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.

Welcome to Experience Michiana.

Thank you so much for joining us today.

We are in the thick of fall and there are so many great things to do right here in Michiana.

We're going to be checking out DeBartolo Performing Arts Center.

I love there lined up some spooky things there too.

But don't worry, you can always go online and and check out those summaries so you know what you're getting into before you head over there.

Also, have the opportunity to head over to Unity Gardens.

They have a number of awesome events happening.

You want to make sure you learn all about that.

But first up we're over at Buchanan Scarecrow charities.

Got a little friend here with me, and we're going to learn all about it next.

Well, if you've been up to Buchanan, especially in the fall time, you may have seen a few scarecrows around.

And today I get to finally be here in the Scarecrow charities and my new friends Claire and Betsy.

Thank you, ladies so much for joining me today.

I'm excited to actually be in the space where the magic all starts.

This is a pretty cool space in here.

Yes it is.

And you guys have been doing this for almost 20 years now, but in this space, only a couple years.

But this is where the creativity flows, if you will.

Right.

All right.

So tell me how we get started with the entire organization.

Because you guys have been doing this a while.

Yes.

We start at this end of the building with a scarecrow frame, which is a the.

Well, let's go check it out.

Okay, let's go check it out.

And tell me the purpose behind why you guys do this.

We do this as a fundraiser for Buchanan.

Okay.

Yep.

And which is why you were going to see him here in Buchanan.

But anybody can participate in it.

Yes.

Right.

Yeah.

Okay.

The businesses sponsor a scarecrow.

The funds we raise the the business can be anywhere.

Okay.

The scarecrow must be in Buchanan, and the funds we raise are spent in Buchanan.

So that money is staying locally.

I love that, and I know you guys get a lot of things donated, but there's also a lot of expenses that go into making this whole process.

Yes.

Can I pull this out?

Yeah, sure.

Okay.

So this is an actual scarecrow.

We're getting ready to start one, right?

Yes.

I love this.

This is the beginning process of it.

Yes.

Okay.

And then we're going to go to the scarecrow hospital.

Well, this is a scarecrow hospital.

Okay.

And this area is where they'll stuff them.

And then, after they're done stuffing, we'll go over to the embellishing area and we'll bring them to life for you.

I love it.

Now, I know you guys support a lot of organizations here, right?

Yes.

Okay.

This is kind of the stuffing zone.

We're not going to stuff today.

All right, we know one of us are stuffers, but we'd like to try.

Go ahead.

Is there is there a sign that you have here?

Well, it's not an assignment.

It's the finest they know.

You have a job.

You know what your job is?

That job.

People prefer to stuff.

Okay.

And some people prefer to embellish.

Okay.

Betsy and I prefer to embellish.

Embellish?

Now, you have a lot of volunteers who help with this, too.

Yes we do.

Okay.

How many volunteers do you have?

There are 38.

Okay.

Official.

Not everybody comes every week.

Okay.

So you kind of have a time where time frame where people can come in and and work together.

Right.

Yeah.

Every Tuesday we meet from 9 to 1 or so, and then we'll stay later.

And, you know, finish them up.

So I love that.

And you are always looking for more volunteers.

Always.

Yes.

You you could be stuffer more embellished.

Right?

Exactly.

And, if, if you can't come on Tuesday, we do have jobs that can be done at home.

Okay.

Okay.

Well, let's take a walk.

Okay.

And I want to hear a little bit more, too, because I know you mentioned that these are all over Buchanan.

How do you decide where they're going to be put out?

I go through town.

Okay.

And I count every single light pole and utility pole.

They all kind of sturdy to put them.

Yes.

Okay.

Yeah.

They, you know, in a certain pattern.

Okay.

We try to keep them downtown.

Yeah.

And on the main front street, that runs from one end to the other.

Is there, like, a scavenger hunt checklist where I could go through and make sure I actually all of them, actually, there is.

Okay.

Right.

