>> Narrator 1: This week on Friends and Neighbors.

>> Erica: We do have a lot of people that come in and they do think that since we're metal, that they are going to be hearing Pantera, Slayer, bands like that, but they're pleasantly surprised when they're introduced to a new concept, a new style of music.

>> Andrew: A marine-protected area is a analog to a national park that's protecting a body of water.

This could be either a marine area, such as in The Bahamas or in the Florida Keys, or locally, over the Great Lakes.

For example, Indiana Dunes National Park, which is providing a critical stepping stone in the bird migration, which is just getting underway here.

>> Jori: It's been a really cool journey to see people go from not being able to row or paddle to doing every trick in the book.

>> Lynn: And balancing.

>> Jori: Balancing, oh yeah.

Trying to make it fun for everyone, even if it's something that they don't feel comfortable with, I'll tell them, hey, go lay on your board and relax, because that is like the best.

>> Daniele: Our mission is to improve the quality of life of individuals with disabilities through equine-assisted therapies.

So we can work on school and learning goals or physical goals or mental health goals.

The horses kind of do the rest for us.

>> Jim: This lighthouse was a lighthouse from 1858 until 1904.

The Coast Guard took it over in '39, the city purchased the building from the Coast Guard, and one of the stipulations was it would be used as a teaching tool, i.e., a museum.

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

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

(upbeat rock music) >> 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.

>> Narrator 2: 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.

(slow metal music) >> Doom Yoga is just a classic yoga class with doom metal in the background.

So instead of listening to Enya's greatest hits or some classical music, it's set to doom metal.

We have it the second Saturday of every month.

Nineteen dollars, you get a beer, two tacos, just an all-levels class.

We've had our instructor, Ryann Jackson, since the beginning, and she is now on maternity leave, so we have a new instructor coming in for the next few months until she has her baby, but it's still the same aesthetic.

They have the same vibe.

They have the same class style.

We start the class before we even open, so you have an hour of class followed by an hour of the taproom all to yourself with the other participants, and afterwards, everybody just gets to hang out, chill, have some beer, have some tacos, and start your weekend off right.

(upbeat metal music) Doom metal just a split-off of the metal genre where it's very slow and low, heavy on the bass.

It's almost trance-like sometimes, it can get yell-y, but for the most part it's almost a soothing, like, low baseline in the background, and so they were listening to that as they were doing test batches of brewing and that sort of became the theme, then, because nobody in the area was doing doom metal specifically.

So this was something that was conceptualized before we even opened.

We were looking for ways to bring people into the brewery because we are situated kind of off the beaten path, and wanted to get our name out there to different groups of people, whether you're into beer or not.

We knew that we wanted to do something here as far as events, but also wanted it to be true to ourselves, and at the time, a lot of breweries and bars were doing yoga classes.

So, it was a Saturday night and I was just hanging at home with my husband and OM had come on and at the time, I was really into yoga and I just started going into a flow and I was like, oh my goodness, I think this might be something, 'cause we were like trying to figure out what could be our thing, and so pitched it to the group and they were like, let's do it, so as soon as we had our opening and things were flowing, we decided to bring it onboard.

So we opened July of 2017, our first class was August of 2017 and we've been selling out every month since.

(exciting metal music) We do have a lot of people that come in and they do think that since we're metal, that they are gonna be hearing Pantera, Slayer, bands like that, but they're pleasantly surprised when they're introduced to a new concept, a new style of music.

It runs the gamut where we have, you know, the young 21-year-olds all the way to, you know, the senior citizens that come in here and they're asking what kind of music it is because they love it.

It's just, it's a nice background music.

It's not too harsh.

It's like if you sitting at a metal concert for hours, your ears would be piercing, but doom metal is, like I said, a little bit more slow and low, heavy on the base.

The lyrics are usually in the background, where the instrumental is more the focus of that genre of music.

I think people see the authenticity in everything that we do.

