>> Jeff: This week on Friends and Neighbors- >> Mike: We follow the wind along 300 miles of coastline from South Haven, Michigan to Sheboygan, Wisconsin, and everywhere in between, we're chasing the wind.

That allows us more opportunity for our students.

We're going to where the wind is good, rather than just having 'em come here.

And if the wind isn't appropriate here, then we're doing another land lesson or canceling lesson altogether for the day.

We're able to go to where the wind is good and get it in.

>> Matt: Part of why I love working at Shedd Aquarium is just the variety of animals that we house here and the unique cases that we have to kind of deal with and solve.

There's always something new and exciting and challenging, but that's part of the fun is I learn something new every day.

>> Desi: Most of the pollination that's happening in ag systems at apple orchards and things like that, in healthy ecosystems, is done by native bees, not by honeybees.

One of every three bites that you take of food comes from an insect pollinator.

And so, if we want to eat the things that we enjoy eating, we need to have pollinators.

>> Lisa: And the whole goal for Mermaid Straw is to reduce single-use plastic usage and provide a fun and stylish alternative solution for single-use plastic.

Since the very, very beginning, we say that we wanted to try and give back as much as we could, and that included doing beach cleanups.

We get together people, members of the community, different businesses in the community, different mermaids that are professionals that come out, and we make it a huge event that everyone wants to go and bring their family and make a difference together.

>> 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.

>> I have a very strong connection to other students.

Everyone makes an effort to help each other.

I'll remember the feeling of being here, the feeling that I was a part of a family.

(upbeat music) >> Woman: Shopping for fruits and vegetables in the Strack & Van Til produce department is a feast for the senses, with produce picked at the peak of freshness.

From apples and avocados, to pineapples and peppers, treat yourself to the best quality fruits and vegetables.

Find them at your local Strack & Van Til store.

>> Welcome to Friends and Neighbors, the Lakeshore PBS program that explores what it means to live in Northwest Indiana, celebrating the idea that behind all the good things in the region are good people making it happen.

I'm your host, Jeff Casey, Managing Director of the Towle Theater in Hammond, Indiana.

After experiencing the sport of kiteboarding for himself, Kite board, Mike Szromba, realized that the Chicagoland kiteboarding scene needed an adrenaline shot.

Enter Windy City Kite Sports, a full-service kiteboarding company dedicated to helping burgeoning kiteboarders catch the stoke.

(upbeat music) >> I wanted to learn to kiteboard myself, so my son and I learned, and just in investigating, we found that the best place to learn was to go somewhere else.

We went to Florida, actually, learned to kiteboard, came back, and the city of Chicago actually banned kiteboarding several years ago.

It took three years for a group of kiteboarders to get access back at one beach.

And part of the deal there was that there would be regulation.

And so, part of that regulation was to get a certification as a kiteboarder.

The first question that people would ask, okay, where do I get my certification?

And we would say, well, you gotta go take a trip somewhere.

I decided to start a school, a certified school.

What we started to do is we started to sell trainer kites to people and offer our knowledge that we learned, as well as sell these things.

We started an eBay store.

Soon enough, some of these customers that we had sold trainer kites to started asking us, okay, well now how about a big kite?

And so, it kind of just progressed slowly from there.

And then, until finally, I started bringing in certified instructors to teach with me and this sort of thing and grew it to what it is today.

(upbeat music) We're following the wind, and then actually, we follow the wind along 300 miles of coastline from South Haven, Michigan to Sheboygan, Wisconsin, and everywhere in between, we're chasing the wind.

That allows us more opportunity for our students.

We're going to where the wind is good, rather than just having 'em come here, and if the wind isn't appropriate here, then we're doing another land lesson or canceling lesson altogether for the day.

We're able to go to where the wind is good and get it in.

Right here in Miller Beach is a great place.

We have seven miles of unobstructed coastline, so it's a great place to learn.

My mother used to take me to this beach when I was a kid.

And this is the beach that I hung out at in high school and in college.

I know this area very well.

The community here is just amazing.

It's a little bubble, and excellent parties here.

When you're learning to kiteboard, we pretty much make our way down the coastline and then we do what's called the walk of shame to get back.

We have seven miles to do that unobstructed and we can get out.

There's nothing blocking us from getting out of the water at any point.

From a safety aspect, that's a good thing.

Whereas in the city, it's a major metropolitan beach with a lot of other things happening.

We have to co-exist with a lot of other activity and the beaches aren't as big.

You've really gotta know what you're doing.

But it's the community and the Northeast sea breezes that make me wanna put up shop here and be right across the street from it.

There's just nothing like it.

(upbeat music) The community rocks.

There's a respect, there's a courtesy, there's an etiquette that we follow on the beaches.

While it's possible to land and launch one of these large kites by ourself, we always help each other out.

