Juneteenth, the annual celebration of the official end of slavery, was rained out June 15. And now the rescheduled version will be 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday along Fourth Street in downtown Columbus.

The day was first celebrated in 1865, when Texas became the final Confederate state to free its slaves, three years after the Emancipation Proclamation, such was the slow pace of news and change in those days.

The event is free, and will feature food live music from performers such as Columbus singer-songwriter Zoe Tucker, information booths and more, according to organizers.

The Bartholomew County Area Chapter of the NAACP organizes the event. 

Since the day began being marked locally in 2001, area NAACP members have said that they see Juneteenth partly as a way to celebrate diversity in general and black culture in particular. Some years in the past, a religious observance and a musical celebration were conducted on separate days of the same weekend as the larger overall event.

The Indiana Arts Commission has awarded 10 local organizations and entities, ranging from orchestras to cultural festivals, grants totaling more than $64,000 for the 2020 fiscal year.

The Columbus Indiana Philharmonic, with an annual budget of $1 million, landed the largest amount with $16,876, to be used as part of its general operating budget. Margaret Powers, Philharmonic executive director, said the funds are significant not only in dollars, but in acknowledging the challenge of arts-related fiscal health.

“It’s a recognition that arts organizations sometimes have a difficult task raising money for general operating expenses,” Powers said.

She pointed out that orchestral concert ticket sales account for only about 25 percent of the organization’s operating expense.

The professional orchestra’s budget and funding story is significant, especially at a time when many orchestras have struggled or disbanded.

The Columbus Area Arts Council will receive $11,042, which goes toward general operating expenses and general program support, according to Kathryn Armstrong, arts council executive director.

“One of the things we particularly appreciate about our partnership with the state (agency) is its effort in bringing more awareness that we’re a state filled with strong interdisciplinary arts programs with very creative people making Indiana even more interesting,” Armstrong said.

Our Hospice of South Central Indiana will use its $5,000 grant partly for fees for performers for its Broadway memories concert it successfully launched last summer to help patients with dementia via the national Music & Memory program. The 2019 concert is scheduled in September.

According to the arts commission, the Bartholomew County Public Library will use its $2,000 grant related to expenses for two art classes in conjunction with its 50th anniversary celebration of the Cleo Rogers Memorial Library building that is a part of the Bartholomew County Public Library.

In one class, participants will make fabric dolls in honor of late librarian Cleo Rogers. In another, participants will sketch the building and its surroundings.

Other agencies and their grant totals are:

Dancers Studio Inc., $7,356

Columbus Symphony Orchestra, $6,383

Columbus Scottish Festival. $5,000

Ethnic Expo, $5,000

Columbus City Band, $5,000

Ivy Tech Community College, $500

Lewis Ricci, a former executive director of the Columbus Area Arts Council, is executive director of the Indiana Arts Commission.

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To view the complete listing of organizations statewide that received grants from the Indiana Arts Commission, go online at in.gov/arts/2337.htm.

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COLUMBUS, Ind. —  In 2019, an average of 35 percent of Bartholomew Consolidated School Corp. students in Grades 6-12 reported feeling sad or hopeless for two or more weeks in a row — a nearly 5% increase since 2017, according to the Indiana Youth Survey.

This year, about 17% of BCSC students in Grades 6-12 reported that they had considered suicide at least once. Just over 14% of students in Grades 6-12 said they made a plan about suicide once in their life.

BCSC said 2018-19 was the first school year since 2008 when it did not have a youth suicide in its district.

Members of the Columbus community are stepping up to the plate to ensure no more lives are lost to suicide. Through peer mentoring, trauma-informed care, counseling programs and even a national initiative called Hope Squad, people of all ages across Columbus are starting the conversation.

Please read Friday’s edition of The Republic for more details.

Doug Leonard, former president and CEO of Columbus Regional Health and the Indiana Hospital Association, will take the reins of Bartholomew County’s Alliance for Substance Abuse Progress beginning July 8.

Leonard will succeed interim executive director Jeff Jones, who will remain on in an advisory capacity during the transition. The ASAP board of directors named Leonard executive director on Wednesday.

“Doug brings vast experience in the health care field, as well as exceptional leadership capabilities, and will be a great asset for many years to come,” said Mark Stewart, president of the ASAP board of directors and United Way of Bartholomew County.

Leonard served as the president and CEO of Columbus Regional Health from 1997 to 2007 after 20 years in various roles at Columbus Regional Hospital. He was named president of the Indiana Hospital Association in 2007 and retired from that role in 2017.

“With ASAP Inc. now established as an ongoing not-for-profit organization, Doug’s leadership experience and commitment to our community makes him a perfect match for this role,” Jones said. “I know that ASAP will be in great hands under Doug.”

Leonard said he started seeing material about ASAP in 2017 and was impressed by its organization and roots.

“It was really a more complete and thoughtful model than I had seen from other parts of the state who were trying to tackle this issue,” Leonard said. “I actually began using the model that Columbus developed as a recommended way for hospitals in the association to go about handling the opioid epidemic.”

When he was approached by Columbus Mayor Jim Lienhoop and Jones about Jones’ upcoming departure and the vacancy, Leonard said he knew this was a worthwhile opportunity that had “real importance and real meaning to the city.”

Leonard said his first goal is to learn a lot.

“I have been only an observer from the outside,” Leonard said. “While I think I can learn really quickly, I have not been a part of the group that has put this great structure together.”

One area he hopes to develop is how the city measures success when it comes to true recovery. For example, Leonard said although the number of prescribed opiates has dramatically decreased, he wonders how many of those people who are no longer receiving prescription drugs have turned to heroin, methamphetamine or something else.

“While the prescriptions have dropped, it doesn’t necessarily mean success and solving the addiction problem,” Leonard said.

“If we could get to the point where we talk about lives saved from addiction, families not broken up because of addiction, people not jailed because of addiction — all those would be great, but recovery is the area we need to focus on most. How do you measure the number of people who successfully left the criminal justice system or found their way to treatment?”

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Doug Leonard

Hometown: South Bend, Indiana

Current residency: Columbus

Career: Columbus Regional Health (30 years), Indiana Hospital Association (10 years)

Education: Indiana University Northwest; IUPUI

Family: Laura, wife; daughter, Annie; son, Ben; son-in-law, Jon; daughter-in-law, Mollie

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The Alliance for Substance Abuse Progress in Bartholomew County was launched in April 2017 to develop a community-wide response to the opioid crisis.

The ASAP leadership team was established and Jeff Jones, a retired Cummins Inc. executive, volunteered as ASAP executive director. A group of local health care and criminal justice system executives agreed to a two-year commitment to lead action teams to identify gaps in the substance abuse treatment system and to prioritize and implement solutions.

In October 2017, ASAP announced its strategy to address opioid addiction and substance abuse based on prevention, intervention, treatment and recovery.

To learn more, visit asapbc.org.

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