We're not trying to pretend to be something that we're not and doom metal yoga is just another layer to that.

And we listen to all kinds of music, we really do, we're fans of jam bands, old school hip hop, all the time people will ask, what song is that?

I need to add that to my Spotify or whatever.

So it's really cool to introduce people to a new genre of music that maybe they didn't know about before coming here.

(upbeat music) >> A marine-protected area is a analog to a national park that's protecting a body of water.

This could be either a marine area such as in the Bahamas or in the Florida keys, or locally, over the Great Lakes.

For example, the Thunder Bay Marine Sanctuary, which protects a bunch of vibrant shipwrecks on the floor of Lake Michigan.

There's, say, Indiana Dunes National Park, which is providing a critical stepping stone in the bird migration, which is just getting underway here.

Shedd does research in how a marine-protected area actually works to replenish a local population.

And by that, I mean we provide the research and the science to make sure that putting aside a parcel of protected water, in this case, is actually able to protect the animals within it to replenish outside areas, thus bolstering fisheries as well.

And in terms of work on fisheries, we try to educate people on sustainable choices that they can make locally every time you go to a store or to a restaurant.

So for example, locally, Shedd also informs people on how they can make sustainable choices with seafood, and that comes from an open, transparent system with restaurants, where you have certain species that have really well-informed scientific data supporting how the fishery can exist without damaging the environment.

Shedd Aquarium has the R/V Coral Reef II, our 80-foot research vessel, which is based out of Miami and is constantly going over back and forth to The Bahamas to deploy teams of volunteers and researchers that are investigating marine life and providing high-quality science for the government and nonprofits in The Bahamas to make better decisions to protect their beautiful underwater world.

So, in The Bahamas, Shedd does research across a variety of different species.

I study invertebrate fisheries, so spiny lobster, which is the single largest fishery in the wider Caribbean area, and also queen conch, which is a threatened giant marine snail.

And we look at things like where the animals are found, how they're breeding, and how a marine-protected area can help protect and replenish those populations.

Queen conch are giant threatened marine snails that are also associated with a variety of cultural and tourist commodities that are also threatened.

They're easy to extract from the environment and they've been overfished for years.

What we do in the Bahamas is go off of our research vessel, the Coral Reef II, scuba dive to find where conch are found, and measure them and observe what's happening, and we use that to provide information to better protect them into the future.

The general tendencies that you can have as an informed citizen and conservationist are very similar.

It's be respectful of the environment and make good choices based on the best available knowledge to not be damaging the environment that you love.

The best thing that you can do to help your local environment is to just make mindful, conscious decisions.

Don't take a super-long shower if you don't have to, you know, pick up trash, and when you go to a restaurant to make a seafood selection, try to choose something that's advertised as sustainable seafood.

I really hope down the line is to provide information that I find stimulating and interesting and identifiable for a variety of people who've never thought about the threats to a marine snail, so that they can change their own life, and just a little bit to make more conscious decisions about the ocean environment that I love.

(upbeat music) (laughing) >> Hey, I'm Lynn Spinks.

A year ago, my personal trainer recommended I try ROWSUP.

Today, I finally get to.

I am out in Cedar Lake today with Jori Rietveld, who is a certified trainer, a paddleboard trainer.

Jori, this is more than paddle boarding.

Help me out, what's going on?

>> It's a fitness class that I teach on paddle boards where we focus on building a stronger core and keeping balance and we do a bunch of exercises on our board and I incorporate yoga into that and some days we go out and paddle around and we have a good time.

>> Lynn: So tell me about your personal training and your group training.

>> Over the years, I've taught a little bit of everything, some spin and boot camps and yoga, and just little a bit of everything, and I just found my niche.

I just absolutely enjoy people out on the boards, overcoming their fears and helping them to do something new.

(upbeat music) >> What kind of fears do you encounter?

>> People are often afraid of falling in.

We're in the water, so it's okay to get wet, right?

We just get back up.

