>> Announcer: This week on Friends and Neighbors.

>> Jason: He saw a future, a vision of being able to display these old bikes he was taking in trade.

He's seeing things before they would come to life.

You can see it, and now when you talk to people, they'll say, "you know, Jim Kersting, he was quite the man."

>> Man: It's been referenced by a lot of paintball players.

They go, "this is the Disney World of paintball.

"I don't want to go to Disney World, I wanna come here."

That's what I enjoy the most out of it.

Listening to the people going, "I got to play paintball with my son.

"I grew up out there and now my son's playing out there," or "my daughter's playing out there."

That's what I like.

>> Jackie: And we do have quite a few 45 year olds that raced back in the day or their children are now racing and they wanna give it a try.

>> Kevin: I started racing when I was about 11 years old and we helped out at the track all the time, volunteering here.

It's a very competitive sport, but it's also a very fun sport.

His best friend races his same age group, and they'll play all the time and then they go out there and race each other as hard as they can.

So they learn sportsmanship and cheer for each other when they're on the track.

>> Lisa: 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 decided 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) >> Narrator: Shopping for fruits and vegetables in the Strack and 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 and Van Til store.

>> Narrator: A long lasting legacy of family ownership, dedicated to generations of clients is what sets Centier apart.

Trust the integrity, experience, and personal service of Centier, Indiana's largest private family-owned bank.

>> Announcer: Support for programming at Lakeshore PBS comes in part from a generous bequest of the estate of Marjorie A.

Mills whose remarkable contribution will help us keep viewers like you informed, inspired, and entertained for years to come.

(inspirational music) (joyful music) >> Announcer: Additional support for Lakeshore PBS is provided by viewers like you.

Thank you!

(motorcycle starting) (engine revving) (twangy country music plays) >> It's hard to have a business in the middle of no place, but what dad has built here is a museum to bring people here.

Dad was extremely passionate about motorcycles and motorcycle racing.

He wanted to get out there and go, and a little bit of a crazy streak in him.

He would be a guy that would jump on two wheels and try about anything you could think of.

And so he had a natural ability, actually built a little motorcycle using his mother's washing machine engine when he was in the sixth grade and he'd ride this motorcycle around that he had built, but he had to take the engine off on Saturday nights because grandma would do the wash on Sunday.

So he had to take the little Maytag hit and miss engine out of his bike on Saturday night, put it in the washing machine, and then he couldn't have it back until the washing was all done.

So dad was a extremely good mechanic and just had a love of mechanical things.

About 1962, dad had answered an ad in Popular Mechanics, that they were looking for Harley Davidson dealerships in this area.

And dad replied and said he'd be interested in it.

And Harley Davidson then opened up a dealership.

And that's how it started out here and where it's at.

In 1980, he acquired Yamaha.

At that time, the interest rates went up really high and it was all they could do to make ends meet.

So dad started taking anything in trade.

I mean, any kind of motorcycle, any kind of old vintage vehicle that didn't run, he would work on it and he'd get it running.

And then a lot of times those bikes wouldn't sell.

So they just got shoved to the side.

And we didn't have a whole lot.

I mean, in the early eighties, no business owner had a whole lot.

I mean, everybody was just scraping to make ends meet and dad, he saw a future, a vision of being able to display these old bikes he was taking in trade.

In the late eighties, Harley Davidson really started coming back.

All through the nineties, they were selling.

Rather than just keeping the money that he was making on bike sales, he would go and invest in more vintage motorcycles.

And that's really how the museum got started, was in the eighties.

And that's strange that my dad, he's seeing things before they would come to life.

So many people in our small little community, I've heard him say it, that they all thought he was nuts.

Whatever his idea was, they said, "There's no way Jim Kersting can sell motorcycles "out there in the middle of no place."

Well, dad proved them wrong.

They would say things like "he has no business "going to Daytona and racing like that," but he would still do it because if they told him he couldn't do it, that made him really want to show people he could do it.

