Jamie Shupak had just started her job as NY1’s first traffic reporter when she found out her fiancé, the man she’d been with exclusively the past decade, was cheating on her. The last time she’d been on the market, cell phones had only just started to feature built-in cameras, Google had eight employees, and Mark Zuckerberg was 15 years old.

Two students spend time outside the classroom at M&T Bank StadiumCourtney is a Ravens cheerleader and a Towson University senior. - Ana Martínez Chamorro/ The Towerlight. Like many of Towson University’s commuters, Courtney wakes up at 7 a.m. to prepare for an hour drive, drives in circles around a packed parking garage, and goes to her 9 a.m. class.

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Students Timothy Coyer, Ryan Bailey die in separate incidents. The Towson University community is mourning the loss of two Tigers who died in separate incidents within a 12-hour period. Ryan Bailey, a 20-year-old junior accounting major, was killed in a hit-and-run at the intersection of York Road and Washington Avenue on March 31 at approximately 1:45 a.m., according to the Baltimore County Police Liaison.

In 2010, after five years of education at Howard Community College and Towson University, Amber Dadourian became the first person in her family to graduate from college. A mass communication major looking to go into the field of journalism, Daourian thought having her bachelor’s degree would open doors and see her through the goals she set before even starting college.

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1 The comments are intended to provide insight, community conversation and civil debate. 2 You are solely responsible for the comments you make on this site. And while we do not edit or alter any comments, we reserve the right to remove comments that do n

In Disney’s “Brave,” curly-haired Scottish Princess, Merida is given a bow for her birthday, and under her father’s tutelage becomes a feisty teen archer besting her princely suitors bullseye after bullseye. Ray Brown’s 8-year-old daughter Katrina isn’t quite ready to show off her skills atop a galloping horse, but gaining experience with a bow beside her father has brought them together like arrow and string. “It was a very good experience for just us two,” Brown said. “We tend to bond a little more because of this kind of stuff.” Brown started shooting last year with a borrowed bow from his friend Tim Honeycutt. Honeycutt has been shooting since he was nine years old, and at age 49 has passed his decades of experience to new enthusiasts. “People like Ray I’ve showed really enjoyed it and will probably continue to do it long after I’m gone,” Honeycutt said.

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South-Central Indiana's Adventure Magazine

A group of novice golfers might feel intimidated or rushed by the serious professionals trailing them on the green. First time disc golf players at Rockville Lake Park’s course in Parke County, however, might meet a different breed of golfers. “If we come across some beginners, we can take an hour out of our time and show them how to better play,” said Jameson Hibbs, superintendent of Parke County Parks and Recreation. “There are a lot of advocates putting time and effort into growing the sport.” The “hippie craze” of the ‘70s and ‘80s propelled disc golf from college quads to more than 4,000 courses worldwide, player leagues, and championship competitions. Indiana is home to almost 100 courses, including the 18-hole course built in and around the woods of Rockville Lake Park. The rules of disc golf mirror those of ball golf. From a concrete tee pad, players “drive,” or throw, a disc toward a basket that serves as a hole. Different holes have different pars, or amount of throws allowed depending on difficulty and distance, to determine score. And like ball golf, players can carry multiple discs built for shots of varying distances and wind conditions, though any regular Frisbee will do. One of the main reasons Jameson thinks the sport is growing in popularity is because of the low cost for high benefit. Many courses are in free parks, and a $10 disc is all you need to play. “It’s a quick sport,” Jameson said. “You might walk a mile or so, get some exercise, but it doesn’t take the entire day.” The age range of players is wide as well. Jameson has seen kids under 10 to adults in their mid 70s playing, sometimes alongside one another. An 18-hole game can take as little as an hour to play, and unlike most team sports, peak physical fitness isn’t mandatory. “As an individual, I can go out anytime that suits my schedule … with a $9 piece of plastic and get full enjoyment of the game,” said Dennis Byrne, owner of The Disc Golf Company LLC. ”You just can’t do that with a lot of other sports.” Dennis has been designing disc golf courses for more than a decade, professionally since 2010. Dennis used the natural terrain of Rockville Lake Park and abundance of trees to design a course that’s “demanding of accuracy.” “What makes that course really unique for Indiana is, well, it’s Indiana. Indiana is pretty flat and open, and Rockville Lake is anything but,” Dennis said. “What I do as a course designer is offer players choices. Here’s the safe route: Given three reasonable shots, you’re going to make par. Here’s another route. If you take it, yes, there will be advantages, if you can pull it off.” Disc golf is an 80 percent mental and 20 percent physical game, according to Dennis. While golfers are playing to win, they’re also trying to best their personal records. “The guy who keeps his head together best, who controls the battles going on within your mind, is the player who’s going to play the best,” Dennis said. “It’s a game of individual self control. But at same time, if you’re not worried about that, not worried about score, you can go out and throw a Frisbee in park with your buds, maybe your dog, on a nice day when you’re not at work. What’s bad about that?” To start playing at a nearby course, Dennis and Jameson suggest using the Professional Disc Golf Association course directory, which also includes user reviews. “People are naturally competitive,” Jameson said. “It’s an easy sport for people to pick up and be halfway decent at it.”

