(bright music) >> Chuck: Coming up on Lake Shore's local best of 2023.

>> Jake: We go 70 miles an hour, and you think, oh, I do that on the highway, but I'm here to tell you it's a completely different 70 miles an hour.

>> Bill: And all across the country, people are learning of us and wanting what we have here, right here in Northwest Indiana.

The more we're driven by that motivation of love, the more people we can reach and the more people we can bring hope to.

>> Julie: Jake went through every sport and school physical and one day, he was here running a play on a practice field, and he went into sudden cardiac arrest.

We knew that we needed to do something as a family, so this was not happening to other children.

>> Jeff: Mr. Hamstra's a developer, did a lot of real estate building, shopping centers, and about 1960 to 1962, where we're sitting, was a cornfield.

(drums beating rhythmically) >> Music is so beautiful.

Its beauty is enhanced by the more you're exposed to it.

And if you're able to learn a little bit deeper, that's almost like having a deeper love.

If you could imagine love being deeper, why wouldn't you want to keep studying and learning?

I mean, that's what life is.

(bright music) >> Audrey: When we started this ministry, we wanted to make sure that we're giving families fresh options and healthy options.

>> Alaina: This was the first time ever that canines have competed in a triathlon in the USA, and we did it to honor our service dog heroes.

(bright music) >> Dale: Doing as much as you can, as quickly as you can is important to me.

Life is short and the earlier we get started helping our community, the better off our community will be.

(upbeat music) >> Almost every single professor I've had, I'm on a first name basis.

By building that relationship with faculty, I was able to get involved with research.

It's one thing to read about an idea in a book versus physically doing it and seeing the results.

>> Announcer: Strack & Van Til is hiring full and part-time positions for deli, floral, bakery, department managers and more with flexible work schedules, sign-on bonuses, paid vacation, and benefits.

Learn more at strackandvantil.com.

(bright music) >> Announcer: Additional support for Lakeshore PBS and "Eye on the Arts" is provided by viewers like you.

Thank you!

>> Hello, I'm Chuck Roberts, your president and CEO at Lakeshore Public Media.

As a recent transplant to the area, I found out a lot about Northwest Indiana through the programming we produce and present, shows like "Friends and Neighbors," "Eye on the Arts," and "The Whitney Reynolds Show" are reflections of the variety of people and places that make our communities vibrant and full of surprises.

Our first story, though different from typical PBS fair, is a great example of resourceful communities, creating their own spaces.

For many of us, rural Indiana means cornfields and dirt roads.

In Medaryville, those roads lead to Shadyhill Speedway.

Dirt track racing provides a unique rush that is exhilarating to race fans and the family.

Built on tradition, Shadyhill shows that hard work, high revs, and a little dirt can lead to good, clean fun.

(upbeat rock music) (engines roaring) >> We go 65, 70 miles an hour and you think, oh, I do that on the highway, but I'm here to tell you it's a completely different 70 miles an hour.

First of all, it's very loud.

You're strapped in extremely tight.

As far as the dirt goes, there's no windshield, so it's constantly hitting you in the face.

(upbeat rock music continues) Close quarters, they say, "Rubbin' is racing."

It's an adrenaline rush for sure.

There's no experience like it.

There's a reason that we spend all this time and money on it, it's 'cause driving the car is the rush that we all look for.

The talent is incredible.

We're racing against guys that have been racing for 30 plus years, and they don't make mistakes, and they're just so good.

>> Announcer: Please welcome Jake Straka.

(crowd clapping) >> It's a lot harder than anybody thinks.

I went to a open practice in a four cylinder car out at Illiana Speedway, and I remember pulling onto the track being just extremely nervous, and I thought I was going really fast, and then I didn't realize that we were still under yellow.

We hadn't even started going yet, and I got passed by everybody about 100 times, but I had a blast, and I was hooked instantly.

It wasn't until the next year that we became pretty competitive.

Little by little, you get more comfortable, you drive into the corner a little further, you break a little later, you accelerate a little sooner.

You just pick up on that type of stuff.

Track conditions have a lot to do with it.

In a matter of 10 minutes, you have a drastically different track.

(bright music) >> Well we started Southlake Speedway in Crown Point years ago when Jake and his brother was small.

His grandpa had been going there for 50 some years and that's how it started and he got into it.

We went almost every Saturday.

He always said he was gonna race and okay, kids always say, but he did, and he loves it.

A lot of people come for the first time, and they come back 'cause you can't beat dirt racing.

Jake started on black top.

He went on dirt one time and never raced on black top again in his life.

>> I still get really nervous.

And then I climb in and I go to staging, and then you sit in staging for sometimes 15 minutes or so, and you're just sitting there just raring to go, heart's beating outta your chest.

