Backbone: Sheri Howland and Carmen Carpenter By Chris Wheeler

Written by Chris Wheeler Photos by Linnea Wheeler

In 2016, Sheri Howland had just completed 16 years of work with the community of Goshen in their parks department, capping off many more years serving the city of Mishawaka in similar roles. She was planning her retirement when she received a call from her friend Mary Cripe (Middlebury’s town manager) with an offer she couldn’t refuse: join the team in Middlebury at the Chamber of Commerce. Two years later, Carmen Carpenter, who had worked with Sheri in Mishawaka for over 20 years, followed her to Middlebury as community outreach coordinator.

Since then, Sheri and Carmen have become mainstays of the Middlebury community, fostering partnerships, supporting new and longstanding businesses, acting as community liaisons, and serving visitors and residents in any way they can. Sheri says, “I love the challenge of making things better, of serving people and seeing a community be so vibrant. That’s what Middlebury is all about and why I love it. That’s why I’ve been in Elkhart County all this time. This is where my heart is.”

Sheri’s record of accomplishment in Elkhart County includes obtaining grants from the DNR and benefactors to purchase and develop Fidler Pond and the Larry Beachy Classified Forest for Goshen. She was involved with prevention programs for youth and Vibrant Communities, the Elkhart Convention Visitors Center, and the Elkhart Community Foundation. Carmen started working at an in-school suspension program at John Young Middle School before joining Sheri in Mishawaka. “I loved it. I like it when I can make a connection to anyone who needs someone to reach out to them.”

Both women still live in Mishawaka, close to their parents, children, and grandchildren. Sheri has three daughters, two with teaching degrees and one with a career in parks. She says, “My family has always been involved in my career, volunteering for various events, assisting with fundraising, or just supporting their mom. When long hours are necessary, a supportive family is of great help!” When not in Middlebury, she enjoys spending time a few blocks from her home in Mishawaka with her six grandchildren, who range from 5 to 25 years old. Carmen’s six kids are sprinkled everywhere, including Arizona and Ohio, but concentrated in Mishawaka. She has seven grandkids ranging from 6 months to 18 years old.

In Middlebury, Sheri and Carmen have been instrumental in many community initiatives. They helped launch the Middlebury Arts Council and connected the artists of Middlebury to the Boys and Girls Club to run their art program. They mobilized around 100 volunteers and multiple committees to formulate the Middlebury 2030 Comprehensive Plan. They also partner with American Express to promote Shop Small, bringing attention to the vital role that small businesses play in communities.

Every year, Sheri and Carmen organize the Middlebury Fall Festival (made possible through Chamber member sponsorships), the Middlebury Chamber Golf Classic (which hosts 25-30 teams each year), and the annual membership dinner/ business expo held at the high school. Every year, they prepare around 45-50 teacher appreciation bags for new teachers and supporting staff, stuffing them with ample school supplies and donated goodies sponsored by local businesses. Their board members and volunteers help with everything.

One of their favorite events is the annual Flamingo Flocking, when businesses and individuals make a donation to support small businesses in Middlebury in exchange for a yard flamingo, decorate it, then send it flocking back to the Chamber. This year, flamingos go on sale on October 1, and gift cards are awarded to the most creatively-decorated. “People are very creative, and everything goes back into the small businesses.” The only problem they’ve encountered so far, according to Carmen, is chasing down flamingos all over town because they didn’t flock back fast enough.

During COVID, chamber staff connected businesses with the Payroll Protection Program (PPP), utility grants, solar opportunities, and recovery grants. Members of the Chamber of Commerce receive free marketing and resources to better their business and get involved in community causes vital to their business and the community. All this, and their dues are 97% deductible!

As a community with just over 3,500 residents, Middlebury is host to between 12,000 and 15,000 people every day. Sheri points out, “Middlebury out-manufactures other cities and towns that are triple our size or even more. Now you know where our traffic comes from!” The Chamber is also Middlebury’s Visitor Center, and before COVID hosting several people daily. Visitors travel quite a ways to come to Middlebury; from all over the United States and as far away as Switzerland, Italy, France, and Australia.