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After a devastating event or situation, one might wish they could run off and join a circus. After her husband of 28 years left her, that’s exactly what Bernadette Pace did. As a trapeze artist with two decades of experience, she fit in the acts of circuses such as the Flying Valentines and the Flying Espanas, and even spent three months performing in Japan. That was almost 20 years ago. While most 69-year-olds might be cozy in retirement, Bernadette teaches a course on high-flying trapeze once a week in the backyard of her 1.2-acre Bloomington home. And when she’s not teaching, she’s practicing one of more than a dozen tricks. “I think everybody ought to have something that thrills them and will go on thrilling them until they die of old age. It keeps you alive, it keeps you vigorous,” Bernadette says. “Some people get old and depressed, and I’m just old.” Bernadette learned flying trapeze in the 1970s at the Denver Center YMCA and began performing with the Denver Imperial Flyers. “After I started flying, I absolutely loved flying, and I just knew I wouldn’t be able to live without it,” Bernadette said. In 1985, Bernadette moved into the Bloomington property she would use to teach what she figures in the last 30 years has been at least 1,000 people. She built the permanent trapeze in her backyard where her class is held, which usually has about six to ten students as young as 6-years-old to their mid-30s. Some students, her “frequent flyers,” have been practicing with her for 20 years. “It adds a richness to their lives,” Bernadette says. “If you can fly on the trapeze and do major tricks, you can do anything.” In 1985, she founded the High Flyers Family Circus, which hasn’t put on a show recently, as it is difficult to run a volunteer-based circus. Her students have also performed at the Buskirk-Chumley Theater in Bloomington. Several of Bernadette’s students have gone on to perform trapeze in circuses and teach flying. Cirque du Soleil juggler Steven Ragatz was one of Bernadette’s first flyers, and flyer Elizabeth Feldman has formed her own group, Flight Club. “The story is more than just mine. All of these people who’ve been doing it for these many years also have a story,” Bernadette says. Bernadette calls her backyard trapeze the best in the world. A soft net a flyer can fall into while practicing their tricks surrounds the swinging and catching bars. The equipment is taken down and inspected at least once a year to maintain safety standards. Once the temperature falls below 55 degrees, the net is taken down and flyers move inside the Twin Lakes Recreation Center in Bloomington to practice aerial silk, which also involves climbing and hanging from bars to perform tricks. Unlike riding a bike, flyers must continue to practice to perfect their tricks and timing. Bernadette doesn’t see herself stopping flying “until her hands fall off.” And though she went through a difficult period, Bernadette says she’s living her happily ever after high above the ground. “I don’t think there’s anybody who would say their life was not enriched by having flown on the trapeze,” Bernadette says.

