WEST NOBLE BOYS SOCCER TEAM KEEPS ON WINNING AS SECTIONALS NEAR: P. 6
The
Advance An edition of THE NEWS SUN
WORTH NOTING
OCTOBER 3, 2013
Leader
West Noble Homecoming Court
BY JAMES TEW jtew@kpcmedia.com
Marshmallow Festival The next planning meeting for the Ligonier Marshmallow Festival will be Thursday, Oct. 10, at the West Noble American Legion post in Ligonier. Everyone is welcome to attend. The committee will be going over the events of this past festival and beginning plans for the next year’s festival.
Motel/hotel investors
Pettit Park master plan The Ligonier Park Board is hosting a public input meeting for the development of a master plan for Pettit Park. The meeting is set for 6 p.m., Thursday, Oct. 10, in the police department training room on the first floor of City Hall on South Cavin Street. Pat Brown, from the consulting firm of SiteScapes, will conduct the meeting which is open to everyone. Pettit Park is the newest park in Ligonier, and the board wants to have a long-range plan in place for the park’s growth and future uses. More information is available by contacting the parks department at 894-7344.
Retirement, getting older subject of new series at Ligonier church LIGONIER — Ligonier Presbyterian Church is hosting a series of programs designed for those age 50 and over, or those who care for someone in that age group. “Are Your Affairs in Order?” starts with an overview of issues concerning retirement and getting older. The date for the first session is Saturday, Oct. 12 starting at 8 a.m. at the church, 407 S. Cavin Street, Ligonier. A free breakfast is included. Program leader is Rev. Phyllis Smoot. Call 894-3800 or 856-4710 by October 9 to register, as organizers need a count for the food and program books.
Downtown scarecrow contest needs entries. See page 3 for more details. The Advance Leader P.O. Box 30 Ligonier, IN 46767 Phone: 894-3102 • Fax: 894-3102
75 cents Ligonier, Indiana, USA On the web at: kpcnews.com Vol. 129, No. 40
Cromwell’s Sister Elsie to retire
Public meetings set for Thursday, Oct. 10
A meeting to discuss the possibility of building a motel or hotel in Ligonier will take place at Ligonier City Hall on Thursday, Oct. 10, starting at 6 p.m. in the council chambers on the second floor. Ligonier Mayor Patty Fisel is focusing on finding investors who want to help with this project. The meeting is open to the public. More details on the project are available by contacting Mayor Fisel at 894-4113.
THURSDAY
PHOTO CONTRIBUTED
It’s Homecoming Week at West Noble High School, and the young men and women pictured here make up the court for this year’s festivities that culminate at Friday’s football game against Central Noble. The 2013 West Noble Homecoming King and Queen will be announced during halftime. The freshman class honorees are Taylor Durbin and Uriel A. Macias. The sophomore class princess and prince are Becca Schermerhorn and Tim Airgood while the junior class members of the court are Maya Mora and Levi Nelson. The senior class queen candidates are Rachel
Schermerhorn, Alexis Pena, Kelsie Peterson and Kayla Pena. King candidates are Drew Schermerhorn, Landon Stover, Uriel Macias and Tyler Rothaar. In the front, from left, are Taylor Durbin, Becca Schermerhorn, Maya Mora, Rachel Schermerhorn, Alexis Pena, Kelsie Peterson and Kayla Pena. In the back are, from left, Uriel A. Macias, Tim Airgood, Levi Nelson, Drew Schermerhorn, Landon Stover, Uriel Macias and Tyler Rothaar. The game has a 7 p.m. start time. There’s also a pizza buffet dinner from 4:30-7 p.m. in the high school cafeteria, open to the public.
‘Zooland Babies’ on display 41st annual Pumpkin Fantasyland now open BY BOB BUTTGEN bbuttgen@kpcmedia.com
LIGONIER —For 41 years, the Pumpkin Fantasyland at Fashion Farm in Ligonier has offered families an entertaining way to spend a day. And while’s there always been a little education among all the pumpkins and gourds, this year the learning portion of the fantasyland is being kicked into high gear. The Pumpkin Fantasyland opened Tuesday at the complex, a couple miles west of downtown Ligonier on Lincolnway West. Hours are 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. for the entire month. This year’s theme is “Zooland Babies,” and the big, new addition is a pumpkin-based educational center that will allow kids to learn all they probably ever wanted to know about pumpkins. The Zooland Babies theme involves some 20 scenes inside the fantasyland, which has been turned into a temporary zoo, showing all types of animals from around the world. The displays show everything from aardvarks to zebras, with their faces and many body parts made of painted pumpkins, gourds and other living things harvested from the Fashion Farm fields. “We just never know how we are going to come up with our theme each year,” said Patty Becker, who coordinates the building of the displays, along with Tiffany Lower, greenhouse manager at Fashion Farm. “We had a giraffe in last year’s displays, and that gave us the idea to come up with a zoo. The ideas just come up as you are working on them.” Most of the painting is done by Noble County artist Sharon Cripe, who has been working with the Fashion Farm exhibit for nearly 30 years. Cripe also shows off her artistic ability in the always popular “Hall of Presidents.” The 20-foot-long display shows a likeness of every U.S. president from Washington to Obama, each painted on the front of a pumpkin. The faces are enhanced in great detail, including facial hair and other features. The Fashion Farm Pumpkin Fantasyland was started more than four decades ago by the late Charlie Williams, Patty Becker’s father. Her son, Jason Becker, is
The fast just got Faster...