The library has a scavenger hunt with the map and yeah, you can go there and get one.

And and I do have a card that shows where most of the scarecrows are displayed.

I like it.

Now each scarecrow comes with a pumpkin and so on.

The pumpkin is the name of the business.

Oh, great.

Yes, you can see who sponsored and who sponsored it.

Okay.

So.

And most of them like them in front of their shops or stores or whatever, but a lot like to be put out a little because, you know, they want people to see them other than the ones right in town where they already are.

Yeah.

So, so.

And we get lots of sponsors from like, vaguely Landscape to Niles Brown Funeral Home.

I mean, there's a there's a new one who is an Airbnb.

Yeah.

And he wants to be as far out on Front Street because it's hunt for him on the east end of town or west, and I can't I missed my directions are bad, but he wanted to be as far at the end as he could be.

Okay.

Okay.

So now we're moving into the next section here.

So we're going to load them up here.

That's right.

Okay.

And then what happens.

Well the embellishes there's four of us that embellish all these.

We will come over to the rack, and we will pick out a scarecrow that we like, and we see something in a feel.

Yeah.

Yeah.

You look at the face and.

Yeah.

You know, like this one looks definitely like a boy to me.

Okay.

So, you know, I would leave him for Clare because I don't like to do the boys.

She likes the boys.

I like the girls.

Looks like the girls.

Do you each.

Do you have only sons?

Yeah.

That's true.

But that's not why I only do this.

All right.

Let's keep going.

So this looks like a girl to me.

And I would pick her up and I would bring her over to my table.

Okay.

And stand her in.

So this is kind of like the next section.

The next section.

Okay.

Each of us has their own area.

So after we bring them over to here, we're going to just look at the clothes rack and look at all the purses and see what I could put on her to make her beautiful.

So you don't necessarily always have an idea going into it.

It's more of a ceiling.

Yes.

It's how the scarecrow looks.

And like I said, it looks they look different.

You know, they're all painted the same, but they look different when you get them.

There.

Stand.

Their eyes Go one way.

They're different colored eyes.

Who's doing the the painting of them?

We all do the painting of them, you know.

So that's another whole separate job somebody could do is paint faces.

Okay.

Are year round business at this point?

Right.

Yes.

Yes.

You can't you can't produce as many detailed scarecrows as we do without, spending time.

You know, take.

It takes a lot of time.

Yes.

And then they need to be finished by the end of March.

April?

Oh.

So that the salespeople can go out and sell them.

Okay.

They're not all finished at that time.

But the first hundred.

The first hundred we like to get in the books.

How many do you guys do each year?

We do over 200.

Over 200.

Oh my gosh.

Goal is somewhere between 200 or 230 and 240.

Okay.

And right now, they're all out already there.

You can see.

Then you can get your scavenger hunt.

All right.

Now, I know you guys have plenty of things here to decorate with.

And you even have some more fun things here, too.

But I love that you have stuffed animals.

You have hats.

You have?

I mean, you could even put jewelry on them.

I said, oh, yeah.

Yeah.

We have a whole a whole section of jewelry.

I love it, I love it.

Okay, let's check out these real quick because these are unique.

This isn't necessarily for fall.

You're getting ready for winter.

That's right.

Okay, tell me about these real quick.

This is our winter display.

We just like to put up for the town.

Okay, the kids are having a snowball fight against the gnomes here.

We have sleds that go out with them and, fences and.

And they're all throwing snowballs at each other?

Yes.

So it's really fun.

What they're working on right now are carolers, and they go, we have a little gazebo.

This the snow people go on the ground in front.

The carolers go in the gazebo with the Christmas tree.

Okay.

The garden club puts up a Christmas tree and we put up.

Carol.

You guys are so well connected with all of the organizations here in the community.

And I know that you work really hard to give back to them as well to.

So any donations that people can provide to you, that's always helpful.

Oh yes.

And I know that a lot goes into this.

This really is a labor of love.

Yes it is.

