After being an outbound state for many years — meaning significantly more residents were leaving than coming — Indiana is seeing its migration pattern pull close to even.
The Evansville region, meanwhile, has a goal to boost its own stagnant population.
Whether because of cost of living, professional opportunity, family considerations, or something else, imports in the Hoosier state caught up with exports in 2024, showing nearly a 50-50 split. That’s according to data from Evansville-based Atlas Van Lines, Inc., which tracks interstate and cross-border household goods moves state by state.
The trend for 2024 was stark. Among movers to and from Indiana, Atlas figures show that 49 percent were arriving in the state and 51 were leaving. Atlas considers that a “balanced” pattern. Between 2015 and 2023, departures from Indiana were between 57 and 60 percent annually.
“Let’s hope it’s a trend,” Atlas Chairman and CEO Jack Griffin says. “If we go back to negative outbound next year, we’ll know it was a blip.”
Among Evansville’s neighboring states, the data are rosier for Kentucky than Illinois. The Bluegrass State’s migration has recently weighed toward arrivals — last year, 56 percent of movers were coming into Kentucky while 44 percent were leaving.
Illinois was nearly the opposite, with 57 percent moving out and 43 percent moving in, which is actually better than the state has done lately. Atlas data for 2023 showed that 63 percent of movers were outbound from Illinois.
Griffin says many Midwest states have shown outbound patterns for several years — with one reason being the baby boom generation’s retirement and relocation to warmer climates.
The Atlas migration data is broken down by state and not regions within states. The Evansville area’s population has been flat for several years, and the Evansville Regional Economic Partnership wants to change that.
Census data show the City of Evansville’s population estimate for 2023 was 115,332. That’s down 1.7 percent from the 2020 official census count, which was 117,292.
In total, Vanderburgh, Gibson, Posey, and Warrick counties in 2024 saw year-over-year population growth of 0.1 percent, while peer regions grew nearly 1 percent, according to E-REP. Most of the region’s increase is happening in Warrick County, which has about 65,867 residents.
E-REP’s Talent EVV initiative has set a goal to add 10,000 people to the four-county region by 2030, with half of those relocated residents being early in their careers.
E-REP cites some modest early successes toward that end. The region participates in MakeMyMove, a nationwide program to financially incentivize relocation for remote workers.
In 2024, MakeMyMove lured 25 households with an average annual income of $127,823 to the Evansville area. The program’s goal for 2025 is 50 households.
Another population-boosting effort is called Belong Here, which also offers incentives and targets workers to fill local jobs in traditional fields such as healthcare, finance, manufacturing, and education. E-REP launched this in 2024 and says that since April, it has brought in 15 households (33 individuals) with an average $97,000 annual income.
E-REP is financing MakeMyMove and Belong Here with funding from the state’s READI program, the American Rescue Plan Act, and other sources.
Population growth is important to bolster the local workforce and bring fresh perspectives and talents to the community, says Tyler Stock, executive director of Talent EVV.
Together with increased population, Stock says the Talent EVV initiative also has goals to boost the region’s average wages and education levels, improved health outcomes, and cutting poverty, through a variety of investments, strategies, and partnerships.
Stock says Talent EVV is about “casting a vision for where we want to be five years from now.”
Photo of Valentine's Day treats provided by Pangea Kitchen
Looking to celebrate your Galentines? We have you covered. Scroll to the end for ideas for your gal pals!
Valentine’s Treat Box
If your partner has a sweet tooth, treat them to boxes filled with raspberry Parisian macarons, chocolate strawberry gelato cake, heart-shaped vanilla bean sugar cookies, passionfruit chocolate truffles, and more treats from Pangea Kitchen.
Three Days of Valentine’s Dinners Feb. 13-15, Comfort By The Cross-Eyed Cricket, 230 Main St. Find love at first bite off two different menus at the Downtown Restaurant. Starting Feb. 13, tuck into crab bisque, seared sea bass, bone-in Berkshire double pork chop, cheesecake and more on Comfort’s daily menu. Feb. 14, bring your love to brunch, then return for dinner in the Upper Room with a four-course meal of oysters, tomahawk steaks, chocolate torte, and more.
Valentine’s Day Concert 6 p.m. Feb. 14, Your Brother’s Bookstore, 504 Main St. The Pink Pearls headline this Champagne Jam concert with Woe_Boy, a local bedroom pop band, and singer-songwriter Dyland Gaston. Cover charge is $10.
February Art Show: “If You Ever Loved Me” 6-8 p.m. Feb. 14; 2-5 p.m. Feb. 15, Twymon Art Gallery, 1015 Lincoln Ave. New works by Southern Illinois-based oil painter and sculptor Jaeda Thomason shine a light on domestic abuse.
Valentine Week Group Salsa + Bachata Lesson 6:30-8 p.m. Feb. 13, The Attic at Chaser’s Bar & Grill, 2131 W. Franklin St.
Take a 45-minute dance lesson in salsa, bachata, and merengue — no partner needed! Open dancing follows the lesson. Cover charge is $15 per person.
Miscast Cabaret: Valentine’s Edition! 7 p.m. Feb. 14, Shepherd of the Hills Lutheran Church, 3600 Oak Hill Road Singers share their best not-ready-for-Broadway numbers during this musical comedy. Performers will be seated in the audience when they are not onstage. Admission is $25 and includes treats, mocktails, and coffee.
Swipe Right Night 6:30 p.m. Feb. 14, Ford Center, 1 S.E. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. Unattached? The Thunderbolts want to play matchmaker. Join a round a speed dating in the Suite Club before the hockey game against the Quad City Storm. During the game, mingle with other singles in a special seating section, then participate in a blind date during the first 20-minute intermission for a chance to win a “perfect date.”
Love/Sick 7:30 p.m. Feb. 14-15; 2 p.m. and 6 p.m. Feb. 16, STAGEtwo at 321, 321 N. Congress Ave. Nine slightly twisted short comedic plays directed by John Cariani explore the pain and joy of being in love. Pre-sale tickets cost $18. Day-of tickets are $20.
Paint Your Partner Date Night 6 p.m. Feb. 15, Fired Up! Joe Schmoe’s Art Studio, 2121 N. Green River Road Painting novices and experts alike can use their lover as their muse, with a twist: Partners cannot see the work until the painter is finished. Tickets cost $55.
The Poisoned Rose: The Art of a Dying Love 6:30-11 p.m. Feb. 15, Henderson Haunts, 2480 U.S. 41 Unit 180, Henderson, Kentucky Do you prefer jump scares over romantic meals? This one-night haunted house experience ups the ante by taking place in complete. Hold hands — hey, that can be romantic! — and make your way through the shows to the poisoned rose. Single tickets cost $15.
Mutts at Myriad: Valentine Edition noon-3 p.m. Feb. 16, Myriad Brewing Company, 8245 High Pointe Drive, Newburgh, Indiana Show your best furry friend how much you love them with a Valentine photo booth, kissing booth, and cookie decorating for $10. Meet Warrick Humane Society pups available for adoption. Mother Truckers Pizzeria will be on hand as well and donating $2 from each pizza to WHS.
Galentine’s Day
Popularized by Amy Poehler’s hit sitcom “Parks and Recreation,” Galentine’s Day falls on Feb. 13 and celebrates your best gal pals.
Galentine Jewelry Design 3-5 p.m. Feb. 15, Memo, 209 Main St. Create three unique pairs of earrings with Jen Bretz, owner of JenArt Ceramics Studio. Bretz guides attendees through cutting and decorating ceramic earrings. The class costs $80 and can be registered for online or in Memo.
Girl Talk 6 p.m. Feb. 13, Mo’s House, 1114 Parrett St. This annual mixer — at a locale Evansville Living readers have twice voted the best place to have a drink — features charcuterie, custom cocktails, a photo booth, and giveaways.
Galentine’s Getaway Craving a weekend away with your best friends? Bloomington, Indiana, has crafted a full itinerary for a girls’ weekend. Among the highlights are relaxing at Bloomington Salt Cave, brunch, shopping, and toasting to friendship with stops at Butler and Oliver wineries — the latter is hosting a Chocolate Lover’s Weekend Feb. 14-16.
Photo from 62nd Mid-States Art Exhibition provided by Chelsie Walker
Two houses shimmer in their frames, garbed in Christmas lights and aluminum siding. They seem nostalgically familiar, as if you have seen them on a suburban street or rural road.
Both are the subjects of “Aster Drive” and “Atom Road,” two oil paintings on display in the 62nd Mid-States Art Exhibition through March 23 at the Evansville Museum of Arts, History & Science. Created by artist and Missouri State University Professor Sarah Williams, the paintings’ uneasy Midwest vibe feels closer to David Lynch than Architectural Digest.
“My pride and passion for the rural Midwest … comes through in my paintings like a witness’ perspective,” Williams says.
Cheyenne E. Miller, the museum’s Virginia G. Schroeder Curator of Art, was excited the museum acquired “Aster Drive” for its permanent collection. “I appreciate its subtlety and all the detail in the shadows,” she says. “It’s a beautiful painting.”
The museum also purchased “In Hindsight, He Never Had a Chance,” a striking charcoal work from the exhibition by Paducah, Kentucky, artist Randy Simmons.
The exhibition had its start in 1948 as the Tri-State Art Exhibition, Miller says, with 72 entries from artists within a 50-mile radius of Evansville. It later expanded to include artists from Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio, Illinois, Missouri, and Tennessee. Acquisitions from the show have added 332 pieces to the museum’s permanent collection.
“As an institution, it’s important we share what contemporary artists are up to in different cities, different states,” Miller says. “It’s art history in motion.”
Beyond their Mid-America ethos, this year’s 44 paintings, sculptures, collage, and drawings challenge the viewer, representing the state of contemporary art.
Significant to the Tri-State, one in five works is by a local art educator or student — “a sure sign that our art community is alive and well,” Miller says.
She and juror Lauren R. O’Connell, Curator of Contemporary Art at the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art in Arizona, worked closely on selecting works for the exhibition.
“I chose works that had something personal to say,” O’Connell says. “Some started with a colloquial Midwest viewpoint, but then played with it. Instead of showing you beauty, they flipped the perspective and spoke to a contemporary moment.”
There are changes afoot at Colonial Classics Landscape & Nursery, but longtime shoppers can expect to see familiar faces.
Backed by a group of local investors, Andrew and Jesse Diekhoff have purchased the longtime landscaping business and garden center from Julie and J.T. McCarty. The latter’s father, Jim, opened the business in 1958, and it remained in family hands for the next 66 years.
The winds of change began blowing a few years before the December 2024 sale. Andrew Diekhoff had served as Colonial’s landscape design manager since February 2018. The Reitz Memorial High School grad had formed a strong relationship with the McCartys, which got him thinking about the future. Andrew was ready to take the next step in his career, and he knew the McCartys did not have another generation to carry on the family business. Sentiment also played a part.
“I love the place. I met my wife there. J.T. was our wedding officiant. I knew I wasn’t going to make a career change, and I didn’t want to move and start somewhere else. I remember going there with my grandparents,” he says. “It seemed like a dream come true to be able to do that, instead of starting from scratch. … I thought, I can pull this off.”
The McCartys agreed.
Photo of Julie and J.T. McCarty by Zach Straw
“We felt very good about that transition because we know how much passion he has for the business, and he’s a local person,” J.T. says.
That last point was significant to the McCartys, who over the years had rebuffed offers to sell to larger corporations.
“Colonial is as good as it is because of Andrew and Jesse and all employees there. I wanted to make sure Andrew understood that he kept all these people here. You continue to expound on what we’ve got going on here, and you’ll be successful,” J.T. says.
Andrew stresses he’s not trying to reinvent the business on Epworth Road, even if some new services — like an irrigation department — are on tap.
“We want to build on the foundation that’s already there. We don’t want to do things differently as much as we want to add to what we’re doing,” he says. “Having the longevity it’s had, you don’t get there by being big. You offer quality service, being fair, taking care of staff and customers, and offering a good, quality product, whether it’s something in garden center or a project at someone’s house. You deliver a trustworthy service.”
“I think I’m kind of surprised that I’m not more nervous about it than I am,” Andrew laughs. “I just know there’s such a good team in place. We can keep growing.”
J.T. “knows we’ll take care of a legacy that’s very personal to him,” Andrew says.
The McCartys, meanwhile, are embracing retirement.
“When you close one door, two more open. Julie and I are very adventuresome, and we like to travel. Now, because the good Lord’s been good to me, we’re going to start giving back to society,” J.T. says. “Andrew is a younger generation, and they have a lot of energy and ideas. We look forward to seeing the next evolution of Colonial Classics.”
Southwestern Indiana residents now have a better idea of how much their CenterPoint Energy base electric charges will rise.
CenterPoint on Feb. 3 received the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission’s approval for a rate increase, but less of one than the Texas-based utility sought. CenterPoint has since added details that the average residential customer – one that uses 799 kilowatts per month – can expect their bill to initially jump $7 and eventually $26 per month by early 2026.
That’s roughly half of the rate hike CenterPoint had petitioned the state agency to levy. In total, the IURC lowered the potential bill impact by about $6 million, says Mike Roeder, CenterPoint senior vice president for external affairs.
IURC members came to Evansville for a public hearing in February 2024 and faced a packed ballroom of residents who angrily denounced any rate increases. Dozens of people, including Evansville Mayor Stephanie Terry, testified that the higher electric charges would be a hardship for those whose budgets are already stretched.
IURC members, who are appointed by Indiana’s governor, listened but made no comments at the hearing.
CenterPoint — which entered the Indiana market with the 2019 purchase of Vectren — had been charging the highest residential electric rates in Indiana, but as of mid-2024 its rates slipped behind those of the Northern Indiana Public Service Company (NIPSCO). Roeder says that NIPSCO and other utilities serving Indiana have sought, and received, IURC approval for rate increases, with citizen opposition also being aired.
According to CenterPoint, the added customer costs will support a list of upgrades in the utility’s Indiana footprint, some of which have already been financed over the past 14 years.
CenterPoint cites a need to upgrade its transmission and distribution system, replacing outdated equipment and modernizing its energy grid; automated metering technology; new generation facilities and power sources to support growth; and projects to comply with environmental regulations.
“These are investments for reliability,” Roeder says. “We are always trying to balance these investments for reliability with affordability.”
Roeder pointed to the IURC’s decision to lower the total requested bill impact as evidence that the opposition aired by area residents was heard.
The $6 million reduction “is significant,” Roeder says. “From the minute we filed this rate case, we wanted to phase in the impact. We wanted to keep affordability at the top of our mind.”
Terry and some other elected officials released statements condemning the IURC’s approval of an electric rate increase for CenterPoint Energy.
“At a time when so many are struggling to make ends meet – to find affordable housing, to afford groceries – this increase in the cost of a basic necessity is devastating,” Terry said in a Feb. 3 statement posted to her social media.
As for when CenterPoint customers might start to notice the higher bill, it apparently won’t be long.
“The short answer is it will be a least a week,” Roeder says. “The longer answer is we have to make a compliance filing with the (IURC) that allows them to double-check our math for all the customer classes before we implement rates.”
Photo provided by Evansville Thunderbolts. Bolts hockey players Robin Eriksson, Derek Contessa, Brady Lynn, and Jordan Simoneau pose with Ford Center Executive Director Scott Schoenike after completing Wayback Burgers' nine-patty burger challenge Jan. 21. Several of the Bolts' international players, including Lynn, list food as one of their favorite parts about living in Evansville.
Culture shock comes in many forms. For international athletes on the Evansville Thunderbolts professional hockey team, several of their biggest “newcomer” moments involved the basics: food, weather, and traffic.
More than half of the 18 athletes carving up the ice for the city’s SPHL team come from outside America. Nine call Canada home, while two hail from Europe. Unlike the group of international residents profiled in the January/February cover story, Bolts players arrive in Evansville each October and make the River City their home for the next six months. Set up with apartments in an East Side complex, many drive their own vehicles, set up a cell phone with an 812 area code, and have the autonomy and free time to explore their temporary home.
Grayson Valente, a 24-year-old defenseman from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, who is in his second season with the Bolts, relishes the area’s easy travel time. He recalls being surprised at “how close everything is. It’s not often that you have to drive more than 15 minutes to get where you need to go,” he says.
Conversely, Jordan Simoneau found the roadways hectic.
