in 18 20 three inside the Washington Hall Tavern that bar in Columbia Streets a citizens group met to file paperwork with the state of Indiana designated us designating rather a 600 60 square mile area of northeast Indiana to become the state's newest county.

>> And on April 1st, 1824, Allen Kelly was born with the passage of the last two centuries Allen County has arrived at a major historical monument and moment for which there might as well have been a monument and is the 200 anniversary of being a county.

>> And so how do you celebrate a county's bicentennial?

>> We'll find out on this week's PrimeTime.

>> And good evening.

I'm Bruce Haines joining us today from the Allen County Bicentennial Committee are Lee Ann Powers.

>> She's heading marketing for all of that for visually creative in town and also with her Alexander Rehaul who is artist and public art consultant with A.H.

Consulting and along with Alex.

>> It's always a pleasure to welcome Irene Ator who's a member of the bicentennial board and a community volunteer par excellence and they are all here Irene, Alex and Lee, thank you very much for being here.

>> We appreciate it.

Thank you.

Our pleasure.

I must say we've all had celebrations that we've planned graduations and such special occasions.

How do you plan a celebration for Indiana's largest county by land and third largest by bodycount?

>> It's a very significant milestone obviously and we want to honor the past and all the achievements in the two hundred year journey.

But mainly we want to cast a shine a spotlight on what makes Allen County so wonderful now a place to work, live and flourish.

>> You had mentioned just before you went on the air this has been quite the week we're heading into harvest season and we have been reaping a lot of very significant data points about the positive aspects of life in northeast Indiana in general and in the Allen County region in particular.

>> Right.

Amazing the accomplishments we can proudly say that we are the fastest growing region in the Midwest, that we are the most affordable to live in in the whole country and that we are the second easiest place to start a business that is quite something.

And so it's a challenge really when you think about the future ,what we're going to do and how as we come together to celebrate we need to also say we are not just going to predict the future.

We have to create the future.

>> So it's a challenge.

And so let me ask the marketing director, you know, your phone rings and they say we have this idea and you know, it takes a group usually to you know, it's the let's put on a show and it's it's a show writ large over multiple months.

>> But from your perspective, how do you how do you treat a moment in time like this and get everyone together so that they can feel like they truly indeed are a part of it all?

>> That is a great question.

I would dove back into our history and all the innovators and Allen County, all the creators that have made our county who it is and and what we are and we are trying through this celebration of the bicentennial to find multiple outlets for the people in our community to feel engaged.

So we have art activities, we have writing activities, we have engagement activities and we also have S.A activities as well as viewing activities.

So we'd like everyone in Allen County regardless of whether they are directly involved or not to feel like they have contributed to Allen County and like leading right out with our Fine Arts Public Sculpture project here I am Allen County.

We want every person and Allen County to feel like they are part of a story and they are helping to write this story today and that story will live into the future.

So maybe that's a good time for Alex to tell us about our public art.

>> I'd like to add one thing though.

Sure.

Sure.

I think the secret sauce of what makes us special is the collaborative spirit and thepthd celebration is together we saw t doesn't matter who gets the credit, it's not about me.

It's about working together and that makes our community very special and there is a great deal of compatibility between the individual opportunities that are presented in this collective celebration for the county and we're going to hold the culture one at bay.

But I do want to turn back to the group just to get things started because there is a bicentennial kindness challenge that has been going on for a while.

Speaking of legacy and that's a wonderful thing with an array of potential points of light out there.

>> How does this work?

All right.

I think she's going to describe that.

Sure.

And going back to what Irene said along with Will and I young leaders from northeast Indiana, the bicentennial committee is joining forces and and actually challenging our community in a kindness campaign we'd like for families and schools, organizations and businesses to define and act of kindness that would benefit them their family or their organization, community or school.

But to record that so to create some kind of form that they can actually record two hundred acts of kindness and when they've complete that assignment why Eleni has created a tracker on their website, why Ella and I dug and they'd like for you to to report that report what that activity was, how you were engaged with the community or others and then find a way to pay it forward.

So we are tracking the acts of kindness within our community with a goal of trying to really see how much kindness we can generate prior to our celebration on November 16th.