So that helped drive his passion.

People saying "That little guy ain't gonna have nothing."

Well, now he's one of the most sought after people in this area.

He's always done everything he can to help the community.

As he done better, he always wanted to help his town do better.

And you can see it and now when you talk to people, they'll say, "You know, Jim Kersting, "he was quite the man."

You know, I really hope that we can make my dad proud.

I mean, we have grown up trying very hard.

And my dad's been a very demanding person.

When he brought us into the dealership, he expected a lot of us and we've tried very hard to please him and mom as well.

And we hope that they would both be looking down on us and saying that we have done a good job.

That's what our hopes are and keep this legacy going for him.

(country music continues) >> When I walk through here, looking at just the little bikes that him and I worked on, or kind of tinkered with, or the cars, memories flash by you of rides that you took with them.

Folks that come through here, they mention, "oh my God, how many bikes" and stuff, but my eyes go directly towards, something that I have a personal connection to.

So it's a special place.

I loved being with my grandpa and grandma.

So I started going with them to antique stores.

We'd buy the antique, get it all cleaned up and then put it on the wall the next day, I'd just look around and kind of see different buys that me and my grandpa and grandma did.

He bought these antique bikes and stuff, but he always said, "I want to ride 'em."

In his older age, when I was working with him, he would always say, "All of this is worth nothing "unless you can share it with people."

'Cause I've done so many tours here and to be a biker, once you've been bitten by that bug, you're done.

And you can't talk to everyone about bikes, but this place, I've seen people connect with one another, with bikes and cars.

We have like 25 cars in here, too.

So just to have a place where you can connect and share stories, it's something truly special.

He was mentor, best friend, closest confidant, just all rolled into one.

He was very passionate.

When Jim Kersting was gonna do something, he didn't just wait around.

He did it.

He lived to be 85 and he lived fully.

(country music continues) (paintballs cracking) (rock music plays) (rock music intensifies) (man shouting) >> You're in Northwest Indiana, La Porte, Indiana, just west of South Bend, seven miles away from Lake Michigan.

Right in the snow belt in the wintertime.

Here on the field, you're on the city of Nottingham, on the paintball field out here.

As you can see the castle in the background there, with the city around it.

We've been out here for 32 years.

I've been playing paintball for 40 years.

I started when I was a sophomore in high school in '82.

Paintball had only been around a year, at that time.

The first game ever played was in '81.

And I fell in love with the sport and started renting out gear, buying extra stuff, to get more people to play.

And then in 1990, looking at places to open up a field, found this property here and went to my dad and said, "Hey, do you wanna go into business together, "purchase this property?"

And we haven't looked back since.

So everything you see out here, we've cleared, built in the last 32 years.

We invest everything right back into the field and we're continuously out here building stuff.

So we're at 76 acres now.

(paintballs popping) The main playing fields, when we have our rec games on the weekends where it's just, anybody can show up and play, games last 15 minutes.

We have 13 different fields.

We're adding two more new fields this year.

All of 'em clearly roped off.

You'll go down.

The referees will take you down onto the field.

You'll play a 15 minute game.

Come back up to the staging area or the dead boxes get cleaned up.

The referee will take you back out, start another game.

Then you'll rotate to another field.

Play two games there.

The reason it's called Sherwood Forest.

When we opened it up out here in 1990, people still didn't know what paintball was.

So paintball had this stigmatism of being paramilitary or militia training.

And a lot of the fields back in the day were military themed fields.

So they got a lot of bad press and a lot of bad rep from it.

So I wanted to get as far away from the military theme as possible.

I went with my childhood hero, Robinhood.

Grew up playing Dungeons and Dragons and reading stories of Robinhood.

So I went with Sherwood Forrest.

Everything out here on the field is complete medieval themed.

The best way to describe it and what I tell everyone, is when you walk on the field, it's like you're walking through a medieval countryside.

You walk down to the city of Nottingham.

There's 200 buildings around the main castle.