“I dislike the traffic,” says Simoneau, 26, who joined the Thunderbolts in March 2024. “Coming from a small town and farm, I’m not used to the busy roads.”
However, the gregarious left wing from Tisdale, Saskatchewan, Canada, is loving the milder weather.
“(It’s) a great change for me. I’m used to freezing cold and lots of snow during the winter,” he says.
He may be in his first season playing the U.S., but for Vili Vesalainen, adjusting to culture shock is old hat. A 27-year-old center from Jyväskylä, Finland, Vesalainen already has played for teams in his home country, plus France, Sweden, and Germany.
Easing his culture shock in Indiana, Vesalainen says his hometown is about the same size as his new city. He also credits his introduction to Evansville to Joe Leonidas, a Canadian defenseman who played 11 games for the Bolts in 2022-23.
“He gave me a good talk about the place, so I knew something,” Vesalainen says. “People here are very social and easy-going. It’s easy to talk to people.”
The Bolts’ other European player is Robin Eriksson, a 23-year-old defenseman from Södertälje, Sweden, who also is in his inaugural season with Evansville. Both he and Vesalainen were consulted for the Bolts’ Feb. 7 theme night spotlighting European hockey hallmarks, like a golden helmet that is given as an award to the best player in the Finnish Liiga league.
If you have found yourself chuckling at the Canadian players’ accents, they’re probably having a good laugh listening to you.
“The biggest culture shock was hearing people’s accents here,” Brady Lynn, a 26-year-old right wing from Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, says. Simoneau echoes his teammate, marveling at “being criticized about my Canadian accent while thinking everyone else has a crazy accent.”
The Bolts fill their free time by playing golf — “Evansville has many great courses,” Simoneau remarks — hanging out in Downtown Evansville and along the riverfront, working out, and bonding as teammates.
“We hang out lots as a team in each other’s apartments, whether it’s breakfast club, movie night, or watching sports,” Simoneau says. “We are lucky to have great gym facilities and basketball courts and a swimming pool that make for a fun time with the guys.”
On days off, players enjoy exploring the region, with Nashville, Tennessee, and Louisville, Kentucky, mentioned as frequent destinations. Still on several players’ bucket lists: Saint Louis, Missouri.
Also on their weekly itinerary is touring the local restaurant scene, hardly surprising for a team of pro athletes in their mid-twenties. Vesalainen and Lynn list coffee shops as some of their usual hangout spots. (For the latter, Best of Evansville award-winner Honey Moon Coffee Co. is a favorite.)
Valenti and Lynn remember their amazement at the food options when they each arrived in the River City. Lynn recalls being impressed with “how good the food is — and how cheap the food is.”
“Evansville has a wide variety of restaurants, so going out for lunch or dinner and trying new foods is great,” Simoneau says.
“I like the variety of food spots. There is a place for anything you’re craving,” Valente adds. “The only challenge is the lack of sidewalks in some areas to get around.”
As for acclimating to Southwestern Indiana, international Bolts validate the Midwest’s reputation for niceness.
What has surprised Lynn is “how welcoming everybody is,” he says. For Simoneau, his favorite part about playing in the U.S. is “the amount that these southern states love hockey,” he says. “It makes me feel like I’m playing back home in Canada.”
Photo from the 2024 Black History Unity Concert provided by Lori Gregory with Evansville African American Museum
Black History Month Activities Now through Feb. 28, Evansville Vanderburgh Public Library Oaklyn Children’s Area, 3001 Oaklyn Drive
Children can learn about Black heritage through scavenger hunts, coloring sheets, and more.
New Traditions Diversity Series 6-7 p.m. Feb. 6, Nazarene Missionary Baptist Church, 867 E. Walnut St.
The Eykamp String Quartet performs Sawney Freeman’s fiddle tunes, George Walker’s “Lyric for Strings,” and Wynton Marsalis’ “At the Octoroon Balls.” This concert is free and open to the public.
Community Racial Justice Prayer Service 2 p.m. Feb. 9, University of Evansville, Ridgway University Center’s Eykamp Hall, 1800 Lincoln Ave.
As a part of the BRIDGE (Building Respect & Integrity in Diverse Greater Evansville) Racial Justice Faith Week, which includes all faith communities, this prayer service focuses on social and racial justice.
True Black History Museum 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Feb. 11, University of Southern Indiana’s University Center East 2217-2218, 8600 University Blvd.
This traveling museum makes a stop at USI to teach about Black history using rare artifacts to preserve the history of African Americans. The public can view the museum at no charge.
The Trailblazer Black History Program 9:30-10:15 a.m. Feb. 16, St. John’s East United Church of Christ, 7000 Lincoln Ave.
Guest speaker Alex Burton, a first-term state representative and former Fourth Ward member of the Evansville City Council, leads the church’s annual Black history program celebrating Evansville trailblazers before the 10:30 a.m. worship service.
Black History Unity Concert 6 p.m. Feb. 16, Victory Theatre, 600 Main St.
The theme for this year’s concert is “Love | Unity | Justice” and features the Black History Month Unity Choir and Children’s Choir under the direction of the Rev. James Hamler. Tickets are available for $10 and must be purchased in advance.
STEAM Club: Famous Black Scientists 4-5 p.m. Feb. 18, Evansville Vanderburgh Public Library Red Bank Children’s Activities Room, 120 S. Red Bank Road
The contributions of Black scientists — including the late meteorologist June Bacon-Bercey, the first Black woman to earn a degree in meteorology — are discussed at this event designed for children, who will learn how to make an anemometer to measure wind speed.
James MacLeod: “Race Relations in Evansville: A History of Violence” 6:30-7:30 p.m. Feb. 18, Willard Public Library, 21 N. First Ave.
Author and University of Evansville professor James MacLeod presents a historical review of race relations in Evansville, hosted by the Southwestern Indiana Historical Society.
Dr. John M. Caldwell Memorial Lecture Series noon-2 p.m. Feb. 22, Zion Missionary Baptist Church, 1800 S. Governor St.
Melissa Duneghy gives the address at this year’s Soul Writers’ Guild event honoring the memory of the late longtime Zion Missionary Baptist Church pastor and Fourth Ward city council member.
“They Fought the Law and They Won” 1 p.m. Feb. 22, Lyles Station Historic School & Museum 953 N. County Road 500 W., Princeton, Indiana At the site of the historic Black settlement in Gibson County, Lyles Station Board Vice President Juenell Owens discusses successful lawsuits in the 1800s brought by three Southwestern Indiana residents — Polly Strong, Mary Bateman Clark, and James Roundtree — that raised the awareness of the rights of Black people.
Desegregation and Busing in Evansville: Did it Work? 5:30-7:30 p.m. Feb. 25, Evansville Vanderburgh Public Library Central Browning Event Rooms, 200 S.E. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.
Watez Phelps, a former University of Evansville African American Association president and one of the first cohorts of Black students bused in Evansville, leads this discussion on the successes and failures of local desegregation and busing efforts in the 1960s and ’70s.
Photo of Ray Farabaugh provided by Ally Financial via Media Mix
When he arrived at January’s National Automobile Dealers Association Show in New Orleans, Louisiana, Ray Farabaugh knew he was one of 49 nominees for the 2025 TIME Dealer of the Year, one of the industry’s most coveted honors.
But Farabaugh, who is co-president of Evansville-based D-Patrick Inc. dealership company, had no idea he was among five finalists for the award. And he certainly didn’t know until he was on stage with those other finalists that he would bring it home.
“They say a little bit about you and then they say, there’s five great people up here, envelope, please,” Farabaugh recalls. “… So, it was really a surprise. And then they bring your family up and they take a bunch of pictures.”
Being nominated for TIME Dealer of the Year is an honor by itself, as more than 16,000 franchised dealers across the U.S. are considered. To winnow the 49 nominees to five, and then pick the winner, a panel from the Tauber Institute for Global Operations at the University of Michigan reaches out to automobile manufacturers, financial institutions, and others who know the award candidates well.
Another criterion is community impact, and Farabaugh says he’s proud of what D-Patrick has accomplished on that front during his 36 years with the company. In total, he says D-Patrick has contributed more than $4 million to local organizations and causes over that timeframe.
D-Patrick can make those donations because of the quality of its team, Farabaugh explains.
Photo provided by Ally Financial via Media Mix
“We always have been involved, and we really encourage our employees to be involved,” says Farabaugh, who since 1998 has been co-president of D-Patrick alongside his brother-in-law, Mike O’Daniel. “Our employees also do such a great job with our customers, and because they do a great job, customers come back and they buy again. We can build our company and make it stronger, and then we have the resources to be able to contribute to the community.”
As this year’s award winner, Farabaugh can direct a $10,000 donation from Ally Financial to the charity of his choice.
Farabaugh views the 2025 TIME Dealer of the Year honor as a symbol of all that work.
“Somebody has to accept the award, but it’s really an award for all of the things D-Patrick and the people who represent D-Patrick do for our community,” he says. “The other thing I think is important is we’re big on hiring local and promoting local. Many of our managers and leaders in our company started at entry-level positions and worked their way up over the years. We spend lots of money in education and training and all the kinds of things that get people better at what they do.”
More than 40 percent of D-Patrick’s team has been with the company for at least 10 years, making them members of the Decade Club. In total, D-Patrick has a workforce of just over 500.
The O’Daniel family’s dealership history stretches back to 1934, when Joseph O’Daniel opened O’Daniel-Ranes Oldsmobile in Evansville. His son D. Patrick established his eponymous dealership in 1971. Farabaugh is D. Patrick’s son-in-law.
The company has Ford, Lincoln, Nissan, Honda, Volkswagen, Audi, BMW, Porsche, and Mercedes-Benz dealerships in Evansville; Ford dealerships in Boonville and Lebanon, Indiana; and used car dealerships in Evansville and Crawfordsville, Indiana. It operates three body shops in Evansville and one shop in Lebanon.
The TIME Dealer of the Year award is presented by TIME as well as Ally Financial. In addition to D-Patrick’s community impact, the companies also cited Farabaugh’s support of the Automobile Dealers Association of Indiana, where he has served as president, vice president, secretary, and treasurer, and currently is on the board of directors.
“The TIME Dealer of the Year award celebrates the country’s top dealers who understand that their businesses thrive when they give back and help their communities grow, and Raymond truly embodies those qualities that make this award so special,” Doug Timmerman, Ally’s President of Dealer Financial Services, said in a statement.
The other four 2025 TIME Dealer of the Year finalists hailed from Madison, Wisconsin; Pittsfield, Massachusetts; Jerome, Idaho; and Huntsville, Alabama.
Photo of Zach Myers courtesy of U.S. Department of Justice
His service as the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Indiana spanned only three years and three months. But Zach Myers says his office achieved much in that relatively short time, and he enjoyed his frequent trips down Interstate 69 from the state capital to Evansville.
The Indianapolis native resigned Jan. 18 ahead of the change of the U.S. presidential administration – that practice is common, he explains. Myers was unanimously confirmed in 2021 by the U.S. Senate. Until his successor is confirmed, First Assistant U.S. Attorney Jonathan Childress is serving as acting U.S. Attorney for 60 counties in the southernmost part of the Hoosier State.
Myers notes that the U.S. Attorney is the lone political appointee in an office of nonpolitical, professional staff, and he understood this upon taking the job.
“I was proud to serve in the administration I did, and I think every attorney general and president should have leadership that is aligned with their goals and vision,” Myers says. “Of course, it makes sense for every administration to have their own person.”
Myers says that while U.S. Attorney, he and his staff spent ample time prosecuting cyber crimes, in addition to several drugs and weapons cases. Along the way, Myers often was in hiring mode. He brought on board a significant chunk of the office’s staff, including about 35 percent of its lawyer force.
The U.S. Attorney’s office in Indianapolis also is preparing to change locations to the BMO Plaza building.
“It was a unique point in time in this office to really build,” Myers says.
Myers spoke to Evansville Business in April 2023 about the challenge to tamp down gun violence, a task made tougher by the presence of so many illegal firearms. He says he worked with Evansville authorities on that issue and others.
Evansville has the only staffed U.S. Attorney’s office in Southern Indiana, outside of Indianapolis, and he visited often. Offices in New Albany and Terre Haute are unstaffed.
“One of the things I really loved about this role was getting to know Evansville and the Tri-State area better,” Myers says. “It’s such a fun city. I loved staying Downtown, and you have a fantastic police chief, sheriff, and prosecutor, everybody across partisan lines, which don’t really matter in this work. … That was so gratifying, getting to know that community and the leaders there.”
Myers was the first Black U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Indiana. Before his swearing-in ceremony in November 2021, he was Assistant U.S. Attorney for the District of Maryland from 2014- to 2021 and Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Indiana from 2011 to 2014.
He earlier worked in private practice at the Indianapolis firm formerly known as Baker & Daniels (now Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath). While there, his focus was business litigation and white-collar internal investigations.
Myers says he’s contemplating his next career steps, adding “I’m sure it will work out just fine. I’m transitioning back to the private sector for the first time in almost 14 years. I’m hoping to find some good new challenges and opportunities to do some good in the world.”
Meanwhile, Myers says, federal prosecutions and law enforcement in the Evansville area and throughout Southern Indiana will continue under the next U.S. Attorney, appointed by President Donald Trump and confirmed by the U.S. Senate.
“Everyone in that building other than me is a career employee hired on a merit basis and is sworn to work on behalf of the United States,” he says. “Career professionals are the beating heart of the office.”
Just before Christmas, seemingly like everyone else, I was running errands too numerous to count. I remembered I had a phone call I needed to make. So, I pulled over in a subdivision to look up the number. Job completed, I was driving around the block when four kids, all under age 10, I believe, jumped up and down to draw my attention to the “office” in their nearby yard. As it was cold, I assumed they were selling hot chocolate. My rule is, if kids are selling something, buy it. (And no one is jumping up and down when they see me unless they are angry or trying to sell me something.)
I had found 2 Cousins Jewelry and four associates. I asked what they were selling. “Friendship bracelets!” the leader told me. She added, “Here is our price list,” and handed me a sheet of notebook paper. Written on it in pencil was a list of inventory that, given the many crossed-out figures, had gone through several rounds of changes. “How much are the bracelets?” I asked. “It’s right there on the sheet,” she replied, like how could I not know? So, I purchased three bracelets for $2 and handed her a two dollar bill from my wallet. “Is that real money?” she asked. As I assured her it was, the whole group gathered around her, curiously looking at the bill. I was already forgotten as the kids were excited. I’m not sure who had more fun in this high-level business transaction.
Evansville lost a great man on Jan. 12. Raymond Fredrick Beckwith Jr. wasn’t a doctor, lawyer, or business owner. As a matter of fact, he never graduated from his beloved Reitz Memorial High School, as he discontinued his formal education to go to work. I would argue that Ray made as big of an impact here as anyone I can think of. Instead of trying to remember all the organizations Ray devoted time to, it may be easier to list what he didn’t help with. An amazing man of tremendous warmth and energy, he was described by the priest during his funeral Mass as being the man “who, if there was ever anyone that lived up to being a true servant leader, it was Ray Beckwith.” We all have people in our lives we always enjoy seeing; Ray was one of mine. He always was at Memorial events taking tickets or manning the concessions stand. He put so much time and effort into everything Memorial that, in 2016, he was honored with the Distinguished Service Award. He continued to serve until 2024, when he was 95. During his eulogy, it was noted that “the go-to guy for everything is no longer there.”
I first met Ray many years ago when a table of “truth stretchers” — my father was among them, if you can imagine that — moved from the old Wesselman’s Coffee Shop at Lawndale to the nearby restaurant The Carousel. This group of retired men enjoyed friendship and camaraderie there for many years.
Ray loved and was proud of his Catholic faith and was a terrific family man and husband. His impact on so many people and organizations is immeasurable. I can’t say it any better than how he was eulogized: “Ray was a sensible, ordinary man who did extraordinary things.” He lived up to that, and more.
As always, I look forward to hearing from most of you.
On any given day, Sam Bradley could treat a crane’s joint injury with laser therapy, perform an ostrich ultrasound, or check up on a baby porcupine. It may sound far-fetched, but for Bradley, a veterinarian at Mesker Park Zoo & Botanic Garden, getting close to wild animals is her job.
The New Jersey native found a way to fuse her longtime love of animals — she had declared her intent to be a zookeeper in her kindergarten yearbook — with an interest in medicine.