But we're actually extending through the end of the year.

So any family school organization or business that would like to define an activity that would benefit their clients from a customer user perspective or from a customer engagement perspective or even a friendship perspective holding a door buying a cup of coffee please start recording those so that we can generate a kindness initiative that will demonstrate that Allen Co potentially is the kindest county in the country.

>> That's our goal.

That's our accolade and there are no kindness.

Police whatever person thinks is a kind act just write it down and counted as an act.

>> We had seen a couple examples and Allan, if you can share those we have a diaper collection drive that was going out so now we're down to one ninety nine and we have families doing this on their own going around the neighborhood picking up two hundred pieces of trash.

>> Oh oh yes.

So now you're down to one ninety eight there's a whole lot more and you saw the QR code we will put that back up toward the close of the program.

That's another way to connect with the Whale and I initiative to make this work but this is something that can have national ripples, right?

>> Totally.

And you know we are very kind and I'll tell you later about when we asked the community what is special about Allen County, what was said but we just have to where we do it, we just have to write it down and make everyone aware of it.

>> Well, I love how there's the Sunshine State or Land of Enchantment .

>> We need to be the kind of stay right there at the bottom of the license holders that love coming soon to a car near you as you're in your car you can then travel around the county and now we can get that the whole notion of how the whole county is a pallet practically but but more importantly a sculpture contest Alex so we have been working very closely with many partners within the county to develop a theme for each location where sculptures are going to be located.

So as you mentioned, you might need to get into a car to drive around to see them all.

There are 15 of these this is a very small model in real life .

They're much bigger and I think they're showing you on screen the scale.

They're about seven feet high and they are three dimensional and we have worked with 15 different artists to paint unique murals on the sculptures and those murals are going to be representative of the last two hundred years within each of those spaces.

So from one Huntingtown to Zionsville uh New Haven, um many of these communities have pieces now that are going to be representative of their story.

>> And as you're describing the program, we can see some of the locations and now some we can name names of some of those that are picking up the uh the the brush, the chisel, the hammer, the the bad days and and making making.

>> Yes, exactly.

So each of these artists have been working hard on designing proposals that were basically informed completely by the local steering committees.

And what's really lovely about this is for some of these communities this is one of their first public art initiatives and some are just getting to augment the collection they've already started.

So we are already a county with a lot of great public art and this is just adding more really meaningful work to that collection.

>> I do have to ask before I forget it seems now cities themselves are becoming the canvas for art.

>> What has that been like in your view to help transform and keep a celebration going and to see large buffalo on the landing, for example, things like that that's become part of our identity and they are leaving the lasting legacy and it's also informing creative that this is a place where they can stay and flourish and continue to invest themselves in our community which is only a benefit for us because really it's it's how we continue to become in the future the nicest county and one of the best places to live.

>> So the more creatives we get to maintain and keep here the better it really reflects the personality of the town and now much has been said about why people move to a place and it's really quality of place whether it's development of the rivers where it's the art it's all about the feeling that they get when they move here.

And so this is a very important and Alex of course is in charge of all that downtown.

>> She's the mastermind and I understand her friends in New Haven and have taken a step forward in some county activity of their own.

>> I think it's transformation through transportation which is today's verbal simper as you as you move through it all.

>> But what a wonderful way again to be able to have that individual quality community to community but still have it all collectively connect with you.

One thing I'd like to say about the fine art thing the public art sculpture piece is that it's been really interesting to me as an artist over even the last twenty or twenty five years that art has taken on a new relevance and it's more about a lived experience than just a piece of fine art.

And what I think is beautiful about what Alex has done in Fort Wayne and what's kind of neat carrying this project forward is that it really demonstrates a lived experience within that town and township and it helps that township tell their story in a public way.

So it really brings a shines a light on the good things that have happened all around the county and and it's a way to unify us back to that together we saw so that's really cool.

>> Yeah.

Now through all this another piece of connective tissue would be the timeline.

>> Another dynamic is a part of this celebration for the county and you pick it up from there.

>> All right.

