Input Fort Wayne

Once upon a time, there was a desire in Fort Wayne to express creativity through storytelling. Amber Reid, co-owner of The Local Archive, had a vision to fill that need and brought it to life through Bedtime Stories Theatre. Three years ago, Reid and her son participated in The Music Man at the Summit City Music Theater. From there, she started acting and volunteering in different theater spaces in the community.

Parkview Hospital Randallia Reaching and maintaining high levels of quality and safety in healthcare is “forever work,” requiring both attention to detail with individual patient care and a supportive network of policy, procedures and data.

On a two-block stretch of  Fort Wayne’s Central Drive, tucked along the edges of the Renaissance Pointe and Pontiac Place neighborhoods, a concrete wall serves as a blank canvas of sorts for artists of all ages and from all walks of life. Some days it holds bonsai trees. Other days, lotus flowers sprout from the Earth into space. A kid from down the block might swing by after school and add a few strokes.

There are certain things women seem to know without anyone ever sitting them down and explaining them: Watch your friend’s drink. Text me when you get home. If you feel uncomfortable, pretend you know me. If he won’t leave you alone, come stand with us. It almost feels like an inherited language. One passed down between mothers and daughters, sisters and friends, coworkers and complete strangers in bathroom lines.

Strand Theatre, 221 S Main St, Kendallville, IN, 46755 Ruben Sholinyan was searching for a new house earlier this year. What he found instead was a local landmark in need of saving. Strand Theatre, located on Main Street in Kendallville, had brought entertainment to the community for over 100 years, but a rapidly changing industry, financial hardship, and a global pandemic made it difficult for the doors to stay open.

Judi Wire, Owner of Great Panes Glass Company About 15 years ago, Great Panes Glass Company Owner Judi Wire went door-to-door on Wells Street to collect signatures, with the hopes of changing the zoning to an Urban Corridor (UC) District. The idea was to allow mixed-use development while preserving pedestrian-friendly neighborhoods. Think: restaurants, boutiques, and other small, mom-and-pop retailers that can accommodate a broad range of mobility options.

Fort Wayne has launched its own Music Office, and city leaders believe it could reshape its self-perception and elevate its stature on the national stage. According to Jessa Campbell, Visit Fort Wayne’s director of destination development and communications, the new office is the first of its kind in Indiana.

This story is part of Moving Fort Wayne Forward, a year-long reporting effort to engage residents, employers, and community leaders of Greater Fort Wayne around the possibility of a more modern, multimodal transportation system. Read the full series here. Over the last century, Fort Wayne has increasingly fit its infrastructure around the automobile. This development grew from the convergence of technological and economic shifts, as well as a boom in population growth and construction efficiency.

It might come as a surprise that Fort Wayne has had its own roller derby team for 20 years. “Roller derby [is] a full-contact team sport,” explains Nicki Gunn, president of the board and community events coordinator for Fort Wayne Roller Derby. “The goal is to score more points than your opponent, and you do so by helping the jammer, who is the person with the star in their helmet, pass the other players so that they can get points.

The commentary provided in this post reflects the author’s personal perspectives and not those of Input Fort Wayne or its parent company, Issue Media Group. There’s a moment before you leave the group chat where you’ve already gone. No fight. No dramatic fallout. Just a slow, almost imperceptible shift. The messages still come through, but you stop feeling called to answer them. The energy that once felt effortless becomes something you have to reach for.