Community news: Annual plant sale and Sickle Cell awareness events
Master Gardeners Association to host annual plant sale
The Lake County Master Gardeners annual Plant Sale will be held from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. May 10 in the Fine Arts Building of the Lake County Fairgrounds, 2293 N. Main St., Crown Point. The sale will feature a variety of plants, including herbs, vegetables, native plants, annual flowers, perennial flowers, trees and shrubs and hanging baskets. Gently used garden tools and treasures will be for sale as well. A master gardener will present a demonstration at 11 a.m. on growing potatoes in a bag. The Lake County Master Gardener Association is a 501(c)(3) charitable organization affiliated with Purdue University. Members raise funds to support scholarships for students of horticulture and related studies and grants for local gardening projects that benefit the Lake County communities the gardeners serve. Visit lakecountymastergarders.org for more information.
Valparaiso invites participants to City Government Academy
A seven-week City Government Academy will be offered to provide residents with a better understanding of the inner workings of city government in Valparaiso. The Academy will run from May 14 to June 25 with meetings from 6 to 8 p.m. every Wednesday. More than 150 people have graduated from the City Government Academy, with several now serving in elected or appointed positions throughout the city. The Academy will shed light on how decisions are made, how money is allocated, and how services are delivered. Program participation is free but limited to 35 participants per session. Registration is required and priority will be given to Valparaiso residents. To learn more about the Academy or to sign up, visit tinyurl.com/ValpoAcademy or call Maggie Clifton at City Hall, 219-462-1161.
Travail With Us to host two Sickle Cell awareness events
Travail With Us founder and CEO Alfreida Robins is leading the charge to raise awareness for Sickle Cell disease through two free signature events. Following the loss of her younger brother and cousin to complications from Sickle Cell, Robins is committed to keeping their memories alive while helping those who are battling the disease. The events include a Sickle Cell Awareness Walk and picnic from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Thursday at Hidden Lake Park, 6355 Broadway, Merrillville. Participants from the community, Travail with Us employees clients and supporters will walk the perimeter of the park twice and then gather for a balloon release in memory of those who lost their lives due to complications from Sickle Cell disease. There is no cost to participate. Walkers will be treated to an afternoon of food, music and fellowship, while medical professionals offer information and resources. The Second Annual Sickle Cell Gala will be held on April 25 at the Dean and Barbara White Center, 6600 Broadway, Merrillville. Doors open at 5 p.m. The formal occasion will feature, dinner, dancing, networking, speakers and resources. The community is invited to nominate a 'Sickle Cell Warrior' to be honored at the affair by sending an email to Travailwithus@yahoo.com. While there is no cost to attend the gala, registration is required by calling 219-777-0279 or sending an email to travailwithus@yahoo.com.
Chesterton High School to hold 34th Annual Radiothon
Chesterton High School's WDSO 88.3 FM Radio Station will host their 34th annual Radiothon from 3 to 10 p.m. on Friday, and from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through April 25. Disc jockeys will take song requests and dedications at 219-983-3777, and will be giving away prizes from local businesses and WDSO merchandise throughout the week. The Radiothon will be led by Senior program directors Braden Kennelly and Elsa Estridge; and WDSO staff members and DJs Dallas Howard, Cece Post, Claire Demmon, Sam Ames, Joe Lucken, Phoe, Damion Lopez and Owen Edlen. Pledges can be mailed in with cash, checks made out to WDSO, or donate via credit/debit card through the link that will be posted on WDSO's Facebook page on Friday. WDSO's retro logo shirts will be available for a donation of $25 by calling the station. The logo was designed in the 1980s by Chesterton resident Deano Recktenwall. Donations received from the public during the Radiothon help support the station's general upkeep, as well as funding the cost of a much-needed mixing board upgrade. WDSO is currently looking for donations from local businesses, specifically gift certificates to contribute to their pool of on-air giveaways, a staple of Radiothon. Additionally, the station is seeking out testimonials from WDSO alumni to read on air about why WDSO was beneficial to you. Reach out on WDSO's Facebook messenger or email efletcher@duneland.k12.in.us if you would like to contribute to either cause.
