One, two, three, four.

Get my shoes in at the door.

Five, six, seven, eight.

Feels great.

I've got shot in Africa.

I'll do it by hand.

Gonna do it.

But to take a look at this guy with the beautiful color about the than just for me.

You got to share it with another.

I got to show you give let out a long singing show take a look at a beautiful morning that turns to a beautiful evening.

And look at the big beautiful light.

And if you want to see the come along with me that's got nothing to experience.

Michigan I'm the show's producer.

Kelsey's no.

And we are looking forward to spring.

We hope you are.

The Michigan weather seems to be teasing us here a little bit, but we have a great show for you today.

First of all, we are going to head the ship's AWANA and pop some popcorn with your popcorn.

And then we're going to find out about an art sale whose hope is to help the people of Ukraine.

And first, Kelly is over in Elkhart at the Lerner Theater, where she's going to find out a little bit more about the historic Kimball Organ It is always great to be at the Lerner Theater in Elkhart, and it's great to be with you, Andrew.

But what I'm most excited about that I'm sitting on the Kimball Organ bench, okay.

I mean, this is fabulous.

And walking into the theater and seeing it on this stage, I mean, it is pretty spectacular.

Yeah, it's one of our favorite things in the whole building.

The the the the organ was actually put into the theater when the theater was built back in 1924.

And then when the theater was rebuilt ten years ago, they restored the whole thing back to exactly how it would have been when the theater was built to begin with.

So it's all pride and joy and it's so much fun to share it with people.

Yes.

It is.

And it's, it's only one of three that's in its original location.

Is that true?

Right.

So when we have performances, people will either tune in from doing things remotely or they'll come and visit from all over the country.

It's, it's a really big thing when people come to play.

Now, when we think about going to concerts, a lot of times we don't think about the organ anymore.

What makes it so special?

Well, the organ is sort of like a piece of history that people can still connect with.

When when this theater was built, it was still the time of silent movies.

And so this organ would have been used as a whole orchestra to do the musical accompaniment for the silent movies that we're on.

And actually, we're doing a silent movie tomorrow with exactly like we've got a couple of Charlie Chaplin movies coming.

Okay.

And then the people in the audience get to hear the organist making up the music as it's going along while the movie is being shown.

And it's this wonderful, wonderful thing of interacting the music being played live with the movie on the screen, right?

So there's that silent movie series, and when will that be taking place?

So that takes place several times a year.

And the next one is going to be tomorrow night, this coming Thursday here at the Lunar Theater.

And Clark Wilson, who is a nationally known organist, is coming to play as the musician for that piece.

Oh, my girlfriend.

Is it Charlie Chaplin?

Yes.

I mean, that's a name you don't hear about anymore, but that's right.

My goodness.

Yeah.

So it's going to be a couple of those movies.

And then there is the moviemaking in those era is amazingly creative because they didn't have CGI and all these things.

Every stunt that was done, if a wall fell down, it fell down on top of somebody who magically had to get out of the way.

So it's so yeah.

So it's all alive and it's all it's just amazing to watch.

So it's really fun.

I hope that's alive.

And so tell me because that I feel like if I were the organist, I would be a little bit nervous because you have to watch the movie, right?

And then play the sound at the same time.

There's anything ever go haywire?

Well, no, because it's amazing.

It's like a whole opera, like, you know, the cliche they have about the organ coming out of the floor.

So what we're sitting on would actually come up out of the floor at the start of the movie, and the organist will sit and watch the movie ahead and then have all of the things that they want to play, and they'll play it while watching it.

So it's all in real time.

That is really, really happening.

Nothing like life.

Exactly.

Yeah, nothing really special about that.

Now it's on the stage today.

Is this where it's going to be?

It will be here.

It's going to be just a little bit further towards the audience.

But yes, this is exactly the location it'll be.

Oh, wow.

That is fantastic.

Speaking of the organ and having people here, how great is it to be able to welcome the community back to the Learning Theater after so many months of not having.

It's been amazing.

And actually the organ has been one of the few things we've been able to use throughout the pandemic.

Celia, who you're going to talk to in a little bit, has been one of the organist who's continue to play the instrument.

And then we've always been able to continue to have it live streamed.

But now to have a lunchtime concert where people can come back into the room for free and enjoy it just feels like a wonderful way to share the theater with people that it's fantastic.

And I'm looking forward to speaking with Celia.

I'm a little nervous because I hear she's a favorite here in LA.

