1234.

Get my shoes in.

Out the door.

Five.

I'm lost.

Six.

Seven.

Eight.

Feels great.

I'm gonna shine.

After I do what I'm gonna do.

I do it again.

Yeah.

Look at the sky with the beautiful color.

But never just for me.

You gotta share it with another.

I got to show, to give.

Let I want singing show.

Take a look and say a beautiful morning that turns into a beautiful evening.

And together make beautiful art.

And if you wanna see that, come along with me.

That's right.

Hello and welcome to Experience Michiana.

It's that time of the year again where I get to be in Courtney's house.

And I know you can't tell, but it's absolutely freezing in here.

It is officially now.

Our heating budget is zero and so it's all the lights from the Christmas tree.

Warm it up a little.

No, this is it does work.

I don't I'd hate to see what it's like without them in here, but we are going into a new year and we're very excited for it.

And, you know, as we look back on 2025 and some of our favorite segments, for me it's about aviation.

It's about children and about Notre Dame.

Yeah.

And for me it was really all about playing and a lot of opportunities to play a lot with the fine arts too, but also had the opportunity to get my hands dirty with some pottery.

Over at the Highland Studio Gallery, I also had the opportunity to check out the Kings Play Cafe in Mishawaka.

I love that space and of course I love to dress up.

You know that Ruby's Remnants is a wonderful place where you can actually buy materials to make your own costumes, or just wonderful.

I don't even like getting dressed.

But you like it.

I bet you did.

Somewhere.

And I had to today.

Oh, I see that.

It's a new year.

It is a new year.

So let's look back on 2025.

And some of our favorite segments are experience Michiana.

I'm always looking for a place in our community to bring my kids, bring the grandkids and just have good community, and this is the spot for it.

We're at Kings Play Cafe in Mishawaka and I have Rick out with me.

Thank you so much for joining me.

Thank you for having me.

This space is fairly new.

You guys haven't been open for even a year just yet.

No, just since August.

That's amazing.

But this is such a great space for really all ages.

Yes.

Tell me more about what's going on.

Okay.

I have to tell you, I have always wanted to have a ball pit in my house.

So this is like a dream come true here.

How many times I'm in here?

Okay.

And tell me more about this space.

Because this is really your bread and butter here.

This is what the families are coming in for.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So what we have here is Kings by Cafe.

And this idea started about four.

It was it was pre-COVID okay.

And it was just a situation where my husband and I were older parents.

We have a little one.

And his way of saying hello sometimes.

Hello.

He'll do a cartwheel right there in the middle of the restaurant.

And, that's his way of that's his way of expressing yourself.

And so as we would see that, you know, and and of course, when you're in certain places, you have to kind of calm the child down or conduct ourself a certain way.

And we still reach those are fundamental fundamentals.

But as we were traveling and exploring, we would see other kids that had other needs as well.

So we had he opened our eyes and then they even opened our eyes and what families needed.

And so that's what playing at the scene to start Teach by Cafe.

I love a safe haven where kids can come and play and learn, develop, express yourself and just have good fun.

I love it.

So I mean, in this space, what age is it geared towards?

So this this entire place is geared from anywhere from all ages.

Yeah.

And that's really.

Yeah.

But if you were getting on and onto this structure, I've seen children up to 12 years old.

Okay, get on to the structure.

Okay.

So different.

Like for instance, there's capacities on swings.

And this is up to three years, stuff like that right there.

That information is out there.

But if like I have, pre-teens play on the play on the inflatables and do basketball, do soccer for the babies go over there or or children who actually want to play floor games, like kitchen and fire truck and fire train.

Yeah.

And then I have our little nesters here who want to get into the nest.

And this is great for the sensory kiddos because I know most of my kiddos are all sensory, and they need this thing that they need to touch.

They need to feel.

Yeah.

And so really, Kings Park Cafe takes care of all the five senses, so you're able to, you know, touch, feel, smell, all of the, all of the five senses.

Okay.

You're able to do that here because if you even touch the structure, there's even a texture there.

Oh, cool.

Yeah.

Climbing walls.

If you look at the steps there, there's pressure as well.

Our kiddos.

Sensory.

Yeah.

