St. Joe Times - Feb. 2014

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INSIDE THIS ISSUE Classifieds..............................................................................A4 Community Calendar ..................................................A14, 15 Healthy Times .....................................................................A10

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February 14, 2014

St. Peters’ preschool to help tot By Garth Snow gsnow@kpcmedia.com

In the years ahead Isla Campbell might ponder fundraisers and medical procedures and the silent “S” in her first name. Isla is too buy at the moment — too busy being 2 and a half. “Most people don’t notice anything until they see her leg braces or they see that’s she’s walking in a walker,” said her mother, Amy Campbell. “She’s really just a typical 2-year-old. She loves to run around in her walker and play with her sister. She loves playing with her stuffed animals and her dollhouse. “And she does really well, still able to move around freely. She doesn’t get frustrated when she can’t fit her walker into a tight spot. She’s pretty determined. Usually she finds a way, or just crawls to where she needs to go.” Michelle Kidd directs the preschool staff at St. Peter’s Lutheran Church and School, and

STEPS FOR ISLA Pasta dinner and dessert auction, Saturday, Feb. 15, 6:30-8:30 p.m., St. Peter’s Lutheran Church and School gymnasium, 7810 Maysville Road, Fort Wayne. Get $10 tickets in advance. For late reservations, call 748-0775 by noon Feb. 15. Baby-sitting available by the St. Peter’s Youth Group. Proceeds help fund a nonembryonic stem cell transplant for 2-year-old spina bifida patient Isla Campbell. For details or to donate, call 749-5811. is spearheading a Feb. 15 fundraiser for Isla. “She’s just the sweetest, cutest little girl,” Kidd said. Isla’s big sister, Eden, 4, attends Kidd’s preschool. Kidd said Amy and Rian Campbell didn’t ask for help paying for a pending procedure. They just met with the See TOT, Page A5

By Garth Snow gsnow@kpcmedia.com

COURTESY PHOTO

Isla Campbell, 2, poses with her sister, Eden Campbell, 4. St. Peter’s Lutheran Church and School preschool staff will hold a Feb. 15 benefit for Isla’s medical expenses.

I&M pledges $500 million ‘Powering Up’ investment Indiana Michigan Power announced a $500 million project to upgrade its electricity transmission infrastructure in Allen, DeKalb, Noble, Huntington, Wells and Adams counties and Paulding County, Ohio, beginning within the next year. The project, which Fort Wayne-based I&M has dubbed the “Powering Up Northeast Indiana” plan, would take six to eight years to complete, utility officials said. It includes upgrading and installing new transmission lines, updating equipment, and renovating and building new electricity substations. Sarah Bodner, director of community relations and communications at I&M, said one reason the utility is moving forward with the project is because the average age of its transmission infrastructure is between 40 and 60 years old. Another reason is I&M is retiring its coal-fired Tanners Creek power generation plant in Lawrenceburg next year, while parent company American Electric Power Co. Inc. will retire other coal-fired plants in Ohio and Kentucky in 2016. By investing in its transmission infrastructure, I&M can ensure its ability

to provide electricity to customers and receive power from other generating facilities, Bodner said. “This just makes sure that over the next several decades it continues to be reliable,” she said of the transmission system. The project also would help maintain northeast Indiana’s competitive advantage in attracting businesses, Bodner said, adding that I&M’s residential customers’ rates are 25 percent below the national average, while industrial customers’ rates are 16 percent below the national average. “So by doing these projects where we’re ensuring continued reliability and strategically working to keep our rates very low and competitive, we’re able to attract new industry, new business, which means new jobs,” she said. “And that’s something that, quite frankly, we’re very excited about.” New businesses also means new customers for I&M, Bodner acknowledged. “The best way for us to add new customers is to have low rates because that’s that competitive advantage,” she said. See I&M, Page A4

Times Community Publications

brochford@kpcmedia.com

3306 Independence Drive, Fort Wayne, IN 46808

By Barry Rochford

Elementary principal hopes career has had influence on others For decades, Michael Caywood has asked himself why his name graces a principal’s office while other men’s names grace war memorials. Even as he shrugs off his honor as Indiana elementary principal of the year — even as he says how much he will enjoy retirement — even as he says he is blessed to have spent 41 years in education, the Vietnam veteran asks why the stroke of a pencil sent him to a support role and sent many of his generation into combat. The Holland Elementary School Veterans Day program has provided an outlet for the lessons that Caywood takes from his life and his studies. “We have Korean War vets in, we have World War II vets in, they speak to our kids,” said Caywood, of

“I don’t know what’s out there. … Like everybody, I’ve got this book in the back of my mind that I’d like to write.” Michael Caywood, retiring after 41 years in Fort Wayne Community Schools Huntertown. “I’ve really tried to teach boys and girls that those veterans have sacrificed something — some of them gave everything — to give the kids the opportunity to do what they’re doing right now.” “The most recent book I read was ‘The Boys of ’67,’ and it tells about guys my age that were drafted the same time I did, who went to the same base camp I did, who landed in Vietnam at the same port that I did,” he said. “The difference was they ended up See PRINCIPAL, Page A2


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