>> This week on "Friends and Neighbors".

(upbeat music) Tell me about Transitions Equestrian.

>> Employee: Transition Equestrian Center is located in LaPorte, Indiana.

We do everything from boarding, training, kids camps, birthday parties, you name it, we do it.

>> Doug: You know, I think we're at a pretty crucial time right now that a lot of us are starting to see the reduction of natural and green space.

And so I think that conservation is so incredibly important.

>> Adam: Every culture in the world has a soup.

Everyone has that comfort.

Everyone can close their eyes and remember what grandma served at that one holiday, that one potluck, that one party.

>> Celine: In 2016, a group of very committed public servants came together to start drawing out the concept of what a training center could look like here in Northwest Indiana.

As a result of that effort, we have a five acre training campus for first responders from throughout northwest Indiana.

>> Narrator: Centier Bank is proud to serve hometown community banking across Indiana.

For over 128 years, Indiana's largest private family-owned bank has been not for sale, and promises to keep it that way for years to come.

(bright music) >> Announcer: Sacred Dunes Integrative Health is your comprehensive holistic wellness center, specializing in acupuncture, massage therapy, functional lab testing, nutrition, and herbal medicine.

Sacred dunes, where wellness grows.

>> Announcer 3: Local programming is made possible by IBEW Local 697 Northwest Indiana's Source for electrical professionals, providing certified, trained, and experienced professionals for residential, commercial, industrial, and solar projects.

>> 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) >> Strack and Van Til is hiring full and part-time positions for deli, floral, bakery, department managers and more with flexible work schedules, sign on bonuses, paid vacation and benefits.

Learn more at StrackandVanTil.com.

>> Narrator: Methodist Hospital's mission is to provide compassionate quality healthcare services to all those in need.

Methodist Hospital, celebrating 100 years of healing in northwest Indiana.

Learn more at methodisthospitals.org.

(upbeat music) >> Narrator 2: Additional support for Lake Shore public media and "Friends and Neighbors" is provided by viewers like you.

Thank you.

>> Welcome to "Friends and Neighbors" the Lake Shore public media program that explores what it means to live in northwest Indiana, celebrating the idea that behind all of the good things in the region are good people making it happen.

I'm your host, Matt Valuckis.

We had an opportunity to check out Transitions Equestrian Center in LaPorte, Indiana.

Owner and Grand Prix level rider, Melissa Ashcraft, was kind enough to give me a riding lesson and yes, I dressed for the occasion.

So strap on your boots, tighten your buckles and giddy up for Transitions Equestrian Center.

Comes a time in a man's life where you gotta stare life right back in his face.

Realize that cowboy's destiny lies and the decisions made along the path in front of him.

So I put on my cowboy hat, my cowboy shirt, my cowboy vans but cowboy's no cowboy without a horse.

Ain't that the truth?

Just hope I don't mess this up with some stupid accent.

(inspiring music) (upbeat music) Howdy, y'all.

We are here at Transitions Equestrian Center in LaPorte, Indiana, I am talking with Melissa who is the owner and the head trainer.

Hi Melissa, how are you?

>> Great, how are you?

>> I'm doing just dandy, thank you.

>> Good, good, you know, I just wanted to start by saying, you know you don't have to like talk in an accent to be a real cowboy, right?

>> Good 'cause I don't think I could actually keep that up for the whole segment.

>> So yeah, no, you're good.

>> Thank you.

>> You're good.

But thank you for having us.

>> Absolutely.

>> We're happy to be here.

>> Tell me about Transitions Equestrian.

>> Transitions Equestrian Center is located in La Porte, Indiana.

We do everything from boarding, training, kids camps, birthday parties, you name it, we do it.

>> And who do we have here?

>> So this is Invictus.

He is, does everything from liberty to performances.

Bridle list, I mean, you name it, he's kinda like my little war pony.

So he does it, but he doesn't like standing here 'cause he is used to being like the star of the show and doing cool stuff.

So he's like, come on guys.

>> Well what do you say we hop to it and get him in action?

>> Cool.

We can do that.

>> Awesome.