But it's the strangest thing, the second you drop onto the track, it all goes away.

(upbeat rock music continues) It's a unique experience, and then after the race, it takes a little bit to come back down.

I know I definitely don't go to sleep early on Saturdays after the race.

I usually can't fall asleep right away.

I think if you run a heat race, green to checkered, you're in the car for about two minutes, and the feature, you're probably in the car for, I don't know, five minutes, and then we work on this thing.

Some weeks, it's literally every night after work.

If nothing goes wrong, it's definitely still three, four nights, practically a whole nother job if you want to be competitive.

Thankfully, Joe over here, does a lot of the technical stuff.

We do have some sponsors, but most of the money's coming outta our pockets.

>> This is actually my third time here at the track.

My mom's friend, his name's Charles Boardman, the 07 car he races here at Medaryville, it was cool.

I actually got to sit in my friend's car.

It's a really fun time and you have a blast.

Sometimes you'll get the feeling that the racers get.

>> So, it's a good place to come and hang out, good eats and watching good racing.

If you're interested at all in racing or your kids like it, bring 'em out on Saturday night, check it out.

>> Shadyhill is probably the most family-friendly racetrack we go to, even if they're not race fans, I think they enjoy it, coming out a couple times a year.

(engines roaring) Racing is by far the most competitive thing I've ever done in my life.

It's crazy.

It's fierce competition.

But when you're in the pits and you're in trouble, or you need a part or you need help, the same guy that you were just racing door to door with, they'll help you out in a heartbeat.

My parents come out most nights.

My aunt and uncles come out most nights.

My brother's always there.

We're just fortunate to have the friendships and family that's not family, that becomes family from racing.

(playful music) >> Hello, I'm Maggi Spartz, President of the Unity Foundation of La Porte County.

The subject of this next segment is one that Unity Foundation has been proud to support through grants and endowment funds.

Camp Sharing Meadows is a safe place where adults with intellectual disabilities can come together and enjoy a variety of outdoor activities, participate in the arts, and learn faith-based values, all while celebrating what makes them unique.

Executive director, Bill Harmon, was kind enough to show us around, let's take a look.

(bright music) >> Camp Sharing Meadows is a values-based Christian camp for adults with intellectual disabilities.

And so our friends from all across the state of Indiana and even across the country come for a week-long summer camp, six weeks during the summer, and we also have weekend mini camps throughout the year, Friday to Sunday, and it's all sponsored by the SHARE Foundation, an organization that serves residential and vocational and camp needs for people with intellectual disabilities.

And it all started really with our founder, Father Blaney, in the 1970s.

He was approached after one of his masses by a family with a son with Down syndrome.

And they came up to him and said, "Father, what is there for my son with disabilities?"

And he said, "You know what, you're right, "there isn't much," and so something amazing grew from that.

And that was when he started these camps out in Chesterton at Camp Apple Acres, he realized that they had never had the opportunity to be able to spend time with friends and grow in relationship.

And so, at the end of each camp, after this wonderful opportunity for them, and they were singing, we have a song that we still sing today, "That's What Friends Are For," the campers would be weeping, not because they were sad of being away from mom and dad, but they were sad that it was over, because for one of the first times in their life, they had an opportunity to have friends, to be over at those sleepovers and have a life of their own.

Being Christ-centered in a Christian camp, we spend a lot of time on values.

So we may talk about, in our value session every single day after breakfast, we'll talk about concepts, like our dignity given to us by God, that we're all made in God's image and we all have great value.

We'll talk about things like what does it mean to be responsible.

And so together, in that circle when we gather, some beautiful conversations come about.

And then after that, you have a lot of your typical camp activities.

We'll do a craft.

We have a in-ground swimming pool that has a ramp, and we have plastic wheelchairs so that everybody can go swimming.

We have outdoor activities, like water fights and wiffle ball games.

And Tuesday nights, we have a camp dance where our residents and our campers come together that we have a professional DJ, and let me tell you, there's no party like a Camp Sharing Meadows dance party.

Everything of your typical camp that's all centered around building community and growing in friendships and having an awesome vacation on our property.

(gentle guitar music) >> Meet new friends, having fun, being silly, trying all the things and even the value sessions, I'm a conduit to God, I'm very spiritual.

I love everything about camp.

It's a good holiday to go on, bring out the childhood in us.

And it just bring lots of fun.

God makes everything possible, that's our scene, and everybody trying their best, and they try new things and no limits to anything.

And everybody gets involved trying different things and new things, challenges, and I got a lot of challenges in my life, 'cause I'm legally blind and I'm the youngest as a triplet, and I do a lot of challenges, and I do big steps forward, like a leap of faith, and I keep going, and I'm very courageous and and brave, strong.

