Articles by Mike Rhodes

By: Juli Metzger— Muncie, Indiana—Brian and Rhea Graham have spent the last three years pushing aside personal demons and life’s roadblocks to become very public advocates for recovery and redemption. Both recovering addicts, they’ve done it even as they have faced the financial constrictions that keep them just shy of qualifying for federal assistance. They are what United Way calls ALICE, asset limited, income constrained but employed. Today, Rhea takes on one more role – as a spokesperson for A Better Way, the first place she turned to when she sought shelter for herself and her children. A Better Way…

By: Julie Borgmann, executive director of Red-tail Land Conservancy— Muncie, IN—People often ask me, what is your favorite Red-tail property?  I honestly have to reply, it depends on the season and the mood I’m in.   When I visit Baskin Robbins, I always have to walk along the cooler before I choose which of the 33 flavors I want to eat. The same is true of planning a hike. What do I want to see, hear, smell, and feel? In late November as the leaves have nearly all fallen, I like to be in the woods among the big trees. We don’t have…

By: Erin Williams, PlySpace Residency Coordinator— Muncie, Indiana—PlySpace, an artist-in-residence program of the Muncie Arts and Culture Council, continues the Fall 2018 Residency Term with Resident Linda Ryan, who has collaborated with the Cornerstone Center for the Arts for free public workshops on dancing and movement with technology.  Her final workshop will be held this Saturday, November 17th, from 1:00 – 3:00 PM. Ryan, the first dance resident at PlySpace, joins the program from Upstate New York via Washington, DC. Since her arrival in September, she has been busy with numerous personal and public projects, including a dance performance inside the…

By: Juli Metzger— Muncie, Indiana—By the time they get to the third grade, eight out of 10 children who grow up in low-income households cannot read at grade-level. In Delaware County, half the households are poor. In Muncie, it’s six out of 10. Improving that percentage among third-graders is the laser focus of the United Way of Delaware County, which funds 28 nonprofits working to change that statistic by 2024. “Reading is everything,” says Nancy Carlson, a retired Ball State University journalist, who for the last two years has volunteered every Thursday afternoon at South View Elementary School to read…