When you think organic you think nature, and for owner and lead designer of Bigger Green Shaun O’Connor, it only made sense that his outdoor business would be organic. Bigger Green offers environmentally conscious gardening and landscaping, which can mean anything from the removal of invasive species by hand and without chemical pesticides and herbicides, to using local sources for soil and compost in place of fertilizers. Not using chemicals also creates a healthier working environment for O’Connor. “It’s more labor intensive, but in my opinion the end product, your now weed-free lot or whatever, is in better shape than it would be if poisoned by chemicals to get to same point,” O’Connor said. “People have been farming for thousands of years without chemicals, and I know if can be done in this day and age.” In business terms, organic growth is the increase in sales, profits and clients through utilizing a company’s internal resources. For some Bloomington businesses, organic growth has taken on new meaning: taking advantage of the benefits of offering organic products and services. From landscaping to clothing and cleaning products, these businesses have expanded the organic lifestyle beyond nutritional health benefits to organic living on the outside. Education, both for business owners and their customers, is often the first step in starting an organic culture. Because Indiana University holds such prominence in Bloomington, customers often already have knowledge about sustainable living and their personal environmental impact, or carbon footprint. About half of O’Connor’s client base is or was at one point affiliated with Indiana University. Many of the residents of Abodes Inc. Apartment properties are IU students, and at an age where education can have a maximum impact. “If we can teach these younger residents of ours how to live an eco-friendly way of life, when they move out of our apartments, maybe they get house of their own or get married, they may keep those habits they formed at an earlier age,” Property Manager for Abodes Inc. Heather VanNess said. Starting and maintaining an organic business comes at a high initial investment. Since 2011, Abodes has worked to implement chemical-free lawn care, install energy-efficient LED outdoor lighting, easily-accessible recycling bins, and at their larger complex, composting, which will eventually be available for resident use in small garden plots they can rent. Abodes also sells Earth Friendly Products cleaning supplies: everything from laundry detergent to window cleaner for resident use. The marketing opportunity of offering an organic way of living and visible increase in residents utilizing the implemented amenities is worth the money spent, according to VanNess. “We might not be seeing the benefits now, but in a few years we’ll see it paying off,” VanNess said. “Not every community here in town can say, ‘Oh, we have free recycling and composting and battery recycling here in our office.’” Many of these businesses are the first of their kind in the Bloomington area, or they offer the only organic options in their industry. “I think Bloomington has an open philosophy. We are one of first cities to incorporate organic supermarkets,” said Heather Murphy, founder and CEO of H.E. Organics, an organic clothing company. “It’s one of few cities in Indiana I see this in. Here it’s almost like a novel idea. It’s a growing market for sure.” In order for a garment to be certified organic by the United States Department of Agriculture, the cotton used for fabric cannot be grown with synthetic substances. Soil must be erosion controlled, and pest removal must be chemical free, among other regulations. Tracking down organic fabric manufactured in the United States and non-chemical dyes can be difficult, and Murphy has to buy some fabrics from India and Turkey. Sustainable products also lead to sustainable customers. Much of Bigger Green’s business is spread through word of mouth, according to O’Connor. After their first purchase, Murphy said her customers return to buy more items from her collections of women’s clothing. “A lot of times we seek clothes just because of the way they look. We don’t always seek to understand why we wear what wear and the purpose of wearing it,” Murphy said. “People received it [H.E. Organics clothing] because it felt good and it also looked really good. I’ve sold my clothes off of me.” Some businesses, however, don’t see the effort of tracking down organic sources paying off. For Judith Rose, vice president of Textillery Weavers, there’s a balance of what a business wants to accomplish with a product versus what it is made of. It is important for Textillery customers to have a soft warm blanket or throw first and foremost, then a product that’s handmade in the USA. Business owners like Textillery then have to pick and choose other qualities, such as using completely organic means to create a product, depending on available resources and feasibility. “You make choices. Because we make out products by hand, that’s their bonus point people pay extra for,” Rose said. “They’re not willing to pay for a second bonus point: much, much more expensive materials because they’re organic.” Textillery throws are made of eco-friendly materials like bamboo and rayon solution-dyed acrylics, but are not organic. And being organic isn’t necessarily better, Rose said. Not only are organic materials more expensive, the vibrant, long-lasting colors in Textillery throws can’t be made with organic dyes. “Having an organic label isn’t enough. It also has to be right product,” Rose said. “There are times when it’s not so bad to use chemistry.” Murphy was able to see the effects firsthand of being organic on the outside on the middle child of her three sons, who was born two months premature and continued to suffer from medical complications such as eczema as he grew older. Within a year and a half of wearing organic clothing, coupled with an organic diet, Murphy said she saw a difference in her son’s skin and allergies. Though she can’t directly correlate the organic clothing to her son’s health benefits, it demonstrated to her the possible effects of a person’s well-being should they choose an organic lifestyle. As a business, Murphy said just offering that option can impact a community. “Once voice make difference,” Murphy said. “If I’m a needle in the haystack, at least I’ll be a needle and not nothing at all.”

