Huntington County Project Spotlight 2023 Nominations

69th Roanoke Fall Festival

The Roanoke Fall Festival provides our community with three days of fun activities and events for the kids and families, mostly at no charge. We also give out scholarships through our Queen Scholarship programs. We are in our 69th year!

Backcountry Hunters and Anglers

Backcountry Hunters & Anglers seeks to ensure North America’s outdoor heritage of hunting and fishing in a natural setting, through education and work on behalf of wild public lands, waters, and wildlife.

Bippus Lions Club

The Bippus Lions is a not-for-profit. What little money we make it given back to the community. We charge to rent the building to offset the cost of heat/air conditioning and electricity. We don’t charge churches, family funerals or community meetings.

Helping Paws Pet Haven, Inc.

“A hope for orphaned cats and kittens”

Our location has turned 20 this year. Our project this year is maintenance and repairs. As things age they start to wear down. We have some issues that we need to address this year. After the crawl space flooded earlier this spring we’ve had to replace the furnace duct work. We installed a sump pump and weather permitting we will need a permanent drain line run outside for it. There is also a septic problem that we are addressing.

Historic Forks of the Wabash, Inc.

The Historic Forks focus is to teach students and adults the historical importance of the area known as the Forks of the Wabash. We target 4th grade students using Indiana Academic Standards, but can modify our tours to meet the needs of all students and adults. On site we have the Historic Chief Richardville House (1840s), an early settler home, and a section of the Erie/Wabash Canal as well as being located on the Wabash River. We are currently in need of replacing the heating/cooling system in the Chiefs’ House and enhancing our ability to broaden our outreach through advertising on a new digital sign. We need support for both of these projects.

Historic Warren Main Street

Historic Warren Main Street is a 501 (c) 3 nonprofit organization. A member of Indiana Main Street for over 12 years with all board members being volunteers. Historic Warren Main Street works to make downtown Warren a vibrant place to live, work, shop & play! They are always looking for opportunities to bring revitalization to the Warren community and Huntington County.

Historic Warren is in the process of completing the 3rd Phase at Riverside Park, located downtown Warren with funding from the community and a matching grant. Historic Warren is also working on an art installation downtown Warren on their building “The Exchange” that is being renovated with the goal of bringing economic development to downtown Warren. Just a year ago the Warren Historic District was listed on the National Register of Historic Places through the work of Historic Warren Main Street.

Huntington County Child Advocacy Center DBA McKenzie’s Hope

McKenzie’s Hope is Huntington County’s Child Advocacy Center. We are a safe neutral facility where a child can tell their story of abuse. We serve children ages 3-17 of Huntington County as well as surrounding counties.
McKenzie’s Hope and its team’s goal is to reduce the trauma inflicted on children during this devastating process, provide critical physical and mental health referrals, ensure that no child’s case falls through the cracks of the judicial system, and to provide recorded evidence to assist in the prosecution process.

Huntington County Humane Society

The Huntington County Humane Society is a 501(c)3 non-for-profit, no kill, animal welfare organization dedicated to helping our community – both two legged and four! Last year we helped nearly 1,400 animals from our community by providing shelter and lifesaving medical care. Not only do we provide the only animal shelter in Huntington County but we also provide Animal Control services, low cost vaccinations and microchipping, and a free pet food pantry. We also partner with the City of Huntington to offer a low cost spay/neuter program for outdoor cats living in the community to help humanely reduce the population and better the health of thousands of cats living within City limits.

Huntington County 4H Robotics

This 4H club is made up of high school and middle school students who are members of 4H. Beginning in January, this team has to build a robot from scratch that is designed to play a game that is created by the FIRST Robotics organization. We have roughly 7 to 8 weeks to build a robot, learn to drive and operate it, work on marketing and graphic design for our team, and then prepare to travel to at least 3 competitions in the state of Indiana. Travel can be very costly for the students as it involves hotel stays, gas money, and food money. It would be great to have money to help them out!

Huntington House Shelter

Huntington House Shelter saves lives in our community. They are a Safe Place participant and they help women and children learn their worth in our world. They provide a bed, mentoring, and a place to learn how a home runs efficiently and with love. They provide all around support for those crossing the threshold. They are a worthy member of our community.

Indiana Dream Center

The Indiana Dream Center (“IDC”) was started in 2010 to help individuals recover from life controlling issues. Today the IDC provides resources to the local community, outpatient programs, drug testing services, an OpShop, Revive Center, and more. The IDC regularly partners with other nonprofit organizations to meet the needs of those in our community.

New Life Ministries

New Life Ministries is a local nonprofit that helps many people in need. They operate the Meal Ministry which is a soup kitchen in downtown Huntington and serves free weekday lunches and free nightly dinners. They also operate the Women’s Life Houses and Men’s Life House which are transitional homes for men and women 18 years and older. This year they are opening a Children’s Life House to offer respite and foster care to children and teens in Huntington.

Roanoke Fall Festival Queen Scholarship Program

A part of the 69th running of the Roanoke Fall Festival, this scholarship program provides ladies ages 5-22 with the opportunity to compete for scholarship money and represent our festival.