Top 10 Overall Stories on PortageLife in 2015

Top 10 Overall Stories on PortageLife in 2015

We've counted down our top stories for PortageLife.com through our individual sections - Business, Sports, Entertainment, Health, Features, Community, Video and Photos - and now we're looking to crown our absolute best stories of the 2015 calendar year.

Take a look below at our picks and leave a comment below with what the best good-news story that you read was this year!

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The Sky was the Limit at CityPoint Church’s Easter Egg Hunt
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The sky was the limit on Saturday morning for children who participated in CityPoint Church’s Easter egg hunt at Woodland Park. According to Generations Pastor DJ Capron, approximately 7,000 eggs were set out, including six golden eggs which gave the finder claim to a new bicycle.

CityPoint also reincorporated the aspect to their hunt that sets them apart from many others: a helicopter that dropped candy onto the park grounds.

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Portage Township YMCA Sees a Life Saved
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There are some things in life that happen and make you question the validity of the idea of “coincidence”. If you believe in a higher power, you might think that someone up above has a hand in life’s goings-on’s and this puts the right people in the right place at the right time.

Jeff Ford, a 45-year-old family man was working out at the Portage Township YMCA on a recent Sunday. Ford has been a member for about two years and he is often seen at the Y. That day he was running a 5k on the treadmill like he normally did. About two and a half miles in he stops to take a drink of water.

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Greater Portage Chamber of Commerce Awards Celebrate a Community Working Together
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The Greater Portage Chamber of Commerce held their annual Recognition Ceremony on Saturday evening at Woodland Park in Portage with the theme of ‘New Beginnings’. The Recognition Ceremony is the Chambers way of spotlighting members of the Portage community who have had a positive impact in their field and are making a difference in the community.

“We decided to go with a little more of a casual event this year,” said Lou Gagliardi, Executive Director of the Portage Chamber. “It’s a little less formal with open seating instead of assigned. We just wanted to do something different. That’s where the ‘New Beginnings’ theme comes in. I’m coming into a new position at the Chamber and we wanted to make the event different and fresh. We’ve had a great turnout this evening and the winners we’re really appreciative so that’s been exciting.”

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Ideas in Motion Media Launches Massive Redesign of Good News LIFE Sites
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Ideas in Motion Media announces a massive redesign to its Northwest Indiana-based positive news websites, ValpoLife.com, PortageLife.com, LaPorteCountyLife.com and NWIndianaLife.com, including a new mobile-friendly responsive web design, a beautiful and easy to navigate photo gallery layout, and an array of improvements that allow top unique content that we create to be showcased in article, video, and photo form throughout each site.

The sleeker, more flexible design also features faster page loading, brings easier access to the signature Ideas in Motion Media Photo Library, featuring more than 330,000 photos of positive events, and more accurately reflects the unique, original content being produced by the Ideas in Motion Media team on the LIFE sites.

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Portage Celebrates 2015 Independence Day Parade
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Residents and visitors packed the streets of Portage to come out and enjoy the 2015 Portage Independence Day Parade on Saturday, July 4th. Families brought their lawn chairs and awaited the start as children danced on curbs peering down Willowcreek Road eagerly anticipating the first round of sirens from police cars and firetrucks.

The Parade participants arrived early to line up at Willowcreek Middle School before making the slow march from Central Avenue all the way to Lute Road where the parade finished up. Attendees were treated to elaborate floats from many organizations within the community as well as classic cars, motorcycles, Minions, Disney Princesses just to name a few.

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Alton Goin Leaves Behind History, Legacy, in Portage
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Alton Goin, who passed away Dec. 23, dedicated his life to the betterment of Portage.

Alton, or “Al” as friends would call him, was known as the “Patriarch of Portage”. He was, as his friend Debbie Parker told PortageLife.com, “always so spunky with his passion and rhetoric about Portage.” In fact, Goin was so enthusiastic about his community that he was featured in the official tourism video.

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Nativity Festival Celebrates 50 Years of Summer Fun
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2015 marks the 50th anniversary for the Nativity Festival, a Portage favorite put on by Nativity of Our Savior Parish every year. What started as a small event has, over the years, become one of the city’s most anticipated summer stops.

“This is the biggest fundraiser that the parish puts on,” Jennifer Wszolek Chandler, music and computer teacher at Nativity of Our Savior School said. “We have rides, games, a live band, a book sale… There’s really something for everyone here.”

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Portage Celebrates The Opening Of Founders Square With Ribbon Cutting Ceremony
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On Saturday, June 20th, the City of Portage, the Portage Parks and Recreation Department, and the Greater Portage Chamber of Commerce celebrated the opening of Founders Square Park in downtown Portage with a ribbon cutting ceremony. City officials and members of the public gathered together to also enjoy a ceremonial turning on of the new splash pad, which kids were eagerly anticipating, live musical entertainment and the new market area filled with vendors and food stands.

“The first portion of the new park to open is the splash pad,” said Nancy Simpson from the Greater Portage Chamber of Commerce. “Today we’re going to hear from some city officials, cut the ribbon on the park and then head over to the splash pad where all the kids here will gather together when we turn it on.”

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2015 Northwest Indiana Graduation Station
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Of all the events we see throughout the year, graduations and commencements are the ones that most embody our good news mission. To see all the hard work put in and out of the classroom by students, parents, teachers, coaches, families and friends culminate in one event, with everyone across the school celebrating the same thing, it's just awesome.

We will have literally thousands of photos from the Class of 2015, just like we did last year, and we couldn't be happier to share these shots of all of these thousands of Northwest Indiana's best and brightest students.

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Portage Chamber's Terry Hufford Leaves a Legacy to Remember
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The Greater Portage Chamber of Commerce held a special luncheon for a special man on June 18. This luncheon was a celebration of the hard work and dedication of Terry Hufford, the executive director for the chamber, who was retiring after serving in that position for 12 years.

Like any typical chamber luncheon, the Pledge of Allegiance and Invocation got things started. Carol Costakis, President of the Portage Chamber of Commerce, welcomed all in attendance. She along with others regaled the crowd with memories of Hufford and humorous anecdotes.