It's the safer way to go.

Somebody has a line tangle, like we saw yesterday, there was a lot of traffic getting our kites out over the other kites that are parked there, it can sometimes be difficult, so we'll have two or three guys jumping in to help that situation.

Yes, we're a close-knit bunch and we do stick together and we drink together afterwards.

(upbeat music) One of the reasons I love to teach kiteboarding is just is to spread the stoke.

You can see it in their face, usually on the first lesson on the trainer kite, when they feel the power of that trainer kite, and they get that little smirk.

I've got another one.

As fabulous this sport is to watch, it's a thousand times more fabulous being actually out on one.

It's kind of hard to describe.

I mean, you're one with the wind and the water and the elements.

There's just nothing like it.

And it's much less expensive than therapy.

This is our therapy right here on the water, this is it.

You're having a bad day, it's all good when you come in from there.

>> To follow the wind or find out more information on lessons, visit windycitykitesports.com.

Chicago's Shedd Aquarium is home to 22 different species of turtles, including a particular yellow spotted Amazon turtle named Amigo.

Senior veterinarian.

Dr. Matt O'Connor gives Amigo his monthly checkup and gives us some insight on the other turtle species at the Shedd Aquarium.

Let's take a look.

(upbeat music) >> Amigo's actually the oldest animal that we have here at the aquarium, 60-years-old now.

First arrived back in 1973, so estimated age, but still quite old.

He was actually a donation back in 1973.

A lot of turtles are born quite small and people don't realize how big they can get, so you can kind of saw how big Amigo is.

Oftentimes, you don't plan for having that sort of space.

I would assume that's probably why they donated him.

He's a yellow spotted Amazon turtle.

Podocnemis unifillis is the scientific name.

And they're found throughout the Amazon basin.

They actually are quite, they're not endangered in their range country anymore.

They've been farmed down there.

They're doing quite well, but you can find 'em throughout the Amazon basin.

We have 26 different species here at the aquarium.

Off the top of my head, there's at least two of them that we work with that are considered endangered.

As a whole, turtles and tortoises in general are kind of under a lot of various threats from climate change, habitat destruction, collection for Eastern medicine, pet trade, things like that.

A lot of species we work with do have various threats, but mostly some of the ones that are local, or in Amigo's case, are kind of more protected.

We'll kind of look at both eyes.

One of the challenges with a turtle exam is that shell.

We're somewhat limited with what we can do on a turtle, which is why we have to get a little creative.

Having the Doppler probe to be able to listen to their heart, since we can't put a stethoscope on their shell.

Otherwise, it's very similar to what your dog or cat's gonna have when they go to a veterinarian or when you go to see your doctor.

We're looking at the eyes, we're looking in their mouth, we're looking at their nose.

They don't have external ear openings like we do, but we look at those tympanic membranes.

They can still get a inner ear infection.

And then obviously, the shell is very important for their health, since it is living tissue, so we do a shell exam, we look at their skin, we look at their feet, pretty much everything that you're gonna do to a dog or cat.

We call it a routine physical exam.

They're omnivorous, so they'll eat plants, vegetables.

We'll kind of put various lettuces out there floating around in his habitat that he'll eat.

And then he'll get more targeted feeds for enrichment.

Fish, shrimp, pelleted diets, earthworms, crickets, things like that.

Most turtles, what they're gonna spend the majority of their day doing is kind of three things.

Forging for food, basking up on the logs or rocks to kind of warm up, and then sleeping.

60-years-old, he's kind of earned his right to take it easy, so sometimes you'll see him up on in the habitat sleeping.

Part of why I love working at Shedd Aquarium is just the variety of animals that we house here and the unique cases that we have to kind of deal with and solve.

On any given day, we'll have a variety of things that we're seeing.

I typically, even just use today as an example, we're looking at our hawks and our owls for their routine exams.

We're going to look at a shark to kind of check up on the skin on that.

We have a frog that we're checking on that lost a little bit of weight.

And then this afternoon, we're doing a routine physical exam on a penguin.

There's always something new and exciting and challenging and I always tell people, I know a little bit about everything and a lot about nothing because there's no way I could know everything about every animal here at the aquarium, but that's part of the fun is I learn something new every day.

(upbeat music) >> To find out more about the turtles at the Shedd Aquarium, visit sheddaquarium.org.

As stories of bees and pollinators seem to dot our social media feeds, Friends and Neighbors thought it would be nice to catch up with a scientist that is studying pollinators in our own backyard.

Dr. Desi Robertson-Thompson of the Great Lakes Research and Education Center holds a degree in entomology, the study of insects, and is leading studies on native bees and other pollinators.

It turns out that the unique ecosystems within the dunes are just as much a draw for the bees as they are for human visitors.

(slow music) >> At Indiana Dunes National Park, we have over 200 species of bees.