“As I got older, I fell in love with medicine, and then I figured out that I could combine them,” says Bradley, a University of Illinois graduate who completed rotating internships at VCA Valley Animal Hospital and Emergency Center and Reid Park Zoo in Tucson, Arizona, and a specialty internship at the Indianapolis Zoo before joining Mesker in July 2024. “The fun part about being a vet is that the job changes daily. Some days I never see my desk, and some days I’m at my desk all the time.”
Her job entails caring for more than 700 animals and 140 different species, which requires a jack-of-all-trades skill set. The daily routine varies in the vet building — built in the 1980s and updated in the 1990s — and consists of Bradley and 17-year vet tech Kristine VanHoosier. Their days can involve one long procedure or up to 20 animal checkups. Vets also participate in research projects to promote conservation, oversee nutrition plans, create and update standard operating procedures, and aid in creating and approving training and enrichment plans. They also care for animals that come to the zoo, including breeding and social recommendations. The job involves collaboration, occasionally bringing veterinarians, vet techs, and zookeepers from across the nation together to assist with more specialized and complex procedures.
“I thought that Mesker Park was a really good fit. … I felt like I could get to know the animals really well. I felt that I could give better care to all the animals because I was more involved in different aspects of their life here,” Bradley says. “What really drew me to the facility was the size and atmosphere. The people here are really passionate about the zoo.”
Since joining Mesker’s staff, Bradley’s most complex procedure has been a camel’s six-hour plasma transfer to treat a gastrointestinal disease in August 2024. Animal care and vet staff traded breaks while making sure the camel was safely monitored and comfortable the whole time.
“We were able to figure out that she needed a plasma transfusion rather quickly and were able to source llama blood from a facility four hours away. Our registrar drove up, got the plasma, brought it back down, and we were prepared by the next day,” Bradley says.
She also has overseen the birth of approximately 10 animals. Among them were the December 2024 births of porcupines Zuzu and Bomani to parents Cece and Bic. Initially, they received weekly checkups to ensure both were healthy and safe. Those checkups will wind down as the porcupine babies age.
The keepers who oversee the animals’ daily care are the most involved in monitoring the birthing process, keeping the vet apprised of any changes Bradley performs routine checkups on pregnant animals, including the imaging of a fetus via X-rays or ultrasound. She observes and evaluates the health of the babies after they are born.
Her job is fulfilling, Bradley says, not just because she gets to work with animals all the time. There’s never a boring day.
“It’s just a very rewarding position. It definitely is hard work,” Bradley says. “But not only can I make individual impacts on the animals that are here that I’m treating, but just an overall global conservation impact as well.”
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Photo of Lisa Merrick, Sam Bradley, Kristine VanHoosier, and Feather the ostrich by Zach Straw
Photo by Zach Straw. During a January checkup on a month-old female porcupine named Zuzu, zookeepers
handled Zuzu with protective gear in case the baby porcupine decided to get aggressive.
To say Jennifer Evans is in her element at the Evansville Museum of Arts, History & Science may be an understatement. The 1993 Central High School alumna’s new job as the museum’s John W. Streetman Executive Director quenches her lifelong curiosity —something piqued by the 45,000-plus artifacts in the museum’s permanent collection. In her new role, Evans — who held past director positions at WNIN, Mesker Park Zoo & Botanic Garden, and Leadership Everyone — pairs that thirst for knowledge with her nonprofit work experience.
“I didn’t go to school to be a historian or a scientist or an art curator, but I have a deep appreciation for those things,” she says. “My vision is to be the person … who helps encourage and make things happen that others want to see happen, and to do it in a thoughtful way that makes sense and honors the people who laid such a great foundation for the museum.”
EVANSVILLE BUSINESS: WHY DID YOU JUMP AT THIS JOB OPPORTUNITY?
Jennifer Evans:I love our museum. I experienced it throughout my life, starting as a child with my parents and on field trips. I’m curious … and I get to work with an organization that … hits all those things that please me as an individual. I’m a person who loves to ask why.
EB: WHAT ARE SOME OF THE MUSEUM’S STRONGEST ATTRIBUTES?
JE:People who love the museum and support it — staff, board members, donors, public, and members. And the history of our museum and how long it has been such a cultural mainstay. We are so lucky to have the cultural institutions we have.
EB: WHY DOES THE MUSEUM INVEST IN CHILDREN’S PROGRAMMING?
JE:Exposing them to our history and culture and universe and wonderful works of art, you never know what that may inspire. It can be part of their life and [foster] a deep appreciation, or they can build a career from it.
EB: SHARE SOME OF YOUR OTHER INTERESTS.
JE:I absolutely love gardening. It’s something I’ve been doing since I was a child. I love traveling to … new and familiar places, learning about those cultures. I’m very passionate about music — everything from classical and jazz to yacht rock and rap.
Nearly three years in, Victoria Woods — Indiana’s first new town in 20 years — is steadily growing.
When the Warrick County municipality was featured in the October/November 2023 issue, about a dozen people lived there. Since sales began in March 2022, 79 of 112 available lots have been purchased, and 17 homes are inhabited.
Photo provided by Jodi Fehrenbacher
“We have now built on 31 of the lots in just over two years,” says Jodi Fehrenbacher with Team McClintock at F.C. Tucker Emge, who with Janice Miller with ERA First Advantage makes up the Victoria Woods sales team.
The town can accommodate 300-400 properties, Jordan Aigner, project engineer with site developer Jerry Aigner Construction Inc., says. Among the companies building residences are Mattingly Homes and Development, Hirsch Custom Homes, Martin Brothers Construction, and Upright Construction.
Some infrastructure impacted wetlands. Aigner says his team worked with the Indiana departments of Natural Resources and Environmental Management, plus the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, to permit the site and provide “compensatory mitigation to offset the impacts.”
Residents enjoy 200 acres of mature trees, conservation areas, lakes, and streams, as well as amenities like walking trails and, soon, pickleball and basketball courts. A three-member town council was appointed by the Warrick County Republican chair; future council members will be elected by Victoria Woods’ residents. Upcoming additions are a community center, children’s play area, and boat house.
“We now have our town — well established, approved, and acknowledged by the state,” says Aigner. “People are buying into it, literally.”
Photo of the United Companies Air Center by Zach Straw
Long known as Tri-State Aero, the air travel service facility adjacent to Evansville Regional Airport has more than a new name.
With a glass-lined exterior and spacious inside loaded with amenities, the United Companies Air Center is open for business. Commercial airports of all sizes have fixed-based operators — commercial businesses that provide general, commercial, and private aviation services at an airport — and United Companies Air Center President Doug Petitt says EVV’s now stands up with any in the country.
“There may be bigger ones at the bigger airports, but none of them are better right now,” says Petitt, who is also executive vice president and chief people officer with United Companies. “New is hard to beat … what we have is quite an asset for Evansville and the region.”
Few would deny that EVV’s fixed-based operator service needed a refresh. The original building had been in use since Jan. 1, 1965, when Tri-State Aero moved to Evansville after nearly two years in Mount Vernon, Indiana. Former Tri-State Aero owner John Zeidler sold the property in late 2022 to United Companies, which – along with the Evansville Regional Airport Authority – decided to raze the decades-old terminal onsite and build anew.
Based in Evansville, United Companies also includes United Leasing & Finance, Professional Transportation Inc., and Romain Automotive Group. Company officials jumped at the opportunity to bring what was then called Tri-State Aero under their umbrella.
“It was something we felt we could support, and we wanted to ensure that the facility was constructed,” Petitt says. “The airport board was responsible for managing the construction contract, and we thought it made sense to support this massive improvement for our community. For so many people, this facility is the front door to the community. We needed a better representation, and we think that the new facility does that.”
Designed by Hafer and built by Garmong Construction, the two-story United Companies Air Center is the landlord for nearly 60 privately owned aircraft. Sizes of those planes range from two-seaters to corporate jets, and air center technicians keep them fueled and in proper working condition.
Any private aircraft arriving in Evansville – whether a Beechcraft, King Air, Cirrus, Piper, and more, carrying business travelers, touring entertainers, sports teams, or anyone else – park and gas up at the air center.
Fueling is a big part of the fixed-based operator’s role. In addition to the private air fleet, staff members top off the tanks of all commercial planes flying in and out of Evansville Regional Airport — that includes American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Allegiant Air, and Breeze Airways. In total, Petitt says the air center delivers about three million gallons of fuel per year into airplanes.
Air center staff also can triage and repair smaller-scale maintenance issues on commercial planes, allowing EVV’s carriers to keep flight schedules intact.
The new air center is the home base of those efforts, and it’s also an inviting spot to catch a flight.
Travelers enter through a front set of sliding glass doors and walk out to their ride through a rear set. The staffed lobby has lounge seating, Wi-Fi, drinks, and snacks.
The second-floor pilot’s lounge is equipped for pilots needing a quick refresher as well as those who will spend a longer time in Evansville before returning to the cockpit.
“It gives pilots more amenities – lounge space, a small kitchenette, and sleeping quarters, and the windows were laid out so they can see patrons coming and going, so they can know when to get ready,” says Dempson Haney, project architect for Hafer.
Haney notes the new air center has small and large conference rooms for those needing private conversations while on the ground in Evansville. Such spaces were not available in the old building.
The air center also leases space to a flight training school, X-Cell Aviation.
Features such as those are important for an airport’s fixed-based operator to provide, says Evansville Regional Airport Executive Director Nate Hahn.
“That relationship is integral to our airline partnerships, and our ability to work in tandem with United Companies Air Center to remain price-competitive is essential to our air service expansion efforts,” Hahn says.
One key amenity the air center’s new owners are excited to restore is charter air service, which has been missing in Evansville for the last few years. Petitt says it’s a convenience for businesspeople and vacationers wishing to bypass airlines and schedule their own trips.
He says he’s optimistic the demand for charters will increase as more residents hear that the service is once again available.
“There are times when people want to fly somewhere, and it’s such a time-consuming process to use the commercial airline routes that it doesn’t make sense,” Petitt says. “The prior owner provided charter service but had sold that piece of his business. We felt like that might have been a hole (in services the fixed-based operator should offer).”
Hahn says the return of charter service “brings great value back to our community. Some people might be surprised by the value of charter service for both business travel and personal use.”
The air center is on Flightline Drive, just off U.S. 41 south of EVV, next door to the Dunn Hospitality Group-owned Hampton Inn Evansville Airport. It’s open to the public.
Petitt says he knows it may take a while for the property’s name change to take root, since it had been known as Tri-State Aero for so long, but the rebrand to United Companies Air Center “is about us wanting to align it with our parent company and make it stand for what we stand for in the community.”
He also points out that longtime Tri-State Aero personnel have remained in place and continue to provide ample air service expertise. “We have a wonderful group of long-term employees,” Petitt says.
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Photo of United Companies Air Center by Zach Straw
Photo of Doug Petitt by Zach Straw
Photo of United Companies Air Center by Zach Straw
As Evansville Regional Airport’s fixed-based operator, United Companies Air Center fuels and provides maintenance for all aircraft, and it rents hangar space for private planes. The air center also is bringing charter air service back to Evansville. Photo by Zach Straw
A well-oiled machine since its founding in 2002, Heritage Petroleum has more than doubled its workforce over the last nine years and shows no signs of slowing down.
The company and its three subsidiaries – Heritage Distribution, WOC, and Legacy Propane – operate from 12 main sites and conduct business in 26 states across the East, Midwest, South, and westbound to Colorado.
Officials say their upward momentum is fueled by cultivating relationships and providing the best possible management, products, and services.
Heritage Petroleum has made at least 23 acquisitions over its 23 years. The engine is expected to get even hotter.
“We see a tremendous amount of opportunity and growth on the horizon,” President Aaron Gabe says.
Heritage Petroleum was born with the merger of Gabe’s Oil and another Evansville company, Wannemuehler Oil, both of which date to 1948. The name, Aaron explains, is a nod to the heritage of both family-owned enterprises.
The company supplies commercial fuel and lubricants, as well as fuel cards, diesel exhaust fluid, and equipment. It offers full lines of lubricants from major names in the industry – Shell Rotella, Phillips 66, Kendall Motor Oil, Castrol, and Citgo, to name a few.
Its services include fixed fuel pricing, equipment repair, fuel management, and fuel delivery. Goods can be delivered via pipeline, barge, full truck loads, short truck loads, or packaged trucks.
In addition to the relationship-building philosophy — which has led to many of the acquisitions — Heritage Petroleum officials say their success is keyed by vision and the contributions of Stone Haven Capital LLC, an Evansville-based, family-owned capital investment company formed in 2022.
Executives note the Evansville region’s accessibility to multiple markets within the U.S., and the Ohio and Mississippi rivers are major thoroughfares for petroleum products.
Heritage sells to multiple economic sectors, including construction, agriculture, over-the-road trucking, marine, power generation, and mining. Aaron says the demand for diesel is rising, and all those industries “need a variety of different products to make sure their business runs smooth.”
For just over a year, the headquarters of all this activity has been Heritage Petroleum’s new office in the 500 block of North Seventh Avenue, just off the West Franklin Street corridor. The company had outgrown its prior location two blocks away.
Heritage Petroleum had a total headcount of 106 in 2017, including 63 in Evansville. The current figure is 234 team members, with 140 in Evansville.
“Our team is extremely aggressive and has to deploy,” Aaron says. “That’s why we wanted to have this building, to be able to support all of that future growth.”
The building was originally meant for building carriages, and it had been used most recently for storage. The refreshed space has all the modern amenities workers need, but it also carries a rustic, lodge-like ambiance.
Noticeable throughout are solid timber beams and accents, as well as exposed brick. Each floor has an attractive commons area and fun touches such as a basketball hoop, fostering camaraderie and teamwork.
Historical touches include an old-school wagon and gas pump. Team members enjoy an expansive, ground-floor fitness room and golf simulator.
Aaron represents the third generation of his family’s business, following his grandfather, Keith, his uncle, Loren, and his father, Tom. Conference rooms in the building are named for multiple Gabe family members and others who have passed on.
“The building really is our personality, in a sense,” Aaron says. “It’s respecting the past and the history that came behind this, the hard work, and being able to show it.”
There’s more: 56 apartments are being developed in a section of the building. The $13 million Franklin Street Lofts project, led by Aaron and Chief Operating Officer John Clark, is about a year from completion.
The complex will have units of varying sizes, and company officials point out the close proximity to West Franklin Street’s boutiques, bars, restaurants, and businesses. The Southwest Indiana Regional Economic Development Authority recommended the project receive a $1.35 million Lily Endowment Initiative grant.
Lamar Architecture & Design of Evansville says via Facebook that the design approach “highlights the existing timber and brick construction while bringing in an abundance of natural light with modern windows that reflect the historic openings.”
To Aaron, his family’s heritage means more than just business.
Aaron’s father, Tom, who died in 2020 of leukemia at age 70, was involved in numerous local and world Christian ministries. He helped bring I Am Second, a national company that uses media platforms and storytelling to encourage faith, to the River City. He also was engaged in community organization For Evansville.
Aaron, 41, says his family still invests in multiple ministries in Evansville and beyond, such as e3 Partners, which seeks to plant churches around the world, and Open Eyes, another global evangelism organization.
Biblical beliefs guide Aaron’s leadership of Heritage Petroleum as well, and he says the company continues to fare well — an acquisition that’s expected to become official this year would push the company’s total workforce to nearly 300.
Aaron says Heritage Petroleum and Stone Haven are poised to continue growing, and “I would say we’re just getting started in our business today.”