Right.

Yes.

Yeah.

All right.

Well, thank you for showing me around.

Now I know where the scarecrows are built when I drive through Buchanan.

And I love that you guys have a scavenger hunt, too, so I can maybe do some hunting for them.

Yes.

Yes, yes.

Okay.

All right, well, thank you ladies so much.

You're welcome.

We enjoyed it.

Yes.

We are once again on the stage of the DeBartolo Performing Arts Center, and I have my good friends, Ricky and Shawn with me today.

You guys have another wonderful lineup.

Lots of things to do.

And as I'm looking at this list, I mean, we have to get started right away.

Right.

Okay.

We have a lot to talk about.

Why don't you get a start?

We got a lot of things going.

You're right.

So in terms of our classics films, we're on fall break this week.

And what we're doing is getting some long films to fill that void.

So we're showing the still open this week.

We are here.

Okay.

So we're showing the Lord of the rings trilogy, the original three films, but the extended editions.

So it's over 12 hours across three films.

Are you going to do that at once in one sitting?

Thursday, Friday and Saturday?

Okay.

Okay.

So I don't need to, like, pack for that.

Yeah.

Like that.

But you can bring your deodorant.

Okay.

We're cool with that.

So we're saying that.

And then also we're cutting that with psycho.

Okay.

To kind of scratch the Halloween itch.

Yeah.

And moving into November, we have Malcolm X, the spike Lee film, the biopic.

Yeah.

Oh, great.

Okay.

With American studies that we're doing here on campus.

Very good.

All right.

And beyond that, getting back into horror.

So we have something we're calling camps in, which are campy summer camp slasher films.

And these are curated by.

We were we were joking because before we got started, I don't do scary films at all.

So I haven't seen any of these and the varying degrees of scare.

Okay.

Okay.

Some of these are laughable.

Okay.

These are curated by Paul Rust and Doctor Anna Wald, and they are a mix of movies that.

Look at that, look at how slashers have situated themselves inside camp.

Anyhow, so we have sleepaway camp from the early 80s, and then the new film at teenage sex and death Camp, Miasma.

And we're doing that in a double feature with Friday the 13th part two and In a Violent Nature.

Okay.

And then as well as The Burning, which is getting back to kind of the original Friday the 13th origin of these with the final girls.

Okay.

All right.

And all of the descriptions are on your guys's website to for each of these.

Right, right.

And you can always Google and see what you're getting into.

Okay.

These you know some are slash year than others.

But but we're not we're not showing you anything that there's an extra space for you because I won't be here for them.

So there you go.

And as well, we're getting into some kind of horror related things in our Sunday Doc series.

So we have the found footage film from Australia, Lake Mungo.

Okay.

Which is a great movie.

Highway to hell, which looks at the kind of the sais that were made around safety, traffic safety videos in the 1950s and 60s.

Yeah.

Okay.

Was showing what they made back then.

Okay.

The kind of faces of death.

Like put the fear of God in the road.

Yeah.

Okay.

Gotcha.

But then we also have a lab, which is a film about caretaking from South Asia.

We have a filmmaker coming in for that, as well as American Doctor, which looks at three doctors from various faith traditions who went and served people in Palestine during the war and worked at hotel or hotels hospitals there.

And we have them all zooming in to discuss.

Really?

Yeah.

So they'll be they'll be in the cinema.

You always do such a great job curating everything I have of you.

It's my job.

Yeah.

You do a great job at your job.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Yeah.

And then rounding that out, we have our semester long series on the Mexican Golden Arrow Cinema.

And we have two frontiers, which we're doing with the anthropology department here, which is a great West Bank film.

And we have some singers who will be performing as well at Noah, which looks at state violence and religious violence in Mexico.

And then Deep Crimson, they are Toro Rip Stein film that will be seeing in the The Honeymoon Killers later.

And then the early Toro film Cronos, which is a great vampire film, a vampire film.

Okay.

