The North Judson Fire Department plans to commemorate their old firehouse with a monument in front of the new building. At Monday night’s North Judson Town Council meeting, Fire Chief Joe Leszek explained that some material from the old firehouse was retrieved during the demolition process.
Leszek told members, “When the old firehouse was torn down, some of our members went over there and we salvaged some of the limestone and it was always our plan to build a small little memorial wall.” Continue reading →
Starke United is Kickin’ It Country next weekend at the Nancy J. Dembowski Community Center in Knox. The Saturday evening event will help raise funds for Starke United. It will begin at 6 p.m. with country-themed food and music. Continue reading →
Nonprofit organizations interested in applying for Starke United Fund grants have just a few more days to finish their applications. They are due Friday, May 2. The Starke United Fund Committee will review applications and award the grants to the chosen organizations. Last year 12 grants totaling $11,000 were given to Starke County organizations including: The Caring Place, Community Services of Starke County, HealthLinc, Junior Achievement, Marshall-Starke Development Center, Moving Starke County Forward, Love INC., North Judson-San Pierre School JumpStart, Psi Iota Xi, A.B.A.T.E. Toys 4 Tots, Starke County WIC Program and the Starke County Youth Club. Continue reading →
The Northern Indiana Community Foundation is now offering grant applications for the Starke United Fund grants. Volunteers with charitable organizations are encouraged to apply for these grants; apply now by visiting www.nicf.org to get an application. The application deadline is May 2.
Starke United fund grants have been distributed too 12 Starke County organizations.
The Caring Place, Community Services of Starke County, HealthLinc, Junior Achievement, Marshall-Starke Development Center, Moving Starke County Forward, Love INC., North Judson-San Pierre School JumpStart, Psi Iota Xi, A.B.A.T.E. Toys 4 Tots, Starke County WIC Program, and Starke County Youth Club all received a portion of $11,000 in grant funds.
Starke UnitedStarke United is sponsoring a fundraising event entitled, “Back to the Future with Starke United.” The event is Saturday, March 9 at the Nancy J. Dembowski Community Center in Knox.
Attendees are encouraged to dress in their favorite era or wear their school colors. Enjoy food from different eras and a cash bar. Category 5 will provide the evening’s entertainment.
Todd Zeltwanger with Starke United hands over keys to Bella Vita Board Chair Kathy Dedloff
Starke County’s crisis pregnancy center will soon have a new home. Starke United officials turned over the keys to their building on Lake Street to Bella Vita Crisis Pregnancy Center this morning. Secretary Rhonda Adcock says the former downtown post office location meets a lot of the organization’s logistical goals. These include having two entrances so new clients who come for pregnancy tests can do so through a different door than established ones who are there for counseling or to earn baby bucks. The building is also handicap accessible and offers plenty of space for counseling, classrooms, meetings and staff offices. Adcock says the building also provides a convenient location with ample parking nearby. The center isn’t quite ready to relocate just yet, as some interior renovations need to be done to make it user friendly. Those can happen soon, thanks to the generosity of an anonymous local donor. Starke United no longer needs the building due to their administrative merger with the community foundation. They’ve transferred ownership to Bella Vita.
Starke UnitedA local organization seeking to provide financial aid to other non-profit organizations in Starke County is planning a fundraising dance in just over a week. Starke United will be hosting the “Back to the Future with Starke United” event, which will feature a variety of foods, dancing, a cash bar, and live music at the Nancy J. Dembowski Community Center in Knox.
Live music will be provided by Category 5, food from a variety of decades – 50s, 60s, and 70s – will be provided, and attendees are encouraged to dress casually in the style of their favorite era. Social hour begins at 6 p.m. on March 9, while dinner starts at 7 p.m. with dancing immediately afterward from 8 to 11 p.m.
Starke United this week announced a new partnership with the Northern Indiana Community Foundation in conjunction with the creation of the Starke United Fund.
Starke United Board President Todd Zeltwanger said they’re pleased with this exciting venture, and says they’ll work with the Community Foundation to ensure their organization becomes not only stronger, but more cost-effective as well. He said the partnership will benefit both the organizations that receive funding from Starke United and the donors who faithfully support the organization.
Starke United Executive Director Julie Dessauer, Sandy Kersting-Rudd and Board Chair Todd Zeltwanger
The Starke United Annual Dinner was held last night at Community Services of Starke County.
Executive Director Julie Dessauer talked about programs Starke United supported during 2011 which included the Kindergarten Countdown, the Boy Scout and Girl Scout Food Drive, JA More than Money, Familywize, and 211. $13,000 will be distrbuted in undesignated funds this year.
