We've counted down our top stories for NWIndianaLife.com through our individual sections - Business, Sports, Entertainment, Health, Features, Community, Video and Photos - and now we're looking to crown our absolute best stories of the 2015 calendar year.
Take a look below at our picks and leave a comment below with what the best good-news story that you read was this year!
Hobart and Gary West Side: Two Schools, One Team, Forever
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For 48 minutes two teams turn into enemies out there amidst the dirt and the chalk on the football field. For 48 minutes, there is nothing else on these athlete’s minds than victory at the expense of their opponent.
And then the final whistle blows, the crowd turns from a deafening roar of cheers to a methodical shuffling of feet, and the 48 minutes of battle are over.
Pierogi Fest 2015 Was Fun in its Purest Form
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Thousands of people packed historic 119th street in the City of Whiting on Friday for Pierogi Fest; a celebration of some delicious dumplings and the heritage they represent.
But while the Eastern European delicacy was the namesake of the festival, it shared the spotlight this evening with Whiting and its residents.
A Northwest Indiana Life in the Spotlight: Kyle Whitaker
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During his collegiate swimming career, although academics, training, and competition dominated the majority of his time, he still somehow found time for community service. He spent time visiting patients in the pediatric unit of hospitals, volunteered at community events and the restoration project of the Yankee Air Museum, and held swim clinics and camps. He also worked with a program called, Tweak, that trained athletes ranging from age group to triathletes.
Outside the pool, Kyle has a passion for military history, specifically WWII, and shared his love of collecting memorabilia from this era which he stores in his room at home. His family affectionately describes his room as, the “museum.” It’s not difficult to understand his passion for this given both his maternal and fraternal grandfathers are Navy veterans.
Crown Point is Putting Itself on the Map with New Sports Complex
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For those who live in or spend a good amount of time in Crown Point, you know that big changes are happening in the city, namely on 109th Avenue.
A 95-acre athletic campus is being built, the Crown Point Sportsplex, and it will provide tons of opportunities for not only the City of Crown Point, but for amateur sports teams, youth sports teams and clubs, businesses, and enthusiasts all over the country.
#1StudentNWI: Remembering A Wonderful Student at River Forest High School
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Remembering Haley Kay Ralph
Sad times have hit River Forest in this month of November. Shortly after school on November 11th, beloved freshman Haley Ralph was in an ATV accident. Haley’s injuries required being airlifted to a hospital in South Bend. As River Forest is a small and close-knit school, the entire school felt the impact of this tragic accident. Though times were dark, the wave of love and support from the River Forest family soon illuminated the entire community.
A prayer gathering, led by senior Cy Muraida, was held after school the following Friday. Over 70 Ingots stood hand in hand in the cold fall weather to pray for their fellow Ingot. Shortly afterward, a candlelight vigil was held at Columbus Park. Faces young and old gathered to show their support and love. A GoFundMe account was started up to help the Ralph family with medical expenses, and immediately donations began pouring in. Within a single day, over two thousand dollars were raised from over 30 different donors. The outpouring of love and togetherness was unlike anything that River Forest had ever seen before.
Home: The Story of Juan Lamar and a Region Unified
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It was the first week of sectionals when the tweet came out about Portage High School Superfans’ weekly color theme for their sectional matchup against Lake Central.
Naturally, it had to be some combination of black, red, and white, I thought. After all, this was Sectionals. This was the Superfans’ chance to show off the pride that has pulsed through Portage the entire year through all the ups and downs of the season; their chance to turn their student section at Lake Central into a sea of Indian school colors.
Chesterton Football's Sammie Campaniello: Kicking Down Barriers
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Fate.
That little notion that everything happens for a reason and good things do come to good people, we just don’t know when and we just don’t know where. We just have to keep working and keep trying, with the belief that someday we will have our moment.
Ideas in Motion Media Launches Massive Redesign of Good News LIFE Sites
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Ideas in Motion Media announces a massive redesign to its Northwest Indiana-based positive news websites, ValpoLife.com, PortageLife.com, LaPorteCountyLife.com and NWIndianaLife.com, including a new mobile-friendly responsive web design, a beautiful and easy to navigate photo gallery layout, and an array of improvements that allow top unique content that we create to be showcased in article, video, and photo form throughout each site.
The sleeker, more flexible design also features faster page loading, brings easier access to the signature Ideas in Motion Media Photo Library, featuring more than 330,000 photos of positive events, and more accurately reflects the unique, original content being produced by the Ideas in Motion Media team on the LIFE sites.
2015 Northwest Indiana Graduation Station
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Of all the events we see throughout the year, graduations and commencements are the ones that most embody our good news mission. To see all the hard work put in and out of the classroom by students, parents, teachers, coaches, families and friends culminate in one event, with everyone across the school celebrating the same thing, it's just awesome.
We will have literally thousands of photos from the Class of 2015, just like we did last year, and we couldn't be happier to share these shots of all of these thousands of Northwest Indiana's best and brightest students.
2015-16 Whiting Football Story Comes to a Close; Community Thanks Them for the Ride
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Buy the ticket; take the ride. That’s how the old saying goes, and it’s never been more true for this incredible storybook season of Whiting football in 2015. Everyone in attendance today for the 2A State Championship, including what seemed like the entire town of Whiting in the stands, knew that this story had to come to a close today; it was just unfortunate it ended in a 33-6 loss at the hands of Monrovia.
Both teams stuck with their game plans that had got them to this point, and Whiting executed their game plan just as well as it had on their way to a 13-1 record. Just, sometimes in life no matter how hard you play, or how aligned the stars seem to be, you lose.