The Chamber of Commerce connects prospective businesses with support and guidance through organizations like the SCORE Association, and meets monthly with representatives from other towns in the Northern Indiana Chamber Coalition to share ideas and celebrate their communities. Sheri is most proud of the partnerships they’ve developed with the school, the town itself, the township officials, and the board of directors. “We have a strong environment in which to get things accomplished. We’ve really worked at that and it’s been very successful!”

Beyond this, Sheri and Carmen make the conference area in their 201 S. Main Street location (which they share with three small businesses) available for any of their members to use. Carmen focuses on special events, networking, and social media marketing. Once a month on Tuesdays, she runs Chamber Chats, an event that is open to anyone who likes coffee, pastries, and chatting. Many people, both out-of-town visitors and pillars of the community, join her for these. “You learn so much from them! We always do something to brighten their day. It’s so important that everyone feels informed and comfortable enough to come here and have a cup of coffee any time of day.”

Sheri and Carmen have had their share of challenges since joining the Chamber of Commerce, the primary one being the learning curve of entering into a new community from outside. Thankfully, Middlebury has supported them along the way. Carmen says, “There’s not a lot of jobs where you can say that the folks that you work for really appreciate you… we have really good people here in this community.” Sheri adds, “They’re always willing to step up and help!”

The Vibrant Communities initiative that Sheri has been a part of for so long is designed to strengthen Elkhart County’s communities. It is guided by three core beliefs: that economic growth depends on “quality of place,” that successful places clearly understand who they are and what they offer, and that creativity and collaboration are key to shaping our future. Sheri and Carmen exemplify these ideals in their ongoing work to build up Middlebury. Sheri says, “I think when you do anything with spirit and heart and you recognize other people’s talents, you better your life and their lives. That’s why I do it.”

The RV Hall of Fame is a museum located in Elkhart, Indiana commemorating the birth of the RV industry. According to the RV/MH Hall of Fame website, “It is a place to recognize, preserve, and honor the history, pioneers, and individuals who have been instrumental in making the RV (recreational vehicle) and MH (manufactured housing) industries what they are today.”

You can find the RV/MH Hall of Fame and the Northern Indiana Event Center in Elkhart, Indiana, at 21565 Executive Parkway. Elkhart County produces over 80% of RVs manufactured in the U.S.

The RV/MH Hall of Fame Museum offers 100,000 square feet of history, education, and fun. It has plenty of space for parking available to cars and RVs of all sizes. You can visit this place to go back in RV history.

The museum provides a walk through time with its extensive collection of RVs dating back to the 1900s, including its oldest exhibit, the 1913 Earl Travel Trailer. You can also view Mae West’s original 1931 Chevrolet House car.

As you stroll down the road, you’ll come across tent trailers and motorhomes from the ’30s, popup campers from the ’50s, truck campers from the ’60s, and more. You can explore over 50 vintage campers on display here, many of them made for you to step inside.

You’ll also see the beginnings of some of the biggest RV brands you’ll still see today.

In the Exhibitors Hall, you’ll find history and facts from the manufacturers and service provid-

1937 Hunt housecar, one of several very unique early housecars built by Hollywood cinematographer Roy Hunt between 1935 and 1945.

On permanent display courtesy of Wade Thompson, Thor Industries. Believed to be the oldest non-tent travel trailer in existence. Custom built for a Cal Tech professor. ers. Many names have helped create the RV/MH industry that we know today, including Onan, Dometic, and Kampgrounds of America (KOA).

Finish your visit in the Go RVing Hall. Here, you’ll find access to new RVs to compare to the vintage ones throughout the museum. Through this exhibit, you may gain a new understanding of RV travel and its advantages. The RV industry continues to change, and you can come along for the ride.

RV Collection Gift of Bobby White of Pulaski TN.Early home made American housecar on Model AA Ford chassis.

