If you know me at all, you know I have a deep appreciation for everything grassroots. I prefer…read moresmall mom n' pop diners. I love small, hole-in-the-wall businesses. I also really love grassroots special events, fundraisers, and activism. Joe's Show is a definite grassroots fundraiser, a music/arts showcase type of event started 14 years ago by Tom and Heather Dane as a fundraiser to support the growing medical expenses they were experiencing due to their son Joe's multiple health concerns. Initially held at a local bar, the soon to be annual event featured everything you'd expect from a small, grassroots fundraiser. Joe's Show grew. It possessed a communal spirit, something which tends to be true when you immerse yourself in the community of families who have children with disabilities, and Heather became more and more active in the disability community and eventually she and Tom became parents to a second child with significant health issues. Eventually, Joe's Show grew to become an outdoor event at an area on Indy's Northside in the Ravenswood neighborhood. It's a weirdly beautiful setting on private property, though the event itself is held at a building known as "The Fishing Shed," which I understand to have at one point actually been some sort of official fishing type of shop. It's a rustic and beautiful little place and the outdoor area, which is close to a couple of Indianapolis parks, offers a waterside view and a surface that is lightly graveled, mostly dirt paths yet surprisingly friendly to wheelchairs. My familiarity with Joe's Show comes out of my being a co-worker of Heather's. She continues to be immersed in the disability community (I also work in the disability community) and her social circle is obviously broad and diverse, though I certainly won't leave her husband Tom out of that equation. During the event's 12th year, sadly, the inspiration for the show, Joe, passed away at the age of 12 not long before the show was to be held. The Dane's made the decision to continue the event, at least that year, and decided to give proceeds to a non-profit where Heather worked at the time. As someone who has lost a child myself, I can assure you the grief remains a constant and at some point the decision was made to continue Joe's legacy by continuing the show as a benefit for other families experiencing significant medical costs. For the last two years, they've picked a child's family each year and proceeds went to the family to support medical expenses. If you don't resonate with that cause, just close up shop and donate your heart because you're obviously not using it. The event is typically held in September. As you might expect, it is attended by lots of families and you will definitely see both children and adults with disabilities. The event is outdoors. It's not what I would call particularly wheelchair friendly, but when you're in a true "community" everything really kind of becomes accessible. I pulled into the area unsure about parking, but it seems to be a "park wherever you can find space" kind of deal. I didn't hear a single complaint about a single thing. I mean, seriously. Admission is $5 - a stunning price for an afternoon of entertainment and community. The event starts around 3pm and includes several bands - for example, this year included Shadeland, Tracksuit Lifestyle, Giant Not Giant, Old Revel Minds, and Glamerica. The event had a raffle with some very cool items, food, a bake sale, games, plenty of space to just sort of play outdoors (the waterside was actually roped off to prevent a tragic accident), face painting, a balloon artist, and much more going on. I believe everyone donated their time and talent, while raffle tickets were $1 and baked goods were on a donation basis. In other words, EVERYONE was there because they cared. As a side note, there's also a golf event that benefits Joe's Show that happens about a week or so before the actual event. Joe's Show is well organized, the design of the event area is impeccable with lots of room for people, play, relaxation, and wheelchair mobility (both power chairs and manual). They had port-a-potties that were sponsored for the event. The sound system is fantastic - loud enough that you can hear it in the back, yet not so blaring that you can't enjoy conversation. If there's one thing I appreciated most about Joe's Show, though, it's simply the sense of community throughout the event. There's an authenticity and emotional resonance to the show that you simply can't fake and you'll find yourself wanting to immerse yourself in. The fundraising is important, and definitely mentioned, but it's compassionate reinforcement and done without an ounce of manipulation. Joe's Show has a Facebook page, though I don't believe the effort has an actual website. It's a definite 5-star effort and afternoon of entertainment, community, and compassion.

This event had so many great vendors! The Beauty Bar at Geist, Merle Norman, The Dry Bar and Reveal…read moreBy Polish just to name a few. We started out the afternoon with a wine slushy from Daniel's Vineyard. Then the keynote speaker Nicole Pence Becker gave us the low down on self-love and self-care. We even got to see a makeup demonstration from Merle Norman. Then we all headed upstairs to the Love Loft to get pampered. All of the vendors had a booth set up to pamper you. I was lucky enough to have my hair done, make up applied, a wonderful hand message and spray tan on my arms! I wish there was an event like this once a month not once a year for Mother's Day! Thank you to all of the vendors that made this a great afternoon.

Had a great time at the Mamahood event with 150 plus other ladies, hosted by theCityMoms. A great…read morething about this event is that it was open all women, not just moms. A unique experience seeing women of all ages as well, some grandmas and aunts, and of course moms too. It started with a key note speaker who spoke the main downstairs area. There were a ton of great giveaways and each lady got a goodie bag as they arrived. There was an option to purchase a VIP tickets, which included an additional goody bag and a wine slushie. After the speaker, everybody was released to go explore all the offenders that were set up upstairs. this range from massages, to facials, to candles, to boutique, and even airbrush tanning. Many of the vendors were doing minis of their product, whether this be hair or massages, etc. Daniel's Vineyard was on hand selling glasses of wine and wine slushies. Their pizza was available for all the guests to snack on as they shopped & browsed. Love they're fire cooked pizzas!

We had a birthday party for my grandson's 10th birthday ay YES Gaming this past weekend. You can…read morerent the whole facility for a party, including three gaming rooms and a party room. The 17 kids in attendance were in heaven. The owner is very engaged and upbeat. His two young helpers were active in getting the kids connected online with their preferred game. The space is safe and contained, with restrooms and a drink vending machine. We were able to bring in snacks and cake. Perfect parent solution=have the fun somewhere other than at home.