>> So it's so rewarding.

It's not something I thought I would ever do.

It's just kinda, the Lord led me to this.

I was just very called of being able to provide opportunities for people that often get overlooked.

So being able to provide them experiences that maybe they've never had, or friendships, it's so amazing with that experience to just be able to facilitate that.

I've done that in other ways, but in this way, it's amazing what joy you can bring to 'em, even with the littlest of things >> Bill: When they come to camp, not only are they being served, our friends that are attending camp, but it's also a service to their families, because they know that they're protected, and they're in a safe and loving environment and that we have qualified staff that are taking care of them.

We're on a mission of hope, because those families need to hear what we're doing.

And all across the country, people are learning of us and wanting what we have here, right here in Northwest Indiana out in their communities all across the country.

And the more that we're able to spread our message and the more we're driven by that motivation of love, the more people we can reach and the more people we can bring hope to.

(gentle music) >> Hello, I'm Celina Weatherwax, President and CEO of the MAAC Foundation.

The Play for Jake Foundation was established in 2013 by Julie West after the loss of her son.

In the wake of tragedy, she channeled her grief and created a nonprofit dedicated to the prevention of sudden cardiac arrests in youth.

The organization partners with schools to provide heart screenings for its students, as well as to raise funds and awareness around the importance of AEDs.

(bright music) >> Over 255,000 people die a year to sudden cardiac arrest.

And for our children, with doctors only doing just a basic physical, they're not thinking about checking and looking further into their heart condition, and that's what's so important.

One student dies every one to three days in the United States from undetected heart condition.

Jake went through every sport and school physical, was a vibrant, healthy young man, was hardly ever sick from school.

He never missed school due to any illnesses.

And one day, he was here running a play on the practice field, and he went into sudden cardiac arrest.

It wasn't on my radar.

I thought I had a perfectly healthy son, didn't even think about a heart condition, and he passed every physical.

I thought, oh, he's healthy, he's good, he's good to go, and then one day, he doesn't come home.

After Jake, we found out Courtney had the same condition, and she was an athlete all the way through school, found out then, I had an electrical issue after losing my son.

So, at that time I was in my mid 40s and I never knew I had anything that could've caused me to go into a sudden cardiac arrest.

Another cardiologists told both Courtney and myself that Jake saved our lives.

We became a non-profit just a few months after losing my son, Jake.

We knew that we needed to do something as a family, so this was not happening to other children.

So what we started to do was going into the schools and do heart screenings.

We're trying to be proactive.

We're trying to save a life.

And when we we're doing these screenings, I mean, we have saved lives.

It's so important that we know we have that knowledge.

And when we do the screenings, the parents will know that knowledge and can go from there.

Educating our kids on that as well, like if you're not feeling well, tell somebody.

If your heart's racing, you feel dizzy, tell somebody.

And then as parents, we really need to listen.

There's doctors that might say, "Well, if they don't have a sign or symptom," well my son never had a sign or symptom, and he's not here anymore, so I think it's really important that we do that.

I think with what happened with Demar Hamlin on a national level, that was huge, 'cause I think everybody saw, wow, his story would've ended possibly different if there was not an AED and the personnel on duty to get in there quickly and save his life.

So I think everyone was like, wow, they need to start thinking, is my child safe at school?

We are signing Senate Bill 369, Jake's Law, so I'm really excited about that.

It's been a couple years in the works.

(bright music) And finally, I walked out of the State House at 1:00 AM on the final day of all the bills that were supposed to be finished, and we'll have Jake's Law on the books starting July 1st.

It's having an AED with a goal of three minutes, having it within that amount of time at all athletic events and practices.

And the most important thing is having a plan to where everyone knows what to do when someone goes into sudden cardiac arrest, whether it's a coach, a athlete, a fan, a cheerleader, a band member, they know what to do.

We're doing it at the younger levels.

All kids then will know what an AED is.

They'll know what to do if someone goes into sudden cardiac arrest, and then they can take that plan or what they've learned, they can take it to their workforce when they graduate.

So eventually, we're gonna get to that point where everybody knows what an AED is and how important it is to be prepared.

I'm relieved, I'm relieved, 'cause now kids in the state of Indiana on the athletic fields and practices will be better protected.

This community has been amazing from day one.

When they filled the stadium at Jake's celebration of life and the fact that they painted the 26-yard line orange for Jake and the flag, (inspiring music) sometimes there's no words that can really show my appreciation for the support.

It's been amazing and very helpful too.

I don't think maybe people realize how helpful that is for me, knowing that I have the support that I do.

You know, Jake, he touched a lot of people in his years here.

He was a kind, funny, just all around great kid, and so people remember that.