Owned by Mae West Built for Paramount Studios to present to Miss West when she left vaudeville to make movies for the studio in 1931 It is a chauffer driven lounge car not a camper.

1954 YELLOWSTONE – 18 foot travel trailer RV Collection Gift of RV Dealers nation wide through CIT incentive programOne of the relatively high-line models built by Yellowstone founder Elmer Weaver in the late 40s and early 50s. Bright aluminum exterior and all birch interior with residential type appliances.

1966 MUSTANG (WESTWARD COACH) RV Collection Gift of C. Fred Koppy, Bristol, In. VistaDome – early two story bunkhouse model. Restoration sponsored by The CIT Group.

Gift of William Renz of Valles Mines, MO.

BASED HOMEMADE MOTORHOME RV Collection

Gift of the Paul and Maureen Jones family of Cape Coral FL.

You can purchase tickets on the RV Hall of Fame site. $12/adults • $9/kids (6-16) • 5 and under are FREE $10/seniors (60+) • $8/group rate (14+ people) $30/family rate (parents & 3 or more dependents under 16) Hours

Summer (April 1 to October 31) Monday – Saturday 9am to 5pm EDT • Sunday 10am – 3pm EDT. Winter (November 1 to March 31) Monday – Saturday 10am to 4pm EDT • Sunday Closed. Closed on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years day.

One’s first impression when seeing this one-of-akind motorhome is that there has to be storybehind it and indeed there is. The story goes that an unnamed General Motors fabricator was irritated because he felt that the GMC motorhome was misnamed, since the foundation of the GMC was really an Oldsmobile (a GM product, but one that had its own loyal following), so he decided to build his own Oldsmobile motorhome. The bones of this unusual motorhome are a 1969 Oldsmobile Toronado front-wheel drive automobile with a generous 455 horsepower engine. The motorhome’s body is a 1967 Airstream Globetrotter, perfectly wedded to the Toronado by adding stainless steel panels, which were through-bolted to the frame. The driver’s compartment of the motorhome retains the Tornado’s tilt steering wheel and unique rotating speedometer and just about every single gauge imaginable has been added to give the vehicle the look and feel of an airplane cockpit. Of special interest is the windshield, which came out of a 1953 Ford stake truck.

Jayco is the brainchild of inventor and entrepreneur Lloyd J. Bontrager, who was working for a recreational vehicle manufacturer in northern Indiana in the mid-1960s. The innovative Bontrager had made important contributions to his employer, including the development of new camping trailers and the creation of the company’s sewing department. He had also set up and managed an RV manufacturing plant for the company. Importantly, Bontrager invented a lifter system for fold-down camping trailers that made the campers much easier to pop up and close.

Despite his success at the company, Bontrager was frustrated. He believed that he could build a better trailer if given the freedom to do so by his employer. At the urging of his wife, Bertha, Lloyd decided to strike out on his own. He began experimenting with new fold-down trailer designs at his family farm in the northern Indiana town of Middlebury. Working out of two chicken houses and a barn, Bontrager managed to develop and patent a lifter system for fold-down trailers that was much easier to use than any other mechanism on the market. He quit his job late in 1967 and started his own company, Jayco Inc., a name he derived from his own middle name. Bontrager was joined in the venture by two partners: Clarence Lambright, who was put in charge of purchasing, and Bud Copsey, an investor. Bertha Bontrager did the bookkeeping, and Lloyd’s sons helped with design and production.

Bontrager hired Glen Riegsecker early in 1968 as his first salaried employee at a wage of $2 per hour. Riegsecker helped to transform the barn and chicken houses into assembly-line RV production facilities. In those buildings, the Bontragers developed three prototype campers; the JayEagle, JayHawk, and JayRobin. Orders began rolling in for the innovative fold-down campers, which could be pulled behind a vehicle and easily popped up at a campsite.The fledgling company managed to sell, primarily through local dealers, 132 fold-down campers in its first year of operation. By the end of 1968 the company had a work force of 15 and was beginning to outgrow its farm production plant.