So you have a lot of horizon.

We got you.

It's Scorpio season.

We got to keep it.

We got gotta keep it.

Scary.

Oh my gosh.

Now let's get on to you because I know you've got some exciting stuff coming up, the Oregon series.

I know we talked about it before, but you guys only do a handful of these each year.

Correct.

So we always bring in four guest organist.

And these are world renowned organists.

Some are faculty at other universities.

Some are playing at the greatest cathedrals across Europe.

And we do two of those recitals in the basilica on campus and the other two in the organ hall here in the performing arts.

And that one's coming up and that one's coming up.

Yeah.

So first we have Maria Fancy.

She's on faculty at North Carolina, and she is a good friend of our organ faculty member here.

And so she'll be performing on November 1st, an organ recital.

Okay, beautiful.

I'm excited for that.

Absolutely.

It's a lot of fun.

And if you've never been in the space, you just have to hear it.

It's a an intimate, small space, but the acoustic sound like a huge basilica.

Yeah.

And because there's not that much seating in there.

Correct, correct.

So get your tickets early.

There's only 80 seats.

But again, the sound in that room is something that you have to really witness live in, in person.

Right.

And then what's up next.

What's that next.

Yes.

Exactly what you handle.

Exactly.

So this is a dance company, and it's named after the choreographer, Airway Cubby, as his name.

And so it's company cubby.

You got a practice?

Exactly, exactly.

But it is one of the least French, probably dance performances.

So he's he's actually from Algeria.

And so he, he pulls in the sort of Mediterranean whirling dervish dance sorts, much more acrobatic sort of the Brazilian martial arts, capoeira, that sort of style.

There's lots of tumbling and acrobatics, but also very graceful.

You know, these these are athletes.

They're extremely muscular.

They had to do that.

They're working out every day.

But man, the grace they're able to pull out is quite impressive.

And when we were talking about two that's a great opportunity for like gymnastics groups or dance groups like.

Absolutely.

Yeah, exactly.

It's not your traditional ballet company you might be thinking of.

So audiences who may be interested in cheer or tumbling or like you said, gymnastics as well as the dance audience can definitely find you actually need to know nothing about dance.

And you will be impressed with I'm sure.

All right.

What's up next after that?

And then finally our next up we have the Jess Waldo six.

This is a British ensemble of six singers and they too will be performing in the organ hall.

So tickets are very limited.

Okay.

And they sing early music.

And by early music, I mean music of the 15th and 16th centuries, primarily before Bach, but again, the little organ hall with the acoustics.

It's perfect for that style of singing.

Perfect.

All right.

And if you don't have tickets yet, just keep calling back and hopefully some spots might open to.

All right.

And then last up and last up is our tribute to Earth, Wind and Fire.

This is our continuing series of cultural collective which is supporting local artists.

So Terrell Ross and Terrell O'Neal have performed here a number of times, their local here to the community, and they've been doing previously Motown tributes the past couple of years.

They've pivoted slightly to a tribute to Earth, Wind and Fire.

I love it, I love it, and they have just one performance for one performance.

Tickets are selling hot for those too.

So get them.

Make sure you get those.

Yeah.

All right.

I'm going to go back to you because I know you still have more to talk about.

Yeah, well, crank it out.

So, Thursdays at 930, our MFA creative writing series is continuing.

Our MFA students will do a reading and then show a film.

So we have Bergman's All These Women, the aforementioned The Honeymoon Killers, which is alongside Deep Deep Crimson, the Rip Seam film, and then Mississippi Masala every Sunday at 1:00.

We have our funder series after all these.

I know all of these.

I think you have these down to get in dollar for pop popcorn.

Every Sunday at 1 p.m.

we have The Nightmare Before Christmas and Cocoa, which we do every around day of the dead.

We have a sing along of Sister Act one, Old Yeller and the Iron Giant rounding out the November.

I remember scary, scary.

All right.

And then next stop and Tuesdays at 730.

