Lakeview and Edgewood student-athletes present a check for $2,500 to the Cancer Care Fund of Kosciusko, which they raised at their annual Pink Out Game.

WARSAW — Warsaw Community Schools fourth graders took a blast to the past back on Aug. 25 at Harrison Elementary, and last night, Sept. 19, the WCS School Board discussed how the event went.

Warsaw’s David Robertson jumped right into it upon taking the podium and soon after joked about the cops not getting called this year about the cannon going off. Along with its lack of cops however, the event, “Back to the Days of Kosciusko County”, saw improvements just in the year since rebooting the program.

Last year was the first year for the event after it stopped being held years ago. After the bicentennial event last year, several people stepped up to jumpstart the program back up. They coordinated the event and built it to what it is today with help from local supporters including but not limited to Rabb Water and Kosciusko Community Foundation. “We really feel passionately that the study of history informs our decisions today as we look forward, and we want our kids to know that as well,” stated Robertson.

The event turned out 156 fourth grade students from the WCS area, added students from Warsaw Christian and Sacred Heart and utilized 100 Warsaw High School Students including freshman Audrey Carl who lead the blacksmithing station. “She’s been doing 4-H blacksmithing for years, and so they brought the whole forge out and she was doing a lot of work with the students, really showing them the work she does,” explained Robertson.

However, she was not the only local exhibitor at the event. According to Robertson, most of the “representatives are from right here within the county” along with Audrey Carl.

There’s such a rich local history that we like its important to have that event in the year that hopefully inspires students.” The event held 12 station with local presenters from Wabash, Warsaw and surrounding areas. Some stations included Miami Nation, rope making, blacksmithing, tractors and spinning. Robertson pointed out how “some of (the) kids have never been around machinery like that; they’ve never had the chance to be on or climb on it, see it get start up so that was a really neat station for the kids.”

The Miami Nation station was a new addition to the living history event and was missing from the event last year, according to Robertson. At the station, students learned about the Miami Tribe from local Matt Gains. He taught the students about the tribe’s impact on the county as well as where they are currently. “When you look at our local history in this part of the state, that’s a huge piece of it,” stated Robertson. “We were able to have that tribe represented this year, and it was just really neat to hear from them not only the history of the tribe but where they are at currently as a tribe. “

The coordinators of the event raised $7,664 to support the event’s expenses.

In other news:

• Edgewood and Lakeview Middle Schools raised $2,500 for the Cancer Care Fund of Kosciusko at their annual Pink Out football game.
• WCS Board approved permission to advertise the 2018 budget.
• The board adopted the resolution to re-establish formation of a building corporation.
• Warsaw Schools board approved Mike Miller as the construction manager for the Student Activity Center.
• The board approved the NESP Grant.