Yeah, but she's you'll love Celi Celia, what a pleasure it is and an honor to be with you.

You are a legend here.

In Elkhart.

But before we talk about that, I want to know what got you started playing the organ.

I feel like that's an instrument.

Not many people say I want to learn how to play it.

So what inspired you to do that?

Well, I play by ear, and when I was two years old, I was playing my own piano pieces.

I was crawling up on the piano bench and playing, and I had a piano teacher who was also an organist.

And so I began taking really serious organ lessons when I was in seventh grade.

And then there were churches that needed organists, as there are now.

And I started playing for services.

And because I played by ear, I was also playing in a few clubs in high school and college.

Oh, are you in the club?

Well, because I was doing pop stuff, you know, if I can hear it, I could play it.

And so I became very interested in theater organ, and there were a couple restaurants in Fort Wayne that drew my attention, and I got to play there.

I played for the Wagon Wheel Playhouse when I was 14 and accompanied, and it was just it was a wonderful experience.

So I've been not only a classically trained musician, but also doing other things right and started so young.

Now, isn't is a difficult instrument to play because you look at it and there's a whole lot of stuff going on with this.

Well, it's like I say, people, it's like a cockpit.

You're you're looking at all these instrumentations and you have buttons and whistles and all kinds of things to make.

As Andrew said, a wonderful theater instrument where you can actually use the instrument to tell the audience what's going on.

And so you have what you're doing with your hands.

But then you also have to this is your feet.

Well, this is a pedal board and you don't have to work out at the gym after this.

You know, you've been using your arms, your fingers in your legs.

So, yes, this is like a keyboard.

But for the feet, how many different sounds can there's lots of different sounds on here.

Like there's a piano, there's a harp, there's a Celeste there's a drum roll.

Oh, my goodness.

Tambourine, castanets.

So do you when you're playing, do you change the sounds while you're playing them?

Yes.

Yes.

And the buttons are already set up Oh, my goodness.

And today I'm going to be using the bass drum in addition to what I'm playing.

Wow.

Also, what is so cool is we have birds and one bird tethered to they're having a conversation.

Oh, I see.

I see.

Once in a while, I'll play something like Yellow Bird, and they're really talking to each other, you know?

And so it's kind of funny.

And then a sleigh ride a sleigh bell horn.

Oh, and that's used a lot in the silence.

I was about to say that it's just funny and gone.

Doorbell Now there is a free concert coming up that features you and them.

So tell us a little bit about that.

And I think it's going on for the entire year.

Yes, the last Wednesday of each month.

It's called Lunchtime Live.

And people can come and go or stay for the whole time.

11 to one And I've also a play piano, too.

So a lot of people I'll do the organ and then for 20 minutes or so, and then I'll go to the grand piano and I'll improvise and play some fun things and then get back to the organ and just give people a variety of textures to think about when they're listening to me.

That's great.

And you can also watch that concert virtually as well.

But one last question.

How does it feel to play an organ like the Kimball Organ and one that has so much history behind it?

It's an honor.

It's an honor to be here.

I just I'm in awe every time I come.

The theater is lovely, the staff is lovely.

The organ, they kept it up so beautifully.

There are other organists that do play, like Clarke Wilson, who's doing the silent movies.

And that's a that's a talent in itself.

So that Lerner is is just foremost in the area as a wonderful avenue for organ music and for for artists.

That's wonderful.

Celia, thank you so much for being with us.

And for more information on the concerts here at the Lerner Theater.

You can go on to experience Miss Gianna Dot org.

Celia, why don't you take us out on something?

I wanted a club.

Well.

Oh, yeah.

And it's time to get poppin.

We're here at Yoder, Popcorn and Chips, Joanna, Indiana.

And I'm here to get these free samples.

Elise is one of the owners here.

How to leave.

Hello.

How are you?

Well, I'm ready and hungry for popcorn.

What do you have for us today?

Have a free sample of our tiny, tender white.

Awesome so I'm going to try one of these that's really good.

I like it.

It's like the perfect combination of salt, butter and puffiness.

Yes, that's one of our most popular.

Awesome.

Now you guys have a really a wide variety here.

I want to tell us a little bit more about it.

I know I saw a little just going over here.

Oh, great.

Awesome.

Yank you.

I'm going to set this down so I don't eat it all.

I want yeah.

This is the easy way just to kind of share all the different varieties that we have now.

So you would think like, I guess for me, I'm not a popcorn expert, so I thought there was just like one popcorn you just pop it.

That's what it is.

But this is not true.

