(upbeat music) >> Announcer: This week on "Friends & Neighbors."

(logo whooshing) >> William: When that fills with smoke, you can't see your hand in front of your face.

And so to understand, and firsthand, be in a home that fills with smoke, they really learn how important it is to get out safe.

(logo whooshing) >> Hugh: For seniors to be able to have access to the sport is also just a win-win situation.

They have a wonderful outlet to, you know, increase their muscle memory, cardio activity, and to be competitive.

>> [Riding Instructor] 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.

>> Jeff: I wanna see great skate parks in our community, and I wanna see safe skate parks in our community, and I never wanna see the dilapidated skate parks we had in the past.

So we said, let's show the town that this has a true need, (skateboard grinding) a real need, and it's something that should be funded.

So we started raising money for it to get the ball rolling.

(skateboard clacking) We can make a place where all of these kids are gonna have something to do.

>> Announcer: Centier Bank (uplifting music) 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.

(upbeat music) (gentle 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: 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.

(upbeat 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 >> Announcer: 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.

(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.

(cheerful music) >> Announcer: Additional support for Lakeshore Public Media and "Friends & Neighbors" is provided by viewers like you.

Thank you.

(gentle music) >> The Tri-Town Safety Village has children come here as field trips.

We teach them police, fire, railroad safety, and we teach 'em gas and electric safety in the home.

We've been in business for the community for 20 years now, and we've taught a lot of schools.

The average amount of students per year is almost 4,000.

Well, the biggest thing with young children is the fact that they like to interact.

Be it their games at home, or online, they want to interact to keep their attention span up.

So when we go into the house, even though it fills up with smoke, which I should tell you is theatrical smoke, does not bother their lungs or their health, but when that fills with smoke you can't see your hand in front of your face.

And so to understand, and firsthand, be in a home that fills with smoke, they really learn how important it is to get out safe.

>> We wanna give them the basics so that they know what to do in a real life emergency.

We give them the basics of what we feel they need to react in a situation like this if it were to happen in real life to them.

We want all kids, all family members, whether it be parents, grandparents, brothers, sisters, anybody who might stay with them, even pets that are in the house, to be able to get out of the house quickly and safely.

That's why we do these programs, we do it for the youth and for the adults.

We want, you know, everybody to get a good experience out of this and to learn something, that's our main goal in doing these classes, is to make sure these kids, these adults, when they leave here, knowing at least something more than before they got here, that we did our job with them.

Our favorite reaction as instructors is when we have students go through this class, is that they say, "Wow, you know, we learned something."

And even adults that come through it, we've had adults come through at the end and say, you know what?

Being an adult, being, you know, 40, 50, 60 years old, however old they might be, telling us at the area end of class that they learned something out of this program.

>> The most important thing I learned today was probably, with all of the stuff I did today, of how to keep safe with everything, and to stay away from it, and try to be as safe as you can with it.

I learned about fire safety, and about the railroads, and not to mess with the trains (upbeat music) or go on the tracks.

And in the fire safety, I learned about how to deal with smoke, and not to panic about anything, and how to get out of fire situations.

>> Just seeing the children come through our doors, those big smiles on their faces, and then they thank us personally when they leave.

It's the best feeling ever, we've had colored pages that the students have sent to us, thank you letters.

I mean, it doesn't get any better than that.

And when you're a grandfather, it really touches your heart to know that you may have saved that one child.

>> We want as many students, as many schools as we can, whether they're from Indiana or Illinois, to be able to come here and experience this as a whole.

We wanna get the word out to as many people as we possibly can, as many school districts, as many daycares, as many assisted living facilities as we can, to be able to come here and go through these programs.

Because if we can at least save one person, then we did our job with this.

(uplifting music) >> Pickleball is America's fastest growing sport, it's a combination of ping pong, badminton, and tennis, all rolled up in one.

(pickleball thudding) It's played on a court that's a quarter of the size of a tennis court, and it's very easy to learn.

(pickleball thudding) It's super intergenerational, so I think that's part of the big attraction.

Today, the class that you just witnessed was for beginners, people who are just learning the sport of pickleball that are 55 years and older.