So that was another thing, that I learned about.

And sensory is evolving the information because it wasn't even out there at first.

Right.

They had it totally associated with autism and then they found out.

But hey, this is its own thing.

And so then they started educating.

And so I when my kid I was smaller a baby, that's when I first learned about it.

And that also is a big part of here.

So the company itself, if you may, that know the sensory palate.

Oh, okay.

So we actually strive to be able to meet the sensory needs.

And what we also understand is because the sensory information was out there years ago, there's a lot of adults, even, and other people that have sensory needs that we didn't even know we have.

Yeah, well, I have a sensory need of the smell because I smell pizza.

You guys have.

Well, just makes it like being able to have this.

But you guys also have a space so you can be here for a while.

You guys have a cafe?

Tell me about that.

Let's go head over to the cafe.

The cafe is really, really awesome.

It is a noble romance.

We're a noble romance franchise, so we wanted to bring back that nostalgic, authentic toss of the dough.

Noble romance.

I see donuts taste delicious also.

Let me tell you about the donuts we actually partner.

We love community partnerships.

That's why we love collaboration.

So we partner with Jax Donuts and bring fresh donuts to our community here at King Spy Cafe.

I love our family.

And you guys have a cereal bar over here.

Let me tell you this.

I don't know if you've been to Vegas, but anyway, this is the famous, Syrian ice cream bar, and we call this ice cream, too.

Yeah.

So you mentioned that part.

Okay, k play.

Syrian ice cream bar.

So here I, we have we come up here and we have just memories.

We make memories all the way.

All the time.

All the time.

I love it.

By the way, what are your guys's hours?

We are open from 10:00 to 8:00.

And then on Friday.

Saturday it's.

It's till 9:00.

And then on Sunday it's 10 to 7.

My happy place is an airplane hangar.

I absolutely love it.

And I'm here with Matt, who is somewhat of a humble but like local legend and a little bit of a way you've done some like, really cool things as a pilot, right?

Yeah.

I know we're here to talk about today, Indiana, but I want people we've got quite a while to talk, so I want people to understand a little bit about your background in aviation, too.

So how did you get into aviation?

I grew up out, in California on the eastern Sierra Nevada, out of nowhere.

And so, out there, there were no pilots.

So it was difficult for me to get into flying because I didn't know any pilots.

And that's kind of what inspired stay Indiana was just because, I kind of.

I was that kid that really was interested in aviation and just didn't know how to get into aviation.

Yeah.

So we're trying to help find pathways into that.

But it also from the other aspect of it made me very interested in backcountry flying as well, which is what you kind of hinted at.

So I have a model that doesn't backcountry flying as well.

So stay Indiana.

As somebody who got my pilot's license in Goshen in 2019, this area actually is rich in aviation resources, but it feels like it's just I mean, you can go to some of the airports here that should be thriving and there's just no activity going on.

And it's really sad to see because what and you're trying to really what, stay in the air and trying to break down those barriers.

Right.

For people.

Yeah.

So when we started looking at, different ideas, we were sitting in Oshkosh, which is the largest airshow in the world.

There's a group of us sitting there and, having a discussion and realizing there really wasn't much for local teams in aviation around our area, which is too bad.

You look at a lot of the organization stuff.

I'm usually the young guy, showing up.

Yeah.

I'm not that young, so I should not be.

No, no, I know what you're saying.

So I was like, we need to find some way to get the next generation involved.

Yeah.

So, actually, at Oshkosh, there was a group that had an airplane built.

An airplane built.

So we kind of stole their idea.

They were very nice to help us make sure we don't do the same mistakes that they've done.

Got us in contact with others that have done it as well.

So we can kind of use best practices to make sure we can get it right the first time.

We're closer to the right.

And the whole idea was, yeah, to get it more, families and more, students out into the, local aviation, a lot of people don't even realize, like, the Mishawaka Pilots Club even exists now.

It's great here.

Yeah, yeah, it's.

We gotta get grass strip and, little paved strip.

A lot of airplanes out here that come and go.

But, yeah, even in Elkhart and South Bend, there's, a lot of aviation there that people don't realize.

Small plane wise and so forth.

I'm guilty of this, too.

Is that.