No, it's not true.

Okay, so we carry eight varieties here in the store.

Well, the most common is going to be your yellow and your white.

That's going to be what concession stands have.

Okay.

We wholesale a lot of those to the community, but our biggest sellers to just individuals is going to be our tiny, tender white, which is your sample.

Okay?

And that's because it is smaller and a little bit crunchier, but it doesn't have those flakes that get stuck in your teeth.

So I know we were talking around so and then our next biggest one is going to be Our Lady Finger, and that's considered completely hopeless.

So that's good for our little kids.

Those with diverticulitis those braces.

So yeah.

So you're saying we can still eat?

How come with braces?

You can.

I will let my teenagers know that.

That's awesome.

And you guys carry all of these varieties here.

But not just already pop, but you have them in the kernel form too.

Yeah.

So we, we carry all of them.

The kernel form.

Not all of them come in the microwave form.

Oh, okay.

All right.

So what's the best way to cook them up then?

And do you guys offer something to help with that?

Yeah, we have everything here.

So the oils we carry for different kinds.

We have a couple that are butter flavored added to the oil, so that's really nice.

And then so what we pop our sample in here at the store is the butterfly were canola oil and the butter salt.

Okay.

That's when you taste that butter and salt.

Then they're going to have.

That makes sense now.

Okay, awesome.

Well, why don't you tell us a little bit around here, because this is kind of like your microwave popcorn section here.

So this is really great for like a grab and go if somebody is ready to go for their family movie night.

Yes.

So these are these are simple, just kind of your your basic ones.

Okay.

We also have sample packaging, the end, which it has five of our varieties in it.

So a lot of those are very popular.

Okay.

That way everyone can kind of get a mix, figure out which one they like.

This, which is the one that's most popular.

That's going to be the extra butter.

The extra butter.

Yes.

Okay.

A premium yellow kernel with extra butter on it.

I like the extra butter ones, too.

Those are always my favorite.

And the building itself is gorgeous.

How long have you guys been here?

This is a pretty new building for you.

It is.

We put it up just about two years ago.

Okay.

And you're right off the highway.

So how is foot traffic been for you here?

It's been awesome.

Yeah, that's kind of why we wanted to move up here.

We had a good location just four miles south, and it was nice and cozy.

But when this was available, we just really wanted to be up here where all the tourism really is and just want to and the traffic out here is has been a tremendous help to us.

I know we've had people coming in all morning, so but this is really a family tradition.

Here for Yoder to have this to have popcorn really in the family.

And I think your husband is going to talk to us a little bit about kind of the history behind Yoder.

So he's fourth generation for Yoder Popcorn.

That's amazing.

It's been around for a while and it's, well, hey, let's go find him.

Okay.

Sounds good.

Actually, All right.

Now, Russ, thank you so much for joining us.

We just spoke with your wife, Elise, and this really is a family generational business, isn't it?

Yes.

So in 1936 is when my great great uncle Rufus Yoder actually started the owner popcorn business.

Okay.

That was quite a long time ago.

Yes.

We're hoping to make it a 100 years in my lifetime.

So we're going to be around for another year, what, 14 or so.

So yeah, that's amazing.

And how has that progressed over the years?

It's made leaps and bounds probably from what you can tell behind us from an old tractor that they used to use on the farm.

Oh really?

Everything that is we use now is so much more modernized.

Sure, computerized.

You know, Autosteer, a lot of variable rate technology on our planners tractor sprayers.

That sounds a lot more complicated.

Then there's a lot more than just jumping on here and pushing the clutch in and letting it go.

Sure.

Yeah, well, times have changed.

A lot more technologically advanced.

But also, you know, one of the things that I would be interested in is how is the climate affected farming industry specifically for the kernel?

Well, I wasn't around in 1936.

I know what the climate was like then, but I do know now what we do.

All our popcorn is growing under irrigation so we can always take out the drought or the excessive heat aspect out of it.

Popcorn doesn't like a lot of stress, so we don't want to stress it ever.

We like to keep it healthy from the time it goes into the ground, the time we harvest it.

So maybe not so much climate, but we're using fungicides and stuff like that to keep it healthier longer.

Sure.

And also the water to keep it growing and not to stress it out at all.

Now how is the whole process different from just a general corn that somebody might process?

And, you know, there's not a lot of difference in growing popcorn than what there is regular corn.

One aspect would be it's all non-GMO.

So you do have to care for as far as weed control is a lot more difficult and insect control is more difficult than regular corn.

