The CONNECT Transit Plan (CONNECT), a collaborative, 10-year plan for interurban transportation in the Michiana area, has entered its final stage of development and is seeking to make major improvements to the area’s transit systems over the coming decade. The trolley is a resource many people rely on in Goshen and surrounding communities, such as Dunlap, Mishawaka and Elkhart, giving 338,606 total rides in 2022. It is also especially important to Goshen College’s community, since students, staff and faculty have free admission with their GC IDs. The plan has been spearheaded by the Michiana Area Council of Governments (MACOG) and...

By Lukas Bontrager-Waite • February 2, 2023 • News Phil Witmer-Rich • February 2, 2023 • News

Elkhart County will be closing the recycling site located in the Goshen College Church-Chapel parking lot on Jan. 20. It has become increasingly difficult for the county to manage public recycling sites due to the amount of trash that is being intermixed with the recycling. “For the last 20 years GC has offered the site as a goodwill gesture to the community,” said Cynthia Good Kaufmann, GC’s director of planning and events.  In an effort to make recycling on campus more efficient, Elkhart County and GC are implementing new recycling strategies. GC is adding single-stream recycling bins at the Church-...

By Sophia Kellenberger • January 19, 2023 • News

For decades the Elkhart County Council has allocated funds, levied taxes and carried out its other business with one striking imbalance: all its members have been Republican. But a former staff member at Goshen College’s Merry Lea Environmental Learning Center in Wolf Lake, Paul Steury, plans on changing that. Steury is running against a Republican incumbent, Darryl Riegsecker, who represents the 3rd District. Riegsecker could not be immediately reached for comment. Steury believes that the majority of residents in Goshen do not know who the County Council members are. He wishes to change that, both before the election and afterward,...

By Abe Medellin • November 2, 2018 • News

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Before a screening of Lon Chaney’s silent film, “The Phantom of the Opera,” the interior of the theater darkens. The audience begins to turn their faces away from the soft blue glow of their smartphones and attend to the direction of the stage. A spotlight focuses on the stage as an organ plays opening notes of Camille Saint-Saens’ “Danse Macabre,” and music fills the theater. As the song approaches its climax, the sounds of organist Clark Wilson and a 1924 Kimball, slowly rise from the orchestra pit. As Wilson continues to play the several rows of keys, you hear not...

By Kory Stoneburner-Betts • November 2, 2017 • Features

Richard Aguirre, alongside many others, is attempting to bring hope to the undocumented community of Elkhart County. Aguirre, director of corporate and foundation relations at Goshen College, has helped create a network called Elkhart County HOPE. According to Aguirre, Elkhart County HOPE, “aims to be a collaborative network of educators, churches, nonprofit organizations, businesses and individuals who are willing to help immigrants (and refugees) who may be caught up in the latest enforcements of the Trump administration.” The network was created after a convocation held in response to Election Day. After the convocation, Latino students flocked to Aguirre, Rocio Diaz...

By Abby King • February 2, 2017 • News

Goshen College volunteers will contribute time from their spring break to build two homes in Elkhart for Habitat for Humanity. One project is in conjunction with the Elkhart Beardsley Bulldog Crossing Project. One other will be constructed by Goshen College students, though it is purely funded by Habitat for Humanity. Aradhana Roberts, a junior Student Senate member, is coordinating volunteers for the project. She heard about Habitat for Humanity while attending high school in India, her home country. She remembers wanting to volunteer but never having the time. When Student Senate brought up the opportunity to assist the program, Roberts...

By Liz Core • February 21, 2013 • News

The Pumpkinvine Nature Trail has a new completed section, which connects Middlebury to Shipshewana. Bikers, runners or walkers will now be able to travel 17 miles to Shipshewana, nearly all of that on finished trail. The new section, which was engineered and constructed by DLZ Indiana, LLC, and Walsh & Kelly, Inc, spans six miles and nearly doubles the length of the developed portions of the trail. This is the longest section of the trail that has been completed at one time. Only a few more sections of the Pumpkinvine have yet to be completed, and are slated to be...

By Chenoa Mitchell • September 21, 2011 • Features

The 44th annual Michiana Mennonite Relief Sale is an event to be excited about. This year marks the return of the sausage and onion sandwich, a favorite of the sale's co-chair, Kent Miller. “The sandwiches took a one-year hiatus,” said Miller. “I am excited they're back.” There is, however, plenty more to find at the relief sale apart from a good sandwich. Miller has helped put together the event with co-chair John Martes and thousands of local volunteers. “The Relief Sale is a potpourri of Mennonite ethnicity,” said Miller. “There is international flavor, food and crafts, quilts and auction items.”...

By Kate Stoltzfus • September 21, 2011 • News

What kind of impact does the Elkhart County Fairground have on the local community? To answer this question, the Elkhart County Fair Board of Directors contacted Michelle Horning, professor of accounting at Goshen College. Since February, Horning has been working on this research project with seniors Brett Bridges and John Tamrat, sophomore Matt Nafziger and Jennifer Cree (’10). “Our project is trying to gather the data to support our answer,” said Horning. “We want to know what kind of impact they provide to the community. We’re trying to answer questions like, when people come to the Elkhart County Fairground for...

By Anita Fonseca • November 17, 2010 • Features

Dan Coyne, a Goshen College alumnus, traveled to a convention in DC in August with 34 World War II veterans, including his father, Frank. This convention, recognizing Elkhart County WWII veterans, led Coyne to instigate an ongoing collection of the oral histories of veterans from Elkhart County. “Here is an opportunity to get some of these stories down,” said Coyne. “I thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be cool if the Mennonite culture and the WWII veteran culture could relate to each other?’” The initiative is part of a larger project through the Library of Congress, pulling together the oral interviews of those...

By Laura Schlabach • November 19, 2009 • News

Nearly one hundred Goshen College students, faculty and alumni joined some two hundred other volunteers to pass out food to feed around 5,000 families for a week. The event, held in the Concord Mall parking lot, was one stop on Feed the Children's Americans Feeding Americans Emergency Caravan. Feed the Children arrived in Elkhart with more than 15 semitrailers filled with boxes of food and personal care items. Several local stores and companies also donated additional food to the cause. The morning opened with addresses from Elkhart Mayor Dick Moore; Larry Jones, founder and owner of Feed the Children; Victoria...

By Marlys Weaver • March 11, 2009 • News

After hours of waiting to see the President, one man shouted over the cheering crowd what everyone was thinking: "How're you gonna help us?" Barack Obama gave his first public address as president in a town hall meeting on Monday to approximately 2,000 people – including Goshen College students and faculty – at Concord High School's McCuen Gym in Elkhart. It is the third time Obama has visited Elkhart. The last time came during his presidential campaign on August 6, 2008. "I promised you back then that if elected I'd do everything I could to help this community recover, and...

By Tyler Falk • February 11, 2009 • News