Shirley Heinze Land Trust to host 2025 spring benefit
Shirley Heinze Land Trust will host their Annual Spring Benefit at 5:30 p.m. May 3 at the William Urschel Pavilion, 63 Lafayette St., Valparaiso. This year's theme, 'Grow With Us,' invites attendees to celebrate the organization's conservation efforts and learn how they can support the future of land preservation in Northwest Indiana. The Spring Benefit is the cornerstone of Shirley Heinze Land Trust's annual outreach and fundraising efforts. This year's fundraising goal is $310,000. All proceeds go directly towards preserving and restoring natural lands and waters in northwestern Indiana and engaging people in nature and conservation. Sponsorship opportunities are available with levels ranging from Big Bluestem at $500 to Champion at $25,000 with benefits including event admission, brand visibility, and exclusive experiences like a guided hike at Meadowbrook or Lydick Bog Nature Preserve.
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5 days ago
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The Breakdown's Premiership team of the 2024-25 season
The Fijian Kalaveti Ravouvou has been in scintillating form for Bristol Bears, and lines up at outside-centre in the Breakdown's team of the season. The Fijian Kalaveti Ravouvou has been in scintillating form for Bristol Bears, and lines up at outside-centre in the Breakdown's team of the season. Photograph:Full back Santiago Carreras (Gloucester) Plenty of quality contenders – Sale's Joe Carpenter, Northampton's George Furbank and Bristol's Rich Lane – and I was also tempted to hand Alex Goode a well-deserved retirement gift. But Carreras has been an absolute joy to watch and central to Gloucester's attacking reinvention. For a snapshot check out the try he helped to start and then finished against Sale at Kingsholm in January. The prospect of him linking up with Finn Russell at Bath next season is mouthwatering. Right wing Tommy Freeman (Northampton) A season to remember for a fine player who continues to improve. There are quicker right wingers around – Saracens' Tobias Elliott, Exeter's Paul Brown-Bampoe and Leicester's Adam Radwan have all caught the eye – but none with Freeman's all-round instincts, aerial ability and deceptive strength. Fifteen tries in his past 12 games of the season for club and country is not the worst springboard into this summer's British & Irish Lions tour. Outside-centre Kalaveti Ravouvou (Bristol) The 26-year-old Ravouvou has featured in a variety of positions this season but has to be included somewhere on this team sheet. Eleven tries in 13 Premiership games – he missed the start of the campaign – tells only part of the story. Give him the ball and something special tends to happen, as underlined by his extraordinary back-handed offload to set up Gabriel Ibitoye for a try against Leicester in April. Pips his Bears teammate Benhard Janse Van Rensburg and Bath's sadly injured Ollie Lawrence. Inside-centre Seb Atkinson (Gloucester) England have been looking for young players with the skillset to fill the pivotal 12 jersey and Atkinson, still only 23, has all the necessary attributes. Strong, fit and dextrous he featured in all Gloucester's league games, contributing seven tries, and must be pushing strongly for a first Test cap on tour this summer. Suddenly, with Sale's Rekeiti Ma'asi-White and Bath's Max Ojomoh also in the frame, Steve Borthwick has intriguing options. Left wing Gabriel Ibitoye (Bristol) Yes, he makes the occasional howler. Yes, he sees things differently. But Ibitoye did not finish this season as the league's joint top scorer by accident and, with the Bears preparing to face Bath in Friday's semi-final, he is not finished yet. Almost ridiculously elusive and with an astute eye for a gap, he just needs to tighten up his defence a notch. Ollie Hassell-Collins, Cadan Murley and Arron Reed are all unlucky. Fly-half George Ford (Sale Sharks) Overlooked by the British & Irish Lions but not by everyone else. While the past few seasons have had their frustrations he has been consistently influential for the Sharks this year, particularly when you dig deeper into the stats. Leaving aside the Saracens fixture in September – when he limped off after six minutes – Sale have won all but one of the other 11 league games he started. Food for thought for his former club Leicester this weekend. Scrum-half Tomos Williams (Gloucester) Ben Spencer has enjoyed another fine season for Bath and Alex Mitchell remains a class operator. In common with Carreras, though, it is impossible to overlook the whirring dynamo who has sparked Gloucester's fast and furious attacking rugby. Williams started all but one of the Cherry & Whites' games and his no-look basketball-style scoring pass to Seb Atkinson against Bristol was among the season's defining images. Loosehead prop Francois van Wyk (Bath) Francois who? This is probably a record because Van Wyk has started 13 of his 17 Premiership games this season on the bench. But once he rumbles on to the field as a specialist second-half