But as far as planting, harvesting and all that, it's all the same as regular corn.

And you guys are harvesting here, too, right?

You have acreage.

Tell us about that.

Yeah.

So normally our normal growing year will grow about 700 acres of corn, which on the big scale of things is not a lot, but it sounds going to be here for us.

It's still quite a bit that all produce about roughly £4 million of popcorn.

Wow.

And people eat it.

People will eat it.

How would fourth quarter of today, not today.

But usually every day I have some really well and it's great to popcorn is generally healthy.

Yes.

It all depends on what you put cook it in and put on it after.

But the actual popcorn is very, very healthy, which is why you have so many grape varieties here, too.

What's your favorite variety?

Well, my favorite thing to eat here is our extra butter microwave popcorn, which is this the big yellow with the extra butter on it.

And that's something I eat probably two or three or four times a week.

Okay.

So that's, that's the favorite.

And so you got to make sure you come get that one, too.

And I love you that you guys also have opportunities where people could essentially do like a popcorn bar if they were having a wedding or if they wanted to maybe pick up some items for the school.

Yeah, we've had we've had them do like wedding favors.

Like we're, they'll come in already, have pre popped stuff like that for treats on the tables or stuff like that.

So we we can kind of customize whatever that people want.

Somebody comes in with an idea, my wife Elise, she'll come up with a price and a a size of bag.

You know, and get them done for those people.

Can you do them in like the wedding colors?

We can, I think pretty much do anything you want.

See, there you go.

We're helping you out here of Indiana.

Awesome.

Well, what else you want to tell us about kind of the process of popping popcorn?

Because I think that's something that really, you know, you don't necessarily think about because it's just simple.

A, go to grab it out of the microwave, throw it in So really, the process starts at harvest because we have to be very particular on how we harvest it, because if you damage a kernel of popcorn, it won't pop.

And so right away, if you do that right off the start, it's not going to be you're not going to have any happy customers.

Sure.

And it all depends on the moisture of the corn which we control in beans.

When we harvest that we had harvested a certain moisture before we ever process anything.

It's got to be at a certain moisture.

And you just want to make sure you get it cleaned.

And graded and and have the moisture right before it ever gets in a bag or a microwave bag or people will not be very happy.

And you guys you process some of it here, some of it here.

Some of it's outsourced.

Um, it's just something we haven't gotten into a lot of just because of the money and the time it takes to do that.

And so instead of as everybody knows right now, it's hard to get labor right now.

And so instead of really getting into that, we let some other people do that that are really good at it and really efficient.

We let them take care of what they're good at and we do what we're good at.

And you guys are doing to me, I mean, this is a brand new building relatively speaking in 2019.

This is built.

We went, we were three miles down the road out in the country, which even though being out in the country we had a very good business.

But once we brought it up here, our sales just exploded.

We want to get closer to the town of Ship Shawarma, which is a very, you know, big tourist attraction and as the day we moved up here, it was just record day after record day from being closer and having more exposure and not just to Earth, but I'm sure you have regulars who come in for their weekly popcorn fix too, but still ships.

You want to it has been built on tourism.

Yeah.

So that's what our mainstay is.

But yes, we still have our locals that come in.

Well, what are your hours that people can come flying by?

So we are open from nine to five Monday through Friday and nine to four on Saturday.

It's perfect.

And where can people get more information?

Go to your popcorn, become Easy, easy, easy.

All right.

Thanks so much for showing us around today.

Good luck with everything.

This is amazing.

You want to make sure that you get your popcorn if you're heading to the movies, having a girls night out or family night in, you can get it all here at you under popcorn and ship shawarma on Sunday, April 3rd, the Jewish Federation of Saint Joseph Valley and local artists in our community are coming together to give our community an opportunity to bring help and hope to the people of the Ukraine.

And gentlemen, I want to thank you so much for joining us today and also for putting on this event.

I mean, I believe there's so many people that are at home watching and what is transpiring in the Ukraine, the horrific events, and just wanting to find some way to send help.

So I commend you for what you're doing Why did you decide to use art as a means of bringing help and hope?

Well, just as context, our federation has been doing a fundraiser for this cause for since it started.

And we're doing that in the context of the Jewish Federations of North America.

So Jewish Federations of North America set a goal of raising $20 million for relief efforts on the ground and here locally.

Our goal is $18,000.

So we're about 64% of the way.

Now, as it turns out, nationally, the the Jewish Federations of North America have far surpassed that.