You walk down another path, go around through the forest.

You come upon another small village or another small castle or a tower or a cathedral.

And it's all medieval themed.

>> Ah, man, it's great, it's great.

It's my first real time here at Sherwood Forest and just being under the canopy of those trees, it just puts you in a different type of environment and it's unlike any big game that I've ever played.

So I've been to a few different big games so far, and this one is definitely a lot more spread out and you got more room to run and the people here are great.

And everybody that is running this field is doing a great job.

So super stoked to be in Indiana and a lot of good fields out here, and Sherwood Forest is definitely, definitely one of 'em.

>> I think it's a fantastic thing they do for the community, especially for the youth.

It's a shame, but they seem like they don't have a place and they're looking for something.

And paintball is the only vehicle that allowed them to go out, experience life, go into the outdoors, have a little risk of danger, but yet come home safe with no injuries.

And I think that what they do is an asset to the community.

And it's because they allow these kids to get out behind their computer screens, come out, interact with other people, play a game and you know, it's your skill.

>> Everybody's welcome here.

It's a family atmosphere.

You're part of the family once you start coming out here and playing.

My daughters grew up out here.

That's what we're doing now with all the players coming back with their kids.

They grew up out here.

They're telling their kids the stories.

Now their kids are old enough.

They're coming back out here.

So it's like a theme park.

It's been referenced by a lot of paintball players.

They go, "This is the Disney world of paintball.

"I don't want to go to Disney world.

I wanna come here."

That's what I enjoy the most out of it.

Listening to the people going, "Oh my God, "that was so much fun out there.

"I got to play paintball with my son.

"I grew up out there and now my son's playing out there" or "my daughter's playing out there."

That's what I like.

(rock music continues) ♪ I came from the mud ♪ ♪ There's dirt on my hands ♪ ♪ Strong like a tree ♪ ♪ There's roots where I stand ♪ ♪ Ooh, ooh, ooh ♪ >> We have the qualifying races for the state championship going on.

That state final will be held here in October.

We have a regular open racing program, Thursdays and Saturdays, and any USA BMX member can race those races.

We have open practice, open to the citizens of the community on a waiver basis, as well as our regular riders.

We do that twice a week as well.

And then we have a beginner league, which is a basic BMX class for kids and adults because we have moms and dads that wanna do it too.

They may have a team name, but basically they're family groups, here together to race and to celebrate the state race and to have a good time (mom cheering) and spend the afternoon together.

>> Me, Ayden, my wife, and my youngest son too, he's here.

He's just taking a nap.

These two... (dad laughs) (woman shouting) The BMX track is like its own family too.

Like when you come here, Ayden can be racing a kid and other dads would help Ayden if I wasn't there, getting him to his gate or fixing his bike, if something were to happen.

So it is a very cool sport for that reason.

(horns honking) (crowd shouting) >> Jackie: We're real family oriented.

Nobody just comes here, races and leaves.

>> Yeah, I race once in a while.

Mainly it's just watching him on big races.

We just take care of him and my two year old races too, on the Strider bikes.

>> This began because I was driving my kid and every other neighbor kid to Elgin, Illinois, to race BMX.

I said, "I don't wanna do this anymore.

"We'll just do one here."

So we did.

Our outdoor is celebrating its 20th year.

We started off by having a bunch of the kids from the bike trails that were around here.

And we had a meeting January of 2000 and we got a crew of volunteers.

And those volunteers worked from that day to June to get this open and ready to go.

That day, we had 99 brand new people who had never raced BMX sign up.

Many of those people still live in the community.

And in fact, I'm still in touch with a lot of them and we would like them to come back and see what they started.

>> You got three!

>> The track runs on volunteers that come out here every day, when they get off work.

They clean up the track, pat the track down, sweep it, take out the garbage and help maintain it.

Jackie's a huge benefit to the track.

She's been here since I was a kid, I've known her.

She knows a lot about the sport.