BOB BUTTGEN
One of the largest and tallest displays at the Pumpkin Fantasyland at Fashion Farm shows an ostrich, stretching more than six feet tall, along with his friend, in the lower right, a toucan. “Zooland Babies” is this year’s theme. the third generation of their family to help lead the business. This year he came up with the learning center, in front of the Fashion Farm garden center, separate but adjacent to the fantasyland. “We’ve always tried to be educational with our displays but really took it up a notch this year. The hands-on learning center will help educate kids, and all visitors, about pumpkins,” Jason Becker said. The “anatomy of a pumpkin” display will allow children to cut open pumpkins and see the various parts. They’ll be able to weigh a pumpkin, take out all of the seeds and insides and then weigh the pumpkin again. Another display will allow kids to float a pumpkin to show how buoyancy works. Younger children will be able to play with a large pumpkin puzzle. Admission to the fantasyland costs $2, with the learning center available for another $1. Kids age 2 and under are admitted free. Learning center hours are 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Each year, the fantasyland is visited by more than 1,000 school
children who arrive by the busload from schools throughout northeast Indiana. Other special attractions include a hay maze and more.
‘Fun Run’ is Sunday Sunday will feature the annual “Pumpkin Fun Run” at Fashion Farm, with several dozen classic autos and trucks brought to Ligonier by their owners. Saturday, Junior Achievement of Noble County is hosting a fundraiser at the Pumpkin Fantasyland, with tickets priced a $11 each as donations for Junior Achievement. On Saturday, Oct. 12, the annual “Charlie Pumpkin’s Safe Kids Day” will be hosted at Fashion Farm, with local police officers, firefighters and EMS crews on hand for a day-long learning experience. Avalon Village nursing home in Ligonier is sponsoring senior citizens’ day Oct. 19 at Fashion Farm. More information is available on the Fashion Farm Facebook page.
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CROMWELL — This is not what Sister Elsie Fregeau had planned for her retirement. “I think God has a remarkable sense of humor,” she said, sitting behind her cluttered pastor’s desk in the pastor’s office at Calvary Lutheran Church in Cromwell, “because I never, Sister Elsie ever wanted to Fregeau work in a parish.” Her title for six more days is interim minister, even though the “interim” has lasted nearly eight years. Lacking ordination, Sister Elsie can’t officially hold the title of pastor, but that doesn’t mean much in the day-to-day life of the church. “If you ask people in this congregation what I am, they would say, ‘She’s our pastor,’ because that’s what I do for them,” she said. Her plan upon retirement when she moved to Sylvan Lake — close to her family in Kendallville — was to work in hospice; she had served as hospice chaplain at Lutheran General Hospital in suburban Chicago for the previous nine years. “I love working with hospice people, with hospice patients, with the staff, the nurses and the social workers, and being a supportive person there as a part of that team. That was my call,” she said. She took a little time to do nothing and rebuild, she said, and hiked the woods near her home thinking about what to do next. In the meantime, an area pastor recommended Sister Elsie help fill in as pulpit supply at Calvary, which had been two years without a pastor. After doing so on and off over the course of a year, the church’s call committee asked her to serve there in a pastoral role. “I have no training to be in this job, absolutely none,” she said. “I had never had a preaching course that was not part of the courses that I took at school, because this isn’t what I wanted to do. And this is where I wound up. “I told them, ‘I’m not the person you need,’ and they said, ‘You’re the one we want,’ and I’ve been here ever since.” Though Sister Elsie felt unprepared for her job, the church expanded its ministries under her leadership. Current efforts include a women’s group making more than 60 quilts sent to Lutheran World Federation and congregation members working at the local food pantry. Thanks to grants from the Lutheran Foundation and United Way, the church hosts the monthly Community Table — including providing toiletries, diapers and other items that can’t be purchased with food stamps to those who attend. “I think (the congregation has) been pleased with the things that we’ve done, with the ministries that are coming out of this church,” Sister Elsie said. “I keep encouraging them not to focus inwardly, but to focus out. They need to take their ministry outside the door.” This detour to Sister Elsie’s plans will come to an end ➤ Sister, Page 2
Open house is Sunday for Sister Fregeau CROMWELL — A retirement party for Sister Elsie Fregeau will be offered by Calvary Lutheran Church, Cromwell, on Sunday from 1-3 p.m. at the Cromwell branch of the Noble County Public Library. All are welcome.
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