replacement there is mostly only one outcome: the Bath pack crank things up and the opposition slowly have the life squeezed out of them. Will receive nil publicity outside north-east Somerset before this week's semi-final, but a vital cog in the Bath machine nevertheless. Hooker Luke Cowan-Dickie (Sale Sharks) Could easily have gone for Northampton's Curtis Langdon or Bath's Tom Dunn, neither of whom have taken a backward step all season. Nathan Jibulu, bound for Sale from Harlequins, also looks a serious prospect. But Cowan-Dickie's career revival following a worrying neck injury has been remarkable and his recent form has also helped to drive Sale's late-season challenge. Will fancy denting a few Wallabies on the Lions' tour of Australia. Tighthead prop Thomas du Toit (Bath) The Springbok rock upon which Bath's table-topping season has been based. Every top side needs an immovable object at tighthead and Bath have not lost a league match in which Du Toit has started since the season's opening weekend. Among the nominees for player of the season and must have a decent chance of claiming the top prize on behalf of unsung front-rowers everywhere. Has also helped his teammate Will Stuart raise his game to the next level. Lock Maro Itoje (Saracens) Newly married, captain of the British & Irish Lions and now – drum roll – selected in the Breakdown's team of the season for a second consecutive year. Amid his myriad other commitments he has started 14 league games and has not been substituted by either club or country in any fixture since the end of September. That kind of durability and mental strength continues to set him apart. Lock Ollie Chessum (Leicester) Another potentially valuable Lion-in-waiting. Chessum is becoming as much of a talisman for Leicester as Du Toit is for Bath. The Tigers have lost only one league game this season in which their 24-year-old England forward has featured; if he can stay fit he should have a long and successful Test career. His battle against Sale's bruising forwards will go a long way towards determining Saturday's semi-final. Blindside flanker Ted Hill (Bath) What a vintage season it has been for back-row forwards. Sale's Tom Curry, Saracens' Juan Martín González, Northampton's Alex Coles (how good was he in the Champions Cup final?) and Josh Kemeny are all high-class operators but Hill, regularly overlooked by England, has been consistently outstanding. He can operate in the second row, soar high in the lineout, tackle like a tank and sprint like a back; not since the rampaging Tom Croft has a towering back-rower possessed such devastating pace. Openside flanker Henry Pollock (Northampton) Plenty of alternative options here as well, led by Ben Curry at Sale, Sam Underhill and Guy Pepper at Bath and Will Evans at Harlequins. But Pollock, black headband and all, has gatecrashed the England team, played in a Champions Cup final and made the Lions squad aged 20. Can also operate at No 8, where his pace off the base makes him dangerous, while his turnover ability and penchant for irritating opponents make it impossible for him to be overlooked. No 8 Tom Willis (Saracens) Made a storming start to the season and, despite also representing England and England A, possessed sufficient energy and stamina to feature in 16 of Sarries' 18 league games. Not his fault that Saracens could not quite make the playoffs but at least it gives him a slight respite before England head off on tour to Argentina and the United States. Seven tries for club and country was his best return in a season since 2020-21, when he scored eight for Wasps. Adieu, farewell The list grows ever longer. Ben Youngs, Danny Care, Dan Cole, Mike Brown and, now, Alex Goode, all distinguished England internationals who have announced their retirement from top-level rugby in recent weeks. Add Joe Marler and Anthony Watson, who walked away a few months ago, and it really is the end of an era for the English domestic game. All the above played most of their rugby for one club, never tired of the Premiership grind and, in different ways, were inspiring role models for those seeking to follow in their footsteps. Good luck to each and every one for the next chapter and thanks for the memories. One to watch The United Rugby Championship has also reached the semi-final stage with Leinster playing Glasgow Warriors in Dublin and the Bulls hosting the Sharks in an all-South African clash in Pretoria. The Sharks owe their place to a 6-4 victory in a dramatic penalty shootout when their quarter-final against Munster in Durban finished 24-24 after extra time. It again raised the issue of the best way to decide tied matches, with penalty shootouts in rugby even less satisfying than their football equivalents. Should Sharks have prevailed because they finished higher up the final league table? Or should Munster have been rewarded either for scoring 12 more tries than Sharks in the regular season, or for being the away side? Spectators should surely be served up something more imaginative: perhaps a 'golden try' with both sides reduced to 12 