She knows how to help kids out in the sport and put 'em in the right path to grow, teaches 'em fast route, or you can just stay, just make it a fun day.

>> Jackie: We do have quite a few 45 year olds that raced back in the day and are back or their children are now racing and they wanna give it a try.

>> I started racing when I was about 11 years old and we helped out at the track all the time, volunteering here, cleaning up and everything, traveled the country.

It's a very competitive sport, but it's also a very fun sport.

His best friend races his same age group, and they'll play all the time and then they go out there and race each other as hard as they can.

So they learn sportsmanship and cheer for each other when they're on the track.

They get to meet kids from all over the country, which is pretty neat.

(rock music) (wheel clicking) (gate thudding) (race gates falling) (rock music continues) >> It's multi-generational.

That's what makes this so unique.

It's 'cause parents are here with your kids and all the kids do it at once.

I mean, you don't have to go to cheerleading practice there and dance class there, and baseball there, and basketball here.

Everybody does the same thing at the same time.

And mom and dad can do it also.

We've even had grandpas.

My grandson now rides and he'll get out there and he'll scream "pedal, nana" just like I'm screaming, "pedal, Collin!"

Those are called balance bikes.

(upbeat music plays) They are from under one to up to five years old.

They do like half the track and they'll be racing today, too.

>> Kevin: It's a very fun thing.

What little kid doesn't like to ride his bike and jump dirt jumps every day, but it's also, they're getting outside, getting the exercise they need.

They're not sitting in the house and everything.

So they get to meet kids, have fun.

>> It's fun.

>> Interviewer: Why is it fun?

>> Ayden: Cause it's cool and it's a lot of work.

(Kevin laughs) >> There's a competitiveness to it and they can get that competitiveness in probably any sport.

The difference about BMX is that I say it raises good humans, because it teaches some life lessons.

That life is about getting up and continuing on.

Life is about not how you start the race, but how you finish in the end.

(upbeat drumming music) (soft pop music plays) (text whooshes) >> I was bed-ridden 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.

So it kind of just like took off super fast.

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

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

>> And I was still bed-ridden 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 One Percent for the Planet, Lake Michigan Organizations.

>> Yes.

>> There's Alliance for the Great Lakes, yeah.

So that's something that's really 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.

That's every day.

So 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.

>> Since the very, very beginning, we decided 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.

>> Adam: Swim ashore, if you will.

>> Lisa: Yeah!

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

>> We partner with the state parks, we partner 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, 'cause they see a lot more once they're picking it up and you make that connection of like, 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 sea birds 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 a 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 that animals in the ocean.

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

And then that can affect us as humans.

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

>> Yeah, exactly.

Cause plastic is 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.

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.

(Lisa laughs) 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 very rewarding, but at the same time, you're rewarding this ecosystem and you're rewarding this ecosystem.

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

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

So 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.

>> So through the sales of our products, we've saved over a hundred million straws so far and we're celebrating our second anniversary tomorrow.

So 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 farfetched, that means you're probably in the right direction.

For us personally, it is persistence.

I'm just sticking with it and just really finding any resource out there.

Honestly just-- >> Adam: Learned one thing at a time >> Yeah.

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

Especially somebody with a chronic illness.

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.

>> It's crazy.

>> And we are just two people.

So if we can do that, anyone can do that.

(inspiring rock music plays) >> 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.

>> Narrator: 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 plays) >> Narrator: Strack & 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: A long lasting legacy of family ownership dedicated to generations of clients is what sets Centier apart.

Trust the integrity, experience, and personal service of Centier, Indiana's largest private family-owned bank.

>> Announcer: Support for programming at Lakeshore PBS comes in part from a generous bequest of the estate of Marjorie A.

Mills, whose remarkable contribution will help us keep viewers like you informed, inspired, and entertained for years to come.

(inspiring music) (upbeat music) >> Announcer: Additional support for Lakeshore PBS is provided by viewers like you.

Thank you!

(joyful music)