Kelly Goad vividly remembers her very first experience volunteering for the community. She was a student at Northwestern High School, and she participated in raising money for a teacher that had leukemia.

Photo: Kelly Goad

“We raised money for her bone marrow transplant…we exceed[ed] our goals, however, in the end, she lost her battle to leukemia and died shortly after. It was very rewarding to see everyone work together for a great cause,” recalled Kelly.

Kelly Goad defines leadership as “the willingness to step forward and guide others and taking the initiative to go above and beyond to get things accomplished.” Kelly fits the description of a “community leader” in every aspect. She finds enjoyment and satisfaction with being involved and wouldn’t have it any other way.

Her leadership skills have carried on through the years by being involved in Relay for Life, Women’s Business Council (Chamber of Commerce), Conventions and Visitors Bureau (Tourism Council), Rotary Club of Kokomo, sponsor for Interact Club at Northwestern High School, and the IU Kokomo Alumni Association Board, to just name a few. Her leadership opportunities have helped her become successful in her career as Foundation Director at Howard Regional Hospital.

Kelly is most passionate about being a sponsor for the Interact Club for Northwestern High School. She helps lead a group of high school students in raising money for non-profit organizations in Kokomo. In 2010, they organized a “Fill the Truck” event during a football game. They got two trucks donated from Button Dodge and McGonigals and asked people to bring donations of paper products, diapers, and canned food items for when they attended the game. All donations from that particular event benefited the Kokomo Rescue Mission. To help put things into perspective, Kelly, as their leader, wanted the students to realize “why” they were doing particular event and collecting donations. She gave all students statistics of the homeless and poor in the Kokomo area.

“Most of the students had no idea that their hometown had that amount of homeless or poor people. It helped open their eyes and was a great learning experience for them,” Kelly said.

Kelly also offered advice for anyone wanting to get involved in the community and become a leader.

“Be open to opportunities. You never know what is around the corner,” Kelly said. “You can always learn from being involved. Learning never stops, and if it does, you know you need a change. Also remember to always step up and step out. You will have your ups and downs, but by being involved, you will find your greatest rewards. As a leader, always look for the positive, even if the situation might be difficult”.

Kelly is a great leader and continues to serve our community through her involvement. A particular quote by Edward Everett Hale is one of her favorites and will forever stand by her as she leads the community. It reads, “I am only one, but I am one. I cannot do everything, but I can do something. And I will not let what I cannot do interfere with what I can do.”

Story by Jessica Hewitt, Guest Writer

A leader is someone who has people following them through the walks of life. At least, this is how Steve Schaal defined the word. The word “leader” can mean anything to anyone, but to Steve, to be a leader is to serve and to carve a path to guide people, especially youths.

Steve is a youth pastor at Mt. Olive United Methodist Church in Marion, Indiana. He has been the youth pastor since 2005 and has guided many youth on their journey through their teen years. Today, Steve is leading youths and teens into the community by doing volunteer work in the neighboring towns and organizations. He also mentors youth to help lead them down the correct path.

“Working with the church really got me involved with the community,” Steve said. “When I work with other students and adults, I do my best to share what I’ve learned and lead by example, hoping that they’ll want to be leaders as well.”

Steve builds people up, not only in the church, but for life by leading them to do the right things and make correct choices.

“You must realize that your community, not only the world, needs help. There are starving children, homeless families, and sick elderly all over the world, including right in your county.” Steve said.

A mission trip in 2006 to the country of Honduras opened Steve’s eyes to how much need was really out there and that many people are less fortunate. He went on this trip through the church with a group of people, and that is what really connected him to the community and becoming a leader in it.

“Being a leader also can construct a person. It can change their outlook on life or their outlook on humanity,” he added.

Helping others in the community has made Steve less selfish, as well as broadened his focus. Many people care about the immediate issues in life, such as taking care of ourselves, our family, or work, or school, and we often forget those who have little or no family. Steve says that his eyes now have been open to people’s situations and how being a leader affects them. Just by showing compassion while you are there helping them can change an attitude.

A leader can be anything to anyone. A leader can be the United States president, a mayor, a pastor, a teacher, or the little kid who leads the kids to get milk at school. A leader just leads, no matter if they lead teens to make the right choices like Steve does, or they lead the entire free world. A leader is a position of honor and integrity; there are natural born leaders and others who lead by example. A leader can mean many things, and Steve is simply one who helps others and leads by example, hoping to change the way people act.