(pickleball thudding) Here at the Maria Reiner Senior Center, we do pickleball lessons from 8:30 to 9:30 on Tuesday mornings.

I started playing with Sherry Green during the pandemic, and really started to take it seriously, the opportunity that it provided to, you know, build a strong community that was suffering from volunteerism.

We had so many spirited people out there that were willing to give up their time freely as long as it involved pickleball.

So we, over the few months, developed Play It Forward Pickleball, which is a charitable organization that's able to coordinate the lessons that you saw here, tournaments, clinics, and open play throughout Lake and Porter County.

It generates revenue that we give back to the Parks Department and the Senior Center.

>> As soon as you pick up a paddle, and you hit the ball the first time, you're hooked.

And so when people know that it's in there, they come in, they see what's happening, and they come in without a paddle, they go home and immediately buy one, find a place to purchase one.

They get the exercise, they see all the people here, they look forward to day, after day, after day of just coming in and playing the sport.

I think it helps with the eye-hand coordination, it helps with movement, keeping people alert because you have to, you know, follow the ball, have to stay alert all the time, you don't wanna step on anyone, anything.

It's good cardio, and you can make it as much of a cardio workout as you want to, you know, your movement determines that.

But you do feel sore after the first couple times of playing this game.

It's a great place for seniors, I think it's one of the best places in Lake County for seniors, so many activities.

I think that everybody that comes here sees something that is for them, and if they just walk through the door and they meet the people here, it just makes 'em feel welcome.

And I just think this is a great place for seniors in northwest Indiana, because it's also, you know, Porter County can come in, anybody can come in and be a member.

>> I found out that I had kidney cancer, and we're just coming outta the pandemic, been in the house from working remote forever, and I'm like, "Man, what am I gonna do, sit around and wait till the next test, or wait till the surgery?"

So I'm like, "You know what?

I gotta do something."

So I went and I played pickleball one time at the Boys and Girls Club in Valpo, and one guy out there said, "Hey, you need to come out to like the Senior Center in Hobart, there's a lot of good people out there."

So I registered on-site, and next thing you know, Hugh Harshbarger's calling me up and saying, "Hey, I want to introduce myself."

And he brought me in, taught me how to play.

Man, it's just been addicting, I've been able to forget all about, you know, the cancer diagnosis, and say, you know what?

I got a goal, I wanna play in a tournament in October.

So that's what's kind of driving me and, you know, helping me enjoy the moment.

>> For seniors to be able to have access to the sport is also just a win-win situation.

When you're able to play a sport like this that can easily be taught, they have a wonderful outlet to, you know, increase their muscle memory, cardio activity, and to be competitive, to participate in something that's still competitive.

And not only that, but as you saw today, you know, there's 80, 90 year old members competing against 55 year old people.

I think it's the reason that pickleball, and the sport of pickleball, creates such a community within the community.

(rock music) >> Skate parks, and skateboarding, biking, scootering, we are the one place where you don't have to kick kids out of the house and tell 'em to go practice.

The Driftwood Collective started six years ago when the local skate parks in our area were failing.

The skate parks are one of the most utilized pieces of equipment of any town.

We have more people at a skate park than you do your baseball field, than your football field, than your soccer field, but yet it gets some of the least amount of funding.

I want to see great skate parks in our community, I wanna see safe skate parks in our community, and I never wanna see the dilapidated skate parks we had in the past.

So we said, let's show the towns that this has a true need, a real need, and it's something that should be funded.

So we started raising money for it to get the ball rolling.

I did a little basic research, and just took a leap and started a 501c3 organization.

We said "We're gonna raise money for the local skate parks."

At that time, we really didn't know how.

But then I got connected with some of the local skate shops, and said, you know what?

Let's host some event.

The Illiana Skateboarding Circuit was first just a one-stop program, it was just a competition.

First year, we hosted it over at Hammond, over a hundred people showed up.

Said, we got something here.

So we did that, we kept it going, we said, you know what?

Let's expand.

Because if we travel across all the parks and get all of these guys engaged, and get all of them connected, and all the skaters knowing each other, we can make something big here, we can make a place where all of these kids are gonna have something to do.