We have our Coen Brothers series.

This has been well attended.

The community has really come out for it.

Coming up, we have kind of their 2000 into the teens.

So we have No Country for Old Men, which they won Best Picture with at the Oscars, burn after reading A Serious Man and their remake of A True Grit.

Okay.

And then when, say, 730, we have the nanotech filled series.

This is in conjunction with the Nanotech Institute for European Studies, and we have Fumio Morty, which is a film about an attempt to take over a city state in Croatia and develop a new country in Croatia.

Maybe that's a good one to check in.

Well, we'll see you there.

Well, it's free, so, you know, like, get in for get in for nothing.

The Dardenne film Young Mothers Friends, which is a Kafka bio cook.

And then lastly, lastly, Surratt, which is out of the peninsula in Morocco.

Okay, thanks.

And then one last thing.

We are so lucky.

A24 has given us all access to the movie called The Debut.

Okay, so it will be in our cinema for free for everyone to see about a month before its release.

I've been to a sneak peek here before, too.

It's exciting.

It is exciting.

Are you going to give everyone a opportunity to chat about it too?

Of course.

Yeah, yeah.

You gotta, you gotta and talk about, like, what works.

What didn't work.

But the debut is amazing.

It's Julianne Moore vehicle, and it's kind of like her, taking her like.

Like her Sirk vibe and bringing it to community.

Community musicals.

Interesting.

So that one's gonna be really cool.

Yeah.

So if you're, like, waiting for men, you will love this movie.

There you go.

There you go.

All right.

And all the information we can find about everything at Performing Arts.

Edu.

Awesome.

Thank you guys so much.

We'll see you again in maybe a month or two.

I hope so.

All right, well, we'll see you here.

Right at the Bartolome Performing Arts Center.

So once again we are back at Unity Gardens and I'm with Sarah Stewart.

Sarah, thank you so much for having us.

Absolutely delightful to be here.

And as always, it's a busy time here at Unity Gardens.

And we're going to do something a little bit different.

Sarah's going to give us a tour of the center, just to remind us some of the things that are going on here and the different resources that are available to the community.

And we're also going to find out about some of the wonderful events that are coming up.

Absolutely.

We have so much going on.

A lot of times people think that just because the active gardening season and summertime is over, that everything calms down here.

But we actually have tons of food here to share and a lot of activities, both classes and things coming out very good.

So I'm going to grab the camera and we're going to start right here in the classroom.

Okay.

That sounds great.

All right Sarah.

So where are we now and what is this space used for?

This space is used for everything.

It's primarily our classroom.

We do our gardening classes, our orchard classes, our meet and greets for our garden leaders.

But we also then do cooking and fall harvest classes, etc.

we do have some fall food series going on right now still, so that's a fantastic thing to come for.

As you can see, we also have some of our Halloween things out.

I think one of the skeletons just escaped.

But this is where we host our children.

We host our community volunteers come, we dry our herbs here, we make our raspberry teas, etc.. So this is a very busy place all the time.

Right now you can see that we're taking some of our stuff indoors, but we're also then stationing everything for our fantastic spooktacular event coming up.

And so that reminds me of that's an event that's coming up.

But leading into that, you guys are doing a couple of different drives.

You're doing a candy drive and a costume drive, and that's a really important thing.

Absolutely.

In order to do Spooktacular and host thousands of families here at Unity Gardens, October 30th, we need candy, costumes, etc.

A lot of times Halloween gets more expensive every year.

You know you're buying a new costume.

People use it once and then put it in a box.

We're asking people to bring out costumes so that people who could use their money elsewhere for groceries or basic needs can literally still enjoy Halloween.

So that is going super well.

We also want to be able to give candy and a trick or treating experience to our kids here on the West Side, so let's show people where they can come and grab a costume if there happens to be one here.

Absolutely.

Yesterday this entire area was full.

This is our sharing area.

So we have refrigerators and freezers that have different kind of meals or things that otherwise would go to waste.