Story by Matt O’Banion, Guest Writer

If you ask people what they think makes a community leader, you are sure to get many different responses. Leah Abbott is someone the community of Delphi looks to not only as a friend, but also as a mentor. 

She is a wife and a mother of three and owns Abbott Funeral Home with her husband, Carl. Although she has a busy life with her family, she always makes sure that everyone else has what they need. Owning and operating a funeral home keeps a family constantly going.

Leah wanted to be sure that I understood she did not consider herself a leader. “I don’t do things in hopes for something good in return, I just do things because…it is the right thing to do,” she explained.

She does not do anything for praise and glory, which is why so many people in the community do think of her as a leader. She just does what needs to be done without thinking twice.

“I know so many families that are struggling and I want to do what I can to help out,” was Leah’s reasoning for why she helped create “Buddy Bags,” a program that provides meals for children and their families in need on weekends and during extended breaks from school.

“If you make things fun, you never get tired. Do what you love and you will prosper,” Leah positively commented about her work with the Buddy Bags program.

She takes care of people, whether it is friends and family, people she has never had the opportunity to meet, or even families that come in for funeral services. It takes a big heart to give so much of your time to others and that is something Leah has.

Leah is a registered nurse, but she spends much of her time volunteering at the local elementary school. “I have to write out my schedule for the week every Sunday night so I know where I need to be,” said Leah. With a giggle, she continued, “Actually, I write out two of them.”

You can find her helping out at the Delphi United Methodist Church frequently, making numerous trips to her business, visiting her parents, and squeezing in time for her friends—if you are lucky, you just might run into her. When asked what keeps her going, she responded with an honest smile and this: “I just do what feels right.”

Story by Alyssa Clawson, Guest Writer

Most students know Professor Pico because he is a Spanish professor here at IUK. However, most don’t know that he is also heavily involved with major humanitarian efforts in Colombia.

Professor Pico serves as the international liaison and honorary board member of Fundacion Cartagena Global, a humanitarian group based out of Cartagena, Colombia, whose main priority is to help children become better citizens.

“Children are the future, so it is important for them to know how to be a good citizen,” said Pico. The organization participates in several programs that help out thousands of Colombian children.

Three times a year, Professor Pico takes a group of students to visit Colombia, and he explains that only 30% of their time is spent on sightseeing, while the other 70% is spent on helping out the children of Cartagena. The environment these children live in, Pico explains, is appalling. There is no running water or working sewage system. Often times, they will go a day or two without having a good meal, and a lot of these children are starving.

This is where Professor Pico’s work begins.

“Education is the most important thing for them to become better citizens,” Pico said. “However, with poor nutrition, the chance of them being successful isn’t very promising.”

So what Pico and his organization have done is given these children the opportunity to have a good meal. One of Pico’s proudest accomplishments is that he helped to build a new cafeteria for the students. He provided them tables to eat on so they did not have to eat on the ground. He has also have arranged contacts with child protective services to ensure that the children are provided with a good meal on a regular basis.

Pico and the organization also focus heavily on the children’s education. They recently renovated a nice school for them to attend. Professor Pico also helps teaches classes to them, including teaching English. They also cleared out a lot that was full of trash and made it into a playground for the children.

“Many children from outside communities come to enjoy this playground,” Pico explained. “Also, by providing clothes and food to children, we relieve many of the stresses that their parents feel.”

When asked what makes a good leader, Professor Pico explained that it takes courage, strength, and respect for others. When asked, he explains that what makes him a good leader is that he loves people and respects them enough to want the very best for them.

“A lot of politicians don’t know how to respect people, but you have to show people respect in order for them to understand you and be willing to dedicate their time to help you,” said Pico.  

When he first traveled to Africa and saw the poor living conditions, he explains that it made him very humble and thankful for what he has. It was in that moment that he realized that he wanted to make sure that helpless people had a strong leader that they could turn to. That is exactly what Professor Pico has become— a great leader who has helped save the lives of hundreds of children.

Story by Brittney King, Guest Writer

Enter the world of sushi at its finest at Tokyo Japanese Restaurant, brand new to Kokomo this year. Located at 108 N. Dixon St., next to 20/20 Vision and Papa John’s, this high-quality sushi and Japanese-style restaurant is a perfect edition to Kokomo’s history of notable food vendors.