The reason for that is because of the incredible diversity of habitats.

We have incredible variety of plant species.

Even soil types, there's some bees that prefer to nest in the sand, there's some bees that prefer to nest in kind of more clay type substrates.

Indiana Dunes provides all of those different types of habitats and all of the needs for all these bees.

(slow music) Bumblebees are our only native social bee.

Honeybees are actually not native, so when we're talking about conserving our bees and our pollinators, we're talking about our native pollinators, which is the vast majority of diversity here.

Native bees are the ones that are really the workhorses of pollination.

They're the ones that are providing the pollination service for our native plants, but they're actually providing much of the pollination service for our crops, as well.

Most of the pollination that's happening in ag systems at apple orchards and things like that, in healthy ecosystems, is done by native bees, not by honeybees.

One of every three bites that you take of food comes from an insect pollinator.

And so, if we want to eat the things that we enjoy eating, we need to have pollinators.

Pollinators are keystone species.

They're vital for the entire ecosystem.

I was always sort of that weird kid who was looking at rocks and looking at the little things where a lot of the other kids were kind of seeing an ant and smashing it, I was trying to kind of pick them up and hold them and cuddle them and I got stung by a lot of things (laughs) as a kid.

I was born and raised near the Indiana Dunes.

I ended up doing my Bachelor's in Science in Biology at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff.

Did a stint in the Peace Corps in Bolivia, which is where I became really interested in entomology.

And then I ended up doing my PhD at the University of Minnesota in Entomology.

I went from the tropics to the tundra to do my work and came back here a few years ago and sort of feel like I'm coming full circle here at Indiana Dunes National Park doing what I love.

Once you start looking at insects, especially under the microscope, when you start looking at that up close and seeing how intricately it's put together and just all the details, it's beautiful.

Pollinators are keystone species because they provide that pollinator service.

They create seeds.

Many plants can't reproduce without having the service of a pollinator.

There's been some studies that have documented local declines of native bee species and they have corresponded to declines also of plant species that they pollinate.

And so, if you remove the pollinators, you're not just removing the pollinators, you're removing the entire community.

For the National Park Service, we wanna play a part in helping to conserve the pollinators, so we have an opportunity to do that, but we wanna be able to understand what it is that we can do to best conserve them.

We don't have a lot of control over some of those aspects, but we have a control over maybe what type of habitat we can provide for them.

Much of our on the ground work that we do here at the national park is helping to provide habitat for the pollinators, making sure that the pollinator habitat that we're providing is what they need, and that's where the science comes in.

At Indiana Dunes National Park and some other parks in the Great Lakes, we're trying to understand that.

We're trying to understand what flowers they need the most.

We're trying to understand what aspects of the habitat best increase their diversity, provide for the most types of species.

We're also trying to understand what threats or stressors might be coming down the line and what impacts those might have.

(slow music) We wanna encourage people to have pollinator gardens, or we like to say, you can have a little mini national park and provide habitat in your backyard, but you don't wanna just provide lunch.

They like to have their three square meals a day.

If you can have flowers that are blooming in the springtime and the summertime, and even late into the fall, into October, that's really important.

A lot of those species are trying to gather as much pollen as they can to have in their nests to gain enough fat stores so that they can make it through the winter.

(slow music) >> National Pollinator Week begins June 21st.

Follow the Great Lakes Research and Education Center for more information and ways to continue your education on the unique ecosystems that surround us.

What started as a dream for Lisa Harrington has become a worldwide sensation.

Along with her husband, Adam, Mermaid Straw has helped save 100 million plastic straws from polluting our planet.

More than a business, the couple leads local efforts to keep our environment clean and vibrant.

(upbeat music) >> I was bedridden for about a year and a half.

That's when I had this dream to start Mermaid Straw.

One night, I dreamt about the products, I dreamt about the mission and the colors and all that stuff.

And in the morning, I began that business immediately while still in bed, started the website.

Within five days.

we had our first sale.

It kind of just took off super fast.

>> And when she says she did everything, she means everything.

She built the website herself, graphic design, all her, which is incredible.

>> And I was still bedridden at this time, so it's something that I'm very proud of because it makes me feel that even if you're going through a really difficult time in your life, that you can still try and make a difference.

The whole goal for Mermaid Straw is to reduce single-use plastic usage and provide a fun and stylish alternative solution for single-use plastic.

And for every single purchase, we donate to ocean conservation organizations.

We're a member of 1% for the Planet, Lake Michigan- >> Yes.

>> Organizations.

>> Both: Alliance for the Great Lakes.

>> Yeah, so that's important for us since it's close to home.

>> We know switching to a reusable straw isn't gonna save the world.

But every day in the U.S. alone, over 500 million single-use plastic straws are used.

And that's every day.

