- Indiana Day at Mooseheart, for more than a decade the last Sunday in July, has too often seemed to bring either heavy rain or humid 100-degree heat.
With a move to the middle Sunday of the month for 2007, the weather couldn't have been more perfect: Clear skies, 80 degrees and low humidity.
With numerous buses and scores of autos bringing a total of 820 men and women of the Indiana Moose along with family members to the Child City campus, the visitors reveled in the beautiful weather as they enjoyed District-by-District picnics, each complete with grilled burgers and bratwursts.
It almost seemed a shame to move the festivities indoors to the Fieldhouse for the 1:30 p.m. program.
But Mooseheart Executive Director Scott Hart was glad they did -- for inside the Fieldhouse, the Moose of the Hoosier State had fully four brand-new vehicles ready to formally present to the campus -- two 15-passenger vans, a pickup truck with snowplow, and a utility truck.
Indiana Moose Association President Ray Mitchell noted that the Moose of his state had raised "only" $100,000 of a Mooseheart-vehicles goal of $150,000 so far, therefore only four of a planned total of six vehicles could be purchased and presented. "But we should take care of the rest of that before the end of the year, I would hope," Mitchell said confidently.
As always, Indiana Day meant a happy bit of Christmas in July for dozens of Mooseheart children -- those hailing from the state of Indiana, those who are registered as Sunshine Children from Indiana Lodges and Chapters, and the elementary- and middle-school age girls who live in Indiana Home on the campus. These students beamed as they received an assortment of new bicycles and other gifts, gift cards, and checks (the latter of which are headed to the appropriate students' savings accounts).
And, the visiting Indiana Moose were entertained as well by flutist Sarah Reuter, 12, a sixth-grader at Mooseheart, who played both "One Hand, One Heart" from the Broadway musical West Side Story; and the traditional hymn "Amazing Grace" -- both accompanied on the keyboard by Mooseheart Band Director Steve Schmidt.
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