For Evansville

We hope you've enjoyed Season 1 as much as we have, and we hope the conversations you've heard have motivated you to pursue the flourishing of our city in new ways.

In this final episode, Ross and Jonathan share about For Evansville's mission, initiatives, and goals for 2022, as well as what you can look forward to in the next season of the podcast.

Thanks for listening!

Do you have a story or guest you'd like to recommend for season 2? Let us know at [email protected]

“Just after 6 o’clock in the morning. It’s 25 degrees. It’s cold. I didn’t sleep all that well. I’m exhausted…It’d be a very different experience if I didn’t know this was going to end.” That was the perspective of State Representative Ryan Hatfield as he participated in Aurora’s Homeless Experience Project.

In this episode, Aurora’s Executive Director Zac Heronemus talks with us about his 48 hours of homelessness as well as the needs and opportunities he sees for Evansville, both as a nonprofit director and a city councilman. Special thanks to Ryan Hatfield, Wayne Hart, and Zac Heronemus for allowing us to feature clips they recorded during their 48 hours of homelessness.

In this episode:

Zac Heronemus (In studio with us)

Ryan Hatfield (Facebook Live clips)

Wayne Hart (Facebook Live clips)

Have you ever had a conversation with someone experiencing homelessness? Or perhaps been in that situation yourself? We’d love to hear your stories. Email us at [email protected]

To like the neighborhood you live in, you have to like the actual people that live there - your neighbors. And to like them, you have to know them. Sometimes it seems harder than it sounds, so that’s why we asked Dan Sullivan, expert on being a good neighbor (we gave him that title), to join us this week.

From simple, practical stories of starting conversations to genuinely loving Evansville and rooting for her flourishing, Dan inspires us to be a positive presence in our homes, neighborhoods, and city.

In this episode:

Do you have more tips on being a good neighbor or know someone else who is a good neighbor? We’d love to hear your stories! Email us at [email protected]

Being involved with over 26 local non-profits, our guest Lisa Vaughan has a good pulse on the needs and dreams of our city. During the quarantine, she used that knowledge to shed a light on one of Evansville’s biggest needs - food insecurity. After making a lot of phone calls and bringing people together, Feed Evansville was born, working together with community organizations to provide boxes of food to our entire city during the pandemic, and the work still continues today.

Knowing she can’t do the work alone, Lisa’s story is especially inspiring due to her go-getter yet humble attitude, and how she truly loves the people in our city through her actions.

“I think we make life about issues, and what I’m doing has nothing to do with issues, it has to do with people. These aren’t issues, these are human beings that need food.” - Lisa

Show notes:

Feed Evansville’s Facebook Page

Although the origins to Grippo's have no known connection to the city of Evansville, Indiana, the Bar-B-Q Potato Chip product is incredibly popular there, and has become a significant part of the local culture.

“Grippos.” wikipedia.com, 09 September 2021, wikipedia.com/grippos.

We’re not sure about you, but we were pretty shocked when we found out that Grippo’s BBQ potato chips aren’t actually made here. So we did a little digging and found out where they came from, how they got here, and in the process we ended up being inspired by the idea that one person can change the entire culture of a city.

Are you a top of the box or a bottom of the box Grippo's eater? Do you have any more info on debunking the myth that the Fall Festival is the United State's 2nd largest street festival? What's your favorite way to eat Grippos? Let us know at [email protected]

Show notes:

Evansville Courier and Press Article about Grippo's

"Just How Big is the Fall Festival?" Article

Part of our vision is that Evansville becomes a place where everyone has work that provides community value and individual purpose. That’s why we wanted to sit down and talk with Amy Bouchie - she is a great example of how this idea plays out in her own life. It wasn’t always like that for her, so in this episode, Amy shares with us her journey from seeing her career as just a job, to viewing it as a specific skill set that she could share to empower others. It left us asking ourselves the question “What unique knowledge or skills do I have, that I could offer to serve others?”

“If I have something that someone else doesn’t have, and I can afford to share my knowledge, time and resources, then that’s what I should be doing…The most selfless acts are where I’ve been the most useful.” - Amy

IN THIS EPISODE:

Amy Bouchie, Certified Financial Planner at New Horizons Financial Consultants

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Know someone who is For Evansville? We’d love to hear their story. Email us at [email protected]

We're launching this episode a few days early in celebration of HOLA Evansville's Latino Festival this weekend (August 28)!

We don't often think of Evansville as a multicultural city, but in Marisela's words: "Wrong! We've got it! We've got it here!"

She's been doing great work celebrating, exposing, and just genuinely enjoying the different cultures and people groups represented in Evansville. With great tips on how to start conversations to YouTube videos to salsa recipes, Marisela works hard to bring an atmosphere of multicultural celebration and peace to our city. 

IN THIS EPISODE: 

Marisela De la Parra, Experience Facilitator at Evansville Vanderburgh Public Library 

Resources: 

Marisela's YouTube playlists with EVPL:

Other resources:

Sometimes we don't find ourselves in a dream job, but for Lane Young, it's the personal connections and impact you have with people that matters most. In this episode, we talk about looking at the bigger picture of your vocation, the importance of bringing others along with you, and why living in a city on a river is pretty cool.   

IN THIS EPISODE:  Lane Young, Executive Director of Evansville Water and Sewer Utility

“If we think about death, then we think about how we’re going to live.”

In this episode, we sit down with Social Worker, Therapist, Counselor and co-founder of What Matters Most, Evansville? Andrea Lanz. She walks us through her unique story about how she went from wanting to never live in Evansville again to loving it. She’s passionate about coping with and preparing for various life transitions, and why it’s important for our entire city to embrace the grief process and the value of sharing our stories with one another.

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Know someone who is For Evansville? We’d love to hear their story. Email us at [email protected]

Useful Links:

As Evansville foodies ourselves, we love talking about pizza and donuts just as much as anyone. And maybe that was a little bit of our motivation for bringing Founder and Owner of Pangea and 2nd Language, Randy Hobson, on our show. But what we weren't expecting was to meet a guy who loves our city and cares so much about its people and culture, that he figured out a way to bring his passions and cross-cultural experiences together to make Evansville a more flourishing city. 

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For Evansville

Pangea

2nd Language

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