players if the scores are still level after 10 minutes of additional time? There are already calls to introduce a 'golden point' for the forthcoming British & Irish Lions series against Australia, with some underwhelmed by the shared series result in 2017 between the Lions and the All Blacks. Anything but goal kicks should be the organisers' mantra: rugby can do much better. Memory lane The end of the Premiership season sparks memories of great matches of the past and one that immediately springs to mind is the extraordinary comeback by Harlequins against Wasps at Twickenham on the opening day of the season in 2012. As our Michael Aylwin wrote: 'To overturn a 27-point deficit in a little over 20 minutes feels as if it is unprecedented but that is what Harlequins did here. In the 58th minute, the scoreline read 40-13 in Wasps' favour, and how the whipping boys of last season had deserved it, their wings, and Christian Wade in particular, tearing the champions to shreds for the first hour or so … As if a 40-13 deficit were not unlikely enough for the side who won the title against the side who nearly slipped off the back of the Premiership into oblivion, Harlequins somehow eventually achieved the most extraordinary of two-point wins.' Still want more? Bristol Bears clinched a playoff spot by seeing off Harlequins at Ashton Gate. Read Michael Aylwin's report. Advertisement Gloucester sealed a bonus-point win against Northampton but it was not enough for the top four, reports Luke McLaughlin. And British & Irish Lions highlights will be available free-to-air this summer. Read the exclusive story by Matt Hughes. Subscribe To subscribe to the Breakdown, just visit this page and follow the instructions. And sign up for The Recap, the best of our sports writing from the past seven days.
Yahoo
31-05-2025
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MLB Sends Chris Sale Message After Historic News on Thursday
MLB Sends Chris Sale Message After Historic News on Thursday originally appeared on Athlon Sports. Chris Sale has long been recognized as one of Major League Baseball's premier pitchers. He has eight All-Star game appearances to his name, and he played on that 2018 Boston Red Sox team that won the World Series championship over the Los Angeles Dodgers. Advertisement Now 36, he remains a vital asset for the Atlanta Braves. On Thursday, during a doubleheader against the Philadelphia Phillies, the Braves dropped the first game 5-4 but rebounded impressively to dominate the second contest, winning 9-3. During that second contest, Sale recorded his 2,500th career strikeout in fewer games than any other player, and MLB honored that accomplishment on its official X account. The Braves, who won the world championship in 2021, have struggled so far this season, especially since star right fielder Ronald Acuna Jr. was out of action until just days ago. They hold a 26-29 record, which puts them in third place in the National League East and 9.5 games behind the first-place Phillies. Atlanta Braves pitcher Chris Sale (51).Dale Zanine-Imagn Images Just last year, Sale not only got his eighth All-Star nod but also won the Cy Young Award, Gold Glove award and Triple Crown for the first time and led the majors with an earned run average of 2.38 and 225 strikeouts. Advertisement He had to overcome Tommy John surgery in 2020 in order to return to the heights he had enjoyed several years ago when he was a regular in baseball's midseason classic, and he responded with a career-best effort in 2024. Related: NBA Reacts to Postgame Handshake Between Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Anthony Edwards This story was originally reported by Athlon Sports on May 30, 2025, where it first appeared.
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30-05-2025
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Ex-Red Sox ace makes MLB history with strikeout milestone
Chris Sale continues to thrive with the Braves. The left-hander reached a new milestone on Thursday when he recorded his 2,500th career strikeout in the bottom of the sixth inning of Atlanta's game against the Philadelphia Phillies. Advertisement Not only did Sale join Justin Verlander, Max Scherzer and Clayton Kershaw as the only active MLB pitchers to reach the feat, he became the fastest pitcher to get there. Sale needed 2,026 innings, which beat legend Randy Johnson – who recorded 2,500 strikeouts in 2,107 ⅔ innings. You can view the strikeout here Sale, who was traded to the Braves in 2023 by the Boston Red Sox, has had a career resurgence with his new team. After Sale helped lift the Red Sox to a World Series title in 2018, he faced a slew of injuries the following years including Tommy John surgery. He also suffered a stress fracture in his ribcage, broke his pinky finger when he was drilled by a comebacker and broke his wrist riding his bicycle while rehabbing his finger. But in 2024, Sale went 18-3 with a 2.38 ERA, 225 strikeouts and a 1.013 WHIP en route to his first career Cy Young Award. More Red Sox coverage Read the original article on MassLive.