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Heritage Petroleum’s office space off the West Franklin Street business corridor is loaded with attractive features, such as common spaces on each floor where staffers can collaborate and socialize, and an expansive fitness room that sports a golf simulator. Company officials also are developing part of the property into the Franklin Street Lofts, which will bring 56 apartments to the area. That project is expected to finish in about a year. Photo by Zach Straw
Photo of Heritage Petroleum by Zach Straw
Photo of Heritage Petroleum by Zach Straw
Photo of Heritage Petroleum by Zach Straw
Photo provided by source
Years of company growth, with even more expected, necessitated Heritage Petroleum’s relocation to a new office on Evansville’s West Side. President Aaron Gabe went all out, transforming a multi-floor storage space into a modern, yet rustic, environment to conduct business and have some fun along the way. He says family influences drive much of what he does, and conference rooms are named for his relatives and others who influenced Heritage Petroleum’s history. Photo by Zach Straw
Photo of Heritage Petroleum headquarters by Zach Straw
Education: Bachelor of Science in business, University of Evansville; master’s coursework in communications, University of Southern Indiana; certificate in fundraising management, Indiana University School of Philanthropy; certificate in nonprofit executive management, IU School of Public and Environmental Affairs
Hometown: Hatfield, Indiana
Resume: Annual giving manager, St. Mary’s Foundation; morning news anchor, Channel 14 WFIE-TV; development director, Arc of Evansville; community relations and develop- ment officer, Evansville Vanderburgh Public Library; brand marketing manager, Berry Global Inc.; evening news anchor, Channel 25 WEHT-TV; development director, Gilda’s Club of Evansville (now Cancer Pathways Mid- west); president and CEO (2024 to present), United Way of Southwestern Indiana
Family: Husband Chuck; children Blake, Shelby, and Max; three grandchildren, with a fourth on the way
The United Way of Southwestern Indiana has transitioned to new leadership at a time when the philanthropic organization is adapting to other changes. Four years after joining United Way, Amy Mangold ascended to the top position following Amy Canterbury’s retirement. She says United Way is funding fewer agencies, but at higher levels, with the intent of having more meaningful community impact.
What’s stayed the same, Mangold explains, is the United Way’s vision to give struggling area residents the resources they need to reach their potential. Mangold says she’s prepared for her new role. “The board and Amy Canterbury have positioned us well for the future. As the landscape continues to change, we will need to continue to evolve and assess and reassess and change along with the times.”
Tell us about the United Way’s accomplishments in 2024.
It was a good year. We completed our financial commitments to our legacy partners, which allowed us to invest more funds into our Pathway Grants. Our four Pathways — employment, mental health, youth, and social capital — focus on the root causes of poverty and economic inequity. They are competitive grants, open to any 501(c)(3) in our service area. This year, we invested $569,000 into mental health programs and $1.68 mil- lion into youth programs. When I say investing more, in the old model we may have given a program $45,000 annually. In the new model, many of the two-year grants are in the ballpark of $200,000-$300,000. We were also able to leverage money from Indiana United Ways to bring into our community to accom- plish specific capital projects that we have not done in the past.
How has the United Way’s scope and impact changed in recent years?
We still serve our three main counties, Vanderburgh, Spencer, and Warrick. We are funding fewer agencies, but at a deeper and larger investment and over two-year time periods. We are now looking at how United Way can leverage funds from other entities to bring into our community. And we are looking at the advocacy space. How can we help influence public policy and advocate for issues that are important to our community to drive systemic change?
That it’s still the old United Way, that we still have the old funding model. … We still partner with employers, but we don’t encourage high-pressure tactics for donations. What we do encourage is the opportunity to educate employees about the work that United Way is doing in the community and invite them into the work. … We encourage people to look outside themselves, to how they can help their neighbor, the greater community, and how we can all build the community where we want to live, work, and play. Encouraging civic responsibility and philanthropy is a piece of that.
Why is it important that people continue to give to United Way?
We want everyone to have the opportunity to become the best that they want to be. … We have those who are in poverty, who are working and sometimes working two and three jobs who still cannot make ends meet, especially with inflationary pressures, with challenges of affordable childcare, affordable housing. How do we resource people who are willing and able and working hard, but still just don’t have what they need to get to that next level of thriving? Sometimes, it takes just an extra resource, an extra bump, to help someone get there.
NEW HIRES/PROMOTIONS
Sarah Morgason has joined Tucker Publishing Group as a senior graphic designer. The native of Cincinnati, Ohio, and University of Cincinnati graduate previously worked as a graphic designer for Shoe Carnival in Evansville, and she completed internships with BestReviews, HBO, and Purposeful Networks.
Welborn Baptist Foundation has named Travis Johnson and Tyler Stock members of its inaugural class of board fellows. Johnson is a senior analyst at Mead Johnson Nutrition Co., while Stock is executive director of Talent EVV at the Evansville Regional Economic Partnership.
Hafer has hired Isaac Grounds and Jacob Vezensky as architectural graduates in the firm’s Evansville office. Both are graduates of Southern Illinois University in Carbondale.
Brycen Moore is the new Evansville Otters general manager, the eighth person to hold that role in the team’s 30 years. At 24, he’s also the youngest general manager in Otters history and will oversee all day-to-day operations, including all baseball and non-baseball events at Bosse Field. He started with the Otters as a group sales intern in 2021 before becoming assistant director of operations and then director of operations and food and beverage.
Deiona Clayton is the new executive director of Carver Community Organization, replacing David Wagner, who was in the position for 35 years. Clayton has served in a variety of roles with Carver Community Organization for 26 years, including director of the Early Childhood Center since 2004.
Amy Rhodes is the new executive director of Wesselman Woods Nature Preserve. The Noblesville, Indiana, native is an alumna of the University of Evansville and Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana, and returned to Evansville in 2020. She most recently was an agriculture and natural resource educator for Purdue Extension in Posey County and served as sustainable living manager at Seton Harvest.
Suresh Immanuel has been named Schroeder Family Dean of the University of Evansville College of Business and Engineering. Since joining UE in 2009, Immanuel has had several duties, including as associate dean of the School of Engineering and Computer Science and associate provost for academic partnerships.
David Kiely has joined the law firm Danks & Danks. Kiely was a judicial officer in Vanderburgh County for 26 years, first as a magistrate for Circuit Court, then as a Superior Court judge, and finally as Circuit Court judge before retiring on Dec. 31, 2024. He was in private practice with his father, James, before becoming a judge. With Danks & Danks, Kiely will join litigation teams handling personal injury, criminal defense, and family law matters.
Shelly Blunt has been appointed provost, Rashad Smith was named assistant vice president for undergraduate admissions, and Jina Platts was promoted to assistant vice president for finance and administration and assistant treasurer at the University of Southern Indiana. Blunt joined USI in 1999 and most recently was interim provost. She has held numerous administrative and teaching roles, including dean and interim dean of Pott College of Science, Engineering, and Education. Smith’s more than 20-year career in higher education brought him to USI in 2016, when he was hired as director of undergraduate admissions. Platts, a USI graduate, has had a 24-year career with USI where she served as director of university accounting and assistant controller.
Zachary Weinberg is the new University of Evansville head volleyball coach. He comes from Tennessee Tech University, Cookeville, where he was on the volleyball coaching staff for seven years and the associate head coach since 2021.
Christy Lewis has been appointed vice president and general manager of Atlas World Group International. Lewis joined Atlas in July 2019 as director of commercial operations, and she has more than 20 years of experience in management and operations.
AN HONOR
Gymnastics coach Breasha Pruitt earns Musial Award. By Maggie Valenti
Photo of Breasha Pruitt at the Stan Musial Awards on Nov. 23 provided by source
Breasha Pruitt’s star continues to rise, most recently as a Musial Award recipient.
The owner of Breasha Pruitt Elite Gymnastics received the sportsmanship honor, named for late St. Louis Cardinals baseball star Stan Musial, on Nov. 23 in St. Louis, Missouri. The awards were broadcast Dec. 29 on CBS.
The awards noted Pruitt’s tenacity as a former gymnast as well as her grace and devotion to her athletes as a coach while modeling the treatment she wished she got as a young athlete.
She became a Musial Award winner alongside Emmy-winning sportscaster Bob Costas and former Arizona Cardinals wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald Jr. Pruitt was nominated by Cindi Schmidt Nicholson, the mother of her student Natalie Nicholson.
“The award itself, the honor is huge. … It’s shocking that people are noticing on a national platform,” Pruitt says. “I had calls and emails from people all over who saw the awards on CBS. … It’s been amazing experience.”
The Henderson, Kentucky, native’s attitude and commitment earned her the Positive Coaching Alice’s 2022 National Double-Goal Coach of the Year Award. That same year, she was named a Kentucky Colonel by Gov. Andy Beshear.
DEPARTURES Randy Moore has retired after 45 years in Evanvsille television, including the last decade at Channel 14 WFIE-TV. The Evansville native is a graduate of Harrison High School and Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana, and his numerous professional honors include earning a regional Emmy Award and being named Best Local TV Personality by Evansville Living readers in 2022 and 2023.
AWARDS/RECOGNITIONS Three Deaconess Health System facilities received ‘A’ hospital safety grades from The Leapfrog Group, a national nonprofit that acts as a watchdog in the health care industry. Deaconess Midtown Hospital, Deaconess Henderson (Kentucky) Hospital, and Memorial Hospital and Health Care Center in Jasper, Indiana, were awarded the recognition based on more than 30 measures of errors, accidents, injuries, and infections, and systems hospitals use to prevent them.
Bally’s Evansville has collected nine first places in the Strictly Slots Magazine Awards, including Best Overall Casino. The other honors were Best Overall Gaming Resort, Best Reel Slots, Casino Where You Feel Luckiest, Best Hosts, Best Penny Slots, Best Quarter Slots, Best Slot Club, and Best Slot Club Promotions.
The Henderson Tourist Commission picked up honors at the Kentucky Travel Industry Association’s annual Traverse Awards, including an award of distinction for its Songs of Summer marketing campaign and multiple bronze, silver, and gold awards for various projects.
The D-Patrick family of vehicle dealerships announced recent charitable contributions. D-Patrick Honda Helping Kids donated $1,500 to The Hope Gallery and Mesker Park Zoo & Botanic Garden; D-Patrick Ford/Lincoln presented $2,500 each to the Santa Clothes Club and Ronald McDonald House Charities of the Ohio Valley; and D-Patrick Boonville Ford contributed $1,000 to the Warrick County Community Foundation and $1,000 to the Greater Kentucky and Southern Indiana Chapter of the Alzheimer’s Association. Additionally, the D-Patrick Porsche Club hosted a Christmas toy drive for Warrick County Child Services.
The University of Evansville received a $41,000 gift from the trust of alumna Joyce Short to the School of Education. It will support aspiring teachers by providing licensure testing resources and support with licensure fees. The university also received a $147,000 bequest from the estate of 1945 alumna Marjorie Vogel to support the upkeep of UE’s Carson Center athletic facilities and establish the Marjorie Vogel Endowed Scholarship in Nursing.
The City of Evansville alongside Welborn Baptist Foundation has been awarded a $20 million Community Change Grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights. The grant will help Evansville transition to cleaner, lower-emissions transportation systems through more hybrid vehicles, charging stations, sidewalk improvements, and other initiatives.
Old National Bancorp was honored as the Local Corporate Member of the Year by the Mid-States Minority Supplier Development Council. In the award year of 2023, the Evansville-based financial institution spent $19.1 million with diverse suppliers — including enterprises owned by racial minorities, women, disadvantaged owners, and veterans — out of a total of $27.3 million spent with small businesses.
Ivy Tech Community College bestowed two Evansville faculty members with the President’s Award for Excellence in Instruction. Donna Zimmerman, who has taught at the college since 2005 and been a program chair or department chair since 2015, founded the Robotics Club, which hosts at least one annual competition for area youth. Adam Meredith has taught history and political science at the college since 2014.
Ascension St. Vincent Evansville awarded $20,000 to Youth First to provide mental health support and substance misuse prevention through social work services and prevention programs in more than 20 Catholic Diocese of Evansville schools. In total, Youth First partners with 125 schools across 14 area counties. Ascension also awarded $10,000 to the Immigrant Welcome & Resource Center.
Andy Martin, managing director with SVN The Martin Group, received the CCIM (Certified Commercial Investment Member) Indiana Chapter Largest Retail Sale of the Year award.
The Indiana Hospital Association has appointed Shawn McCoy, CEO of Deaconess Health System, to the chair of its board for 2025. McCoy will oversee board meetings and set the priorities and goals of the association, which includes more than 170 acute care, critical access, behavioral health, and other specialized hospitals in Indiana.
United Way of Southwestern Indiana has awarded $1.68 million in grants through its Thriving Next Gen Pathways to Potential initiative benefiting high-need students. Recipients include Big Brothers Big Sisters of Southwestern Indiana ($186,620); Dream Center Evansville ($150,000); Immigrant Welcome & Resource Center ($255,080.70); Koch Family Children’s Museum of Evansville ($236,480.30); Potter’s Wheel ($250,000); Southern Indiana Mentoring Academy ($267,400); Southern Indiana Resource Solutions ($135,424); and YWCA of Evansville ($200,000).
Jen Kerns, account executive with the Evansville Regional Economic Partnership, has been named to the Association of Chamber of Commerce Executives’ 40 Under 40 list of emerging leaders in the chamber industry. Kerns previously worked for the Evansville Christian Life Center, The Arc of Evansville, and the Kosciusko Chamber of Commerce in Warsaw, Indiana.
Increasing Overhead
Old National Bank helps secure grants to expand affordable housing. By Maggie Valenti
Photo of Old National Bank exterior by Laura Mathis
Old National Bank has helped four Affordable Housing Program projects — including one in Evansville — secure grants topping $3.2 million from the Federal Home Loan Bank of Indianapolis. The funding will go toward the construction of 628 units across Indiana and Michigan.
One million dollars were granted to Habitat for Humanity of Evansville for its Building Home, Community and Hope 2025 project and will address housing shortages in the Tepe Park and Glenwood neighborhoods.
“Old National believes that safe, affordable housing is the cornerstone of thriving communities, and that homeownership is the key to building generational wealth. That’s why we were so pleased to partner with Habitat for Humanity of Evansville,” says Stephanie Roland, ONB’s community development director.
The remaining $2.2 million in grant funds went to organizations in Dale and Muncie, Indiana, and Grand Rapids, Michigan. The funding from FHLB is included in more than $34 million the regional bank donated to 42 projects in Michigan and Indiana in 2024, creating a total of 1,645 affordable housing in both states. In Indiana alone, the shortage of affordable homes is estimated to be around 139,000.
GROWTH/DEVELOPMENT Old National Bancorp and Bremer Financial Corporation of St. Paul, Minnesota, have announced a merger. The partnership will stretch Evansville-based Old National’s reach into several markets throughout Minnesota, North Dakota, and Wisconsin. The combined organization will have more than $70 billion in assets.
Control Specialists Inc., an Evansville company dating to 1983 that provides specialized services including control systems maintenance, announced it has been acquired by Houston, Texas-based Relevant Industrial LLC.
Pro-Tex-All Co., a janitorial supply, equipment distribution and chemical manufacturing company, has acquired Gem Chemical. Both companies are based in Evansville.
One Rock Capital Partners, a New York-based private equity firm, has announced that an affiliate acquired an ownership interest in Evansville-based Lewis Bakeries. Founded in 1925, Lewis Bakeries is the largest wholesale bakery in Indiana, employing about 2,000 across five sites in Indiana and Tennessee, and providing products including Bunny Bread to commercial customers in 17 states.
Deaconess Health System is expanding the use of Abridge, an AI platform for clinical documentation, across its 19-hospital network, following a successful pilot program. The company says the technology helps clinicians reclaim time that can be directed to patient care. The health system also acquired a little more than 77 acres of farmland in northern Vanderburgh County at 201 E. Inglefield Road for $3.1 million. Deaconess has not announced official plans for the property beyond addressing the area’s growing needs. The health system’s Gateway and Midtown emergency departments also achieved Pediatric Advanced Emergency Department certifications through the Indiana Emergency Medical Services for Children. The milestone makes Gateway and Midtown some of the first mixed-population emergency departments in the region to receive the designation.
CenterPoint Energy supported more than 80 energy efficiency projects across the Evansville Vanderburgh School Corporation, such as modernization of lighting and heating and air systems, boiling and chiller system improvements, and energy-efficient kitchen equipment; the totality of these projects saved EVSC about $1.2 million.
CLOSURES/REDUCTIONS CycleBar Evansville closed Feb. 1. The local franchise of the Xponential Fitness brand had been owned by Jeff Cox since January 2020. Jeff and Bussie Cox continue to operate the adjacent Club Pilates at 111 S. Green River Road.
Photo of Red Spot Paint and Varnish Company President and CEO Jeff Scheu by Zach Straw
Colorful, high-performance products imagined and engineered at Red Spot Paint and Varnish Company’s Evansville headquarters are embedded in all types of vehicles, from rugged Ford trucks to sleek Corvettes.