Early in 1969 Bontrager hired his neighbor, Allen Yoder, Jr., to become the company’s national sales manager. Yoder was working as a mortgage lender at a local bank at the time but was enthused about the opportunity to join the growing Jayco.With Yoder exploiting the spiraling nationwide demand for campers, Jayco’s output soared during 1969 and 1970. Jayco left its farm factory in 1969 and moved to a newly constructed plant nearby. Then, in 1970, the company added another plant in Harper, Kansas, to serve Jayco’s surging customer base in the western United States. Incredibly, Jayco shipped more than 2,000 of its easy-to-use, high-quality, fold-down campers in 1970 to both U.S. and Canadian dealers. To keep workers inspired, Lloyd and Bertha promised an all-you-can-eat chicken dinner for the entire staff every time that the company met its production quotas; that effort gave birth to the annual company family picnic, replete with food, games, and a greased pig contest.

Among Jayco’s most successful products during the early 1970s was the JayWren travel trailer, its first camper that was not a folddown. The trailer was unique in that it was only seven feet high--small enough to fit in a standard garage--yet still allowed plenty of head room for the average consumer. As with other Jayco products, Lloyd Bontrager played an important role in the hands-on development of the JayWren. The introduction of the JayWren, combined with fat sales gains for other Jayco products, pushed the company’s shipments to $11 million during 1972. Jayco brought out its first mini-motorhome early in 1973 and later that year introduced the first fold-down camper with dual axles. After an industry downturn during the energy crunch subsided in 1977 and 1978, Lloyd Bontrager’s son, Wilbur, began assuming a greater leadership role in the company during that period. Like his father, he made contributions to product design. In 1977, for instance, he helped develop a domed roof for fold-down campers that would shed water and proved stronger than conventional roofs. He also helped to develop overhead cabinets for campers.

By 1985, sales of Jayco’s diversified product line were skyrocketing throughout North America. Unfortunately, the optimism that permeated the company’s work force was quelled by a tragic accident. On Easter Sunday of that year, Lloyd Bontrager, and his son Wendell , and a research and development worker named Nelson Hershberger and his son Marcus, were

killed when the plane Lloyd was piloting went down in a storm.

One month after Bontrager’s death, Jayco’s board appointed Al Yoder, Jr., to serve as president of the still privately held company; Bertha Bontrager became chairman of the board. The 57-year-old Yoder had been a key contributor to Jayco since he joined the company in 1969. He was also very active as a leader in major RV industry associations and had helped to develop the first television program devoted entirely to the RV lifestyle. Jayco continued to prosper.

As demand increased, Jayco’s financial performance improved. Those gains were largely the result of initiatives pushed by Yoder. He oversaw the complete redesign of many Jayco products to appeal more to baby-boom consumers. In addition, Jayco launched a lauded advertising campaign that utilized artwork styled after Norman Rockwell’s paintings.

Jayco’s sales boomed during the mid1980s. Indeed, by 1987--Jayco’s 20th anniversary--the company was the fourth largest manufacturer of towable RVs in the United States and employed more than 600 workers.

In 1990, Yoder, in the midst of the U.S. recession, initiated a two-stage expansion program. Following that plan, Jayco purchased new manufacturing facilities in Middlebury and nearby LaGrange. That effort nearly doubled the company’s total acreage to more than 100, about 500,000 square feet of which was covered

by manufacturing facilities. In April 1993 the 65-year-old Yoder announced his retirement from Jayco. Yoder was succeeded as president by Bernard G. Lambright, while Wilbur Bontrager remained at the company as chairman of the board. Jayco continued to post healthy gains in 1994. By 1995, in fact, Jayco’s work force had grown to 1,300 and Jayco had become the third largest manufacturer of towable products in the nation

By 2016, Jayco was the largest family-owned and operated RV manufacturer in the world. They had grown from 15 employees making a little over 100 camping trailers in 1968 to over 2,000 employees producing 63,738 units per year. That same year, the Bontrager family decided to sell Jayco to Thor Industries and Wilbur’s son Derald took over as President until his retirement at the end of 2020.