Yes.

If I sit in the plane, I can fly it.

But also, I don't always know, like, I'm not a genius when it comes to I'm not an aircraft mechanic.

Understanding everything that's happening.

So I think this is a really clever way to also get teens and future aviators to really understand what's going on when they're flying and what's beneath.

It also, and can we see the plane that's out here?

So tell me a little bit.

It's a zenith 750 cruiser.

Yep.

This is the zenith 750 cruiser.

It's a light sport.

Is it?

It could be made of the light sport or, the normal experimental category.

Okay, so we're making it for the a little bit heavier use.

Yeah.

So skip the light, sport.

But you can make it for light sport instead.

It holds two people.

And then with full fuel, you're looking at just, with the higher gross weight, you can hold about 500 pounds.

Nice.

So two grown adults, or two smaller adults in some bags.

Yeah, yeah.

So I, I guess I feel I feel targeted right now, but I it's like every time I think about losing 6 pounds, I think I can get an extra gallon of fuel on there, like, you know, so, so why did you pick this airplane?

Is it obviously you can buy it as a kid.

Is it a bit like more affordable or what?

What's the reason?

So there's a lot of, things that went into it.

So as you're probably well aware, there's a lot of different type of planes that we could have picked from, initially we're looking at tail draggers because we were kind of like, well, we have a grass strip.

Nice to go back to kind of grass roots.

The problem is insurance companies don't like tail draggers.

So people that are aware if pilots just stop looping them after they land, you know.

So yeah, people, the pilots that ground loop them.

So, I think it's like less than 10% of pilots can fly tail draggers nowadays.

It's kind of a dying art form.

But because of that, the insurance, rates for more outrageous.

So we're like, we can't afford that.

So, as much as we like it, so we go towards the tricycle gear and then have the tricycle gear ideas.

The zenith is a very quick build, so, we don't lose the interest of the kids.

We don't want some big, long, build where they're working, hours and hours and hours on just one little spot, and they lose interest.

So it's nice and quick so you can see some progress go to keep their interest going.

And it's also, like you mentioned, very cheap.

So, very cheap.

Yeah.

For airplanes it's very cheap.

This is the first time I've ever been around, airplanes.

And I'm getting paid to be here today.

Normally, I lose a couple hundred bucks every time around them.

And if people watching want to get involved, support you if they have teens, as it's still open to people to be able to come out, or is that already structured with the schools or how?

Not.

So we are working on getting into more schools.

So we're currently at the South Bend schools, and then we're working on getting at the, Goshen schools, where it's an actual class at the CT class.

And then we also have an after school program that we do here at the Mishawaka Pilots Club.

Yeah.

After this build is done, which we should be flying it in August, we have plans to get another airplane to start doing again.

And we want to make this kind of perpetual, so we are already taking applications for new students, for the, the August to September timeframe.

We'll start the next one here.

So when they go to our website, it's, stay Indiana dot org to find more information about that.

Today we are checking out art and I'm so excited to be here with Alex.

Thank you so much for joining me.

We're at Highland Studio and Gallery and this is just a really beautiful space.

As soon as you walk in, you are greeted with just wonderful ceramics.

And really, they're from all over the world, aren't they?

Yeah, yeah.

We, we represent 30 different artists from all over the country.

And, we have an artist as far as Hong Kong.

China.

That's amazing.

That's okay.

I have to ask, how did you get into ceramics?

I took it in high school and really fell in love with it.

And then, I took an took an art class and kind of befriended all the art.

That's all it takes is one art undergrad.

And, you know, I went into I went into undergrad as, like a math education major and kind of was like, I can't I can't do this.

So I dropped it and then, yeah, I was friends with a bunch of artists, and I took ceramics one and, the professor who is actually a Notre Dame graduate student.

Oh, wow.

He, like, really took to me.

And I was really excited about, like, learning all the things that he talked about in class.

And, he let me participate in firings that normally you don't participate in.

Okay, a little bit further into the program.

So, I think if it wasn't for that, I don't know how much excitement this is for you.

So our teachers are so employed, right.

Like.

And what they still in you and then, like you said, like the spark that you feel to be able to create something like this.

Yeah.