The success story started in 1903, when Red Spot opened as a small, family-owned business that produced coatings for barns, buggies, carriages, and early automobiles.
By the 1930s, plastics became a growth industry and Evansville emerged as a capital. The timing was fortuitous, as Red Spot evolved into a leading producer of coatings for plastics used in the automotive, appliance, and cosmetics industries, among others. During World War II, Red Spot created olive paint for the U.S. Army.
Red Spot maintains a diverse clientele today, although about 90 percent of its modern business is with vehicle manufacturers. Toyota has the largest share of Red Spot’s automotive business, about 30 percent. Ford Motor Company, General Motors, and Stellantis (Fiat and Chrysler) also get slices of the pie.
A few examples of Red Spot’s wide reach: It supplies a company that produces front grilles on nearly all Toyota vehicles assembled in North and South Americas. Its product also is on various car and SUV spoilers.
A clear coating from Red Spot cured with UV light is used on all automotive headlights protecting the lens from premature yellowing. Red Spot formulated this coating and supplies it all over the world.
The entire body of each Chevrolet Corvette manufactured in Bowling Green, Kentucky, is coated with Red Spot primer before the primary color is added.
Company officials note the vast experience of their Evansville-based staff. Turnover is low, and among 262 workers at Red Spot’s U.S. and Canadian locations, the average tenure is 14 years.
“I can’t tell you one person on our team who isn’t a really good fit,” says Trenton Christian, director of sales and technical service.
This in-house expertise enables Red Spot to punch above its weight class.
“Red Spot is unique,” says Mike Brockey, who’s held multiple roles, including regional sales manager, in his 28 years with the company. “We are a smaller coatings company competing against the world’s largest in a global economy. Red Spot has managed this through continuous improvement and production of quality products, while remaining dedicated to employee growth.”
That’s the type of culture that Red Spot President and CEO Jeff Scheu strives for.
“There’s a lot of opportunity to have an influence, be heard and be seen, and understand the value of what you provide back to the company,” Scheu says.
Walk through Red Spot’s 26-acre headquarters on East Louisiana Street just north of the Lloyd Expressway, and you’ll find research and development labs, maintenance staff, administrative offices, and the manufacturing of raw materials that later are finished in Evansville and at the company’s Monterrey, Mexico, facility.
Tanks on the floor are as small as 20 gallons and as large as 3,000 gallons. In 2022, Red Spot manufactured nearly 2.5 million gallons of paint in Evansville.
Test labs evaluate how products fare in different situations, including surfaces, impacts, weather conditions, and more. In 2023, Red Spot claimed 233 active customers and 1,302 distinct formulas.
All products from Red Spot are made to order for each customer, says Mike Webley, tech service manager and a 51-year veteran of the company. Webley also notes Red Spot’s commitment to “do whatever it takes to get the product to the customer in any market.”
Red Spot has maintained its Evansville presence and strength throughout its history, even as global partners joined its ownership and management structure. The company originated Downtown; it moved to its current site in the late 1960s.
A key date in the company’s lineage was 2000. That’s when Red Spot officially aligned with longtime partner Fujikura Kasei Co. of Tokyo, Japan, as well as a British company that became known as Fujichem Sonneborn.
The three companies comprise the Fujikura Kasei Global Network. Red Spot’s executive team remains in Evansville, led since 2021 by Scheu. Since 2008, all company shares have been owned by Fujikura Kasei, which bought the company from Charlie Storms. It was Storms’ family that founded Red Spot in Evansville in 1903.
In addition to the manufacturing plant in Evansville and its facility in Mexico, Fujikura Kasei also operates in Michigan, Brazil, four European sites, and a dozen more scattered across Asian countries.
This worldwide reach keeps Red Spot’s executive team on the road. Christian spends two weeks per quarter at Red Spot’s facility in Monterrey, and team members from there come to Evansville. Christian also makes annual trips to South America and Japan.
Scheu, who also travels often, started with Red Spot in 1994 as a chemist, and his rise through the company took him through each of its departments. Red Spot today embraces the tagline “More Than Paint,” which to Scheu means going the extra mile to make sure service and product quality are superior.
Red Spot’s ongoing commitment to Evansville, even as the company’s global footprint has grown, makes perfect sense, Scheu explains. He cites the significant property investment Red Spot has in the community, as well as the expertise of long-time team members. The company’s culture enables it to retain people and maintain the highest standard of work, says Scheu, who, like Christian, grew up in Newburgh, Indiana.
“Those that have grown up here like it here and they’re comfortable, and you get a good quality person too here,” Scheu says. “I think our values, our tenure in the industry, and our ability to continue to find solutions and partner with our customers attracts and keeps people.
“If you look around the tenure at this place, you’ve got a lot of people that are 30 years-plus, and they just love it,” Scheu adds. “I think they’re heard, I think they feel valued. … We’ve all had opportunities to go to other places, and the thing that keeps you going is the fact that we’ve got a purpose here.”
ABOUT THAT LOGO
If Red Spot’s circular red logo looks familiar in other contexts, it should.
It’s nearly identical to that of big-box retailer Target, and Red Spot officials are quick to tell you they had the logo first. Red Spot dates to 1903, long before the first Target store opened in the early 1960s and later mushroomed into a widespread national chain.
A legal settlement enables Red Spot to keep the logo, provided the words “Red” and “Spot” accompany it. And Target, for its part, cannot legally sell its own brand of paint featuring the iconic symbol.
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A Volvo truck hood. Photo provided by Red Spot Paint and Varnish Company
Floor workers at Red Spot Paint and Varnish Company are heavily involved in research and development, taking deep dives into how their products fare in many situations. Photo by Zach Straw
Red Spot Paint and Varnish Company employee Kristy Wagner makes samples in the lab for a new development project. Photo by Zach Straw
Chris Mack uses UV light to cure Red Spot’s scratch-resistant coating, which is replacing oven-cured paint to give a durable piano black finish on interior car and truck trim pieces. Photo by Zach Straw
On the floor of Red Spot Paint and Varnish Company, Corey Stevens lowers an agitator into a transfer tank that will take milled tints to the production area, where it can be used to create finished paint. Red Spot workers make high-performance coatings used in all types of vehicles. Photo by Zach Straw
A wheel flare for a Lexus RX provided by Red Spot Pain and Varnish Company. Photo by provided by Red Spot Paint and Varnish Company
Cindy Barnhill and Shannon Libbert-Miller photographed by Zach Straw
Shannon Libbert-Miller and Cindy Barnhill are all about the idea of paying it forward.
After serving in various charitable channels over the years, the duo, who are in title work and mortgage lending, respectively, saw a need for fundraising and logistics help in the nonprofit sector. Libbert-Miller went a step further in 2019, founding Pay It Forward Local, and Barnhill soon came on board.
COVID-19 delayed activity, but Pay It Forward hosted a Santa shop for needy families in late 2021. Regularly scheduled bingo nights at the Westside Community Center on West Michigan Street lifted off in 2022.
Via spirited bingo games, revenue is steered to other small local nonprofits.
“One of the things nonprofits lack is funding,” Barnhill says, and that’s where Pay It Forward strives to help. By November 2024, monthly charitable dollars reached about $12,000.
Agencies such as Big Brothers Big Sisters of Southwestern Indiana, VOICES Inc., Kiwanis Club of Historic Newburgh, and Cops Connecting with Kids have volunteered at bingo activities.
“We appreciate the support we receive from our volunteers, whether they are with a nonprofit or they are family and friends, and we are always excited for others to learn more about us and reach out to see how they can be a part of our mission,” Barnhill says.
Want to play? Games usually are Tuesday and Friday nights, with early bird games starting at 6 p.m. A 12-face game sheet is $15; additional packets are $10. A nine-face early bird game sheet is $10.
Pay It Forward’s plans include relocation to 1109 S. Green River Road, with a grand opening and bingo planned for Feb. 28.
Updated photo taken March 24, 2025, by Laura Mathis
Mayor Stephanie Terry says the removal of vacant, dilapidated properties is a key part of her administration’s approach to improving Evansville neighborhoods, and she’s asking for help in identifying what structures need razed the most.
Terry’s “Fight Blight” initiative has the goal of tearing down 150 dilapidated properties in 2025, nearly three times more than last year. The city’s budget has devoted $550,000 in American Rescue Plan Act interest dollars to the effort, in addition to the regular budget appropriation for demolition.
Evansville residents can assist by emailing the city with the address and photographs of buildings that should go. Candidates for removal, according to the city, are properties that are vacant, abandoned, boarded up, or otherwise in such bad shape that they threaten public health and safety.
Emails will go into a database, and city officials will decide if it meets the definition of a blighted property. Terry says that since she announced the Flight Blight program in mid-November, about 30 properties have been submitted by Evansville residents for consideration.
City government has battled the problem of run-down properties since the Evansville Land Bank was formed in 2016. That entity takes ownership of lots where vacant structures are razed, and it seeks entities interested in creating new housing opportunities.
Terry says those partners can include nonprofit housing groups or other developers.
“We still see the need for housing in our city,” Terry says, and the removal of more eyesore properties “allows us to position ourselves for future growth.”
Know of a neighborhood property that needs removing? Email the address to blight@evansville.in.gov.
In Mount Vernon, Indiana, biopharmaceutical manufacturer AstraZeneca has a reach extending far outside the Tri-State. One of AstraZeneca’s 28 plants worldwide, the Mount Vernon site is the company’s largest in the U.S. that makes medicinal tablets — about 5.8 billion each year.
A significant chunk of that production belongs to Farxiga. Initially developed as medicine for type 2 diabetes, daily-dose tablets of Farxiga have expanded into treating heart and chronic kidney disease.
“We keep finding more and more uses for this medicine. That’s why you see the continued increase in volume for Farxiga,” says Formulation Engineering Director Ryan McCann.
Of the approximately nine billion tablets of Farxiga that AstraZeneca produces,
about half come from the Mount Vernon plant. Farxiga production started in 2012 at what then was a Bristol Myers Squibb plant. When AstraZeneca acquired the company in 2016, 500 million tablets were coming off the line. Now, the Posey County site is slated to generate 4.4 billion tablets of Farxiga in 2025. There’s certainly demand: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports 38 million Americans have diabetes.
“We make on average 370 million a month based on demand and distribution,” says McCann, a Michigan native who has worked at the Southwestern Indiana plant since 2012. “Someone’s working on Farxiga probably six days a week.”
McCann notes that Farxiga has made the Mount Vernon site stand out in more ways than one. Production increased by 1 billion each year from 2019 to 2022.
The tablets produced here are distributed in more than 65 global markets. McCann
reports the U.S. is the largest market by volume, with Brazil, Japan, China, and the United Kingdom rounding out the top 5. Distribution of Mount Vernon-produced tablets extends to Australia, Thailand, Philippines, Israel, United Arab Emirates, and Kazakhstan. Sister sites in Asia, South America, and Europe also package the tablets for other global markets.
“At the end of the day, our job is to make the best product the right way every single time. We always keep the patient first in our minds,” McCann says. “It really is a joy in my life that my work impacts people’s lives for the better. It’s really cool to have this investment in pharmaceuticals in Southwestern Indiana.”
AstraZeneca BY THE NUMBERS
4.4 billion Farxiga tablets projected to be made in Mount Vernon in 2025
9 billion Farxiga tablets produced by AstraZeneca plants worldwide in 2024
400-550 Mount Vernon employees directly involved in manufacturing Farxiga
8 Kinds of medicine manufactured by the Mount Vernon operations site
5.8 billion Tablets of medicine the Mount Vernon location is slated to produce in 2025
89,000 People employed globally by AstraZeneca
800 Employees at the Mount Vernon plant
Six years in the making, the Promise Home meets a critical housing need.
The ECHO Housing project on Read Street opened July 16. CEO Savannah Wood and COO Erik Tilkemeier oversaw the development of the two-story building with 27 one-bedroom permanent supportive housing for chronically homeless people with verified disabilities.
Donations covered the costs of not just construction — carried out by architect Adam Green and ARC Construction — but also furnishings, security system installation for the building, and necessary technology.
“When you’re housing individuals experiencing chronic homelessness, there is the understanding that they most often move in with nothing but what they can carry,” Wood says.
The Indiana Housing & Community Development Authority Housing Trust Fund and the City of Evansville are major sources of financing for the Promise Home. A capital campaign filled funding gaps as costs swelled to more than $3 million. Key sponsors included Old National, German American, and Fifth Third banks, Deaconess Heath System, West Side Nut Club, Seal Corp USA, and the JD Sheth Foundation. United Way of Southwestern Indiana also facilitated a $308,322 capital grant from Indiana United Ways to complete the project.
Photo of ECHO Promise Home apartment by Zach Straw
Evansville homeless organization Aurora spearheads the coordinated entry process based on need. Each person must have proof of chronic homelessness and medical documentation of a disability. Current residents started moving in with the new year and will receive rent and utilities assistance. Working closely with case managers and resident assistants, residents achieve stable income, and once that happens, rent becomes 30 percent of a resident’s monthly gross income while ECHO continues to pay utilities.
“The goal is for them not to stay in permanent supportive housing forever unless necessary. Supportive housing gives them a safe, secure opportunity to reintegrate into the community. … For many of those we serve, they have been alone or felt isolated for years. … We work to change that,” Wood says.
Photo of Ryan Goelzhauser with Popham Construction Co. explaining the radon mitigation system by Sarah Morgason
Radon, a naturally occurring gas that can cause lung cancer after prolonged exposure, gained a local headline when its detection last summer in the Old Vanderburgh County Courthouse pushed out a longtime haunted house. After completing mitigation efforts, officials have delivered an all-clear — and a change.
First, a brief geology lesson: Radon comes from the soil, starting as uranium, which decays and turns into radium over billions of years. The radium eventually becomes radon, which can seep into groundwater and the air, where it is often found as a radioactive gas.
“You can’t see it, you can’t smell it, you can’t really tell it’s around unless you test your home for radon,” says Ryan Goelzhauser, radon measurement and mitigation provider with Popham Construction Co.
In August 2024, it was announced that heightened levels were detected in the air of the Old Courthouse. The Old Courthouse Foundation was working with Hafer on a comprehensive study of the building’s interior and exterior, and the superintendent at the time decided to conduct radon tests as well. Radon tests conducted by Environmental Management Consultants in January 2024 determined the radon levels to be unsafe in various areas of the building, especially in the sub-basement, where levels registered at twice the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s recommended “action level” of 4 picocuries per liter (pCi/L). Popham was brought in by March 2024 to install a mitigation system.
That produced a problem for the Olde Courthouse Catacombs, a popular scare house held for years in the sub-basement. Items from the attraction were removed from the basement starting in April and before mitigation efforts began, the catacombs moved to the lowest level of the haunted Main Street attraction House of Lecter.
Back at the old courthouse, Goelzhauser installed a radon mitigation system rea that had the highest average radon levels during the initial testing phase, which has mostly dirt floors.
“Radon mitigation is just the overall reduction of radon levels within a building,” Goelzhauser says. “The radon levels within the building have likely been fairly close to what they were for a long time. … Buildings nowadays are built so tight that it basically traps radon within the building. If you don’t have some sort of system to keep it from getting in the building an to exhaust it to the exterior, it build up to dangerous levels.”
Photo of part of the sub-membrane depressurization system in the sub-basement of the Old Vanderburgh County Courthouse by Sarah Morgason
The sub-membrane depressurization system installed works by preventing the radon gas released from the ground from escaping into the air. Since radon escapes into the air through cracks in the earth, a soil gas mat and a vapor barrier — essentially, a large white tarp — are placed over the affected area. Goelzhauser says the system is 99 percent complete and has been on for a few weeks.
“So far, it seems like it’s had a good effect on radon levels throughout the rest of the building,” he says, adding that third-party testing still is need to confirm.
County officials, meanwhile, say they plan for the sub-basement to remain unoccupied, which, according to Goelzhauser, likely wouldn’t require further mitigation efforts. Only construction and maintenance crews will be allowed in the sub-basement.
“We’re trying to … spend taxpayer dollars wisely while still being progressive in solving the problem of elevated levels of radon within the building,” he says. “Based on what I’m seeing right now, I think there is a very good chance that we can consider the problem solved without having to extend the system.”
“Where the building is occupied … radon is not a real issue right now,” County Commissioner Mike Goebel assured visitors during a Jan. 22 media day at the courthouse for National Radon Action Month.