With a rainbow of choices, Tokyo offers authentic appetizers, lunch, dinner, and dessert, favorite sushi rolls and boxes, like the tasty cream-cheese-filled Philadelphia roll for $6.50, as well as more adventurous choices, like the eel cheese fried roll at a reasonable $8.80. Carnivores and vegans can dine under the same roof with fresh seafood, chicken, and beef choices, mixed vegetables, noodles, various types of fried rice, soups and salads, and much more. Each dining experience begins with a complimentary bowl of miso soup and concludes with a choice of dessert, such as fried bananas and gourmet ice cream. This season features a creamy pumpkin-flavored ice cream to go along with the classic vanilla and strawberry.

While quite filling and satisfying in taste, Tokyo’s real treat is the incredibly attractive and professional presentation. Each plate holds a colorful sculpture of the different ingredients. A true culinary artist, the chef delicately shapes each product and finishes it with toppings like flavorful teriyaki sauce, crunchy sesame seeds, ginger, wasabi, and garnishes. The always-smiling wait staff pleases its guests by regularly communicating and considering even the smallest of needs, like asking, “Do you want to keep your fork?” when clearing the table to get ready for the next round. Surprisingly, however, guests do not wait long for food or service, even when customers fill the restaurant on the weekend at dinnertime.

Stop by Tokyo to dine in under the relaxed, well-lit, contemporary atmosphere, or grab a menu to-go and carry out an authentic gourmet feast for both the eyes and the palate. Though the sushi choices are endless, there is something for everyone at the impressive Tokyo Japanese Restaurant.

Stephanie Barnes

AMC, whose logo is “Story Matters Here,” prides itself on producing in-depth, original, and high-quality television series, including the critically-acclaimed Mad Men and Breaking Bad, has delivered another huge hit with The Walking Dead.

The cast features Andrew Lincoln (Love Actually) as former policeman and group leader Rick Grimes, Jon Bernthal (The Ghost Writer) as fellow officer Shane Walsh, and Sarah Wayne Callies (Prison Break) as Lori Grimes, Rick’s troubled wife. Among others, the main cast also includes Laurie Holden as Andrea, Jeffrey DeMunn as Dale, Steven Yeun as Glenn, Norman Reedus as Daryl, Melissa McBride as Carol, and child actors Chandler Riggs as Carl, who is Rick and Lori’s son, and Madison Lintz as Carol’s daughter, Sophia.

The main plot is set in a post-apocalyptic world and takes place in the southern United States. The large group focuses on surviving after most of the world is stricken with an affliction that kills humans by high fever, then restarts the brain stem, essentially turning humans into single-minded zombies. The show does not refer to those afflicted as zombies, instead calling them “walkers.” Hope hinges on the possibility of a cure until the CDC is destroyed. The only thing that keeps the group going is the inborn human will to live. The line between right and wrong are often blurred, so even viewers cannot make easy judgment calls.

Masterfully written and directed in large part by Frank Darabont (The Shawshank Redemption, The Green Mile), the series of 60 to 90 minute episodes began in late 2010 with a short first season of just six episodes. The second season premiered on October 16^th of this year, and was so popular that it was picked up for a third season just a week later. The show airs Sundays at 9 p.m. on the AMC channel.

The Walking Dead is based on a continuing comic book series of the same title by writer Robert Kirkman and artists Charlie Adlard and Tony Moore. The comic series has won awards and has featured prominently at the most recent Comic-Con. The television series closely follows the comic series for the extended pilot episode, but then diverges. However, most of the principal characters are the same.

The show is sharp, thought-provoking, and delves into the uneasy parts of morality and self-preservation. Focusing more on the survivors than the diseased walkers, this show is truly one that captures attention and asks the viewers if they could ever make some of the decisions the characters have had to make.

The show’s rating on IMDb.com is currently at an impressive 8.7 out of 10 stars, with nearly 67,000 votes, and has already been the recipient of multiple awards, including an Emmy and a Saturn Award. In addition, The Walking Dead and its cast and crew have been nominated for other awards, including another Emmy, a Director’s Guild Award, a Golden Globe, and several Saturn awards.

Tiffani Bonifant

Socialism is a pejorative term frequently used by the gatekeepers, pundits, and talking heads that you are meant to associate with evil, with loss of personal freedom, and with an oppressive, domineering government. You are meant to be afraid of the term and to hate anyone labeled with it.