Now everything here, is it more artwork or is it daily usable materials?

Both.

I think there's there's this there's been a really interesting push in ceramics to, to be fine art, but also be utilitarian.

And so, blurring those lines has been, for lack of better terms, a trend that has been happening within clay.

And you can see that, you know, for the last few decades.

I love that.

And how long have you guys been here?

We're downtown.

We're right across from the post office.

Yeah, yeah.

So I opened as a pop up in April of 23, and then we officially opened our doors in June.

Wow.

So you guys have you guys almost two years.

That's amazing.

I, you know, I've had lots of friends who have been asking me like, you guys have to come check out Highland.

Yeah.

What are the reasons why we need to come here?

It's a, it's a great resource to see what's happening in in clay and art.

Around the not just here regionally, but around the country, and everything here.

Is it available for purchase?

Yes.

Yeah.

Everything in store is available.

Available for purchase.

There's some things that just aren't available online, but everything is available online.

So you actually have an online shop too.

Yeah, yeah.

So everything that can be shipped can be purchased online, which is great because a lot of times I feel like there's that one piece that maybe catches your eye, which you might not see, you know, day to day if you're not walking in here, but having it available that it's great to send as a gift to someone.

Yeah, yeah, send as a gift.

Or even if, like, I've been eyeing this piece and I just can't stop thinking about it.

I've had people just buy it and schedule a pickup.

Okay, that's when you did it.

So you know.

Oh, you know what that piece is?

It really spoke to me.

Yeah.

I'm here at Fidler's Pond in Goshen for something that happens every year, well over the last eight years.

It's a Bashor Children's home boat build and then launch.

And the kids from Bashor will be here a little later on this morning to launch the boat that you see behind me into this pond.

After over a year of hard work, I'm here with the three volunteers who make it happen.

I'm here with Christian Jay and Guy Jay.

You originally started this eight years ago.

So how did you get into boat building?

Is it something you do for a career, or is it just a hobby of yours or.

Yep.

It's it's, I used to build I'd probably done it about 20 years, and I used to spend summers in Maine, and I think, that kind of hooked me being on the ocean.

And, I've just enjoyed this and the some of the skill it takes to do it.

I had driven I live close to Bashor so I had driven by and and be, like, Sunday mornings on the way to church.

I would just have this feeling I'm, you know, you're supposed to be doing something there.

And, one Sunday, I had a, a I was part of trying to help them locate a runner someone had taken off.

And so, and and talking to them, I realized it's time to step up and see what see what we can offer.

So.

Yeah.

And so one of the best ways to volunteer is to mix your passion for what you already love doing with helping young children.

What kind of difference have you seen in them over the last eight years, when they actually do get to volunteer?

I, you know, they some of them have never used tools before.

Some of them have never had the opportunity to build something like this.

Some of them haven't been on the water before.

And, you know, to us it kind of blows us away.

But, you know, the environment or whatever their background is, we just try to give them that opportunity to, hey, this is what we do.

This is tools we use.

We try to let them use everything.

And, Hey, look what you can walk away with, you know, some accomplishment.

So.

Yeah.

Now, guy, you came in a couple of years after Jay started it.

It really gives the kids a chance to see that if they stick with something and be part of a group project, they can really have amazing outcomes too, right?

Oh, absolutely.

The the kids come in and and oftentimes they get to see the, the start of a boat when it's just the pile of lumber in the, in the pool barn where we work.

And then at the end they get to see something like this, that we've taken something that's not much and turned it into something that's great.

And we hope that's a lesson that they learn.

Yeah, that they may feel like they're not much, but in the end they can be something beautiful and cool.

Yeah.

Well, Bashor often talks about how, Bashor is almost like a cocoon for caterpillars turning into butterflies.

You know, you go in one way and then, you know, you hope you come out another way.

And and of course, these kids have had a lot of challenges in their early life.

And that's tough on them.

Oh, yeah.

I know you're passionate about really meeting them where they're at in terms of their emotion and just not nonjudgmental and just, you know, just helping them through that.

Yeah.

We just we just want to hang out with kids because quite frankly, Jay and I are getting old and it makes us feel younger and like we're somewhat relevant.

And they're like, oh, look at you guys wearing your new balance's now.