Goelzhauser adds that older buildings can have more “pathways” for radon to escape into the air or, like the courthouse, have dirt floors in certain areas. However, any structure can have heightened levels of radon exposure no matter its age and there are hotspots throughout the Tri-State where heightened radon levels are more likely to occur.
The EPA estimates around 21,000 people die from radon-related lung cancers per year. While the state of Indiana does not require radon testing for most real estate transactions, Goelzhauser says it is recommended every two years after an initial test if the levels are elevated and a radon mitigation system is installed. Tests can be done with a licensed professional or with a self-install kit available at a hardware store. Long-term radon testing also is recommended to watch the levels throughout the seasons. He also recommends testing for radon after construction or HVAC updates.
“The more areas we can test for radon, the more lives we can save,” Goelzhauser says. “Everybody needs to test their home for radon.”
Plans for a revamped Ohio River shoreline in Downtown Evansville remain on the table, and they prioritize tiered gathering spots, pedestrian trails, and more. Now, the next steps include crafting more detailed designs and searching for construction dollars.
As shown in a project update by Sasaki, the architectural firm working with the Evansville Regional Economic Partnership, the area referred to in the plan as Great Bend Park would involve a Riverside Drive narrowed to two lanes of reduced-speed traffic, built-in sitting areas, and a winding trail for biking, running, and walking that becomes an elevated canopy at one point.
The Four Freedoms Monument, a riverfront landmark currently between Walnut and Chestnut streets, relocates to a grassy spot near Riverside Drive and Main Street. Renderings show splash pads, a restaurant building, a shade structure that could be used for a vendors’ market, and an expanding staircase down to the river, with kayak rentals.
Architects also envision sports courts and fields, an updated playground, apartments, and townhomes.
These major elements have stayed the same since the plan’s reveal in May 2024, but a few tweaks have been made, according to Sasaki.
Some areas of Great Bend Park have been elevated, because “we want to ensure that after every flood, we’re not out there cleaning up,” says Anna Cawrse, principal landscape architect with Sasaki. The changes are noticeable: An updated rendering shows a single-story for the restaurant space.
Architects flip-flopped the project’s playground and residential spaces to make them better fit around a pump station. The change also brings the playground closer to the restaurant building. Cawrse says architects thought doing that would provide parents with opportunities to grab food and eat while their children are playing.
An apartment building with 145 units is envisioned for the shoreline south on Riverside, between Chestnut and Cherry streets, next to the Evansville Museum of Arts, History & Science, with a townhome development and sports facilities on the opposite side of the museum.
Sasaki and E-REP say public feedback carried substantial weight in the vision for Great Bend Park. Thousands of people commented about the riverfront in 2023 at public meetings and through an online process.
Full implementation of the vision could take 20 years, officials say, and the next steps involve creating schematic designs for first phases, while also working with entities such as the Army Corps of Engineers and the Evansville-Vanderburgh County Levee Authority District.
Public and private dollars will be pursued for the riverfront redevelopment, according to officials. A $5 million grant from Indiana’s READI program, which supports economic development efforts in Hoosier communities, is financing the early design process.
“One of the most important things to think about is that this is a plan that’s built for generations to come,” says Ashley Diekmann, River Vision advancement director for E-REP. “Everybody will be able to partake in this. It will be all-inclusive, and we will make sure that it is built to last.”
Mount Vernon and Newburgh, Indiana, meanwhile, also are to see riverfront upgrades. Cawrse says Sasaki is listening to Mount Vernon residents’ vision for the future of Sherburne Park, while in Newburgh, an ongoing parking study will help determine future riverfront projects in that community.
Photo of Don Mattingly and Bob Griese at 2014 Night of Memories provided by Tri-State Hot Stove League
The Tri-State Hot Stove League’s Night of Memories has raised more than $2 million since its debut 25 years ago, and it’s still going strong.
An autograph signing and memorabilia auction, the Night of Memories fundraiser benefits school and youth sports and other organizations in the Evansville area. Numerous famous athletes in different sports — some with local ties — have participated.
The first-ever Night of Memories in 2000 was attended by St. Louis Cardinals legend Enos Slaughter, and the Jan. 25 silver anniversary event continues that tradition of star power. Baseball dominates this year’s lineup of guests, which includes Don Mattingly, Alan Trammell, Kyle Freeland, and more.
The Tri-State Hot Stove League began in 1992 as the Friends of Bosse Field as a group of baseball professionals devoted to preserving the Evansville baseball park’s history. (In baseball lingo, “hot stove” refers to the chilly winter months, when teams are hard at work to shape their rosters for the upcoming season). Joe Unfried and Bill McKeon, who played for the Evansville Braves in 1956, are credited as being the organization’s founders.
The Night of Memories fundraiser was started to steer funds toward youth sports, using well-known athletes as the draw. The silent auction of sports memorabilia items also brings in big dollars.
All funding applications are considered — the Tri-State Hot Stove League has even supported Habitat for Humanity home builds. But “we really try to focus on youth sports, giving the opportunity for kids who may not otherwise be able to play because of lack of funds,” says Tri-State Hot Stove League president Ryan Berger.
A longstanding tradition of the fundraiser is the donation of two Super Bowl tickets, courtesy of Evansville native Bob Griese, the Pro Football Hall of Fame quarterback of the Miami Dolphins.
Berger says Griese — a graduate of Rex Mundi, the Evansville high school that closed in 1972 — again provided this year’s tickets, which are for the 2026 Super Bowl.
Photo of Don Mattingly and Ozzie Smith provided by Tri-State Hot Stove League
Those who don’t want to pay for signatures but would like to browse the auction items and hear from the guests can attend the chat session after the autograph time.
“It’s nice that it’s in January, and we can come into this warm environment and hear the stories of all these athletes that we watched on TV,” Berger says.
The University of Evansville has hosted the Night of Memories for four years, and Wes Carroll, UE’s head baseball coach who led his team to its first NCAA Super Regional in June 2024, is among those who will roll out the red carpet.
Carroll cited the importance of the Tri-State Hot Stove League’s mission, and he notes that his friend Tracy Archuleta, the former University of Southern Indiana head baseball coach now in the same role at Indiana State University, remains on the organization’s board.
Carroll says he also looks forward to seeing Freeland, a University of Evansville alumnus who donated $3 million in May 2024 for a new baseball clubhouse.
“The community will show how proud we are that he has performed so well for so many years on the big league stage, and how he represents our community and university through a lot of philanthropy,” Carroll says.
Those scheduled to appear at this year’s Night of Memories include:
Don Mattingly: A name synonymous with Evansville and baseball, the Reitz Memorial High School alumnus was a six-time All-Star first baseman with the New York Yankees and the 1985 American League Most Valuable Player. His number 23 is retired by the Yankees. He later managed the Los Angeles Dodgers and Miami Marlins, and he’s currently the Toronto Blue Jays’ bench coach. Mattingly frequently attends Night of Memories while residing in his hometown during Major League Baseball’s offseason. This year, he will sign a basic item for $65 and $100 for a premium, larger item, such as bats or helmets.
Alan Trammell: The legendary Detroit Tigers shortstop was an All-Star six times and MVP of the 1984 World Series, won by the Tigers. He was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 2017. Trammell’s signature will cost $50 on a basic item and $80 on a premium item.
Chris Chambliss: The first baseman’s career with the Cleveland Indians, New York Yankees, and Atlanta Braves ran from 1971 to 1988. He was an All-Star in 1976 and a member of the 1977 and 1978 World Series champion Yankees. Chambliss will sign for $40.
Kyle Freeland: A Colorado Rockies pitcher since 2017, Freeland is a Denver, Colorado, native who played for the University of Evansville. On Jan. 24, UE will break ground on The Freeland Clubhouse, made possible by that $3 million donation from Freeland and his wife, Ashley, a former UE soccer player. Freeland’s signature is $40.
Ryan Klesko: The first baseman and outfielder played for the Atlanta Braves, San Diego Padres, and San Francisco Giants from 1992 to 2007. He was an All-Star in 2001 and a member of the World Series champion Braves in 1995. Klesko’s autograph will go for $25.
Other expected guests are Jerad Eickhoff, a Mater Dei High School graduate who pitched in the major leagues from 2015-22, mostly with the Philadelphia Phillies; and Brandon Gaudin, a Harrison High School alum who is the television play-by-play announcer for the Atlanta Braves and the voice of Madden NFL for EA Sports.
When you go
Jared Eickhoff jersey photo provided by the Tri-State Hot Stove League
The autograph session is from 3:30 to 5:30 p.m., and the cost of signatures varies per athlete.
Doors open at 5 p.m. for a chat session, and live and silent auction items will be on display. To browse silent auction items online, download the Handbid app and search Tri-State Hot Stove League 2025 Night of Memories.
Live auction items will be auctioned off Saturday evening, and you have to be present to bid of those.
Admission to the autograph session is $25, and the cost of that also covers the chat session and auction, provided you’re 21 or older.
Photo of Mr.& Mrs. Robert Pruitt Sr., Breasha Pruitt, Natalie Nicholson, and Cindi Nicholson provided by Breasha Pruitt
Breasha Pruitt’s star continues to rise, most recently as a Musial Award recipient.
The owner and women’s head coach Breasha Pruitt Elite Gymnastics received the sportsmanship honor, named for late St. Louis Cardinals baseball star Stan Musial, on Nov. 23 in St. Louis, Missouri. The awards were broadcast Dec. 29 on CBS.
The awards noted Pruitt’s tenacity as a former gymnast as well as her grace and devotion to her athletes as a coach while modeling the treatment she wished she got as a young athlete. Pruitt was nominated by the mother of her student Natalie Nicholson, Cindi Schmidt Nicholson, after taking another gym’s students to the state finals.
Photo of Breasha Pruitt with students, both Breasha Pruitt Elite Gymnastics and former Revolution Gymnastics students, provided by Breasha Pruitt
Two weeks before state finals in La Porte, Indiana, the coach of Revolution Gymnastics in Newburgh, Indiana — which has since closed — was in a serious accident, leaving her unable to coach. Her students’ parents called Pruitt and asked if she would coach and take the students to the competition. Pruitt did not hesitate and took the nine students under her wing, in addition to 15 of her own athletes already attending.
“I knew those girls needed help, and I wanted to help them. I was in a position to help,” Pruitt says, adding that she was honored “to provide that positive experience for them. If I was in that situation, I would want someone to help me.”
At the state finals in March, among Pruitt’s students, Nevaeh Davis took first on floor, Hadley Breeze took first on beam, and many were in the top three in several events. All nine Revolution Gymnastics students improved their scores from previous competitions. The Revolution Gymnastics students have since moved to Pruitt’s gym as of May 2024.
Pruitt says her actions prove “what sportsmanship can do for others, and the role models coaches can be for youth while creating positive and caring spaces.”
She was named a Musial Award winner — the only one in the Tri-State— alongside Emmy-winning sportscaster Bob Costas and former Arizona Cardinals wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald Jr.
Photo of Breasha Pruitt provided by source
She attended the awards with 54 supporters, including former and new students, their parents, and Pruitt’s friends and family. Highlights included meeting track and field Olympian Jackie Joyner Kersee — who complimented Pruitt’s dress backstage — and actor and comedian Billy Crystal. Pruitt and other award recipients also took a tour of St. Louis and learned more about Musial.
“The award itself, the honor is huge. I have been this person my entire life. It’s shocking that people are noticing on a National Platform. It honors the good in sports and what people are doing in sports. I’m super grateful and blessed,” you say. “I had calls and emails from people all over who saw the awards on CBS and were in awe of the act of selfless and the positivity I did it for the girls. It’s been amazing experience.”
The Henderson, Kentucky, native’s attitude and commitment have earned her the Positive Coaching Alliance’s 2022 National Double-Goal Coach of the Year Award. That same year, she was named a Kentucky Colonel by Gov. Andy Beshear.
Tri-State Orthopaedics now has two in-state partner companies, forming one of the 10 largest independent orthopedic practices in the U.S.
A mid-2025 merger of the 75-year-old Evansville-based physician group, OrthoIndy in Indianapolis, and Fort Wayne Orthopedics will create OrthoIndiana. It will operate across 39 locations statewide, with 160 physicians and more than 1,800 staff members.
“When you have something of this magnitude, it helps us do things well and be better,” says Dr. Paul Perry, president of Tri-State Orthopaedics.
No name changes are on the horizon. The three practices will keep their branding, and all will retain their respective boards while also participating in a new, shared board of directors.
Patients should expect no immediate changes to scheduling, physician availability, or insurance processes as the merger progresses, according to a Jan. 9 press release from the three practices.
They say the “integration will occur gradually to ensure a seamless transition that prioritizes uninterrupted patient care.”
Physicians at the three locations will work jointly on technology infrastructure, including AI, and other strategies to improve patient care and control costs.
Perry says one priority the three practices share is an emphasis on outpatient care and sparing as many patients as possible the high cost of hospital stays.
Photo provided by Tri-State Orthophaedics
The Evansville practice — which was formed in 1949 by Drs. John H. Sterne and Henry Leibundguth — already had a less formal relationship with OrthoIndy. Both belong to a nationwide consortium of physicians called The OrthoForum, which shares information about clinical and business matters in the independent practice of medicine.
OrthoIndy, Perry explains, approached Tri-State Orthopaedics two years ago to ask what a collaboration would look like.
“We wanted to look at Indiana as a state, and we brought in the group from Fort Wayne,” Perry says. “We stopped at the three groups to not complicate the conversation or make it more difficult. … Physicians are fiercely independent, and we want to be physician-led. At the end of the day, this needs to be something the surgeons run and lead.”
The three practices will retain their employment forces under the merger, Perry says.
Physicians with the Indianapolis and Fort Wayne practices say the alliance will benefit the three practices and their patients.
“We are grateful for the opportunity to embark on this journey alongside Tri-State Orthopaedics and Fort Wayne Orthopedics—two outstanding orthopedic practices that share our vision for patient-centered care and independence,” Dr. Ed Hellman, president of OrthoIndy said in the Jan. 9 press release.
Dr. Jerald Cooper, president of Fort Wayne Orthopedics, added, “This merger aims to amplify our commitment to the patients we serve through the practices’ ability to share technology, clinical data, best practices and administrative expertise.”
Giving Dry January a try? You’re not alone. CivicScience found that a quarter of Americans over age 21 observed a month of only alcoholic-free drinks in January 2024, and another cumulative 49 percent over 21 showed interest in cutting out or down on alcohol consumption.
Enter mocktails. More consumers are reaching for alcohol-free cocktails during Dry January, with CivicScience reporting 14 percent of participants in 2024 reaching for specially crafted mocktails. Additionally, alcohol consumption has been shown to have a direct link to increased cancer risk. An advisory released Jan. 3 by U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy pointed to scientific evidence for “the causal link between alcohol consumption and increased risk for at least seven different types of cancer, including breast (in women), colorectum, esophagus, voice box, liver, mouth, and throat.”
Whether you’re temporarily abstaining from alcohol or looking for a more permanent reprieve, several Evansville businesses already take an inclusive approach to the non-alcoholic movement by featuring these specially crafted drinks on their menus.
“People like to go out and enjoy a good drink and maybe not have alcohol in it,” Chase Oswald, co-owner of Evansville’s Bar Louie, explained to Evansville Living in 2021. “This gives a little more excitement for sure, and they’re aesthetically appealing.”
Since 2020, Bar Louie, 7700 Eagle Crest Blvd., has offered a “Sober A.F. (Alcohol Free)” menu featuring mixologist-concocted mocktails. Available during Dry January are a fruity Island Hopper featuring orange, passionfruit, sparkling water, and lime, and dessert-inspired Pineapple Upside Down margarita with Ritual Tequila alternative, vanilla, pineapple, lime, and grenadine mixed with Sprite.
BRU Burger Bar, 222 Sycamore St., boasts mocktail versions of a strawberry honey mule and a blueberry basil cooler.
Among the eight zero-proof libations are served at Copper House, 1430 W. Franklin St. are a booze-free Bloody Mary, lemon shake-up inspired Nimpobani, and a classic mule with mint, lime, and ginger beer.