People remember how he made them feel, so I think that's a big part of the support that we've received, because he just was a really good boy.

>> Hello, I'm Kelly Anoe, (bright music) President and CEO of Legacy Foundation.

Drummer Lannie Turner is one of the most respected and beloved musicians in the region.

His performance and interview in this segment reveals a gentle and humble spirit with a passion for continued exploration of music.

As a player and as a teacher, he has helped cultivate and inspire the music community in Northwest Indiana for decades.

(drums beating rhythmically) >> I've always loved music, first off.

As far as the drums, I attended a parade, and the drums were so powerful, I could feel it in my young chest as they went by.

And it just kind of, it gave me a thrill.

I just wanted to be a part of that.

I couldn't have been more than eight or nine, but I didn't actually get a chance to play a drum till I was 12.

(drums beating rhythmically) (drums continue beating rhythmically) (drums continue beating rhythmically) I grew up in Gary.

I recall before I had my drums, I had a nice polo bike you know those with the monkey handlebar and the banana seat.

And this guy had a set of Ludwigs back then, unheard of.

So I said, "Man, look here, I'll let you ride this bike "if you let me sit down behind your drums."

So we struck of a friendship and needless to say, I would ride by his house every day.

But the way that I actually got drums, I came from a family of five siblings.

My mom and dad were divorced.

It wasn't my birthday.

I came home from school one day, and a set of drums were sitting on the living room floor.

And my siblings didn't complain about it, because they knew that I was banging on everything in the house.

They were happy to see me have it, and I was happy to have it.

(upbeat music) (horns honking) Let's say early 70s, maybe late 60s, 11th Avenue in Gary, Indiana had at least three clubs from each side of the street within a couple of blocks.

And you could go and watch great bands playing blues, R&B, and if you could catch one set, go across the street and catch someone else, that's how vibrant the scene was.

And then a couple of streets over on 15th, you had Clayman's Show Lounge, where you could see national acts like B.B.

King, Bobby "Blue" Bland.

It was just a wonderful, wonderful time.

(drums beating rhythmically) I wasn't familiar how important Albert King was when I got introduced, but thank God, I was in the right place at the right time and managed to get that education from Albert.

He was very nurturing.

He saw I was a little green in certain areas, so he would show me how to do a Texas shuffle or a slow blues the way that he wanted it and watch his cues, so I would know the dynamic range that he wanted.

But he was an incredible guitar player.

I've even seen B.B.

King come to one of our performances and share the stage, and those two would go at it, and at the end of it, B.B.

would give Albert his praise.

And for a young man to witness all this, it was just incredible.

Oh, listening is paramount, and if you don't listen, you're not gonna keep the job, it's as simple as that.

So I become very sensitive when I play with other people.

(drums beating rhythmically) >> Kevin: How does it feel to know you've taken something you love and shared it with another generation?

>> Well, this is the thing, Kevin, what they picked up upon most of all was my love for it, and in turn, they love it, and from the looks of it, they taught you to love it, so that takes care of itself.

So we're all on the same journey, on the same path, and hopefully, we will get to the heights that we inspire to be at.

Music is so beautiful.

Its beauty is enhanced by the more you're exposed to it.

And if you're able to learn a little bit deeper, that's almost like having a deeper love.

If you could imagine love being deeper, why wouldn't you want to keep studying and learning?

I mean that's what life is.

(drums continue beating rhythmically) (gentle music) >> Hi there, I'm Heather Ennis, President and CEO of the Northwest Indiana Forum.

What started as farmland in Wheatfield, Indiana transformed into a beautiful landscape.

Founded in 1960, Hamstra Gardens takes pride in providing a beautiful green space for people to enjoy.

Owner Wilbert Hamstra's real passion is not only developing the gardens, but sharing his creation with the community.

Let's take a closer look inside Hamstra Gardens.

(bright guitar music) >> Mr. Hamstra's a developer, did a lot of real estate building, shopping centers and every other thing, and about 1960 to 1962, where we're sitting, was a cornfield.

And from that passion he started building, and now we're to where we're at now.

In 1992 is when I came on board 30 years ago, and it's evolved from there.

He was a builder by trade, and this was just a sideline passion hobby.

Some people got show cars, he had a garden, and he just kept maintaining and building it.

As it started evolving and people started seeing the beauty and stuff, there's photo shoots are all the time anymore.

A lot of people do photo shoots out here.

Prom weekends, there's proms from Valpo, Crown Point, all of them seem to make their way down here anymore, all the local ones within an hour.

(gentle music continues) There's a lot more than meets the eye.

It's very, very highly maintained.

We're real particular on detail right down to little weeds and cracks to bricks being perfectly set.

As you can tell, when you walk around here, everybody, it's always very neat and tidy.