I'm just kidding.

Yeah, I look at it, we joke, he has four daughters.

I have a son and two daughters.

We mesh them up pretty good.

We want a second try.

Right.

So.

And, talking about sons and daughters.

Kristen, you're a son in law.

So, of Jay's where you kind of roped into this, or are you willingly doing this willingly?

I, it was about seven years ago when, basically, I was, I came to the family, and, and Jay, I saw what Jay and Guy were doing, and, I was pretty interested, and, yeah, I joined them.

And do you have kids yourself now as well?

Yes, I do have two kids.

Are you helping not to mess them up the way you're trying?

Are you learning from them or by you?

Yeah, yeah.

And so, what how do you feel helping these kids?

Like, what does it bring to your life to be around them and see the difference for it is teaching me a lot of things.

And, and, basically, you know, the way I feel, I mean, I feel blessed to be able to help someone that that sometimes doesn't have the same opportunities that, that we have.

And so, yeah, I mean, it's just honored to be able to help.

Yeah.

Yeah.

This looks beautiful.

I love this fabric.

This is a beautiful dress.

Maybe a nice little shawl.

Oh, well, now we're getting at all the fabrics here.

Okay, I'm checking out this new place, Ruby's remnants, and more.

And you may have been here with us before at cash.

They costume company, but they have a new retail operation, so I'm just going to stock up on all these fabric.

Oh, there's my friend Gretta.

Hello, Courtney.

How are you?

I'm fine thing.

Okay, I picked this one out.

Okay.

I think I'm going to make this one.

I'm going to make a shawl with.

Okay.

And this one I want to make a dress with.

So now I need an idea for this.

This is a fabulous piece.

It is a fabulous piece.

Are you up to making a shirt?

Well, I could okay or hahahahaha.

We do our best.

We do have patterns.

Okay, and we can talk you through a project if you need the help, I love it.

Well, come on over here and let's talk about what you guys are doing, because, you know, if you haven't been to Cassidy Costume Company before, you guys, I've been around for decades.

87 years, 87, 87 years.

That's incredible.

And it's such a wonderful organization.

Talk a little bit about that.

First, because Ruby's Remnants is actually what helps support that organization.

Absolutely.

So Cassidy has been around since 1938, and we supply costumes for up to 400 events a year, mainly for K through 12 schools doing theater projects.

But also you can come in if you're dressing up for Halloween or you're going to a mystery dinner, or students that have history projects or anything where you might need to dress up in a particular kind of costume.

And what's great about that is that you can rent the costumes so you don't have to worry about investing into a wig.

The shoes, it comes with everything here at a really affordable price.

Yes.

So obviously these days you can order stuff online, but it's it looks like you ordered it online, right?

Yeah.

And the authentic.

Yes.

And so the stuff that we have here is, is absolutely above that in terms of quality.

And you're renting it so there's no commitment on your end.

And you can go through and choose the pieces and parts that you like that work for you.

And we do the best we can to help out.

And then you get to bring it back to us and not think about it being in your closet anymore, and you guys clean it up and take care of it, and you guys do a phenomenal job with that.

Well thank you.

And so part of what Ruby's remnants and more this is brand new for you guys.

And I guess part of the organization helping you guys out too.

This is just so exciting for you guys to put something like this in place.

Because when Joann Fabrics went out of business, we kind of lost that opportunity to pick up fabrics for more of our our formal wear.

Sure.

So as people who sell clothes, we were really alarmed, actually, to lose a place like Joann's, because there are lots of places you can get, sewing notions and fabric for crafts and things, but not so much if you're making clothes.

So particularly for people that are doing cosplay or making formals for like prom or a bridesmaids dress, we wanted to we thought about, could we fill that niche and would we want to fill that niche?

And absolutely, it turned out, yes, we could.

I love it right.

And we've transformed this whole space, have transformed.

If you've been here before, it's the layout is completely different.

We have a dedicated retail space now and we're super excited about that.

And we've taken fabric that we were holding just in case we needed it for projects.

And we're making that available as remnant.

So they're really, really well priced.

And then we also have new fabric that we stock from, from wholesalers so that people can get higher yardage amounts or more formal things.