More than 100 years after the first residents of Brown County settled among the hills, forests and creeks, the communities have, in many ways, remained faithful to their roots. Few housing developments have disturbed the land, and much of the area is inaccessible to the pervasive technology of the 21st century. It was only in August that Charlene Marsh was able to replace her dial-up Internet with a high-speed connection. But the seclusion has helped keep one tradition alive for decades: the arts. Charlene has quite literally followed in the footsteps of artists like Theodore Clements “TC” Steele, hiking a trail through Yellowwood State Forest armed with only her backpack of oil paints, panels and palette knives. The great outdoors is her studio, and Charlene sets out to encapsulate an once-in-a-lifetime moment in nature. “I love capturing the energy of the forest or the flowers, the sights, sounds and smells of being on location,” Charlene says. “I just like that wild, raw energy of working on location. I always think of them [her paintings] as holograms for the forest. They’re a piece of the forest we can bring into our living space.” The style is known as en plein air, translated from French to “in the open air,” or painting outdoors. All of Charlene’s en plein air pieces are done on location in a single session, and once she’s finished, they are put away to dry without retouching, keeping the moment intact just as she saw it. As the first flurries of a winter snow settle on the ground, most people withdraw into their homes to watch through their windows. The same could be said for spring showers and high summer temperatures. As the saying goes, neither rain nor snow nor sleet nor winds can keep Charlene from hiking to new locations. “Sometimes I wonder, ‘Am I crazy to keep doing this?’ But I love it,” Charlene says. “I guess it’s kind of addictive.” Charlene has been a full-time artist her entire life, and has focused on her plein air paintings for about a decade. After receiving a degree in fine arts from Indiana University, she began fiber work, creating tapestries and rugs using a tufting process. Learning about dye in fiber work helped her with painting, as she only uses a few primary colors to create the hues she sees in nature. Charlene moved to her 5.5-acre property in Brown County in 1987, and created a distinct set of barns, sheds and a main house painted in shades of blue, turquoise and magenta. She has two cats and three dogs, all rescued animals, many from abusive homes. She also has two horses and tends gardens where she cultivates flowers she can paint in her indoor studio as well as en plein air. The repetitive motion of the tufting process began to cause issues in Charlene’s wrists, and by the mid-2000s, she had to give it up. On a whim, Charlene entered her oil paintings into a top-notch juried art show at the Milwaukee Art Museum, and to her surprise, she was accepted. “I thought, ‘Well maybe my paintings are better than I thought,’” Charlene says. Plein air painting keeps her tuned to the subtle changes of the seasons. She can recall when the first buds of spring appeared, to when the fall leaves changed colors to almost the exact dates, even from years past. “I get so dialed in to the subtle changes of the seasons,” Charlene says. ““It’s different every day. It’s different from morning to afternoon. It can be tricky trying to predict the weather.” When the weather is too harsh for outdoor painting, Charlene also does indoor studio work, which is based off her plein air paintings. The larger studio paintings, which are done over several days, take elements of her outdoor work, such as color and composition, to create new pieces. “Magic happens in the studio and in the field,” Charlene says. Charlene has sold more than 2,000 paintings, no two alike. She tries to keep as little of her work as possible, traveling across the country to show and sell her paintings, as well as run open houses in her personal gallery, which she opened on her Nashville property in 2010. Part of selling her paintings can involve talking with customers about where they should hang the paintings in their homes. Charlene uses feng shui, the Chinese art of placement, to decorate in her home and in the booths where she shows her work. She has studied feng shui since 1994, often with miraculous results. During a particular rough patch in her career, Charlene bought two ducks to put in the pond on her property. The pond is in the area of her property where feng shui adjustments, such as adding an animal presence, can activate “wealth.” “Within a week I got a phone call from a show … and they said, ‘Are you aware you won an award up there?’ I said, ‘No, what did I win?’ They said, ‘Well, you won the top award: $2,000,” Charlene says. “I thought two ducks, two thousand dollars, I’ve got to get more ducks!” But the ways to balance energy in the home aren’t exact science. She had success in sales after installing a woodstove in an area of her home that “should” have been enhanced by the opposite energies: cool colors and water elements. “I think a lot of feng shiu is how does this space make you feel,” Charlene says. “People say art is optional. It really isn’t, because it makes the heart sing. It creates an environment that uplifts the human spirit.” She continues to submit her work to juried art shows, where painting is often the most competitive category. For every 200 applications, 20 or less might be accepted. And Charlene’s oil paintings are, and often take home top awards. In June, her 2011 painting "Autumn Glory” received the Jury Prize of Distinction Award at the 80th Annual Juried Exhibition of the Indiana Artists Club. In July, she received a $2,000 Individual Artists Program grant from the Indiana Arts Commission to install high-speed Internet access in her home, and work on promotion materials for her personal gallery, Charlene designs all her marketing and promotional items, and keeps detailed records of all her paintings and sales. Without reliable Internet access, it was difficult to manage her self-run art business. With the grant, Charlene hopes to enter more juried shows, which often use online submission processes, and do more online marketing to promote her gallery, as well as regularly update her website to include more paintings and information. “I’m always happy when my favorite paintings sell because they’re going to a good home where they’ll be taken care of they’ll be enjoyed, and it inspires me to paint more,” Charlene says.