With landscaping, you're always evolving, but it's a maintenance job a lot just keeping up what we got now.

But structures, you're always doing remodeling, construction stuff.

You're always redoing pavers, you're redoing beds, transplanting plants, replanting plants, it's never ending.

A lot of people say, "So what do you guys do, just mow?"

And that's basically, hardly a drop in the bucket of what we do.

>> I rarely, rarely come out here without clippers and a saw in my hands, because if I see something that needs attention, I can do it right there, and it gives me a form of exercise.

and also, I keep my body busy, and I just enjoy doing that, it's something I...

It's a love for it.

I like to do it.

I'm out here not working, I'm out here playing.

It's just seeing people enjoy it and travel far to get here, and it just gives me a great pleasure and joy to share it with other people and let them enjoy it, and it would be not fair for hoarding it for myself and not share it with the community in the surrounding area.

It's something, this is my hobby, my life, and this is my way of getting away from with the work and everything and so on, and I come out here just relax and enjoy playing with the plants that I like to do.

It's not a job for me.

It's pleasure, and yeah, I do it for the joy I get out of keeping it up and making it look nice, and so I can share it with other people, >> As anything, after 30 years, sometimes you can get to where when visitors are here, you start seeing it through their eyes, and it gets new again.

You work and you actually forget to stop and see the beauty at times, 'cause you're so busy from one thing to the next.

So sometimes it's nice when you do show somebody, especially somebody that's never been here, I guess it makes you feel good to show it off a little bit at times, to have people, and especially the people that really actually know what goes into having something like this.

(bright music) >> Hello, I'm Bill Higbie, President and CEO of the Porter County Community Foundation.

After a mission trip to Haiti, giving vaccines and medical help to rural communities, Audrey Krooswyk was looking for a way to help her community here in Valparaiso.

She felt a calling to feed families in need, so she started First Fruits Gives.

With the help of her family, they hope to ease the burden of food insecurity by offering fresh and healthy options to the families they serve.

>> We feel like the pantry and what we're doing is really serving the people in need in that time of the most need.

I'm a nurse by trade and with my nursing license with our church about four years ago, I went on a missions trip to Haiti where we served rural villages.

We just took care of their health needs, gave them physicals and vaccines, things like that.

And at the end of the trip, we were so on fire, and we were so excited with what we were doing overseas, that we talked about what can we do once we get home stateside?

And I don't know where it came from, I think maybe it was just the Holy Spirit that said, "I want you to feed people."

So I came home and I told my husband that I wanted to start a food pantry.

I wanted to feed people, and as he always does, he jumped right in and he said, "Great, let's pray on it, "and let's figure out what it looks like."

So in January of 2019, we had about five families signed up.

Those were families that were on free and reduced lunch at our kids' school, and we were packing bags full of groceries at our dining room table, and we thought, this is great, we're really helping, we're really doing it.

And then the next year, the Lord provided farmland, and two years after that, he provided more farmland, and so now we serve 56 families every Friday, and it's almost 220 people.

Some of our families have as many as nine people in them, and some of them are retired couples on a fixed income that are just the two of them.

So this is a 20-acre farm, and since we obtained this farmland, we realized that we're able to produce fresh eggs.

We're able to produce fresh poultry and beef and pork options for our families.

We also have 3,000 linear feet of gardens that we're able to pull from and feed our families that we serve as well with that.

The way that I grew up was extremely poor.

Both of my parents were addicts, and so when we ate food, it was from food pantries or churches, which is a wonderful thing, but for the most part, we would bring home boxes full of bags with dried beans or dried pastas, canned food, which are all fine, but they're high in sodium, and they're not the healthiest choices.

So when we started this ministry, we wanted to make sure that we're giving families fresh options and healthy options.

The thinking behind the farm is just that we're gonna grow what we can.

Everything that's pulled from the garden goes straight to our families, and that's where the name First Fruits comes from.

In the Old Testament of the Bible, the Lord talks about giving back what belongs to him.

And so us giving away those very first crops, the very best of what we grow and produce, just shows God that we understand that we believe his promise to continue providing for us, so that's why we give away what we do.

When we first started, we were just packing bags of groceries.

So people would come, and everybody got the same thing unless they had a food allergy.

Now that we've turned our giveaway into more of a free grocery store, we're seeing people really open up and start to talk.

It used to be that they would come up to the farm halfway, grab their bag and leave.

But as they're shopping now, we're able to start conversation with them, which is sort of my heart.

I wanna talk to everyone.

I wanna give 'em a hug.

I wanna know their story.

I wanna pray with them.

I wanna be involved in their life and help them feel seen and loved, so having the free grocery store set up is a beautiful way for them to just come in and say, "Oh my word, this is my favorite thing," or "Do you have a different type?"