(upbeat music) Melissa, I'm on a horse.

>> You are in your horse and you look like a real cowboy.

>> Don't I?

Talk to me about this.

I was told to hold my reins.

>> Melissa: Yep.

>> Not like this, but with my pinky.

>> Melissa: Yep.

>> Behind them.

>> Withy our pinky on the other side.

>> Is there a reason for that as far as holding goes?

>> Why you have it in your pinky and through your thumb is so that you can secure it, so the horse won't necessarily be able to pull it from your hands as much.

Horses move away from pressure.

So what that means is that if I want him to go to the right, what I'm gonna do is I'll just tilt his nose to the right but then I'm gonna use my left leg and he should come off and go to the left.

Right, and then vice versa.

So then what we're gonna do is to do like a figure eight.

You're going to come up, you wanna look up with your head, shoulder, belly button.

Good, I'm gonna make kind of a tight turn here.

Oops.

Too tight.

Good.

So look up.

Head, shoulder, belly button.

So like right now, I'm gonna take a right hand turn.

So I'm gonna use my left leg to kind of look up where I'm going.

Okay, so you wanna kind of think of your legs as the gas pedal, and then you wanna think of your hands as your brake and your steering wheel.

If I want 'em to fully come to a stop I'm gonna just take the gas completely off and you can just pull back.

Good, so you wanna put your heels down just a little bit.

There you go.

Yep.

Keep those hands up.

That's your steering wheel.

There you go.

Good.

Perfect.

Good and turn.

>> Matt: Come on, let's go.

>> Melissa: See now you are a official cowboy.

>> Matt: That was awesome.

>> Melissa: That was, you did great, you did great.

Okay, now let's see if you can stop and back her up.

>> Matt: And back up.

>> Melissa: Yep.

>> Matt: Back up.

>> Little bit of wiggle, there you go and fantastic.

>> This is so much fun, is there anything else I can learn?

>> Yeah, I mean we can learn stuff all day.

You wanna try to learn how to do some tricks with Invictus?

>> Yes.

>> Yes.

All right.

(upbeat music) >> All right, Melissa, can we do some tricks?

>> Yeah, Invictus, do you wanna do some tricks with Matt?

No?

>> What?

>> He said no, I don't know.

>> All right, thank you for tuning in.

We'll be back next time on "Friends and Neighbors".

>> So I'm gonna have you do this.

This is the grand finale.

You ready?

So you're gonna come over here, do this and up.

Good, good.

And then you're gonna lay him down.

Okay?

>> So two taps and then up?

>> Yep.

Two taps and then up.

Good.

>> Feel like Harry Potter.

(upbeat music) >> Good.

Okay, so final trick.

>> That was great.

>> Oh, if you really wanna feel like Harry Potter, do this one.

(upbeat music) Good.

Okay.

So just stand here and keep on wiggling it.

>> So I just wand him and he'll turn.

>> Yeah, just wand him like a true Harry Potter cowboy.

There you go.

>> I don't think those words have ever been spoken, a Harry Potter Cowboy.

>> But we could maybe patent it.

We might have something there.

>> But with a name like Invictus, I feel like a Harry Potter cowboy fits.

>> Right?

>> Melissa, I would love to thank you for having us out here.

If you guys get the chance, check out Transitions Equestrians Center, on LaPorte, Indiana.

Melissa, where can we find you guys online?

>> You can find us at www.TransitionsEquestriansCenter.com and thank you guys for coming out so much.

I really, really appreciate it.

>> Yee-haw.

Man, I don't know about you Invictus, it's been a long day.

I am starving, I am hungry enough to eat a... (upbeat music) For more information about these neighborly equestrian friends, visit TransitionsEquestrianCenter.com.

From rare dunes and swales and gary, to lovely forests near Valparaiso, Northwest Indiana is one of the most bio-diverse areas in the country.

The Shirley Heinze Land Trust has been working since 1981 to preserve these natural habitats and ensure that they're enjoyed for generations to come.

So let's take off our cowboy boots, strap on our hiking boots.

Take a deep breath of fresh air and find out what makes Northwest Indiana's habitats so special.

