What: A one-hour video documentary featuring the people, places and happenings of Elkhart, IN as experienced by those who call the city "home." Who: Area residents with their personal camcorders were invited to volunteer. WNIT provided a blank tape to each videographer in the format of their choice. There were no restrictions as to the age or experience of the volunteer and no cost to participate…just a willingness to be part of the project. When: The tapings occurred during the summer of 2004.

Why: As a public television station that serves a very large geographic area (22 counties in Indiana and Michigan), the OUR TOWN project creates another opportunity for interaction between WNIT and area communities. Elkhart is the second community in our service area to be featured. How: Volunteers were asked to attend a pre-production organizational meeting to answer any questions about the project. The meeting also provided an opportunity to brainstorm a list of subjects to videotape. From the list, each volunteer received one shooting assignment and were free to tape anything of interest related to that subject. Volunteers were interviewed at a later date, providing the program’s narration.

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	Thanks to those who volunteered their time and talent to show all of Michiana what Elkhart means to them. The following comments give more insight about why the volunteers chose to be part of the project.

	Tim Ergle Topic: Ivy Tech State College, Elkhart Campus "I think it’s important for people to tell their stories because the stories in and themselves can sometimes change those who view the stories. I think the relationship that you create in documenting something of this nature allows you to present the story. It’s not canned, it’s not practice and it’s not rehearsed. It’s honest from the heart and people are speaking from their experiences, not from a script."
	Ronda DeCaire Topic: Elkhart Environmental Center "Public Television is very valuable because it’s a great channel that we can watch with our families. It’s important to tell local stories. In this day of fast information and everybody wanting everything fast, I think we overlook all of the unique things that are happening within our very own community. I think using television is a great way to get our story out."
	Marque Belke Topic: Woodlawn Nature Center "I like public television. You can be involved in what you watch because no matter how many channels there are, it just has a different quality to it. Telling the local story, especially when you’re putting it on tape is a great record for the future. It’s less changing than telling the story from generation to generation where things can change, get lost or forgotten. I think that having a recorded history is a wonderful thing with the technology we have today. I think it’s something we need to do on a regular basis. Families need to do it, towns need to do it, businesses and organizations need to do it. They need to keep their history alive."
	Kenny Helbling Topic: Lifeline "Local stories tend to hit home more. People see all these wonderful stories in other places and think they may not be able to happen here, but truth is, local stories are just as important as big stories. You may know the people involved, you may not but it’s just the pride in the sense that ‘hey, that happened here in my town.’"
	Mike Wilcox Topic: Challenger Little League "I think Elkhart’s special because it’s where I’m raising my family right now and it’s going to be the place where my daughter and my son call home. As they grow older, move away and go to college, maybe come back or maybe move on to some place else, they’re always going to say that Elkhart is my home. You really want to always have special feelings about home."
	Kathe Brunton Topic: Elkhart Jazz Festival "I think it’s important for people to understand their roots. Whether you’ve lived here all your life or just come here, it’s important to understand the community to which you belong. So telling these stories gives you a glimpse that you might not get from the newspaper or from conversations over the water cooler. These types of stories are good stories. They’re good to tell, they’re good to hear. I learned from doing this and I think other people will learn and will enjoy it as well."
	Ravi Bhatt Topic: Immigrants "A documentary about the city is a great favor to the people of Elkhart so that we know each other and we can understand how our vibrant city is growing and how all communities are coming together to make Elkhart a better place to live in."
	Cal Donner Topic: Indiana Underpass Project "I would say the best thing about the city of Elkhart is that they are trying to make the most of what they have. The benefits like the rivers and other elements and trying to improve the downtown area. In conjunction with that, you need a way to get across the railroads and that brings in the underpass and maybe more. And so all of these things are building toward the future, and that’s important. Some towns don’t do that."
	Russ Whisler Topic: Indiana Underpass Project "I’ve lived in Elkhart all my life and there’s a lot about the town that I don’t know. I’ll be interested in watching the other stories in this documentary. I was raised in Elkhart during the depression years. It was a friendly, neighborhood, helping-one-another type of town. Some people may think we have gotten away from that but our neighborhood is still like that. For those of us who try, we make friends and get things done together."
	Melissa Hertsel Topic: Elkhart History "It seems that the people in Elkhart are closer knit than other cities. You don’t have to talk to someone very long to feel like you’re family. You may not know that person very well, but 'they live in Elkhart, they live just down the street, oh, they’re the people that own that business.' It doesn’t take long to make friends."
	Gary Arnold Topic: CROP Walk "We got involved in this project to help educate people about the CROP walk and what we’re doing and letting them know this does exist here in Elkhart. In talking to people it’s surprising to find that people don’t always know we’re here so we wanted to tell our story."
	Ron Kaser Topic: CROP Walk "Making a documentary about Elkhart seems to me an ideal way to hold up some things that people don’t know about. There’s really so much more here. The RV industry is a great industry but there’s so much more to Elkhart. There are so many more stories to tell besides the obvious ones. It has some large city feel but still retains small town flavor."

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