Or, "What else can I do with this item?"

So it's just a great way to start conversation.

I love when first time families come in.

A lot of times they'll come and say, "Am I only allowed to come once?

"How much can I have?

Is it okay for me to take this?"

There are some local food pantries that our families can't shop in except for one time, because they're not within city limits per se.

So I had one mom come in and she was crying, and she said, "I just got turned away from two food banks, "so I'm kind of nervous to come today, "because I came last week and asked you for food."

And I told her, I said, "Come in.

"You're welcome every single week to take what you need."

And just seeing that heavy weight lifted off of her, she just said, "My kids appreciate it so much."

So, it's really nice just to see that we're helping even in a small way to make sure that their needs are met, even throughout the weekend.

(upbeat music) Growing up, all I wanted was to look like every other kid.

I knew I was dirty, I knew I was hungry and smelly and different, but when you're young, you can't do anything to change it.

So, those types of programs, like our Back to School program where we make sure each kid has a brand new backpack and a new pair of shoes, and that backpack is full of supplies, so they walk in those doors like every other kid, that to me is the most beneficial.

It's just seeing those children, they're feeling that love, and they're feeling cared for, because their needs are being met, even just a few needs.

We're hoping to see people that are in need that they know that they have a place that they can go and get the things that they need.

But then we're able to rejoice with them when they're back to work or when a single mom graduates college, and she's got a full-time job.

And we're also seeing some people that have been on our list, they'll come back and either donate when they have plenty or they'll come back and donate their time, or they simply pray with us or spread the word.

So we're seeing this cycle of, "Hey, I was there and you helped me, "I'd like you to help my friend," or "I'd like to come back and help you guys."

(gentle piano music) >> Hello, I'm Whitney Reynolds of "The Whitney Reynolds Show."

While our program has featured many personal stories of struggle and success, Jessica Buchanan truly stands out as an inspiration and survivor.

In 2011, while working as a humanitarian aid worker in Somalia, she was kidnapped by pirates and held captive for 93 days.

During her time in captivity, Jessica faced unimaginable challenges and uncertainty, yet her strength and faith provided her with the resilience she needed to endure.

Let's take a look.

>> Whitney: This is the story of Jessica Buchanan then.

>> We are being treated well.

We just needed to send out the message to the Americans not to attack.

>> Whitney: And now.

>> So I mean, Hargeisa again, small town, not a ton of expats working there.

I started teaching.

That moved into working with the Ministry of Education and creating curriculum in conjunction with the UN, and then that led me to becoming the education advisor for the Danish Demining Group.

>> Did you know at that point it was dangerous on a different level than Nairobi?

>> Yes, absolutely.

Look at Somalia on a map, it's shaped like a seven, and it's divided into three regions, and we were up in the top of the seven in the northern part, and that was the safest part to be in.

And then you got down at the bottom, much, much less safe.

People live on less than a dollar a day.

They're nomadic.

>> Did you know you were gonna be going out in the field?

>> I did, I did, and I was okay with that.

I had been asked to give a training in the southern part that I had mentioned earlier that was less safe.

The last training that I canceled, a bus full of women and children had been blown up by an opposing clan and I said, "Nope, I'm not going."

And then, they would counter with, "Well, we're not the target.

"You're an expat, you're an aid worker.

>> When I was learning about your story, one thing that I was surprised is that people call themselves pirates.

>> So they started taking over these ships and holding them hostage.

They stopped pirating the waters and moved on to land, and so they started taking aid workers out of refugee camps.

>> Whitney: She heard her inner voice, yet didn't listen, a gut wrenching decision that she says forecasted her future.

Did you feel in your gut that morning something's not right?

>> Absolutely, I knew from the time I left Hargeisa something wasn't right.

That moment when I got up that morning, October 25th, 2011, I abandoned myself in my moment of deepest need.

And I stood there looking at myself in the mirror, and I said out loud to myself, "Jess, do you want to do this?"

And I knew the answer was no.

>> Whitney: She made it through that day and was headed back when her worst nightmare or vision came to life.

(TV buzzes) >> We were done with the training.

I am getting back in the convoy of vehicles, and I text my husband some stupid joke that says, "If I get kidnapped, will you come and get me?

"Will you come and rescue me?"

And he responds something like, "Ha ha, of course.

"Now just be safe and get back to the guest house," and that's the last interaction we have.

>> That is eerie.

>> Yeah.

So we're in a convoy of three Land Cruisers, and Paul and I are in the middle.

We have a driver and then the security advisor sitting in the back next to me, and another vehicle comes roaring up on the right side of us.

I can tell that there are angry men yelling, and it's getting closer, and then it almost sounds like we're surrounded, like our vehicle's surrounded.