ROWSUP stands for reps on water stand up paddleboard, but also I feel like a lot of times when we're down, we need to rise up and like when we fall, we can get back up.

>> I love that and I just thought it was because you have to row the paddle board.

(laughing) I'm excited to get started.

>> Get your hips up in the air, right?

Good job, and look through your legs.

Soft knees, yeah, you don't wanna lock your knees.

>> What kind of people typically sign up for one of your classes?

Are these like these ultra-elite athletes that already can contort themselves like a pretzel or is it me?

(Jori laughing) >> I have people of all athletic ability out here.

It's been a really cool journey to see people go from not being able to row or paddle to doing every trick in the book >> Lynn: And balancing.

>> Jori: Balancing, oh yeah.

(uplifting music) >> It's like I've got a false sense of security.

I'm like, well let me lean back a little bit.

>> Loosen up, see, that's what I make people do.

I make them relax and enjoy themselves.

The main thing on these boards is to be relaxed, because if you're on the board and you're tense, you'll fall in.

So when we get to the standing stage, which is right around the corner.

>> There's a standing stage.

>> Oh yes.

>> Okay.

>> You're gonna remember to keep those knees soft and just be relaxed because if you tighten your muscles and a wave comes, you're gonna meet the water fast.

>> Okay.

Now I will tell you, I am a little nervous.

I have done all kinds of athletic stuff, I've done gymnastics, all the things, and my knees are shot.

Like after a long day of walking or too many stairs, they ache, but this is water.

So how is that gonna help somebody like me that has those aches and pains?

>> I do accommodate aches and pains.

Let's actually do that one more time, all right, guys?

Depending on what the exercise is, I will come up with different modifications and so we can make it fun for everyone.

And even if it's something that they don't feel comfortable with, I'll tell them, hey, just lay on your board and relax, because that is like the best, and everyone says that when they are laying down on the board, they're like, oh yeah, this is my favorite exercise.

I'm like, that's why you came, right?

So if there's something you don't wanna do, just lay down and take a nap, enjoy the sunshine.

>> Lynn: It is really nice.

>> Jori: Yeah.

>> Lynn: I think it's awesome that anybody can do this with you.

>> Yes, yes, I have had even someone that was paralyzed.

She came to one of my indoor paddleboard classes and I designed the whole hour workout to be a seated workout and she was so excited and it was just so cool to see someone that has no ability to move her legs get on that board and make the dream happen.

It was like, this is what we're here for, you know.

>> Truly rose up.

>> Yeah, I just absolutely get so excited seeing people do things that they thought was impossible.

(serene music) >> Our mission is to improve the quality of life of individuals with disabilities through equine-assisted therapies.

Any diagnosable disabilities, mental, cognitive, learning, physical, developmental.

We have ranges from little two-year-olds to senior citizens and everything in between.

Our biggest programs are therapeutic riding, which aims to teach individuals to ride horses or work with horses and in the process, we can work on a whole lot of different goals.

Their movement is actually very therapeutic on its own.

The movement kind of mimics the way a human would walk, so it works core muscles, it works leg muscles, using the arms works the arm muscles, as well as coordination and balance.

>> After riding, you're definitely kind of tired, 'cause you're walking around on a horse for an hour, half an hour.

You're definitely tired, but you definitely are relaxed, because then you're just like, I got to ride the horse, I was happy.

>> Our horses are chosen for their very calm nature that can often times be very therapeutic to be around.

It's also pretty neat to have kind of a connection with a creature that doesn't even speak your same language, that has a kind of their own characteristics and personalities.

Being around the horses offer a really, hi, hello, offer a really interactive experience.

We add a kind of emotional aspect to it, so they get to feel the horse is warm.

They get to kind of notice the horse listening to them with their ears.

At the end, when they bring the treat buckets, the horse might stick its tongue out at them.

They kind of offer this very lively aspect of it.

>> Addi: I was going through a rough time, and then my therapist introduced me to Range of Life and then I just decided, oh, hey, I kinda wanna ride here.