(soft music) >> Shirley Heinze was a psychologist.

She had a passion for protecting the dunes area.

She lived in Ogden Dunes and when she passed away, her friends Betty Lou and Robert Seidner donated $30,000 to start the Shirley Heinze Environmental Fund.

We changed our name a little bit to the Shirley Heinze Lands Trust because it became more clear what our mission was, to preserve and protect the natural lands and waters in northwestern Indiana and to engage communities in nature.

>> Generally the stewardship is the responsible care of something entrusted to somebody.

So we care for our nature preserves.

We maintain all the trails and parking lots and facilities and all of our equipment and buildings, all those kinds of things.

I also kind of say like, we're responsible for stewarding our communities in some way.

Like we have nature preserves so that they improve the quality of life for people.

So we do a lot of outreach and education programming to engage the community with nature and give them an accessible place to experience nature.

In like a corny way, one of my favorite things is managing land, right?

It's why I do what I do, I really like to have an impact on the land and see the restoration process.

So I've been with Shirley Heinze for about eight years and some of the properties I've really seen them transform from having, you know, terrible invasive species problems to being this really high quality habitat.

(upbeat music) >> We in particular own properties from Hammond all the way over to St. Joseph County, a little bit closer to the Lake County area, you will have the dune and swale, which is a globally threatened, globally imperiled habitat.

We have prairies and hobart and very wet prairies.

You don't normally see that kind of habitat in Indiana, of course, you come here and you have the Valparaiso marine properties with dense canopy and the ravine systems that they have.

We also own property in Beverly Shores.

So we have part of the Great Marsh, which is again, back from the dunes, but just behind the dunes.

Part of a whole marsh ecosystem with thousands of acres that a lot of us are trying to help restore.

It's hard to talk about how diverse these areas are because they are incredibly diverse.

(upbeat music) One of the great things that we do is not only preserve these things, which is important in its own right, but we do want people to enjoy them.

And also just to see the kind of diversity that's out in nature, the joy and wonderment of seasons.

Get out and enjoy it and, you know, do things like hike, get involved in any kind of arts programs that we have, take pictures, even just, you know, take other friends out and hike.

And it's, to me it's very relaxing and calming and I think it's also very fulfilling to be out in nature.

And I think we want more people to do just that.

(upbeat music) You know, I think we're at a pretty crucial time right now that a lot of us are starting to see the reduction of natural and green space.

And so I think that conservation is so incredibly important especially when you have these remnant natural areas that are just so incredible and so diverse.

I hate to see those potentially getting reduced in numbers and no longer being there for us to enjoy and for, to be there too, just as working systems >> We wanna create a culture of conservation.

We want people to be aware of the importance of a land trust and the importance of preserving land and green spaces in our communities.

Everything that we protect and preserve is forever.

So we need new generations all the time, right?

Young minds with great new ideas that come in and sort of carry the torch.

>> We also need a place where humans can go and interact with nature, where they can connect, get that spark to want to help protect nature as well.

I think now we have the opportunity to continue to fulfill that mission that was started 40 years ago.

(upbeat music) >> To learn more about Northwest Indiana's Natural Wonders, please visit HeinzeTrust.org.

Adam Brenner has worked in the restaurant industry at almost every level, and after cooking in restaurants all around the world, he decided to settle into Valparaiso.

He brings his experience and passion for flavor to the Valparaiso Soup Company, where he offers handmade soups, sandwiches and desserts.

Valparaiso Soup Company, it's where the food is super.

Super, see what I did there, soup, super.

(upbeat music) >> Looking around Valpo and downtown Valpo, all the restaurants were burgers and pizza and Mexican food and there's so many dinner spots.

So I figured there's not a lot of lunch spots with the courthouse right across the street, the county building, city hall, the police station, the fire department and then all of the law firms and accounting firms, being a nice lunch spot could work.

Where I'm from, soup, salad, sandwiches is the go-to default for lunch.

(upbeat music) Not a lot of places make their own bread.

I wanna make everything from scratch, make everything fresh and so we make our own bread, we make our own sweets.