And then I hear the crack of the butt of an AK-47 on the car hood, something just bam, bam, bam.

Abdirizak is sitting on my right and his door is pulled open and there's a very angry, scary looking man wearing a police uniform, and he's got an automatic weapon, and he pulls Abdirizak out of the car.

And I remember him hitting him in the head with the gun and then getting in next to me and putting the gun to my head, and he screams at the driver to drive.

I'm 32 years old at this point.

What did I do wrong here?

I didn't even get a chance to become a mother, and I think that this is it and there's this, I can feel the metal of the barrel of the gun against my head, and I'm thinking, no matter how this thing turns out, if they were to stop, take all my stuff, kick me out of the car and let me walk back to town, it doesn't matter, because from this moment on, everything has changed.

(dramatic music) >> Whitney: Jess recounts being marched out to the desert and undergoing what she recalls as a mock execution.

Only 32 years old, this is when she was captured by pirates.

>> Their demand started at $45 million.

But our people, my organization, they had professional hostage negotiators who were coordinating with the FBI, they countered at $20,000.

>> Whitney: Did they let you communicate to your husband or anybody else or was it just video?

>> We had six proof-of-life calls throughout the course of the captivity.

I remember saying, "I love you, "and I'm going to get through this."

And then I remember sitting back down and leaning against this tree, and I had this realization, didn't the Buddha reach enlightenment while he was sitting under a tree?

Maybe this is my holy place.

Maybe this is an opportunity.

And it made all the difference in terms of my survival and really making some decisions about if I survive this and I move forward, I'm gonna do some things differently.

Things are gonna be different for me.

By the time we reached our last camp, I didn't know it was our last camp, we'd been there about a week and there were nine guys, nine of the pirates on the ground that night, and every single one of them was completely passed out.

And the pirate on my left, he was holding a firearm, which he didn't typically do, and I could sense that he was terrified, and he's like whisper screaming to all the other guys who are in the camp to wake up.

And then the night just erupts into automatic gunfire.

(guns firing) I can sense that there's somebody over here, and I hear this young American man's voice, and he knows my name and he says, "Jessica, it's okay, we're the American military.

"We're here.

You're safe now and we're gonna take you home."

>> Whitney: An extremely surreal ending to a story that could have been written for the movies, yet this experience created a new calling on Jess.

(gentle music) >> My husband and I wrote a book, and it came out in 2013 that was really just have an account of what happened for our son.

We all have a story of survival, and I'm grateful for it now.

>> Leon's American Race is typically a triathlon for disabled veterans.

(upbeat music) But this year, a new K-9 triathlon was added.

It's the first of its kind in the United States and provides an opportunity for veterans and service dogs to participate together, strengthening a bond forged in teamwork.

(bright music) >> There are races you can do with your dog, and I've seen how in Europe, there are triathlons for dogs.

And so I was searching as hard as I could on Google for a triathlon that will allow dogs.

And I contacted our local ones in Tulsa and they said, "You can't have a dog because of insurance."

So then, I just had one last effort.

I was on Facebook, I typed in canine triathlon, and something called Leon's America Hero Race popped up, and it looked like an obstacle course that allowed canines, and they also had a triathlon, so I was wondering if the triathlon allowed canines.

And so I emailed Leon, and he got back to me really fast.

I was surprised and he was like, "Whoa, let's see if we can make this work," and I was not expecting that.

I was expecting the normal response of, "No sorry, the insurance doesn't allow it."

I did not know who I was dealing with, and so here we are.

(laughs) >> This is our 40th anniversary that we're celebrating.

It's a very, very humble beginning.

Back in 1983, the sport of triathlon was relatively a newborn, very few events across the United States, and we just had this idea that we can jump into this and do something very special in a humble way.

And the comment was, been looking across America, and there hasn't really been that door opening up where someone would embrace this concept with the service dogs and the veterans having a triathlon.

As soon as she mentioned about veterans and caring about our true heroes, that's everything to us.

There's never really been a service dog triathlon for veterans.

And it's just so intriguing, because we have a unique venue here.

We're very fortunate to have this venue, the city, the state, everyone has just been so supportive over the years.

So when we mentioned we want to take care of our heroes, and we said they were the dog portion, a lot of people were going, "What?"

And I said, "Yeah, they're gonna swim together, "bike together, run together."

And it's just really important to understand the value that they bring to our veterans.

If you spend any time talking to a veteran that has a service dog, they'll tell you the value of that it just can't even be measured.

So for us to, in a small way, be able to do something for the first time on American soil that will benefit our veterans and respect our service dogs, we're humbled and we're honored to do that at America's Race.