Biaggi’s Ristorante Italiano, 6401 E. Lloyd Expressway, offers six unique alcohol-free drink recipes. Patrons can select from a grapefruit and tonic garnished with a sprig of basil, a Sanpellegrino Aranciata Rossa spritz with cranberry juice, a Pesco Fresco starring peach puree, Italian Cream Sodes with monin almond syrup, cream, and soda plus a choice of blood orange, grapefruit, or lemon flavors, and cucumber mint and strawberry lemonades.
Meeting friends for after-dinner drinks at Mo’s House, 1114 Parrett St.? Sip a Blue Sweet Baby made with lemon and a choice of blackberry, blueberry, kiwi, peach, raspberry, strawberry, and coconut syrups. Nurse a morning-after headache with Sammy’s Hangover Fixer Elixir made with Jack Rudy tonic syrup, lavender simple syrup, club soda, and lemon wheel. Mo’s non-alcoholic beer options include Upside Dawn from Athletic Brewing Company, Hop Water and IPNA from Little Sumpin’, and zero-proof Guinness, Heineken, and Blue Moon.
Photo from the 2024 the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Weekend of Events at University of Evansville provided by source
MLK Day Appreciation Jan. 16-18, Evansville Vanderburgh Public Library Oaklyn Branch, 3001 Oaklyn Drive
Bring the kids to learn more about the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. by playing a matching game, paper activities, and more.
Community Breakfast 9-11 a.m. Jan. 18, Greater St. James Community Recreation & Education Center, 484 S. Governor St.
The Rev. Adrian M. Brooks, senior pastor at Memorial Baptist Church, is the keynote speaker at this breakfast — from Smalbert’s Comfort Food Catering — reflecting on the legacy of the late civil rights leader. Tickets cost $30 and can be purchased at the Evansville African American Museum and WEOA Radio, by calling 812-550-6180, or by emailing tlstratton2009@yahoo.com.
Beyond the Mountain Top MLK Community Celebration 2-6 p.m. Jan. 18, C.K. Newsome Community Center, 100 E. Walnut St.
Browse a community art exhibition and resource fair, then stay for food trucks, vendors, a kids’ zone, special speakers, and performances by poets, musicians, and dancers.
Memorial Celebration 10:15 a.m. Jan. 20, University of Southern Indiana’s University Center West, 8600 University Blvd.
Evansville Mayor Stephanie Terry presents “A Blueprint for the Future,” reflecting on community investment, freedom, and justice at this annual celebration.
William G. and Rose M. Mays Lectureship 3:30 p.m. Jan. 20, University of Evansville Ridgway Center’s Eykamp Hall, 1800 Lincoln Ave.
Enjoy music and hors d’oeuvres before an evening filled with performances, student speakers, awards presentations, and keynote speaker Karsonya Wise Whitehead, a documentary filmmaker and founding executive director of the Karson Institute for Race, Peace & Social Justice. The keynote speech will be followed by a community leadership panel and book signing by Whitehead.
Photo of a tree split at Riverside Drive and Main Street by Laura Mathis
Editor’s note: This article was updated Jan. 15, 2025.
The year’s first weather challenge, a days-long snow and ice storm, has ended, but life isn’t quite back to normal for Evansville-area residents.
An estimated three inches of snow, laden with up to an inch of ice, impacted Evansville and the surrounding area starting Jan. 5, according to a preliminary estimate from the Evansville Vanderburgh County Emergency Management Agency.
At the storm’s peak, more than 61,000 CenterPoint Energy customers in the Evansville region were without power. The utility — which has headquarters in Houston, Texas, as well as Evansville — called in crews from outside the region so that more than 1,000 personnel were working to restore power. Nearly all CenterPoint customers had electricity restored by 10 p.m. Jan. 10; the remaining 137 customers saw their lights come back on by noon Jan. 11.
“We recognize the hardship these outages have caused our friends and neighbors in the Southwestern Indiana community, and we appreciate the patience and resilience of our customers,” Shane Bradford, CenterPoint’s vice president of Indiana Electric, said Jan. 9 in a statement released by the utility. “We’ve made incredible progress the last few days, but we know our work is not yet done, and our crews remain focused on working safely and quickly for the remaining customers still waiting to be restored.”
Residents without power sought refuge at warming centers throughout the area. Because Evansville Vanderburgh School Corporation officials kept campuses closed all week, schools such as Central High and Lincoln and the Catholic Diocese of Evansville’s St. Benedict Cathedral School were turning into makeshift warming centers in addition to shelters at Young & Established, Crossroads Christian Church, Ruth’s House, Ozanam Family Shelter, Albion Fellows Bacon Center, House of Bread and Peace, YWCA Evansville, C.K. Newsome Community Center, and several Evansville Vanderburgh Public Library locations.
Evansville Fire Department deployed its dive team for a water rescue. An SUV slid into a pond in the 600 block of North Royal Avenue on Jan. 8. The driver managed to escape before the vehicle submerged, and EFD divers helped with towing the vehicle from the ice-covered water. EFD’s dive team took advantage of the cold temperatures and winter weather conditions and arranged a day of ice training.
Patches of freezing fog — in which below-freezing temperatures cause moisture from fog to freeze on contact — also clouded the skies Jan. 9 and 11.
Another four inches of powdery snow fell Jan. 10, leading schools to cancel classes and the Civic Center and Vanderburgh County Courthouse to close at 1:30 p.m. Warmer temps and sunshine melted much of last week’s ice and the latest snow over the weekend, but EVSC schools still instituted a two-hour delay on Jan. 13. The winter storm warning officially was canceled the evening of Jan. 10.
As road works crews continue scraping snow and ice off streets around the area, city and county officials are opening a temporary drop-off site for storm-related tree and shrub debris at the Vanderburgh 4-H Center, 201 E. Boonville-New Harmony Road. Debris will be accepted 9 a.m.- 4 p.m. Jan. 17, Jan. 24, and Jan. 31, and 9 a.m.-1 p.m. Jan. 18 and Feb. 1. Proof of Vanderburgh County residency must be shown to access the drop-off site.
Vanderburgh and Warrick County residents who need assistance with property damage or other storm-related issues can connect with need-based initiative Indiana 211 by dialing 211, calling 866-211-9966 or filling out an online form.
Welcome to Tucker Publish Group’s staff Q&A! Meet Senior Graphic Designer Sarah Morgason, who joined TPG in January 2025. Sarah is a Cincinnati, Ohio, native who holds a Bachelor of Science in graphic communication design from the University of Cincinnati in Ohio. She completed internships at BestReviews, HBO, and Purposeful Networks before working as a graphic designer at Shoe Carnival in Evansville. In her spare time, Sarah enjoys writing, attending concerts, and playing video games.
Why did you decide to join Tucker Publishing Group? I wanted to broaden my horizons as a designer. My last job was primarily digital based, so I thought it’d be a nice change to work at a place that has a focus on print as well.
What do you hope to accomplish at TPG? I hope I can learn more as a designer regarding the different tools used in print versus digital assets. In addition, I hope I can gain a new appreciation for the city I live in and the community that makes it up.
If you could visit anywhere in the world, where would you go, and why? I’d love to visit Australia to see the aquariums and zoos out there. I used to be obsessed with things like National Geographic, Animal Planet, and the Discovery Channel growing up. (I actually debated going into marine biology before graphic design). To this day, I still love watching nature documentaries. It’d be amazing to see all the unique species that Australia has to offer in person.
What life experience would you choose to relive, and why? Going with my friends to Japan a couple years ago. The sights and food were fantastic, and we all had an amazing time, especially since it was cherry blossom season. I hope I can go back someday, because I feel we barely scratched the surface of everything we could have done.
Tell us something interesting about yourself! I had a short-lived college radio show with my friend where we talked about pop punk for about two hours around midnight once a week. Also, about 80 percent of my casual wardrobe is concert tour shirts. The first concert I ever went to was with my parents to see Herman’s Hermits at Taste: Blue Ash Food & Music Festival in Blue Ash, Ohio. The first concert I chose to go to was Adam Lambert’s tour in Covington, Kentucky, in 2009 after the eighth season of “American Idol” finished
Read more about Evansville’s international community in the January/February 2025 feature story.
Drive any main commercial stretch in the Evansville region, and you’ll see the influence of immigrants. Numerous restaurants in the area were opened by entrepreneurs from other nations who have shared their native cuisine.
One prominent such restaurateur was the late Yuk Tang, who received his culinary degree in 1956 from a cooking school in Hong Kong. Tang owned, along with his wife Po Lin, Lucky Dragon in Evansville for 33 years. They raised their sons David, Robert, and Glenn in the River City.
The family’s tentacles were even longer. According to a 2013 Courier & Press report, Po Lin’s brother, Frankie Jung, worked at the former F’s Steak House and then opened the now-closed Shing-Lee on Main Street with their father, Chew Fon Jung.
The Ma family also has spawned more restaurants. Jane Tang paired up with Ling Ma to open Ma. T. 888 China Bistro in 2006. In addition to China Bistro, which specializes in Cantonese cuisine, the Mas and Filipino chef Marvin Abadicio in 2018 spun off Domo Japanese Hibachi Grill, Sushi and Ramen in an unoccupied space inside China Bistro.
Abadicio, who had moved to Evansville to join the kitchen of the now-closed Nagasaki Inn, moved Domo into its own storefront in 2021.
“I started to like this place — the city of Evansville — so I decided to stay here and get settled here,” Abadicio told Evansville Living in 2019.
Other Asian restaurant legacies include Charlie Chang, the longtime owner of Yen Ching on South Green River Road; Yim Seto, who worked with his father, Shun, at F’s Steak House before opening Canton Inn in 1984; and Karen and Eddie Kung, who have operated The Chopstick House for 35 years.
Photo provided by the Evansville Emergency Management Agency
Editor’s note: This story was updated at 4:45 p.m. on Jan. 6, 2025.
Mother Nature made a big first impression in 2025.
Tall drifts of snow blanketed the Evansville area early the morning of Jan. 5, with up to an inch of ice dialing up the danger later that afternoon. As residents largely stayed indoors, downed power lines left thousands of households in the dark for hours, leading city and county officials to declare a state of emergency.
Photo provided by the Evansville Emergency Management Agency
Ahead of the storm, the National Weather Service Center in Paducah, Kentucky, issued a winter storm warning featuring a mix of snow and ice in Vanderburgh, Posey, Warrick, Spencer, Gibson, and Pike counties in Southwestern Indiana. By Sunday afternoon, that warning had been extended to noon Monday.
Fluffy snowflakes spent hours blanketing the Evansville area, with the area around State Hwy. 57 and Baseline Road recording nearly five inches Sunday morning. Freezing rain then set in after noon, accompanied by thunder in some places southwest of Evansville, according to the Evansville Vanderburgh County Emergency Management Agency. By 3 p.m., Indiana State Police Sgt. Todd Ringle reported slick roads and hazardous driving conditions. An hour later, CenterPoint Energy was reporting outages for more than 2,000 customers in Evansville and the immediate surrounding area. As the sunset, residents reported ice-laden downed power lines and heard the crack of splintering tree limbs, which were making their mark: The number of CenterPoint Energy customers without power had crossed 20,000 by 8:40 p.m. Jan. 5.
CenterPoint Energy reported that about 44,500 Southwest Indiana customers remained without power as of 4 p.m. Jan. 6. The total for the storm peaked at 60,000 early that morning.
Seventy crews from CenterPoint and other utility companies are deployed to work on restoration, says Noah Stubbs, a CenterPoint communications specialist.
Heavy ice accumulation from the storm impacted power lines and caused countless trees and limbs to fall across the region, Stubbs says, and the tens of thousands of outages are “widespread.”
CenterPoint has no timeline on when power will be restored to all customers and is setting an expectation of “multiple days,” Stubbs says. The utility is encouraging its area customers without power to utilize warming shelters and other local resources as necessary.
Sunday evening, Mayor Stephanie Terry’s office and the Vanderburgh County Council jointly declared a state of emergency, activating disaster plans, aid, and recovery responses.
For the Evansville Area Jeepers, the snow-and-ice-packed roads produced a moment to shine. The social club of Jeep owners trekked out into what they dubbed “Operation Snowflake” to help transport medical employees to work. Owners of Prime Time North tipped their cap to the Jeepers by offering them, along with first responders, 20 percent off an upcoming restaurant order.
Several organizations opened their doors as warming stations. United Caring Services and Evansville Rescue Mission prepared to host guests around the clock under a White Flag declaration, which goes into effect when overnight temperatures stay below 40 degrees for three consecutive hours. C.K. Newsome Community Center and several Evansville Vanderburgh Public Library locations planned to take in residents seeking shelter during daytime hours. Additional shelters were set up at Ruth’s House, Ozanam Family Shelter, Albion Fellows Bacon Center, House of Bread and Peace, YWCA Evansville, Central High School, Lincoln School, St. Benedict Cathedral School, and the James T. Greshman house. The Metropolitan Evansville Transit System also announced free rides on all routes for Jan. 6.
“The safety of every resident is our top priority, especially during extreme weather events,” Sgt. Josh Brewer of Evansville Police Department’s Crime Prevention Unit said in a statement. “Our officers will be actively patrolling and assisting individuals in need of emergency shelter. If you see someone who may need immediate help, please contact us. Together, we can ensure no one is left out in the cold.”
Potter’s Wheel, the Salvation Army, St. Anthony’s Church, and more organizations began offering emergency hot meals in a staggered schedule Sunday.
Area grocery stores saw long lines Saturday in the hours leading up to the winter storm. On Sunday, many — including several Walmart stores, Aldi’s, and all Schnucks locations in the Evansville area — announced plans to close that afternoon and reopen Monday morning. Other businesses also changed course. After stating on social media that all locations would close at 3 p.m. Sunday, Donut Bank officials made the decision to close each branch at noon.
Students and educators who had been off school for the holidays had their break extended into another week. Evansville Vanderburgh School Corporation’s planned staff development day allowed students to stay home Jan. 6. University of Evansville and University of Southern Indiana officials closed their respective campuses. Ivy Tech Community College Evansville switched Jan. 6 classes to virtual learning the day prior.
What makes a city unique? Language, food, and history all play a part, and so do its people. A Midwestern city with a dash of the South, Evansville also boasts a wide range of international cultures, cuisines, and perspectives. Thousands of people have come from the far corners of the world to make the River City their home. Through their experiences, Evansville produces global influences all its own. Here, meet some of the people, businesses, and organizations that keep the city’s personality flourishing.
PROFILES
Home Away from Home Chef Jaya Dodd connects with her longtime home through food and fellowship.
A Call to Action Gelina Mascoe helps Haitian immigrants find their footing.
Guiding Hand César Berríos invests in his hometown.
Read more about Evansville’s international community in the January/February 2025 feature story.
With a heart as big as her smile, Jaya Dodd has served food and fellowship to Evansville since relocating to her husband Timothy’s hometown in 1969.
It may surprise longtime patrons that, prior to moving to the U.S., Dodd had never cooked. She worked as a vice president at Bank of America in South Korea when she met Timothy in 1968. Later, the couple frequently entertained guests while Timothy ran for elected office, so Dodd began cooking South Korean food, calling her mother every day to ask questions. People loved it and told Dodd that she should open a restaurant. In 1980, she did.
“I always wanted to find my own world, create different things,” she says.
Before opening Jaya’s Authentic Food in 1980, Dodd taught cooking classes. She also studied differences in American and Korean cuisine to prepare and season healthier foods that Americans would enjoy — Americans use a lot of sugar and salt.
A devout Catholic, Dodd is a longtime worshipper at Sts. Mary & John Catholic Church. In the 1970s, she volunteered to cook for St. Mary’s booth at the West Side Nut Club Fall Festival. Her egg rolls and rice were a big hit — “People had never had egg rolls before!” she exclaims.
Dodd’s dishes aren’t the only draw at Jaya’s Authentic Foods. Since 1969, she has lit the thick candle she brought with her when she moved to the U.S. for every birthday celebrated at the restaurant, a tradition carried over from her homeland.
The candle symbolizes “everyone’s blessing,” she says. “I share my joy with everyone.”
After the deaths of Timothy in 2011 and their only child, Christopher, in 2017, the candle also gives her peace. “Sometimes, I light it, and I think about them,” she says.
Now 81, Dodd has quietly put her beloved restaurant on the market. Her closest relatives are her three grandchildren — ages 22, 20, and 16 — who live in Ohio. Contemplating retirement, Dodd says she may volunteer more at church.