We do everything in the old fashioned way, from scratch, hand chopped vegetables, hand chopped everything with lots of butter.

We do about 160 soups and we always have between five and eight every day.

We try to create a menu that has a little bit of something for everybody.

So there'll always be a vegan option, a gluten-free option, a dairy free option, a vegetarian option.

From there I'll open up my catalog, so to speak and dabble what sounds good.

Do I want to do a Thai soup, do I want to do an El Salvadorian soup?

Do I wanna do a Chinese soup?

We have six to 16 different sandwiches from your classic clubs and Rubens and Turkey pestos.

Then we make our own sandwiches and we try to create our own little combinations.

We make all of our dressings, all of our sauces in-house, so every salad is a full heart of Romaine, so we don't cheap out and we give you a good size portion.

And then pending if it's chopped salad or Caesar salad or Southwest or an Asian or one of our own blue beets.

We put walnuts and blue cheese.

It's basically a create your own salad or one of ours.

It's fantastic.

We always have between five or seven different types of cookies.

We have between five and seven different types of fudge.

We do toffee bars and then we make the best chocolate fudge brownie there is in the world.

I stand by that.

It's a bold statement, but I stand by it.

It is the best fudge brownie in the world.

The service is simple.

Customers walk in, they'll see the menu and they'll choose whether they want a salad or a sandwich.

One of the ladies will start that and then they'll kind of mosey down the line to the soup station.

I'll offer anybody and everybody soup samples if they want.

You can try anything, you can try everything.

We move down the line from there you'll see the sweet station.

So we've got our toffee bars, brownies, cookies, fudge and whatever else we're offering that day and then have a seat in a nice dining room.

We have an operation so quick we can expedite anything.

Orders up to 5, 10, 15 sandwiches at once.

We get you in and out in 5, 7, 10 minutes.

So it's just as fast as going to Taco Bell or McDonald's.

If you're waiting the drive through line, if you're calling GrubHub, you're still waiting them for 25, even an hour sometimes.

(soft music) One thing that we do pride ourselves on, again, because everything is made in-house and made from scratch, a lot of doctors, a lot of the physicians will send their patients to us because we can tell you every single ingredient in every single item we offer.

We don't add the preservatives, we don't add the nitrates, we don't add any of that stuff.

Aside from personal health benefits, I mean that's just, you wanna live longer, you wanna live healthier, you wanna be able to get up and live past 75 years old.

I think it also helps culturally speaking.

I think when you have a region or a cluster of nothing but fast food, deep fried restaurant type food, it says to the community, this is what we actually cherish.

This is what we actually care about.

Just having something that's fresh, you know, making bread from scratch, making cookies that doesn't have cake mix.

I think it shows people that there's a little bit more out there, there's some diversity.

Every culture in the world has a soup.

Everyone has that comfort.

Everyone can close their eyes and remember what grandma served at that one holiday, that one potluck, that one party and people say it's only soup but if you have the right soup, the right flavor, it's gonna be cheesy, it can be transcendent.

>> Visit valposoup.com for soups of the day and the full menu.

The MAAC Foundation was created to better serve all public safety professionals.

Their emergency training campus in Valparaiso is a comprehensive facility offering training for firefighters, EMS, and law enforcement at no cost to the individual or organization.

Founded by the McMillan family, they hope to keep first responders and the people they serve safe with the latest in training methods and equipment.

(intense music) >> In 2016, a group of very committed public servants came together to start drawing out the concept of what a training center could look like here in northwest Indiana.

As a result of that effort, we have a five acre training campus for first responders from throughout northwest Indiana.

(upbeat music) >> We have the district one career fire academy going on.

The candidates that we have currently are as green as green can be, they have no fire experience.

So we teach them all aspects of firefighter one, two, so they can go back and work as career firefighters.

The evolution with the hose you saw was a deployment of the hose where they have to take a rolled hose and they have to deploy it as fast as they can in case we have to make a hose connection and then they have to learn how to also roll it back in to be able to put it back on a firetruck or for the next deployment.

The evolution with the SCBA, that was an evolution to help them become more confident and comfortable.