The Starke United Annual Meeting will be held this evening at the Community Services of Starke County building. The event is being sponsored by IU Health Starke Hospital.
Executive Director Julie Dessauer will give a review of 2011, including a report of the campaign total. Testimonials will be given by Rhonda Adcock of CASA and Barbara Miller of Community Services. An announcement of distribution will also be made.
A Kindergarten Countdown informational meeting is scheduled for tomorrow for students entering the Knox Community Elementary School Kindergarten program. Starke United, IU Health and the Knox Community School Corporation are sponsoring a Kindergarten Camp in June and this meeting will help explain the function of the camp. Director of Curriculum and Instruction at the Knox Community School Corporation, Peggy Shidaker, has more.
Starke United is now accepting applications from non-profit organizations in Starke County who wish to apply for undesignated funds from the 2011 fundraising campaign.
Applications are available in the Starke United office at 53 W. Lake Street in Knox. Applications may also be downloaded from this website. Your organization must be an IRS qualified 501(c)(3) non-profit organization or be able to prove your non-profit status. The following areas of concern are education, income and health.
$10,436! That’s the total from the Starke United Radio Auction that took place Friday, Dec. 2, broadcast from the CenturyLink warehouse. Starke United Executive Director Julie Dessauer says she was very pleased with the amount raised.
“We came out approximately $3,000 ahead of last year. Our total came out to about $10,400, which is great,” said Dessauer. “I definitely wanted to make sure that we did some special thank yous for WKVI, first off, Century Link, and Osinski’s Auction Service. Those were our three major components in pulling the auction off, and then of course there was all of the business participants that donated everything.”
And how about those Bears tickets? They brought in almost $600.00 for four tickets. Dessauer was happy with that, partly because she’s a Bears fan.
“They absolutely did, that was wonderful. I know that there was some fighting over them and everybody was really happy to get them,” said Dessauer.
The $50,000 campaign goal is almost in sight, according to Dessauer.
“A typical campaign would close out the end of December. Ours has typically ran a little longer than that,” Dessauer said. “I’m hoping to close out by the end of January, and we are still a little bit shy of the goal so we want to make sure that we do a little boost there and we still have appointments for businesses that want to do an employee campaign.”
Congratulations to Starke United, and a big thank you for the people who have supported the campaign.
M.J. Zembala and Dorothy Osinski hurriedly handled auction bids.Starke United raised several thousand dollars at it’s annual radio auction Friday afternoon. Broadcast over WKVI Radio and aired online, the event auctioned hundreds of items to support its annual fundraising campaign.
Executive Director Julie Dessauer reminds those who bid that you may pay and pick up your items at the Starke United office at 52 West Lake Street after 10:00 a.m. today. Dessauer will release the final results of the auction later this week.
The Starke United/WKVI Radio Auction is two weeks from today.
Julie Dessauer, the Executive Director of Starke United, tells us about the event.
“The Radio Auction will be on WKVI K99.3 FM on Friday, December 2nd, from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. CT,” stated Dessauer. “Auction services will be donated by Osinski Auction Service and communications and space are donated by CenturyLink. It is at the CenturyLink warehouse which is on the corner of John and Pearl Streets. Our viewing times are Thursday, December 1st from 4:00-7:00 p.m. and Friday morning from 9:00-10:00 a.m. and then the auction starts at 10:00 a.m.”
Starke United Executive Director, Julie Dessauer, is announcing that brochures are being placed at local banks along with other area businesses and inside each brochure is a pledge card which can be mailed to Starke United.
Starke United’s Board has approved the reallocation of funds to enable Community Services to provide the matching funds for 125 meals to the homebound elderly, matching funds for 133 hours of homemaker service to the elderly and disabled and for the preparation and printing of the Starke County Resource Directory. The Starke United Board also approved $1,500 for the food pantry in July after allocating $2,500 for the pantry in April.
Nathan Welter gave an address as Starke United's Campaign Chair
The Starke United Campaign Kickoff Breakfast was held yesterday. The breakfast was sponsored by Integrity Trade Services and was prepared by the Country Kettle.
Announced as the 2011 Campaign Chair was Nathan Welter, who also acted as the Master of Ceremony for the event.
Those attending heard presentations by Board Chairperson Todd Zeltwanger and Starke United Director Julie Dessauer. Testimonials were given by Irene Szakonyi of the Starke County Youth Club and Peggy Shidaker of Knox Community Schools. The Key Note Speaker was Pastor Ed Hasnerl, who gave an inspiring “Talking of Many Things” presentation.
Numerous pacesetter checks were presented to end the festivities.
Following the event we talked with Nathan Welter, who is a sports reporter at WKVI, about his involvement with Starke United. Continue reading →
