Nicole Batzek

Pam Vickrey, a 2nd grade teacher at Winfield Elementary School in Crown Point and the 2012-2013 Crown Point Elementary Teacher of The Year, has lived in Portage her entire life. She attended grade school through high school in the Portage School...

Rita Barnas, a customer service and welcome center coordinator at the Portage YMCA, is originally from the southeast side of Chicago. Shortly after Barnas married her high school sweetheart, she and her husband moved to Hammond. After living in...

Danielle Walker was born and raised in Gary, but now resides in Portage where she has lived for about 10 years now. However, Walker left Indiana and moved to Minnesota for a while to find herself after having her first son. “I waitressed in...

On Thursday evening, the Visiting Nurse Association of Northwest Indiana hosted their Annual Forever Society Dinner to honor and present various awards to dedicated staff members and volunteers. “This is our annual celebration of the past year's...

Steve Varela, a Professor at Calumet College of St. Joseph, was born and raised in the southside of Chicago where he attended Thornton Fractional South High School in Lansing, Illinois. Steve then continued his education at South Suburban College in...

Robin Wilkening, who held the Mrs. Portage title in 1996 and competed in the Mrs. Indiana competition, grew up in Griffith, Indiana where she attended high school at Griffith High School. She then continued her education at Indiana University...

Every winter for the past sixteen years, Porter County Parks and Recreation puts on a dazzling Winter Night Lights Display at Sunset Hill Farm County Park. Hundreds of different light displays from Santa Claus and his reindeer to dancing flowers are...

Diane Samardzja, the Reading Teacher at Myers Elementary School, has always lived in Northwest Indiana. She grew up in St. John, currently resides in Crown Point, and works in Portage. Diane has been exposed to many influential teachers throughout...