Well, the Journal Gazette generously sponsored us and actually Lee again is the person because she is in charge of the it's a larger than life size timeline that will be at the bash but then it will travel to the library.

It will go to the the AMP lab.

It will go to the history center.

It will live on and that's what we're trying to do with a lot of the gifts that we're giving.

It's not a one and done they all will be assets that will be used many times and get pra just help people understand and feel pride in all where we were and where we are and where we're going.

>> Do you want to add or oh I'd like to say is that you know, like in our minds time collapses to our lifetime but by by really extending that in an actual physical like 50 foot long historical display based upon the generosity of the Journal Gazette, we hope to just really walk people through history so they can see where we started and how we've arrived where we are today and the journal is that has been in our community for over one hundred and fifty years generously supporting our community and and really lifting up those elements of our community that need to have attention drawn to them.

So we're happy to highlight their headlines in this timeline but also create a visual that will have a lifetime that goes beyond the bicentennial bash so that others in our community and hopefully students and families, our community can really step back and and embrace how we got to where we are today.

>> Lots of stories worth telling and ideas worth sharing which helps with community conversation.

The Journal Gazette is amplifying that as well.

I understand there are two essay contest sort of a kind that are out there.

>> Tell me about the Journal Gazette on September 2nd gave a call to the community to accept two different essays are not yet three hundred word paragraphs that talk about fifth graders to high school to the end of high school what the future what they see in developing and creating our future and then for adults to tell them what is so special about Allen County and on November twenty third on the Perspective page all these the best ones that they choose will be displayed and we can read all about what our community thinks is the best and where is our future and I believe you still have through the balance of September to submit right.

So there is still time to enter if a thought occurs to you or get the the young those young people get the whole family can play.

>> But there have been a part of the future the young yesterday.

>> So we need to know what was going to look like yesterday and while there is still time before the end of September, then five minutes after that it's November ready for what began in April and seemed like it was going to be so long in twenty twenty four is what I love is it is truly a culminating event for all the reasons that one has the word culminating in that sentence.

November 16th is the big day and thanks to Philip Cole Glazer from the Civic Theater who is the creative producer and who really is the gold standard for theater he has created a vital, vibrant, dynamic, entertaining show that is to hundred years through music.

So it's a musical journey and he has invited and engaged five different groups the legendary train hoppers, the North Side Wild Seiders, the Genesis outreach, civic theater performers and voices of unity and they're all very accomplished voices of unity just was the world champion in Auckland and the Wild Cider's won the state championship in jazz and they are going to be taking us through a musical journey two hundred years using the kind of instruments that they use two hundred years ago all the way through.

So it's a show and it will be wonderful and uplifting and will and will learn and will enjoy and that comes again in a spirit of community.

It will be an amazing evening at the War Memorial Coliseum and the conference center there but I'm not finished and yet she started so wait but wait there's more there is a lot we're going to reveal other gifts so what it says right here.

So as people come in yeah.

Six of the sculptures will be outside and people will be invited to take selfies because this is all about I am Alan County and then during the show there Alan County has never had a flag and we are going to introduce an Alan County flag and an Alan County song which is beautiful and again it's together we saw it will make you cry.

It will give you but wow.

And so it's going to be a fun evening.

There's also a video called Together.

We saw that one lucky guitar is doing and that is something that is going to be shown there but it's also living on will be shown to employers who might want to consider coming here.

So it's kind of an economic development tool.

>> It'll be shown to students and classrooms.

So there are lots of things that are living on it.

>> So you want to come it's you wouldn't you think in some regard after two hundred years somebody would have thought of that.

>> But it's it's a lovely thing that they did and you can have that connection going into it and yes, that's the flag experience something about what you're you're shepherding as well.

>> I am not OK it's it is a community thing.

There has been over 300 or 400 entries and the community it's going to be whittled down and then the community will get to whittle it down further and then the commissioners who of course are the hosts of this whole celebration will probably pick the final one and no one will know until that night November 16th.

>> We do have a celebratory graphic we should share just so you can all see this county bicentennial bash right there across your screen.

The truth of it is where it has been out already because I guess we're running out of chairs.

>> We are we the sponsorship is closed.

The single seats might still be open.

