of which was really appreciated." The NMS custodial staff would like to thank their maintenance guys, Cliff Wolf and AJ Phillips, for helping fix things when they are stumped. Also thanks to Desiree Blosser for coming to help whenever she can as well as principals Rachel Vallance, Scott Miller, and Dave Gaskill. Lastly, Anita Mounsithiraj for always making them feel very appreciated and needed.

Crystal Wolkins (Building Manager) Samantha Smith Charlotte Bontrager Mellody Wilson Denny Marsh Jason Ross Crystal Jones

This year has been VERY different in the kitchen. They have been short staffed since school started, which has made it even more difficult. There is extra cleaning and sanitizing daily. They must allow extra time for preparation and extra packaging. Cafeteria Manager Sherry Miller shares that, "Some days are worse than others. My staff does an amazing job doing all the extra things that have been asked of them. Everyone jumps in and makes sure it all gets done. Pretty sure I have the cleanest kitchen around because they all take pride in their cleaning. We do what we can to keep staff and students as safe as possible. COVID has caused us to make changes to our daily jobs, but also the waiver we received from the state that every student gets a free breakfast and lunch (if they choose) has increased breakfast and lunch participation. Our breakfast count has increased by doing five times as many as we were before, and our lunch is up about 150 more per day and continues to rise. That is a good thing! If I must say, we serve some pretty good meals!" Many thanks to our custodial and maintenance personnel as well. Things happen on the daily and they help us out a lot! I also feel blessed to have the best administrators – Rachel Vallance, Scott Miller, and David Gaskill – to listen to me and offer their encouragement daily. Other staff as well have been very kind, offering words of encouragement and thanking us for what we do. It means a lot!

Sherry Miller, Manager Tonia Amaya Roxie Barron Erica Beachy Tammie Brown Madisyn Crider Sonia Crider Cathy Heign Brandi Kretschmer Jessica Lawrence Eve Saldivar Amanda Zook

The original 2020 season was supposed to be Robert Frost's "The Road Not Taken."

Then COVID-19 happened – schools shut down, everyone went "virtual" and then for what felt like the end of a 2020 Marching Band Season ISSMA cancelled all competitive band events. That's when our stellar band director, Mr. Brad Zook, quickly came up with Plan B and creatively along with the support of our Superintendent Ms. Jane Allen, and Mr. Wood (principal), to be able to rewrite the show, and start over. What normally would take six months to write the show for each student and each section piece took a week. Needless to say, band students (and families) were ecstatic and so grateful!

Mr Zook rewrote the show into "The Road We Took" a montage of the past three years and a look back at the moments and memories for our Senior Band students. It included a mix of the melodies from the 2017 season: Metamorphosis, 2018 season: Pyramid Scheme, and the 2019 season: Puzzle Pieces. The Road We took to get to where we are today! In the wise words of Mr Zook at the beginning of the season: "The road bends, and the road turns, but to see what's next, you have to keep going!"

It was a wonderful opportunity for any student to still have the chance to participate in the band and most of the past students chose to continue on with their band family, their peers and their mentors. They practiced outside two afternoons a week after school, socially distanced, and followed recommended guidelines. All horned instruments, saxophone, trumpet, and trombones, had custom made bell covers to reduce droplets. Masks were utilized when social distancing couldn't be maintained.

Sadly, a few of our band "traditions" had been cut from the year because of COVID-19. We were able to make a few modifications to our plans and our community performance and still had a wonderful turnout of support and love from the families and members of the community. Still, the students were able to perform at four home football games at Northridge Stadium. September 11, September18 (also Band Senior Recognition Night), October 9, and our final game October 16.

The love, support, sense of family, determination, and teamwork these kids have demonstrated throughout the last four years, and specifically this year, saw them pulling together even more than we could have imagined to make the best of this situation. We are certainly proud of them, and unbelievably thankful for the hard work and support of Mr. Brad Zook (director), Mr. Bryce Cone (asst. director), Mr. Josh Flynn (percussion instructor), Ms. Kiersten Gannon (color guard).

Lastly, Breanna Hunt was this year's Drum Major. She is a senior and will be graduating in May 2021. She has been a low brass trombone player since 6th grade. She was a marching student her freshman and sophomore year, and stepped into the Drum Major leadership role her junior and senior year. She has been an amazing leader and role model to the band, and continues to lead by example and encourage them despite the setbacks this season. She is never one to give up, and although this hasn't been the senior year she imagined it would be, she hasn't let it slow her down.

Hunter Barth Breanna Hunt (Drum Major) Marcos Reyes

Isaac Bontrager Brenna Janowski Emily Schrock

Kelli Cameron Emily Kliewer Ben Seiltz Emmalee Decaire Savannah Lawrence Nicole Siler

Jessica Decaire Alyssa Lewan Alyssa Strahm

Brooke Fingerle Alden Maas Lizzie Turner Donovan Godman Nathan Mast Taryn Varner

Jackson Graber Katie Mathew Zuzalea Vilardo

Landon Heynis Liberty Meyer Madison Weldy

Breana Hill Gage Ornduff Christian Woolwine Kallista Hornacek Jacson Padgett Sara Worland