Socialism is a variety of economic or political theories that advocate a collective or governmental ownership and administration of the means of production and distribution of goods or services. It is portrayed as the anti-thesis of capitalism, of everything and everyone that has made this country great. The current President has been castigated with the Obamacare slander; that it is evil to require everyone to buy health insurance. It actually does a lot more than that, but the language of legislation and congressional acts is like a bastardized pidgin (one I recommend you cultivate) meant to be opaque; you aren’t supposed to understand it. The individual mandate is the standard-bearer of the hordes of socialism. Requiring a free American citizen to purchase health insurance is apparently the ultimate insult and insinuation of big, evil, socialist government.

Let’s consider a different evil socialist scenario straight out of hell. Every Monday night, I put all of the trash in our house into a large can and put it in the alley that is maintained by big government taxes. Early the next morning, a government truck comes by, empties the can and drives away with it. They work in darkness, unseen, sinister. All that night long, there are several socialist people who drive around in specially adorned government owned vehicles with firearms of various calibers patrolling my neighborhood to keep people with criminal intent from acting on their illicit ideas; their monitoring systems are sophisticated and they have the charge of imprisoning anyone who violates their laws. While that is happening, several socialists wait in a building with government-owned equipment specially designed to suppress and extinguish conflagrations of various magnitudes, remove injured people from severely damaged automobiles, and administer life-saving measures to those who need it. Later that day, a repository of state-owned books will be available to anyone providing state-issued identification and proof of residency to administer access to knowledge less than a block down the alleyway.  All of this is socialism at work, rampant in our streets and neighborhoods, cats and dogs living together, running amok, leaving the toilet seat up (or down), and corrupting our innocent children.

I am required to pay property taxes that fund all of these services. I am mandated, as a property owning American citizen, to pay for the maintenance of social services.

Brian A. Arwood

Gamers have been anxiously awaiting the arrival of Modern Warfare 3 for months, and on November 8^th, their wait finally came to an end. As the title suggests, MW3 is the third in a series of Call of Duty games based on a fictional story set in present day. With $775 million in sales in the first five days, MW3 broke opening week sales records—higher than any other video game, book, or movie ever produced.

There are three main components to MW3, each giving the player a separate experience: Campaign, Spec Ops, and Multiplayer.

Campaign mode continues where MW2 left off. A crazed leader of a militant terrorist group has started a global war between Russia and the United States. While short (about five hours), the story is exciting and has a variety of battle experiences to keep the player engaged. Campaign mode really feels like taking the lead roles in a hyper-explosive action movie.

Spec Ops mode returns from MW2, giving players special missions that earn one to three stars, based on the difficulty selected. Some missions are taken from the campaign, while others are unique to this mode. New to MW3 is a wave-based fight mode where players can co-operate to fight through as many waves of enemies as possible. XP is earned during all Spec Ops missions, and can be used for buying weapons and gear for the wave modes.

In Multiplayer, players can battle with friends across the internet in various game modes, such as Team Death Match, Capture the Flag, or Domination. A new variant of TDM, called “Kill Confirmed,” requires the player to grab dropped tags from downed enemies to count the kill to their score. There is also a new system for leveling up individual weapons and earning better accessories for them, like optics or silencers. The only real downside to be found is that many of the maps look similar and there is a slight lack of variety.

Overall, there are many hours of fun and challenges to be had with MW3, assuming you can connect to an online service to play multiplayer.

John Robertson

The “Gears of War” franchise by Epic Games has been setting the standard for third-person action games since the release of the original in 2006. The recently released “Gears of War 3” game is the dramatic conclusion for the trilogy and stays with the formula that has proven popular thus far.

For those unfamiliar with the series, the Gears story is set in a world where humans are fighting with a subterranean species known as “the locust” for control of the planet Sera. There are several plot twists that happen throughout the series, but it is known for dramatic storytelling.

The game’s campaign is about eight hours of non-stop action, and this time it feels like you and your teams are always in a defensive position. While there are dramatic moments, it doesn’t quite live up to the drama of Gears 2. Still, at the end of the game, you feel like you get an actual ending to the saga.

Multiplayer includes game variations like “Death Match” and “King of the Hill.” The co-op “horde mode” and “beast mode” are games where players can choose to defend (horde) or attack (beast) a team of humans in waves of combat.

For those familiar with the franchise, this game is a must-have. The campaign challenges and multiplayer features will keep you entertained for a long time. Newcomers may want to play the previous titles as the learning curve for multiplayer is steep, and the story will be confusing without the back-story.

John Robertson