They've reached almost $40 million.

So our local friends came up with the idea of this art project to supplement that effort.

And it is one of those things.

It's like music.

I mean, it's something that no matter what language you speak, everyone can connect to that, right?

Exactly.

And Jim, you are one of the artists that are going to be featured in this event.

And I just want to say, you know, we send our condolences because I know that you lost your wife last year and she was not only your wife, but she was also your muse.

And was it challenging to continue painting after.

Well, after she quit right after she passed away?

I didn't think I was very depressed.

And then a very close friend of mine had a granddaughter who loved sunflowers.

And I'll tell you about the sunflowers in a minute.

Painted a sunflower for I said, wow, what a happy flower.

And I started to do some sunflowers.

And then the Ukraine thing came around.

And then I found out that what is their national flower?

The sunflower.

And so I did a little research on it and found out that it started in about 1700 in the Ukraine area in 19, I believe 96.

They planted a lot of sunflowers around a former missile site when they gave up nuclear weapons.

So I started doing sunflowers and a couple of newscasters even have sunflowers on their desks.

And then I just went berserk with sunflowers there, for lack of a better word.

I really just liked them.

So, you know, a little bit of research, which is kind of contradicting what's going on.

Sunflowers mean peace, you know.

Right.

I wish it was peace over there and it means solidarity.

And happiness and, you know, everything that's nice.

And what is the sunflower?

It's happy and nice.

And I did them all different ways.

Separatist, abstract.

These are just a few you can see.

So that's basically it.

And then we came up with the idea to talk to the federation.

I could do set flowers and donate proceeds to their fund.

Now, how many paintings will you have at this event?

Well, I probably have in the house roughly 50.

60 of them.

I can bring them all out.

I mean, we have ISAs and they, they have a lot of tables and whatever the people want to buy, it said, you know, and I've given some sunflowers away.

People come to the house.

I mean, I really don't market them.

I just, I really enjoy them.

I'm not painting sunflowers anymore, I mean after 50 or 60 years of doing other things.

But, but it was just so apropos with what's going on in Ukraine that they're there.

We are with sunflowers.

What's incredible too is that it's really you, you are an answer to prayer.

Before that prayer even went up and.

Yeah, isn't that interesting?

It's very interesting.

It shows how much more we don't realize how connected we really are, especially if we take some time to listen.

So I think that's really an answer to prayer.

And especially since I was so depressed and I didn't take this 11 year old kid steps he was 11 there.

I painted a sunflower and I started all over again painting.

It was probably the answer to two prayers.

So Bob, there are two other local artists that are participating in the event.

Can you tell us a little bit about them?

Sure.

So Michelle Ingle and Victoria, Michelle's are local artists who have exhibited recently, in addition to Jim, they'll be also here and people who want to find more details.

They can go to our website, the Jewish Federation of Saint Joseph Valley.

Now, Bob, a lot of people in our community who I read that also have roots in the Ukraine So that's also something that makes this even more important.

Sure.

So there's there is a Ukrainian church in our community and also among the Jewish community many Jews, I would say the vast majority of the American Jewish community has its roots in Eastern Europe.

Many from Ukraine, for example, Golda Meir, the famous former prime minister of Israel, was born in Kiev.

So many American Jews came from Ukraine.

Right.

And the opportune city to, you know, to help out people where we once came from.

That's, I think, very important because we we have that memory of being refugee is to, you know, like now the event is taking place on Sunday, April 3rd.

What are they, hours and how can people get tickets?

The hours are from two to five and they just show up and they just show up.

You know, the Jewish Federation.

Yeah, absolutely.

What is your hope for the people of the Ukraine Well, we hope they have peace and independence.

It's just heartbreaking to see people suffering like this, children becoming refugees, Holocaust survivors who are once again refugees.

So that's our hope.

Peace and independence.

So we will thank you again for putting on this event.

It's nice to know that our community can make a difference, even though it's thousands of miles away.

So thank you so much.

You're welcome.

Well, that's it for today's show.

Thank you so much for being with us.

We are excited about spring and summer, getting here, being able to get out and experience more of Michigan.

And we hope you are to remember if you have ideas, either shoot us in the email or hit us up on Facebook.

And we would love to hear from you.

Well, until next week, guys.

Have a great weekend experience.

michiana is made possible in part by the Community Foundation of St Joseph County and the Indiana Arts Commission, which received support from the state of Indiana and the National Endowment for the Arts This wnit local production has been made possible in part by viewers like you.

Thank you.