We at PortageLife celebrated our 5th birthday on February 26, 2015! Since we’re all about sharing good news in our communities we thought literally and took the party to Portage. We shared the city’s great news while in the city itself. Is there no better way to celebrate than with the people who care about you and within a place that you love? No there is not.
The festivities took place at Tate’s Place, a well-known and well-loved restaurant in the heart of Portage. We enjoyed a meal and reminisced over the road that has been traveled by Chris Mahlmann, President and CEO, and his team at PortageLife.
PortageLife is the second website to come alive under the Ideas in Motion Media brand. ValpoLife was first, then came PortageLife. LaPorteCountyLife followed and our most recent Life Site is NWIndianaLife. Seeing the great impact that ValpoLife was having, a suggestion was made by Olga Velazquez, the Portage Mayor at the time, to Chris to have the same thing happen in Portage. ”
We have a lot of great stuff happening here,” Olga said.
So in January 2010 Chris presented his idea to the Portage Chamber of Commerce a month before launching PortageLife. The response was very well-received.
“It’s been unlike any other city that we’ve dealt with,” Chris said. “We get lots of great feedback for all of our sites but Portage was probably the quickest to respond… We have a couple million page views on our site since we started PortageLife, there are over 700 galleries with pictures of events that happened in Portage, there are about 1,300 contributors to PortageLife, we have over 5,600 Facebook fans, and nearly 2,000 Twitter followers. The way I look at it is like a library. The last five years have built a library of ‘Good’ that happened in Portage. It wasn’t there before and it wouldn’t be there if we didn’t do it.”
Portage is indeed filled with great things and people so it is only natural that an all good news network be built around all the good that is happening. Many within the region are glad to see us there and the good news shared.
“I think there are tremendous things happening in Portage and PortageLife is a great way to get it all out to the people,” Elliot Miller Director of Marketing and Development at Porter-Starke Services, Inc. said. “We at Porter-Starke have been supporters since its inception.”
“The Portage business community is very philanthropic in their giving but not many people know about that. I value PortageLife because people are learning more about the good that is happening in Portage because of them,” Jan Zurek Executive Assistant at Portage Township YMCA said. “I can personally connect with my community and I even found my job through the postings on PortageLife.com. It’s a perfect fit for me and I’ve supported it since it began five years ago.”
“I’ve been involved with PortageLife for about a year and a half,” Kathy Catania, Member Engagement Director of the Portage Township YMCA said, “What I really appreciate is that it’s all positive news and it’s easy to navigate. You don’t have to sift through all the negative to get to the positive. And PortageLife has been really great for the Y because you guys support us in so many ways and so much of what people are learning about us comes from PortageLife.”
“I think that Portage definitely had a place for an all good news network like PortageLife. The relationship works so well because there are so many positive things going on with the schools, the nonprofits, the businesses… I don’t think that message was getting out before PortageLife came along,” Ken Elwood owner of Rhame and Elwood Attorneys at Law said. “I think it’s awesome that PortageLife can get the positive news out and celebrate Portage successes, of which there are many. And I’ve been in support of PortageLife since day one.”
“PortageLife is a nice news source in Portage,” Todd Elliott of NorthShore Health Centers said. “I’ve known about it since it began and you all cover our sports and other community events so it’s a great resource to have and Portage is lucky to have it.”
“I feel that it’s important for PortageLife to be in Portage because of all of the great things that go on in the city,” Nancy Simpson Office Manager for the Greater Portage Chamber of Commerce said. “I began working with PortageLife when I worked with the YMCA about five years ago. We did so many great things there and I wanted to get the word out to the community and you guys did such a great job in helping with that.”
“About a year and a half ago I found out about PortageLife when I began working at NorthShore. NorthShore has been a supporter since the beginning of PortageLife, though,” Tricia Hall Marketing Manager at NorthShore Health Centers said. “Portage is very much about community and there are so many organizations and agencies in Portage that have the same mission and goal of serving the community. It’s nice to have PortageLife here to help spread the word of what is going on in the community.”
“There are many people in our community who want to focus on what’s right about Portage; what’s right about our citizens and how they can contribute and continue to keep the momentum going between PortageLife and the city,” Olga Velazquez, Merrillville Site Director for NorthShore Health Centers said. “When I was the Mayor of Portage in 2010 I saw ValpoLife I contacted Chris and said we needed this in Portage.”
"PortageLife epitomizes Portage and all that is good about it," Portage Township Trustee Brendan Clancy said. "It tells good stories about good people and there is a lot of good to be found here so it's a perfect match."
Five years in and we have been able to do a lot within the City of Portage. But we’re happy to say that we’ve only scratched the surface of all that is good and we’re going to continue to seek, find, and share the good news. Just wait until you see what the next five years will bring!
