It takes confidence and a leap of faith to launch a new business in the midst of a pandemic, but Andrea Connolly and Olivia Hall say they had an abundance of both when they started Monstera Living, a redecorating, staging, and downsizing business, in September 2020.
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LifeDesigns client Jake May, a lifelong singer, wanted to be a choir director, so about 2 1/2 years ago he approached Kristen King, LifeDesign’s community engagement coordinator and asked, “Why can’t we start a choir here?”
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The framed images hung on her grandmother’s wall for as long as Rachel Betzen could remember. “She had these collages of old postcards,” Betzen says. Created between 1907 and the 1930s, the “real photo” postcards featured relatives’ portraits—and, as Betzen would soon discover, much more.
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The pandemic has ushered the home office to the forefront of work life. Gallup, Inc., indicated last October that 33% of the U.S. workforce worked from home full time and another 25% did so some of the time. Three veteran Bloomington work-from-homers offer their tips for novices to the practice.
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When Suki’s owner was suddenly moved to a nursing home for rehab, the small West Highland White terrier was left alone in a house with only occasional visits from a friend. There, he developed inflamed skin and hair loss from serious allergies that needed treatment.
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Winding through Trevor Jones’ basement is a train model of Gloucestershire, England, circa 1960, that includes coal mines, cow pastures, castle ruins, and a hillside fox hunt.
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Nearly 21 years ago, Shalom Community Center opened in the basement of First United Methodist Church to provide services to those experiencing homelessness in Bloomington.
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Now that most of the leaves have fallen from the deciduous trees, evergreen trees and shrubs are more apparent in park and garden plantings all across town.
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Like the ancient goddesses for which it is named, The Muse Project offers inspiration to those who heed its words. The project’s founder, Jodi Pope Johnson, says today, more than ever, she feels there is a need to share messages of hope and healing.
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Bloomington has a way of keeping a hold on its residents, even those who have left. In fact, the phenomenon of leaving and returning to Bloomington is so common that it has its own name: the Bloomerang Effect.
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Indiana has had four official state flowers. Our current state flower, the peony, is from China and was adopted in 1957.
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The Flying Paws Agility Club agility course, set up inside a refurbished horse barn, offers dogs (and their people) a big space to run, fetch, and show off their skills.
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When Christi Pike, 57, woke up with a headache on December 21, 2018, she asked her husband, Jim, to take her to Urgent Care so she wouldn’t be sick over the holidays.
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In the summer of 2018, nurses at the IU Health Bloomington Hospital Hospice House rolled a patient outside in his hospital bed. A horse that had been a part of his family for years awaited him, brought to the facility in a trailer. Nurses put feed in the patient’s hand, allowing the horse and his dying owner to connect one final time.
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Jordy the CASA dog is something of a local celebrity. When the golden retriever celebrated his fifth birthday in October, it was a press-worthy event. But Jordy spends most days out of the spotlight, doing vital work at the Monroe County Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) office, 201 N. Morton St.
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Community Action Agencies (CAAs) are sometimes considered the best-kept secrets of the nonprofit sector, says Jessie Yeary, director of communications and development at the South Central Community Action Program (SCCAP). She hopes to change that. “I don’t really like that phrase because we don’t want to be a secret,” she says.
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Old rose varieties, such as alba, gallica, and damask, had wonderfully fragrant blooms but, sadly, bloomed only once. Thanks to David Austin (1926–2018) we have 230 modern hybrid roses that offer intoxicating, old-fashioned rose fragrances and that bloom repeatedly.
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After working other people’s farms for a dozen years, Grant Pershing, 44, was ready to start farming for himself. Unfortunately, finding a bank that was willing to loan him the money wasn’t so easy. “I was a pretty poor risk, so I could either find a dilapidated house with enough land or a nice house with no land,” Pershing says. “When it came down to buying something, it just wasn’t going to happen.”
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The coming year is full of significant milestones for Shalom Community Center, a resource agency for those experiencing extreme poverty and homelessness, and for its executive director, Forrest Gilmore. Gilmore started as assistant director of Shalom in January 2010. A year later, on April 1, 2011—“Make of that what you will,” he says with a laugh—Gilmore was named executive director.
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Although you could splurge on red roses when decorating for the holidays, there are other, less expensive, natural alternatives. The early Romans decorated with holly for the winter solstice. Holly, along with ivy and mistletoe, was a traditional Christmas decoration in England, and early American settlers also preferred to use objects from nature to decorate for the holidays.
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She is Indiana University’s first woman president in 201 years, but that’s not all that makes Dr. Pamela Whitten different.
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As one person interviewed for this story explained, “If you’ve met one Latino … you’ve met one Latino.” That’s because to say someone is Hispanic or Latino tells little except that their family originates from a Spanish-speaking country.
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The second annual Freezefest will be held January 20–22 at multiple locations throughout downtown Bloomington and will offer ice sculpture displays, live ice-carving demonstrations by internationally renowned sculptors, and food trucks.
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Six-month old local social impact organization CanopyBloomington has found leadership to facilitate their mission to grow and sustainably manage Bloomington’s urban forest.
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New Hope for Families announced new commitments totaling $484,400 from the Community Foundation of Bloomington and Monroe County in support of the Growing New Hope capital campaign.
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