The rich variegated brown and red hues in furniture made of natural cherry wood, like snowflakes, are never found in the same piece twice. Contact with sunlight darkens the wood, and over time, an original pattern forms. Like the cherry wood kitchen cabinets, bookshelves, desks and even a piano in Chris and Jeanne Adamson’s home, every feature is unique to their needs and personalities. “This is a true blending of us,” Chris said of the 4,000 square foot Bloomington home. The home was the first built on one of 13 properties in the Foggy Morning Glen subdivision, which Chris and Jeanne developed and are working to market to would-be homeowners who want to be involved in every step of the building process, just as they were when their home was built in 2009. “We’re right next to the Pointe; we’re right next to the lake; we’re next to the highway, so you can go to either Bedford or Bloomington within a few minutes,” Chris says, “But still feel like you’re in the country, even though you have easy access,” Jeanne added. The acquisition of the land comprising Foggy Morning Glen came at a tumultuous time in the couple’s lives. In 2006, Chris, an emergency and part-time hospice physician, left his job to help start the emergency room at Monroe Hospital. He worked the first night shift at the Monroe Hospital emergency room, which is roughly a 12-minute commute from their home. “Not many physicians get an opportunity to start your emergency program from the very beginning at a brand new hospital,” Chris says. “It was a once in a lifetime opportunity I had to take.” Jeanne and Chris were married in 2007 and began construction on Foggy Morning Glen in 2008. Jeanne retired from her position as office manager in a medical office, and is now using her managing and secretarial skills to transition to dedicated to working on marketing, taking care of homeowners association, and keeping track of Chris’s schedule (“It’s a full time job,” Chris joked.) “It was a juggling act to be sure,” Chris says. “A lot of stress; we put ourselves out on the line there quite a bit.” The extensive building process was the only way to ensure the home would accommodate all of the Adamson’s wants and needs, from the adjusted height of the master bathroom counters to fit the tall couple, to the east-to-west arc of the sun over the home in a full day. “They say when you build a house, it’ll either make you go through a divorce or it will bring you closer. And in our case, it brought us closer,” Chris says. Chris remembers only a few disagreements during the building, and Jeanne remembers winning most of them. Chris and Jeanne’s similar personalities and backgrounds made for an easier building. Both are in their second marriage, have two grown children each, and before moving to Foggy Morning Glen, lived in condos. “All of this stuff was in boxes and storage units. We just didn’t have room for all of our things,” Jeanne said. “We were wondering if we’d be able to fill up all our closet space, and then we got here, and we definitely have done that.” Few walls and doors enclose areas, and large windows high ceilings contribute to an open atmosphere. The master bedroom and bathroom are on the west side of the house, with a see-through fireplace over the tub built into the wall that connects the rooms. Chris’ office is also in the west end of the home, and custom-built cherry wood shelves hold books, photos and items that tell his life story. The local craftsmanship of Amish builders gave Chris the freedom to design the space himself. “Custom means that you can have what you want,” Chris said. “When you go and buy something that’s already in the box, you have to work around what’s there. In this case, you get to them what you want