Bringing it back to a personal level, if you switch to a reusable straw and use that straw just for one year, you can save over 584 single-use plastic straws from being used.

>> Lisa: Since the very, very beginning, we say that we wanted to try and give back as much as we could and that included doing beach cleanups.

We wanna be able to provide a solution that's not single-use plastic, but also, there's a lot of trash out there already, so we need to clean that up.

We get together people, members of the community, different businesses in the community, different mermaids that are professionals that come out and take pictures with kids and have a good time.

>> Swim ashore, if you will.

>> Yeah.

We make it a huge event that everyone wants to go and bring their family and make a difference together.

>> We partnered with the state parks, we partnered with the national parks.

It helps educate people on what's out there.

And it's just a really fun time for kids and for adults, as well, because they see a lot more once they're picking it up and you make that connection of, okay, if I can replace that piece of plastic that I found, maybe that'll help the environment and my impact will be lessened on the environment.

Plastic pollution is literally everywhere.

It's wiping out so many animals per year.

Over a million seabirds die from plastic ingestion every single year.

Turtles, marine whales, dolphins.

If you think about how a whale- >> Our own bodies- >> Well yeah, our own bodies, as well.

>> I think it's the stat that's like, we eat a credit card worth of plastic, I think it's every week.

>> Adam: It's all microplastics.

Once you get down to the microplastic level, it's scary the amount that is out there and that can do harm to our bodies and the animals in the ocean.

>> That can flow into our watersheds and our water supply.

And then, that can affect us as humans.

If you're not doing it for the animals, do it for the humans.

(laughs) >> Yeah, exactly.

'Cause plastic is, it's toxic chemicals.

That's how it's made.

It affects everyone.

And that's why when you jump in and you see all this, you kind of, I mean, we have to do something about it because it's affecting every part of life.

And then when you switch, it just feels so much better.

Everything, I'm not gonna say it tastes better, but it does.

Everything tastes better not in plastic.

>> I love how you're excited about this.

>> I geek out on it.

I geek out on it a lot, because I don't know, it's just one of those things that once you get into, you can really get into, 'cause it's, I don't know, it's very rewarding, but at the same time, you're awarding this ecosystem and you're rewarding this ecosystem.

Granted in all walks of life, there are times where plastic is necessary.

Obviously in the medical field, there's a lot of plastic and a lot of that is necessary.

We try and focus on bringing it back to the individual and what you can do on a daily basis to just cut down that single-use plastic that isn't necessarily needed.

>> Through the sales of our products, we've saved over 100 million straws so far and we celebrating our second anniversary tomorrow.

I think that anyone who has a dream about something that might seem off the wall or potentially maybe difficult, if it seems sort of far-fetched, that means you're probably in the right direction.

For us personally, it is persistence, just sticking with it, and just really finding any resource out there, honestly, just- >> Learn one thing at a time.

>> Yeah, and just kept my head down and just focused and made it happen.

Especially somebody with a chronic illness.

It's just, it was very important for me to say, almost like I can do this, I can prove it, I can do something important.

And with us just being two people, we really have done something important.

>> You created this business and we just celebrated in two years, from the sale of these straws, we've saved over 100 million single-use plastic straws from being used.

>> That's crazy.

>> That's, and we're just two people.

If we can do that, anyone can do that.

(upbeat music) >> That wraps another episode of Friends and Neighbors.

I'm your host, Jeff Casey.

As always, we're looking for feedback and suggestions.

Do you have a friend that goes above and beyond to make their community a better place?

A neighbor that has a funky local shop you think we should know about?

Email us at friends@lakeshorepublicmedia.org.

Maybe next time, we'll highlight the unique people, places, and experiences 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.

(upbeat music) >> Woman: Strack and Van Til is your wedding planning partner.

Choose handcrafted designs by the trained floral designers in our floral department, plan a memorable meal for your reception from our delicious catering menu, and let our bakery artisans design the wedding cake of your dreams.

Visit strackandvantil.com for details.

>> Narrator: Did you know that you can find all of your favorite Lakeshore PBS shows online?

By visiting video.lakeshorepbs.org, you can stream a large selection of shows, including Eye on the Arts, In Studio, and Friends and Neighbors.

Lakeshore PBS has taken great care to bring you the best in local content.

Not sure how to find local content?

Click on shows and sort by only Lakeshore PBS shows.

Not only will you find local content on Lakeshore PBS, but you can also stream live TV right to your computer.

Click on live TV and get instant access to Lakeshore PBS live wherever you are.

Lakeshore PBS is full of wonderful content created just for you.

Missed last night's episode?

No problem.

Lakeshore PBS has got you covered.

Search for your show and find your episode, ready to watch any time.

Visit video.lakeshorepbs.org to stream your favorite local shows.

(upbeat music) (slow piano music)