>> I don't do anything without her, and to have something that we could be a part of and support for other people to bring knowledge and expose what they can do, it's mind blowing.

She saved my life when I was in very bad times.

She absolutely 100% saved my life, and she makes me wanna be a better person every day, and you can't replace that.

Leon does a great job of bringing, he paints a picture of what we're here for and why we're here and who sacrificed for us to be here.

>> I loved it, loved every second of it.

It was our first anything like this.

We met Alaina through an event last week, a weekend.

It was a canine obstacle course, 5K, and it was our first ever, so we had a blast.

And she told me about this and I was like, "I love it, we're in!"

>> Today was a lot of fun, a lot of fun.

We've done a couple of running races together, and he loves to play fetch in the water.

My coach heard about this triathlon, and so she told me to check it out, and we signed up a week and a half ago, but this was the first time that we were ever on a bike together with me biking and him running.

It's always fun to do something with Riggins where he gets excited, and he loves to run and play and swim and so to have an environment where he can do all of those activities in one is amazing, and it's something I'll treasure for many years to come.

>> It's cool to have everything in your mind, and you have people telling you, "This is gonna be awesome," but you don't believe it till you see it, and it was awesome.

The hope is that one day this could be a race that veterans and civilians with their service dogs could participate in, that even if you have a service dog, and it needs to go everywhere with you, you can still do a triathlon, it doesn't prevent you from doing that, 'cause you can do it with your service dog and with your companion who needs to be there to make sure you're okay.

So that's the hope in growing the sport in the US.

This is the first time ever that canines have competed in a triathlon in the USA, so we made history, and we did it to honor our service dog heroes.

(gentle guitar music) >> Steeped in country blues and folk music, Charlie Parr is a captivating performer, armed only with his songs, his voice, and a guitar.

He visited Lakeshore for a session of In Studio.

His performance of 817 Oakland Avenue is a poetic turn, a friendly reminder to celebrate what you have and the joy that comes with sharing.

(bright guitar music) ♪ You remember what it's like ♪ ♪ When the whole of the world was filled with light ♪ ♪ Now to have that in your sights ♪ ♪ Spread it around ♪ ♪ Spread it around ♪ ♪ Spread it around do, spread it around ♪ ♪ Have you felt joy in your days ♪ ♪ Even though you've had you share of pain ♪ ♪ What does hoarding all that joy gain ♪ ♪ Spread it around ♪ ♪ Spread it around ♪ ♪ Spread it around do, spread it around ♪ (bright guitar music continues) ♪ Has your belly ever been full ♪ ♪ And have you fed your family too ♪ ♪ Does your table have just a little more room ♪ ♪ Spread it around ♪ ♪ Spread it around ♪ ♪ Spread it around do, spread it around ♪ ♪ Are your blankets soft and warm ♪ ♪ Does the roof above you keep out the storms ♪ ♪ Can you save someone else from being cold ♪ ♪ Spread it around ♪ ♪ Spr5ad it around ♪ ♪ Spread it around do, spread it around ♪ ♪ It's true about love ♪ ♪ It'll die if it's covered up ♪ ♪ It's got to be all given away ♪ ♪ So we can all feel the heat of its rays ♪ (bright guitar music continues) ♪ Can you remember what it's like ♪ ♪ When all the world was filled with light ♪ ♪ Now do you have that in your sight ♪ ♪ Spread it around ♪ ♪ Spread it around ♪ ♪ Spread it around do, spread it around ♪ ♪ Spread it around ♪ >> Charlie recently released his first novel, entitled "Last of the Better Days Ahead."

Visit his webpage for the latest.

(bright music) I'd like to thank all of my co-hosts for sharing some of the best the region has to offer.

For more great local information and entertainment, find us wherever you find content or download our app to keep in touch on the go.

Lakeshore Public Media is a community effort.

If you have an idea for a story, reach us at info@lakeshorepublicmedia.org.

Maybe next time we'll highlight the unique people, places, and experience that are your Northwest Indiana favorites.

Until then, be kind and celebrate your friends and neighbors.

>> Dale: Doing as much as you can, as quickly as you can is important to me.

Life is short, and the earlier we get started helping our community, the better off our community will be.

>> Almost every single professor I've had, I'm on a first name basis.

By building that relationship with faculty, I was able to get involved with research.

It's one thing to read about an idea in a book versus physically doing it and seeing the results.

>> Announcer: Strack & Van Til is hiring full and part-time positions for deli, floral, bakery, department managers, and more with flexible work schedules, sign-on bonuses, paid vacation, and benefits.

Learn more at strackandvantil.com.

(bright music) >> Announcer: Additional support for Lakeshore PBS and "Eye on the Arts" is provided by viewers like you.

Thank you!

(bright music)