But the intention is to help those people who are sewing clothes if you no longer have a local option for that.

I'm here at the History Museum of South Bend for something that football fans this time of the year, especially with the season now back.

This is a great exhibit to come to.

I'm here with Emily.

Emily, tell me a little bit about this exhibit.

It's about Newt Rockne and his life and legacy, and there's so much to see.

Yeah.

So this exhibit covers Rockne's entire life from his origins in Norway.

His travel across to Chicago, how he got to Notre Dame and then how his, coaching career went, and also all of his other extracurricular activities that he did aside from coaching as well as eventually his death, on a plane.

And how long have you been putting this together to have this?

I mean, did you just open it in time for football season?

That was obviously planned as well.

We just started getting this together last September, open just in time for football season to start.

So we're hoping to get a lot of Notre Dame fans in once the home games start.

So yeah, it's great.

And I know we're going to have a look around the museum at some of the some of the highlights of this exhibit.

So starting with a sweater.

So let's go there first.

All right.

So tell me about here.

It's a sweater and a whistle.

So this is this actually belonged to him.

Like did he wear it or.

Yeah.

So this was worn used by Knute Rockne and very much well used, from what Notre Dame told us, they got this sweater from a player of Rockne's who said, that he wore to practice all the time.

And then they actually found this photograph of him with a hole in the exact same spot.

Exact same size.

And then this whistle, we have the side facing up.

One side has Notre Dame, the top side that is facing us, says Newt Rockne.

This is actually the fashion today.

But that was just actually because that's how much he wore it back.

Yes, exactly.

All right.

And we've got some little fans here who love seeing it as well.

My little daughter is here with me today as we look at the life and legacy of Knute Rockne.

And I also know that, in this building is the Studebaker Museum, which is, you know, your neighbor museum.

And actually, this exhibit has a bit of a crossover with that, which is a vehicle that's over here in the corner.

So I didn't know this about Knute Rockne, but he actually worked for Studebaker as well.

Right.

So yeah.

So he started working for Studebaker shortly before his death.

This car, the cars didn't come out until after, Rockne has passed.

And while the sign says, the Studebaker Rockne, this was actually a completely separate company.

It was a subsidiary of, Studebaker.

So a completely different company.

There's a couple different models.

This was one of the newer ones.

So we were actually able to borrow this from the Studebaker Museum.

It's absolutely beautiful.

And, of course, football coaches didn't make as much money back then.

It's not like it is today where, you know, you might get $5 million a year or something.

So he had to have a real job as well.

Yeah.

He had, several projects that he worked on, not just, with the Studebaker company, but he was also creating other promotional items.

He worked with the Wilson, company.

We actually have a helmet that has his name on it.

And his pants.

He has a humidor that was made from a real football as well as a football kind of game board situation over there.

So it's a new year.

I'm sure many of you have your resolutions for the year.

And what are we looking forward to here at Experience Michiana?

Again, I feel like we played a lot this year.

Next year I'm kind of hungry.

I feel like we need more food and drinks out there, so I'm really looking forward to exploring some of those aspects of the community next year.

I think I would like, you know, there's times where like, for example, recently I interviewed Alastair, who's a conductor of the symphony.

I would like to actually get on stage with him and actually find out, like dig deeper.

Like, what does it actually mean when you're doing all these things?

Yes.

So I'd like to get a little bit further beyond the interview.

This year you could be a guest conductor.

That would be good.

That would be awesome.

I feel like if the conductor wasn't there, they'd still play.

Well, right now.

I'm not saying like, I'm not saying I don't think of it, but you leading the way.

Yeah.

If they just ignore me.

No.

I'm also looking forward to personally because, you know, we're expecting our second child.

Yes.

So that's going to be good.

I'm way too old for this, but I love it all the same.

So anything personally you're looking forward to?

We have a catering.

Well I do you live in your house?

We have a kiddo getting married this year.

Are you?

Do we also have a kiddo graduating from high school?

So we have lots of exciting stuff in our family happening too.

Well, I'm going to head outside of Courtney's house because I need to warm up.

So, there's warmth in here, but happy new year.

Happy new year.

Have a great one.

We'll see you next time.

Experience Michiana.

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