and they have to make it in the space.” The bulk of the ground-level space is devoted to the kitchen, dining room and breakfast nook. A major goal in building their new home was to be able to host a holiday family gathering. Jeanne and Chris come from extended families, and a “small” gathering can still be more than 50 strong. The kitchen appliances are all stainless steel, from the fridge and double ovens, to a pullout microwave drawer built into a cherry wood cabinet. “We thought we’d rather do that then take up space on the countertops,” Jeanne says. A warming drawer and butler’s pantry are perfect for cooking and serving large holiday meals. “To bad we don’t have a butler,” Chris joked. A family room with a home-entertainment system and a living room with a cherry wood piano are also on the ground floor. The piano is a fixture of the home Jeanne had never experienced at previous residences, and will help her fulfill a lifelong dream. “Since I was a child, I always wanted to play the piano, but my parents couldn’t afford a piano, so they said it would be silly to take the lessons if you couldn’t practice,” Jeanne said. “It’s always been something I’ve wanted to do all my life, but was never in a position [to do].” You can tell family is important to the Adamsons from photos lining the walls that serve as the home’s primary decorations. Other art that decorates the home is local, or canvas photos the Adamsons or extended family members have taken during one of their many trips outside Indiana. Chris and his son brought home a large woven tapestry after hiking the Inca Trail in Machu Picchu, which now hangs on a wall in the family room. While the lower level of the Adamson’s home features rooms and décor for Chris and Jeanne’s day-to-day life, the rooms upstairs were designed to accommodate visiting family members. A family tree of photographs, reaching as far back as photos Chris and Jeanne’s grandparents taken in the 1920s, takes up a portion of the hallway wall upstairs. The “Yellow Room,” the furthest room to the east, is for their two granddaughters. By placing the room on the opposite side of the master bedroom, playtime noise and bouts of tears won’t echo through the home. And the room’s neutral color will accommodate any future children welcomed into the family, as will the wooden crib Chris originally built for his kids. You can still see his daughters teething marks in the wood. Chris has a woodworking shop in the basement, and Jeanne already has a few items in mind Chris can make for the home. The second guest bedroom is the “Blue Room,” and the décor is military inspired. Chris served as a jet engine mechanic in the Navy from 1980-1986, and portraits of other family members in service are framed on the walls. A rec room to the far west of the home fits everything else, from a small bar, exercise equipment, a collection of signed celebrity memorabilia, and glass cabinets of Chris’ collectables, including patches from every place he’s visited. While Jeanne and Chris have a few planned additions to the home, such as a separate woodshop and the installment of a saltwater aquarium in the living room, Chris says the dust has mostly settled in the building process of their home and the Foggy Morning Glen subdivision. The couple can now enjoy the fruits of their labor with their “spoiled rotten” Australian Shepherd Dakota, the child Jeanne says she and Chris could never have together. Dakota guards the 80-acre property and brings in the paper for Jeanne and Chris to read on their partially- enclosed deck while overlooking their 22-acre backyard, which will remain a nature conservatory. “Truly, many mornings, it is foggy, which is where we got the name for the subdivision,” Jeanne says.