By Leah Sander
InkFreeNews

MENTONE — Mentone residents recently suggested ways to improve their community while doing a bit of artwork.

That happened during Kosciusko County Hoosier Enduring Legacy Program’s (HELP) event at Bell Memorial Public Library in Mentone on Wednesday, May 4.

About 30 people, including town and county elected officials, participated.

HELP was established by the Indiana Office of Rural and Community Affairs (OCRA) with the aim of helping communities plan how to best use money received through the federal American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA).

Kosciusko County was one of only three entities selected in the initial group to participate. OCRA gave the county a grant to run the program and pay for the position of a community coordinator, Amy Roe.

The county invited its towns and cities to participate in the process as well, and four took them up on it. Pierceton, Etna Green and Milford are also participating.

HELP is seeking input from county residents and those of the four participating towns to guide them toward creating so-called legacy projects using their ARPA money. It wants entities to create projects in four categories: Advancing e-connectivity; quality of place; community wellness; and strengthening local economies.

At Wednesday’s event, there were two boards set up with a list of the four categories. Attendees were instructed to stick dots by the categories that they wanted to see legacy projects accomplished in Mentone.

They then took squares of fabric in colors that matched the dots and different categories and glued them to a wooden board. The board is to be topped off with a sign reading “Mentone” that attendees also painted Wednesday and will hang in the library.

Visitors also could write their specific suggestions for projects on index cards and got to decorate their own Indiana-shaped magnets to take home.

Of the categories for projects, two received overwhelming support: Quality of place and community wellness.

Mentone Town Council President Jill Gross offered her take to InkFreeNews about why projects in those categories would be more popular to town residents.

“Everyone always wants our park to be better,” she noted.

Spoonful of Imagination Art Studio partnered with HELP to run Wednesday’s event and is to help with similar ones in the remaining three towns.

The studio’s owner Erica Deuel said the other three events will function the same as Mentone’s.

“I love looking around and seeing artists of all different ages kind of connecting,” she said. “And here we are in Mentone, so they get to meet new people who live here or live in this area. I feel like it’s always easier to get to know someone or ask questions when your hands are moving.”

Among those who came to the event was Kosciusko County Councilwoman Joni Truex. She’s from Atwood, but said she came out to support Mentone.

“It’s a very vital, important part of our county and Amy Roe has done a great job in trying to recruit people and especially elected officials and asked if we would support her and come out tonight, so I’m here to do art and have some fun and just support Mentone,” she said.

Also participating was Wagon Wheel Center for the Arts Executive Director Lakesha Green.

She said being fairly new to her job, she was there to “see the connection that Mentone has with Warsaw.”

She noted that many people from Mentone attend shows at the Wagon Wheel.

“Learning the surrounding cities and learning my county is important to me and who I service, so this event was perfect to … have fun with it and not just sit and do a … presentation on ‘This is what we’re doing’ type of thing, but to actually sit, create art, talk about why we’re doing it. So it’s great,” she said.

“I’m excited about our future of what’s happening. It’s an exciting time for Indiana and especially for rural communities, which is going to open up the importance of making arts accessible to everyone,” she added.

Mentone community members Cary and Kathy Groninger – both elected county officials – also attended.

Kosciusko County Commissioners’ President Cary Groninger is helping lead HELP in the county.

“This is an exciting program that we were given the opportunity to roll out and really hopefully be able to pour into these small communities,” he said. “Hopefully we can continue to gain information through these on the projects that the communities would like to see happen … I hope that we’re able to create an environment that we can really attract people to want to live here.”

The remaining events for the other towns are Pierceton, 1:30-3:30 p.m. Saturday, May 7, at the Pierceton Community Building, 105 W. Walnut St.; Etna Green, 1-3 p.m. Saturday, June 11, at Remembrance Park, 106 S. Walnut St.; and Milford, 5:30-7:30 p.m. Friday, June 17, at the Milford Community Building parking lot, 111 S. Main St.

The public is also invited to an event to celebrate Kosciusko County getting the grant funding to participate in HELP. More information on HELP will be provided then, and people can also provide input. It will be 5-8 p.m. Tuesday, June 7, at Grace College.

More information about how to RSVP for it will be coming soon. A survey will also be going out to the public soon for them to provide more feedback on legacy projects they want to see in the four towns or the county.

People can also learn more information about Kosciusko County HELP by clicking here.