Educating Tomorrow's Workforce Today

LaGrange County to Adopt College "Promise" for Local Students

The LaGrange County EDC, in collaboration with the Cole Center Family YMCA, LaGrange County schools, and Parkview LaGrange Hospital, is happy to announce the launching of the LaGrange County Promise, a career and college readiness initiative that will give local youth the opportunity to obtain post-secondary education.

The LaGrange County Promise is a community-wide initiative for K-3 students that supports youth in the development of their college and career readiness through discovery, academic readiness and educational savings. The program will include classroom coursework, an onsite college visit, and the establishment of College Choice 529 Direct Savings Plans.

"This is an amazing opportunity to be able to support the youth of our county," said Keith Gillenwater, President/CEO of the LaGrange County Economic Development Corporation. "Bringing together the strengths of these great organizations in partnership with our seven public elementary schools and approximately 1900 kids to help provide hope for kids that, regardless of the situation, the community believes in their potential is truly astounding!"

LaGrange County Spotlight:

COLLABORATION

The LaGrange County EDC knows that relationships matter when it comes to business attraction, retention, and expansion.

Collaborating with county and city officials, partnerships, and forums creates a quick and streamlined process for new and existing businesses. The LaGrange County EDC is proud to have achieved so many successful collaborations both in and outside of the county. Here are two collaborations that the EDC is especially proud of:

Northeast Indiana Regional Partnership -
LaGrange County is one of 10 counties in this partnership that promotes business expansion and economic growth in the region. LaGrange County EDC's President and CEO Keith Gillenwater also serves on the 10 member LEDO (Local Economic Development Organization) Council, which provides advice and input to the Partnership board of directors on local economic development issues.

Fawn River Crossing Industrial Park -

The LaGrange County Economic Development Corporation and the City of Sturgis partnered together to develop the infrastructure at the Fawn River Crossing Industrial Park. Together they installed a new 500,000 gallon water tower and water treatment plant. They also reached an agreement to extend sewer lines down from Sturgis to provide service to the park and surrounding areas.

Some other of our collaborations include being a member of the Indiana Toll Road Economic Development Corridor, participating in the annual four-county Economic Development Forum, and actively serving as members of numerous professional organizations and local boards.

Find out more.

Checking Up On Local Companies

The LaGrange County EDC staff vastly exceeded our business retention visit goal and recorded over 40 visits with local companies since May. Here are a few summer highlights from some of the companies they visited:

Yoder Wood Products

A woodcrafting business that produces heirloom quality furniture, Yoder Wood Products recently expanded and moved to a new facility in LaGrange.

Highland Ridge RV Inc.

Highland Ridge RV Inc. specializes in quality Open Range products.Formally known as Open Range RV Co., is celebrating their acquisition by Jayco Inc.

KZ RV

KZ RV specializes in travel trailers, fifth wheels, and toy haulers. Their 300+ employees strive to build RV's with the quality their customers deserve. The EDC got to meet with COO Aram Koltookian to talk about their recent acquisition by Thor Industries.

President's Perspective: Creating Hope for our Future

This summer, a recurring theme that our work has centered around has been "hope." Like any good economic developers, we talk about hope in many forms, from selling the hope of landing a big project and making the costs of that planned new development all worthwhile, to the hope that we get that grant to seed our new incentive program. This summer, however, I'm talking about a different kind of hope.

This hope is the kind that our community is creating in our youngest citizens. Specifically, we are telling our students that going to college and becoming who they want to be is not a pipe dream; it's a promise. We are instilling hope in them by showing that our community not only cares, but is investing in them by making a financial commitment to their future. The LaGrange County Promise is our tool to get that done. The LCEDC is spearheading this new community initiative to develop tomorrow's workforce today. We feel strongly that the potential for this project to change the future story of LaGrange County is enormous - and this is what is creating our hope this summer.

Best,

Keith