And then we have our costume drive here.

This I can't believe how many costumes and how the community has stepped up for this, but clearly this morning is a different story than last night when I left because this whole thing with kids costumes, etc.

was full and now we have about four.

So we really, really do need your old costumes.

It can be so simple.

It can be adult.

It can be kid.

I mean, after all, kids at heart.

So let's talk about this.

Spectacular.

When is it happening?

Yep.

And how can people come out and be a be a part of it?

Do they need to get a ticket in advance?

Anything like that?

No no, no.

At Unity Gardens, like most of our things, it's just absolutely inclusive and barrier free.

But what we're also looking for in a big way is people that love to scare children.

We do a haunted trail that becomes a feature part of this event.

We do treats and we do, crafts and we'll have popcorn and whatnot for all the families.

But in addition, the haunted trail, especially at night through the seven acre garden, is fantastic and we are still looking for volunteers to come in scary costumes.

The event is 530 to 830 on October 30th.

Any volunteers that can come can sign up on our website w w w dot the Unity gardens.org or even call in.

We can list that they should be here at 430.

Our sharing areas are something the community.

Kind of encouraged us to do.

Food that otherwise would be, in the landfill is now rescued and either delivered here or we go pick it up.

We have a lot of partners.

Cultivate clay, church, great harvest spread that come and bring food.

And then people come and use the food.

And it's a completely destigmatize, barrier free opportunity for everyone to have plenty to eat.

So let's head over here to the store.

Oh, one favorite spaces.

Yes, and my assistant here is helping display some of our grown gourds and whatnot.

But our store is a place that we can allow people the opportunity to support Unity Gardens.

We have fresh produce here.

There's ice under there, so everything's super fresh from the garden.

You'll.

Even though it's October, we have so much stuff.

The garden is providing are very, very hot peppers.

Some of the best in the area, you know.

And I'm not talking jalapenos, although we have those two.

I took it really hot.

So great array of those beeswax candles, veggie pun cards, beeswax hand bombs there.

Soaps.

There's teas.

Now one of our newest things we have dried herbs as well.

And of course, our award winning honey from the hood and infused honeys.

So if you're looking for unique gifts, Unity Gardens got you covered.

We even have now, in addition to our regular beeswax lip balm tinted lip balm using beats.

So we're churning out so many garden themed ways that people can purchase unique gifts here in our area at.

This spot is just tucked full of all sorts of stuff.

Now, the store is kind of a taste of what Unity Gardens has to offer, and that reminds me of the Taste of Unity event that's coming up real soon.

Absolutely.

This year, Taste of Unity, which is our signature event held at the Palais Royal.

It's going to be November 19th, so it's the Thursday before Thanksgiving, which is the perfect time for people to enjoy not only all this good food, we have 20 of the area's best chefs that will each be preparing like a smaller d'oeuvre or a tapos, if you will.

Highlighting their whole idea is to elevate that experience.

So you want to go to their restaurant and to honor Unity Gardens.

So it is a celebration of local chefs, local food.

And we've got some return ones that everyone would expect at this event and some new players.

I'm super excited about those.

Tickets are on sale on Eventbrite.

On our website you can find that link.

We still have some opportunities for sponsorships, although not too many for tables.

So November 19th at the Palais Royale.

The Taste of Unity is a delightful mix and mingle event where everyone gets to enjoy all that food.

So, Sarah, thank you so much for showing us around.

And remember, guys, the spectaculars coming up real quick.

The taste of unity is also coming up real quick, so be sure to check out their website for more information.

And if you have those old costumes in your closet or whatever, dig them out and bring them on down so that somebody else can have an even better Halloween this season.

Thank you so much, Sarah.

Thank you.

It's delightful to share.

Do I look like one of the scarecrows?

There's so much to do here in Michiana.

Thank you so much for joining us.

We'll see you again next week.

This WNIT local production has been made possible in part by viewers like you.

Thank you.