Portage Fire and Police Departments Host Bicycle Rodeo

Kids showed up 30 minutes early Saturday morning for Portage’s annual Bicycle Rodeo, hosted by the Portage Fire and Police departments.

Angela Rosales, who brought her two boys Christian, 8, and Alex, 6, said, “We’ve been counting down the days until the bike safety day. They wouldn’t let me forget! And of course, I want my kids to be safe and to learn the rules of the road.”

The Willowcreek Middle School parking lot was transformed into a simulated city, complete with road signs, obstacle courses, pedestrian crossings, railroad crossings, and one-way streets. Firefighters manned the course, giving guidance and safety tips in key areas.

One highlight of the course was the Portage Police’s radar trailer, which showed the kids how fast they were riding. As kids smiled and pumped their pedals as hard as they could, some reached 15 miles an hour, highlighting the need for helmets.

Continue reading this story at The Times.

Mom to the World - Judy Engel

Judy Engel never dreamed she would be a mom to so many.

“We always said we were stopping with three kids,” Judy Engel said. “Then, we added 57 more ... from 23 different countries.”

Engel and her husband, Phil, started hosting international students in their home in Portage in 1997 through a short-term exchange program with the Lions Club. In this program, international students would come from and stay with a host family for six weeks at a time to experience American culture from the inside.

Within a few years, Engel was coordinating the exchange program for Northwest Indiana.

Then, Francisco changed their lives. Two days before he left Brazil to study in America, his host family backed out. Judy and Phil agreed to fill in on a temporary emergency basis. He moved out eight years later.  

“A few days after he arrived, we knew God wanted him to live with us,” Judy said.

Continue reading this story at the NWI Times.