>> Daniele: We take all the goals that riders are maybe already working on outside of reins and we add a horse and make it fun.

So we can work on school and learning goals or physical goals or mental health goals and incorporate that into the lesson plans.

The horses kind of do the rest for us.

>> My personal goals is to just get really good at horse riding, be able to be really confident in it.

I'm getting there.

It's definitely helped me get a lot better at a lot of things.

Before, I wasn't really good with just being assertive and telling the horse, okay, you need to stop now and I'd say I've gotten really a lot better at that.

>> The first time is always very laid back and that kind of helps set up that learning atmosphere that they don't have to come in and immediately ride, which takes a lot of pressure off.

She's been riding for a couple of years now.

She also became a volunteer last year.

She's kind of done a little bit of everything and is really a great member of the Range team.

(upbeat music) >> Say, volunteering and riding, it's definitely one of the funnest things, 'cause you get to meet a bunch of people, you get to ride the horse, you get to do a lot of things with the horse, like trotting, like doing the little obstacles.

They're are a lot of fun.

>> Daniele: I love seeing all the different progress, the different ways that progress can kind of manifest itself.

The students always blow me away with what they can do Because they're so emotionally intelligent, and there's something really powerful about knowing that this other being that's so much bigger is kind of paying attention to you (Addi laughing) and that you're affecting it in that way, and also the reverse, that the horse is affecting you in that way and bringing their own emotions and their own personality.

I think horses for me have really given me a sense of working with others and kind of see the immediate bounce back.

If I'm having a bad day, the horse knows it and you can tell real quick by the horse's personality.

So it's really, it's been great to kind of get to know myself more through horses.

>> Addi: It's a really nice place.

You get to meet a lot of people.

You get to ride all the horses and just have a lot of fun.

(playful music) >> We had visitors from 24 different countries and all 50 states of the Union, which is unbelievable.

Major Isaac C. Elston, he was from Crawfordsville, Indiana.

He was a land speculator and he foresaw this area as being the only port in Indiana.

The first and only port in Indiana.

So in the 1830s, he bought this property.

He and his wife decided that the first thing that they're gonna need in a port is a lighthouse, so he documented and donated this piece of property to the US Lightkeeping Service.

One of the first things people ask us is, why is the water way out there and the lighthouse was way in here?

Well, in 1837, that water was almost to the gate that you walked in, that wrought iron gate, So that's why the lighthouse was here.

This lighthouse was a lighthouse from 1858 until 1904.

The Coast Guard took it over in '39.

The Coast Guard deemed it surplus in the sixties.

The city purchased the building from the Coast Guard and one of the stipulations was it would be used as a teaching tool, i.e., a museum, and that's were the Historical Society came into play.

In 1965, they signed a contract with the city of Michigan City and that's when they started renovations.

It took them until 1973 to actually open, but a lot of the work was done gratis, a lot of the work was done by Historical Society members and tradesman.

What we try to do on the inside is give a little bit of addressing the history of the shipping and the shipwrecks.

We do have some artifacts that were from the JD Marshall and the FW Wheeler.

We're very, very proud of our Eastland Memorial here, that's 844 six-inch stud anchor chain links, one link for each soul's lost on the morning of July 24th, 1915.

Up in the Lincoln room, we actually have a piece of the bunting from the night that Lincoln was shot.

We try to do our best in doing the exhibits.

We do them ourselves.

We don't have professional people come in and do it.

We're very proud of the fact that we do that.

You see so many historical buildings end up in a pile of rubble and this could've happened here and it didn't, and we're extremely proud of it, and I'm extremely proud of everybody who contributes today and yesteryear.

(mellow orchestral music) >> Woman: Doing as much as you can as quickly as you can is important to me.

(uplifting music) 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.

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>> Narrator 4: 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.

(upbeat music) Lakeshore PBS is full of wonderful content created just for you.

Miss the 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 rock music) (whimsical piano music)