We're trying to figure out how to put more tables in there right now we have room for six hundred forty and they're gone.

But where we're going to figure out so that's not closed yet with the individuals.

>> A lot of pride going on and you'll find out more about where to connect with all things related to the the bicentennial here in just a moment.

>> I want to be sure we talk about time capsules who would like to take that one on because there are at least this many there are two time capsules and one is the one that the county is doing and that's going to be a big box that will be located in the basement of Citizens Square in the recorder's office and in that community is invited to submit artifacts, photograph.

And then one of the things and this is what I wanted to tell you about before.

Yeah, At B B a tourist in your own hometown we had a bicentennial table and we had cards out for people to fill out.

That said, what is the most special thing about Allen County?

>> And they were and people weren't so interested until they learned that it was going to be in the time capsule then they wanted to be and that's going to be open in twenty five years.

So it's not that long.

There will be a lot of people still around so after twelve hundred people went through what do you think?

>> Oh boy I'll give you two .

What do you think would be the the thing that people love most about Fort Wayne .

Oh I ask all of you what do you think I could give up?

>> Sure.

It's in my own interests.

I the thing that most people said was the people oh no.

The friendliness, the kindness, kindness they want to be with family.

>> So that was number one one to the second tier was parks and trails of family and the third tier Alex you'll love this was public art.

>> All right.

Take the zoo and the library zoo and those are all such wonderful assets.

We have so much to be proud of .

>> Absolutely.

Yeah, absolutely.

And I believe on the papabile trail isn't that one of the locations where some of the sculpture will have a sculpture on the puffer belly?

>> Oh, and one in the airport and one riverfront and in parks it's exciting.

They're going to be all over and then the second time capsule is the one and AMPE lab that four hundred students under Riley Johnson are deciding now they're they're guiding it themselves.

They're learning they're being project managers and they are going to also invite the community to submit artifacts and things but they can't be organic or rubber or electronic because you know in twenty five or fifty years they won't be there unless you put the instruction manual in the capsule and and all the electronics and so batteries remember that.

>> Right.

And they will put there to electric works.

That's where they're housed and so they will be putting the time capsule somewhere there but they haven't decided if that will be open in twenty five or in fifty years.

>> I remember you sharing with me that an overriding goal for all things with the celebration is to ensure that all involved feel included represented and respected.

>> I'd like to have each of you take take that one on as as the great filter through which all these ideas go because they sure seem to head that way.

Let's start there.

I talked enough I mean how lovely that everyone feels like they're part of our community and and going back to that kindness and and wanting every member of our community feel like they're included in some way.

One of the nice things about the while and I form on the Kindness campaign is that there's an opportunity to really create a narrative.

So if someone is working on a campaign that they think is being not addressed or should be addressed more deeply, I think that there is a really open opportunity just to express that and then also on the bicentennial website that a county commissioners have created , there is a volunteer form there and I don't know that there are volunteer activities specifically but if someone has an idea of some way that they would like to be more of a participant or see something change in our community, it's always good to collect that kind of feedback to make sure that we're filling in the cracks where people aren't being heard so they reach out to those around you and reach out to the representatives in our community to make sure you heard your voice counts right.

>> Alex, what's your voice for 30 seconds?

Oh, 30 seconds I suppose it would be if you're creative in this community and you see opportunities like this, please apply try get involved.

We love to put creatives on a platform and hear their voice and we've worked really hard to make opportunities available.

>> The whole is truly greater than the sum of the parts and it's a wonderful work that you all are representing on behalf of so many others that are representing.

And here is how your computer can connect you with several ways to go for L.A. County.

Two hundred dot com.

We also have Alexandra Hall art dot com for information also sharing while and I have one more time and you can go to the site.

>> Sure.

You're tracking your gifts as Fort Wayne Civic Theater is out there as well and special hanks to Hanney Inbee.

>> Thank you for being the official sponsor of the bicentenial and to the commissioners for their support and thank you for continuing to write the great story that is Harlan County and its two 100th year for all of us with time on behalf of Leon Powers, Alex Hall and Irene Walters.

>> I'm Bruce Haines.

We'll see you next week giving you