They're completely green, so wearing a backpack that weighs 30 pounds on your back and full of air is cumbersome and so we put them in positions that are uncomfortable and that helps get them more comfortable in the event that they would ever have to experience something like that in the real world.

I myself have been into the fire service for 19 years and my training has never stopped.

I take classes routinely just to continue that education and to make myself better.

Obviously, we're firefighters, so fighting fire is something that we have to do and introduced into high heat temperatures, that we can introduce them to live fire.

We can introduce them to the high heat.

There is a flashover container that we can put the students in and we can teach 'em about fire behavior and the dangers of a flashover condition.

That will happen when everything is super heated in the room and it all ignites at one time.

Situations that we put them in, it does induce a certain amount of stress to prepare them for what they will, you know, experience, similarly in the fire service.

Several years ago before the MAAC was built we would have to locate or relocate almost on a daily basis.

The MAAC is given the district a centralized location for us to be able to come, do all of our classes.

There's everything that we could ever need at the MAAC facility.

It's a great tool to have in the district.

(intense music) >> Celine: The virtual reality classrooms are one of our newest additions here on the MAAC campus as well as a new tactical building.

It consists of 60 doors and remove the walls so that a first responder that comes and trains here will never get used to the same scenario.

(upbeat music) In addition to that, virtual reality has hundreds of different scenarios that can be branched off and based on the response of that police officer behind the simulator.

(gun firing) Deescalation is heavily focused through that as well as use of force and more community policing.

Training is a very concrete solution to what we're seeing nationally.

We have provided this facility for first responders especially law enforcement, to utilize it at no cost to them or to the agencies 24 hours a day.

>> Good job.

>> We have folks that come in during their midnight shifts to come and train.

We have folks that come on nights and weekends.

Regardless of what the impediment is, we've been very vocal and very deliberate about removing it.

We want better trained first responders throughout Northwest Indiana and we wanna be sure that we are at the helm of supporting them and advocating for them.

All contributions made to the MAAC go to support the first responder community directly.

All the training here is offered at no cost to that first responder or to their agency.

As a result of that generous support, we've been able to build what we have here but we have bigger aspirations and larger plans in the works now.

Chief Stewart McMillan founded the MAAC in 2016 and as a result of his vision, we have been able to serve thousands of first responders and have conducted over 100,000 direct training hours here just in the last three years alone.

(upbeat music) This is obviously a labor of love for all of us, but it's also a great way to honor the late Chief Clyde McMillan, Stewart's father as well as Stuart now as well.

So that drives us to do a good job and to continue to serve first responders in this way.

>> The MAAC Foundation offers training and holds public outreach events throughout the year.

Visit them online for more information and that wraps another episode of "Friends and Neighbors".

I'm your host, Matt Valuckis.

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

Do you have a friend that goes above and beyond to make your community better or neighbor that has that funky local shop that 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".

>> Announcer: Centier Bank is proud to serve hometown community banking across Indiana, for over 128 years, Indiana's largest private family-owned bank has been not for sale and promises to keep it that way for years to come.

>> Announcer 2: Sacred Dunes Integrative Health is your comprehensive holistic wellness center, specializing in acupuncture, massage therapy, functional lab testing, nutrition and herbal medicine, Sacred Dunes, where wellness grows.

>> Announcer 3: Local programming is made possible by IBEW local 697, Northwest Indiana's source for electrical professionals, providing certified, trained and experienced professionals for residential, commercial, industrial, and solar projects.

>> Narrator: Strack and Van Til is hiring full and part-time positions for deli, floral, bakery, department managers and more with flexible work schedules, sign on bonuses, paid vacation, and benefits.

Learn more at strackandvantil.com.

>> 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) >> Announcer: Methodist Hospital's mission is to provide compassionate, quality healthcare services to all those in need.

Methodist Hospital, celebrating 100 years of healing in northwest Indiana.

Learn more at methodisthospitals.org.

(bright music) >> Narrator: Additional support for Lake Shore public media and "Friends and Neighbors" is provided by viewers like you.

Thank you.

(upbeat music)