Because what motivates you to play baseball?

It's not the practice, it's the game.

So let's make the game.

So that's what we're doing, is the five stop circuit is our five stop big game, to where everyone can come out and they can actually compete, and keep 'em motivated throughout the year, keep 'em skating, and keep 'em accelerating.

(upbeat rock music) If it's a five stop circuit, they'll make first, second and third in their division here, and they'll win prizes for it.

And then they earn points for each place that they get, it's a certain point level.

All of those points get added up at the end, and the winner of the circuit gets a one year season pass to the Asylum Skate Park in Lake Bluff, Illinois, that's a large indoor facility that has a large street section, it's got a bowl, mini-ramp, vert wall, so that way these guys are skating all year long.

Anyone that comes in, they register, anyone who buys a shirt, anyone who says they just wanna donate, all of that money goes right back to the public skate parks, 100% of that, and that's for their continued maintenance and support of the local skate parks.

Because if we show that we're caring for the parks, the towns are seeing it, and so then they start caring for the parks, and they say, "You know what?

There's a lot of youth, there's a lot of kids, there's a lot of people here that are really using this and enjoying this."

Some of the other things that we do is we advocate for local skate parks.

So whenever a skate park comes up in the region, I'm generally sending out the surveys and getting the towns connected with the local skaters to get feedback on what obstacles and what resources they wanna see at the skate park.

So we send out all of those, we aggregate that data, so not only do we get the towns connected, but we help them figure out what exactly their skate park should look like, and to help get them connected with different designers in the industry to build the skate park that they're looking for.

At the Driftwood Collective, we have around 20 volunteers each and every year consisting of a lot of the parents of riders, consisting of people that just love skating.

Some of our judges have team riders for different organizations.

So, the Driftwood Collective is a group of people that all just come together to make these events work, to make it go, to give these kids a place to be.

(rock music) There's a certain sense of freedom that you get when a skate park comes up, because a lot of these guys, they don't have a place to skate.

And if you are someone who maybe team sports don't work for you, maybe you're a single-parent household, maybe there isn't that type of financial ability to afford some of the other team sports that are around.

Skateboarding is a low barrier to entry.

Anybody can do it, you can do it any time of day, as opposed to the baseball field, to where, you know, they're gonna lock it up when they're done, and if you're not on the team, you're not playing.

Skate park's not like that, it opens the door for everybody.

It doesn't matter what's your age, it doesn't matter your gender, it doesn't matter anything.

You come out, you skate.

Every one of these kids, we know their name, we see 'em at the park every day.

You get to know 'em.

And there's no coaches at a skate park, but it's always the guy who knows the trick you don't know who's now your default coach.

By defacto, we are helping each other out at all times, kind of exploring this new territory together.

There's no instruction book to skateboarding, there's no playbook, there's no, you know, guru, there's no nothing.

So it's you and your friends out there, kind of discovering how to take this piece of wood on wheels and make it do something amazing.

(soft 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 program is our 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 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, a 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 oftentimes 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 kind of their own characteristics and personalities.

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

Offer a really interactive experience.

(upbeat music) 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 kinda offer this very lively aspect of it.

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

>> Daniele: We take on 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 gotten really a lot better at that.

>> The first time is always very laid back, and that kind of helps set up the 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 Reins team.

(uplifting 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 little obstacles.

They're a lot of fun.

Thank you.

(laughs) >> 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 personalities.

I think horses, for me, have really given me a sense of working with others, and kind of see that 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 been great to kind of get to know myself more through horses.

>> It's a really nice place, you get to meet a lot of people, you get to ride the horses and just have a lot of fun.

>> Announcer: Centier Bank is proud to serve (upbeat music) 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.

(cheerful music) (soft 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.

(upbeat music) >> Announcer: 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.

>> Announcer: 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.

(upbeat music) >> 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.

(uplifting 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.

(cheerful music) >> Announcer: Additional support for Lakeshore Public Media and "Friends & Neighbors" is provided by viewers like you.

Thank you.

(upbeat music) >> Announcer: Did you know that you can find all of your favorite Lakeshore PBS shows online?

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

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