“When you die, you’re not going to take any of this,” she says, waving around her hand for emphasis. “My life has been to serve.”
Read more about Evansville’s international community in the January/February 2025 feature story.
After immigrating to the U.S. as a child, César Berríos had to grow up fast. He found a stable community in his new hometown.
His family immigrated from Nicaragua to San Francisco, California, through temporary protective status in 1997 when Berríos was six. Adjusting to life in northern California, despite help from relatives, proved difficult, so the family joined his mother’s cousin in Evansville.
“There were job opportunities for them,” Berríos reflects. “They were able to find work here, and the cost of living was manageable for an immigrant family.”
His parents each worked two jobs to take care of their family of four, including Berríos’ younger brother Melvin. They relied on help from other Latin American immigrants and Nativity Catholic Church, which moved its Spanish-language masses to Holy Rosary Catholic Church in 2016.
Berríos graduated from Harrison High School in 2009 and earned history and Spanish degrees from the University of Southern Indiana before joining Regional Title Services as a closer. A priest persuaded Berríos to join the Catholic Diocese of Evansville’s Office of Hispanic Ministry as an outreach coordinator. There, he realized his passion for helping students achieve their dreams through higher education.
After returning to USI to get a Master of Second Language Acquisition, Language Policy, and Culture Studies, Berríos earned his Ed.D. in Educational Leadership in 2023. He found his calling in USI’s Multicultural Center for eight years, first as a program advisor and then as associate director. Today, he is the assistant dean of students and lives in Evansville with his wife and three daughters.
“I feel like I’m able to use my experience of once being a student myself — a first-generation student, an immigrant student — to provide that guidance that I know I needed,” he says.
Outside of USI, Berríos attends Holy Rosary Catholic Church and serves on the advisory board of the newly formed Immigrant Welcome & Resource Center.
“Whenever you start getting involved … you start to get to know a lot of people, and people start getting to know you, and it makes the community even better,” Berríos says. “So, I just want to continue to meet people, to give back to the community that’s given so much to me.”
Read more about Evansville’s international community in the January/February 2025 feature story.
Over the past 35 years with Deaconess Health System, often the last image a surgery patient sees before they fall asleep is the deep brown eyes of anesthesiologist Pallavi Bhatt. Peering out from above her surgical mask, they wordlessly reassure patients that they are in good hands — much like the encouragement she received years ago as a new Evansville resident.
Bhatt, the daughter of an anesthesiologist, originally is from the coastal state of Gujarat, India. In 1969, she and her pediatrician husband, Kishor Bhatt, arrived in New York City to further their schooling and training. Six years later, the couple — eyes on the Northeast — placed an ad seeking employment in the Journal of the AMA. The new Warrick Hospital in Boonville, Indiana, sent them plane tickets for interviews.
Within the year, the Bhatts chose to move to the Midwest. Their patients, peers, coworkers, and neighbors consistently showed them warm appreciation. Eventually, they raised two sons in Evansville.
“We were only one of four, maybe five, Indian families in the whole Tri-State,” Bhatt recalls.
That group of Indian professionals began meeting monthly in their homes to play cards and celebrate holidays. By 1984, the initial friend group founded the Cultural Society of India. Since then, the nonprofit — a non-religious organization that welcomes and integrates different religious communities — serves around 1,000 families and contributes to the Tri-State with traditional Indian festivals, scholarships, event sponsorships, cricket tournament, kite fest, and donor drives.
After her husband’s death in 2014, Bhatt tried to retire but needed the fulfillment she receives practicing medicine.
“Now, I have more free time to discuss medical issues with patients in detail,” she says.
Read more about Evansville’s international community in the January/February 2025 feature story.
Years ago, Evansville real estate agent Gelina Mascoe – a native of Haiti – recognized a growing need in her community. Area hospitals serving newly arrived Haitian immigrants were reaching out for help, particularly for interpreters fluent in Haitian Creole.
“So many families needed guidance — medical assistance, education, housing, and support for navigating life in a new country,” Mascoe recalls. “It was clear they required more than just immediate aid; they needed a foundation for success.”
It is estimated that 10,000-plus Haitians have settled in the Evansville area over recent decades, many escaping poverty, natural disasters, political unrest, and violence in their homeland. While some immigrants came to the U.S. with college degrees and as working professionals, others arrived without English language skills, access to health care, or formal education.
At age 12, Mascoe and five siblings left their grandparents on Haiti’s island of Gonave to join their parents in Florida. Learning English through TV, books, and English as a Second Language classes, Mascoe excelled in high school and later earned multiple health care degrees and her real estate license.
In 2016, Mascoe and her brother, Caberbe Joseph, created Lumiere d’Education (Light of Education), a Haitian organization providing schooling for underserved children in Haiti. While raising funds and awareness with civic and philanthropic groups, Mascoe’s vision for a community hub began coming true.
“I remembered my own struggles as a young immigrant,” Mascoe says. “I wanted to create a space where others wouldn’t have to navigate this alone, where they could find the support and encouragement to build better lives.”
The Haitian Center of Evansville opened in April 2023, offering mentorship, educational programs, and connections to essential services.
“Working with Evansville organizations has been inspiring,” Mascoe says. “I’ve learned that creating change takes persistence, sacrifice, and the belief that every small step can lead to a brighter future.”
Read more about Evansville’s international community in the January/February 2025 feature story.
Halyna Badeinova has a perspective on her new hometown that few others could comprehend.
The 48-year-old, with her husband, Serhii Badeinov, and their 7-year-old daughter, Mia, arrived in the Evansville area in September 2023. They left their war-torn community in central Ukraine after it was attacked by Russian forces.
“It was a very hard decision because I really love my land,” Halyna says, but her family feared for their lives.
In the war’s early days, when air raids were constant, they stayed with others in an underground shelter used to store canned food. The family had been back in their own residence for more than a year when a Russian rocket struck another home only 300 meters away.
The blast happened at night, frightening Halyna, Serhii, and Mia. Their family’s own house needed repairs – all of its ventilation tubes were blown out.
“It was a very big explosion,” recalls Halyna, who spoke to Evansville Living with assistance from translator Victoria Mayatskiy. “… That was when we finally decided, a hundred percent, that we could not stay.”
They left through Uniting for Ukraine, a program allowing Ukrainians fleeing the Russian invasion to stay temporarily in the U.S. The family rents an apartment in Newburgh; Halyna’s brother, Roman, his wife, Yana, and their three sons have lived in the area for several years.
Halyna, who worked as a real estate agent in Ukraine, is picking up English here, as well as cleaning jobs. Serhii has found some construction work. Their status allows them to remain in the U.S. two years; they are just beyond the halfway point.
The family copes by leaning on faith. “We are empowered by knowing that God is with us and with Ukraine,” Halyna says. Her family discovered a circle of support at Grace of Christ Slavic Baptist Church.
Young Mia, her mother says, misses her friends and is overcoming the language barrier, but she is adjusting well and attending John H. Castle Elementary School in Newburgh.
“She grew up very fast and matured faster than kids should,” Halyna says of her daughter. “And she understands that it’s necessary that we’re here, because we’re safe here.”
Read more about Evansville’s international community in the January/February 2025 feature story.
Imagine arriving in the U.S. as a child, speaking little to no English, and trying to fit in at your school and in your community.
Lena Billimon has lived that experience. With his father Jasper, mother Justina, and six siblings, Lena left his native Marshall Islands, first for Hawaii, when he was only 5 – a time he recalls only vaguely. His family then moved to Spokane, Washington, before arriving in Evansville 12 years ago.
The F.J. Reitz High School alumnus, who is set to graduate in May 2026 from Ivy Tech Community College Evansville, is passionate about wanting to help youngsters in similar circumstances. He’ll do so as a new navigator for the Evansville Vanderburgh School Corporation.
Lena will work mostly with EVSC children and families from Haiti and the Marshall Islands, a Pacific Ocean nation that gained independence from the U.S. in 1986.
Marshallese do not require a visa to study, live, and work in the U.S., but those relocating here have a variety of needs.
“We’ll be helping families with overcoming barriers, including finances and health care, whatever they need in those areas,” he says. “And helping students in the schools also … I was once in their shoes.”
Lena’s own path was not easy – he says he was bullied at school and was made to feel “not good enough” because he came from a different land.
He credits his teachers for helping him overcome language and social barriers, plus his family, who is grounded in faith.
Rachel Acton met Lena in 2015 at EVSC’s International Newcomer Academy for English Language Learners and says he stood out at a young age.
She says Lena’s background and skills will serve him well in his new role.
“His resiliency has empowered him to reach out and educate others in the Marshallese community, and then educate the non-Marshallese population about Marshallese culture and life,” says Acton, a health advocate with Ascension St. Vincent Evansville.
Lena is uncertain what his long-term future will entail – two of his brothers have returned to the Marshall Islands. For now, he says, “My plan is to stay here and help with the community in any way I can.”
Read more about Evansville’s international community in the January/February 2025 feature story.
Marjorie Bergen and her husband, Scott, didn’t have children of their own, but their exchange student from Montenegro became just like one. Jason and Kristy Denton, meanwhile, say a young guest from Spain was a terrific “big sister” for their 9-year-old son, Blaize.
Matea Radovic arrived at the Bergens’ home when she was a 17-year-old high school junior, and she stayed two years, graduating from Evansville Day School. After a year at Butler University in Indianapolis, she finished college at the University of Southern Indiana, earning a degree in biochemistry. She’s now in medical school in Frankfurt, Germany.
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Photo of Matea Radovic and Scott and Marjorie Bergen provided by Marjorie Bergen
Photo of Matea Radovic provided by Marjorie Bergen
Most exchange students are in the U.S. for only a year, but Matea wanted a longer stay and her family in Montenegro was fully supportive. “She’s just a super strong girl, and she’s had a very clear plan for her life since she was young,” Marjorie says.
Matea’s relationship with her host family became even deeper as Scott fought multiple myeloma, ultimately passing away in November 2022. “She lost a dad,” Marjorie says of Matea.
As the Bergens vetted potential exchange students in 2018, it was Scott who latched onto Matea. Marjorie says she embraced her time in Evansville and at Day School, where she was a cheerleader and homecoming queen as well as a high academic achiever.
“She was the perfect child for us,” Marjorie says.
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Photo of Jason Denton, Martina Iglesias Grande, and Kristy Denton provided by Kristy Denton
Photo provided by Kristy Denton
The Dentons also found who they would describe as a perfect child. Martina Iglesias Grande, from Madrid, Spain, attended Castle High School during her year in Newburgh, Indiana, and became immersed in the sports programs and culture.
Martina shared her country’s holiday traditions with the Dentons — in Spain, Christmas is more focused on the Magi from the Bible than Santa Claus. She traveled with the Dentons to Jamaica, the American West, and the Great Smoky Mountains.
“It was really magical,” Kristy Denton says. “We still talk to her all the time … She was homesick when she went back to Spain.”
Blaize, for his part, also enjoyed having Martina around. “She always played with me, and I never felt alone,” he says.
Read more about Evansville’s international community in the January/February 2025 feature story.
Universities often are catalysts to bring residents to the Evansville region and keep them here.
Consider the example of culinary entrepreneurs Doros and Ellada Hadjisavva — natives of Cyprus who first came to the U.S. for college in the early 1990s.
Ellada’s father had a friend who lived in Owensboro, Kentucky, a connection that led her to enroll at Brescia University, earning a bachelor’s degree in foreign languages. Doros joined her in Kentucky after receiving a bachelor’s degree in accounting at New Jersey’s Montclair State University.
Ellada then worked for 11 years as an international recruiter for Murray State University from the institution’s Henderson, Kentucky, campus. The Hadjisavvas have been a presence in the region ever since — their Acropolis restaurant served Mediterranean fare for more than 20 years before closing in 2021. The Hadjisavvas transitioned their business into event space Venue 812 and Acropolis Catering & Food Truck.
The University of Evansville’s Office of Cultural Engagement and International Services and the University of Southern Indiana’s Center for International Programs help meet the needs of international students on both campuses — students who, like the Hadjisavvas and many others, may wind up making the Evansville region their permanent home.
“The reason we came was to pursue education, and we wound up staying,” Ellada says.
Read more about Evansville’s international community in the January/February 2025 feature story.
Various Tri-State area organizations are filling the needs of immigrant communities, only becoming more urgent as the number of people migrating to the area increases. The Immigrant Welcome & Resource Center, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit formed in May 2024, brings together community leaders, organizations, and universities to provide resources to immigrant populations. Hoping to make migrating to the Tri-State area easier, the center’s goal is to provide English as a Second Language classes, assistance with navigating programs and services, immigration legal support, translation and interpretation services, transportation, and more.
Organizations providing similar services are geared toward specific communities. For Latino and Hispanic communities, Educational and Cultural Advancement for Latinos, Inc., HOLA, and the Latino Collaboration Table all seek to connect their communities with services or provide services. Formed in 2023, the Haitian Center of Evansville provides resources to both Haitians and local organizations who work with them to make sure they access the resources they need.
Some organizations provide more specific services.
Read more about Evansville’s international community in the January/February 2025 feature story.
Many immigrants’ paths to U.S. citizenship include obstacles, no matter who they are or where they came from. That said, Evansville organizations are working to make the process easier.
Ivy Tech Community College Evansville offers a free 12-week non-credit program starting in January, U.S. Citizenship Education Training. A $1,500 donation from Circle of Ivy, a women’s philanthropy network serving Ivy Tech, made the class possible. Sagrario’s Joy, a local organization dedicated to improving the lives of immigrants, will teach the course. In the class, legal permanent residents study civics, plus English reading and writing, and practice for their interviews.
The Immigrant Welcome & Resource Center, Haitian Center of Evansville, and Catholic Charities Diocese of Evansville also provide immigration legal support and assistance.
The U.S. Customs and Immigration Service field office in Indianapolis conducts the interviews, which require interviewees demonstrate comprehension of English reading, writing, and speaking. Interviewees also must complete a civics test with questions about U.S. government and history.
Once the USCIS delivers an N-445, or Notice of Naturalization Oath Ceremony, there are two places Evansville residents can go to make things official. U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana holds two naturalization ceremonies per month. These ceremonies typically take place at the Indiana War Memorial in Indianapolis. USCIS’ also holds ceremonies at its Indianapolis field office.
Read more about Evansville’s international community in the January/February 2025 feature story.
International flavor is woven into Evansville’s annual events calendar, and appropriately so, given all the cultures represented in the community. Evansville always has had global presence – neighborhoods that now make up the city’s West Side had heavy German immigrant population from their outset in the 1800s.
Volksfest, an August celebration, is a nod to that heritage. Hosted by the Germania Maennerchor club, Volksfest packs plenty of German music, dance, and cuisine into its three days.
Evansville’s many cultures are in full view at its universities, which hold numerous events. Every February, University of Southern Indiana international students share their cultural customs and cuisine at USI’s International Food Expo. The University of Evansville, meanwhile, hosts its annual International Bazaar in November.
The Islamic Society of Evansville has offered an International Food Festival for the last 21 years. The event draws big crowds to the society’s Newburgh, Indiana, mosque every October, and proceeds boost the Tri-State Food Bank.
While not as longstanding a tradition as those events, Fiesta Evansville has made a significant mark. Now a decade old, Fiesta Evansville is a colorful, one-day affair in October at Wesselman Park that celebrates Latino diversity with live entertainment, vendors, a parade, and plenty of food.
HOLA Evansville, an advocacy organization for local Latinos, hosts an annual food and cultural festival at Bosse Field.
Celebrations of Dia de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead, also have caught on locally. Rooted in Mexico, families spend Nov. 1-2 honoring loved ones who have passed on with music, food, ofrendas — altars decorated with candles and flowers — and traditional masks and attire. Evansville Vanderburgh Public Library’s West Library branch hosts a large community observance.
The Cultural Society of India celebrated 40 years in 2024 with a well-attended autumn festival. Tri-State residents have flocked to the group’s colorful spring fest, annual “CSI’s Got Talent” show, growing cricket tournaments, and yearly chess competition.
Grace of Christ Slavic Baptist Church in Evansville has held Ukrainian food festivals, supporting the church’s mission to assist those impacted by war in that nation.
The area’s full potpourri of cultures is celebrated through dance, music, art, cuisine, and more at Festival of Nations, held by the Evansville Vanderburgh School Corp. each spring at Old National Events Plaza.