The Indy Ignite is so much fun and helps anchor Indiana as a volleyball state!…read more My visit was the collegiate night, which actually was a double header with an IU/Purdue scrimmage beforehand. I was part of one of the Purdue groups, which featured a fireside chat with the owners of the Ignite. It was interesting to hear about their role in building up Ignite and the Major League Volleyball with that. I was in a group suite for this experience, which has the private seating at the top of the arena and catered food! It was all very good. We had pulled pork sliders with kettle chips and a tortellini salad. I really enjoyed the cookie and brownie platter though! Volleyball as a game is always fun to watch, and moves pretty quickly. I don't know much about the game but I think they do well at explaining the calls. Aside from the game, they have the Fire Starters for courtside entertainment and crowd hype. They also have different audience games between sets as well. The mascot, Pepper, also makes her way around. The season for MLV isn't too long because it's a smaller league, but hopefully league expansion will extend the season and make more games available!

This was a lot of fun to watch. A member of the Major League Volleyball. League, a team of about 10…read moreto 12 players from around the country. Competing against the number of other teams from around the country. They play their home games in Fisher's event center, a 7500 seat arena. The atmosphere is fun, pretty much a local crowd, and the game I was at filled up about 2/3 of the arena. Concessions restrooms group, suite, areas, and plenty of things to do. They have a fan fest area on the lower floor as you enter, with activities for kids in an opportunity to take pictures. A part of the festivities include fan engagement during timeouts, halftime, pregame. Autographed signing after the game and T-shirt, throw, giveaways, contest, on screen activities, make the experience a lot of fun. All of the people working the doors were very helpful and friendly, with smiles on their faces. In addition, they have cheerleaders/dance team called the fire starters, and they kept the crowd energized and did a performance during the break. They have a mascot called pepper and she is a lot of fun. Highly recommend this experience for people that have not seen the high energy professional volleyball activity before.

We had a delightful tour with former Carmel Fire Chief Jim Martin and his trusty fire dog, Sparky…read more Jim opened the museum just for us and patiently explained the different engines, their eras, and various firefighting equipment on display. This display is certainly a labor of love for Jim and other fire fighters, especially Sparky! There is no charge, but on the front of one of the engines is a QR code for donating (be generous). And Sparky happily accepts treats!

The museum is by appointment only but I highly recommend calling Jim and setting a time to see the…read moreexhibit. There are several firetrucks on display and Jim let my 5yo and 2yo climb into the trucks, ring the bells, and sound the horns. Jim knew the history of the trucks and where they came from and had a phenomenal display. An enjoyable experience for all young and old.

Nice place nice people children are welcome the atmosphere is nice the people are great even the…read morepeople that work there are okay LOL but I recommend it to anyone especially people that have children because it definitely has a child atmosphere where the kids can play and they have things for the kids to do a lot of things as for everybody the adults to do and this Saturday Friday I think today is Friday and Saturday they're having some kind of thing going on and anybody ever wanted to come come on come on enjoy yourself it's great

I was planning for my daddy's funeral. Well today we were supposed to be having my daddy's repast…read moreat Moose Lodge 17. After talking with someone last week and the week before. They said someone was suppose to be there. My family had food that had cooked for my daddy's repast. Waiting on them so I could paid deposit. No one showed up. Our food was getting cold. They don't get no stars from me or my family. This place is not recommendable to any body. I will never have any events

Five stars all the way for the Pendleton Historical Museum! The displays are wonderful to look at…read moreand the people who volunteer there go out of their way to help you if you ask about specific things you want to know about. I wasn't able to see this place the first time I came to Pendleton after it was built in 1997 because we only spent one day here and it was a weekday. The museum is only open on the weekends. The next time I came to town I made sure to be here by a Sunday just so that I could come to the museum and I was extremely disappointed when I found out they were only open through October so I wasn't able to see it in 2007 either. When I came back in 2008 it was August and I had more time to spend in town so I went to the museum two or three different times. One thing that makes it fun for me is that it is housed in the old Bathhouse where my brother and I used to go when we wanted to swim in the town pool, a dammed-up section of Fall Creek, in the summers during visits to my grandparents. We would go in the front, pay our 10 cents, change out of our clothes which we were probably wearing over our swimsuits, put the clothes in a locker and go out the door on the Falls Creek side to the town swimming area which had steps leading down to the water, a long slide and a diving board. The swimming area closed in the seventies or eighties due to contamination but it looks like it has gotten cleaned up quite a bit since then. I'm glad the old building wasn't torn down and was turned into the Historical Museum instead. I guarantee you won't see everything in one visit because there are so many items there. Many of them have been donated to the museum or the Historical Society while others are on loan. Probably my favorite is all the old pictures, among which I'm always able to pick out a few relatives and ancestors and old family friends. This is the town that my mother grew up in and when I did genealogy research I discovered my mother's side of the family went back four or five generations to the early 1800's. That made looking through the museum and the local cemeteries even more interesting. Among their collections they have old appliances, a player piano with a dozen or so piano rolls, vintage clothing that belonged to various residents, magazines, newspapers, a complete collection of all the yearbooks from the only High School in town starting in 1916 or so and enough extras they're able to sell some to people for $25 each. There are postcards for sale with sketches of vintage buildings, some books on local history you can buy, and a donation jar if you want to contribute to help keep the museum running. If you get into Pendleton on a weekend from April through October be sure to stop in and walk around!

My wife and I are visiting from Florida and I made a point to stop by the Pendleton Museum. The…read moredisplays are fantastic and the history shown is amazing. I enjoyed every moment of my walkthrough.

This is such a great place. If you are in the Newcastle area or anywhere close, you should make a…read moretrip over here. Everything has been updated and is in such great shape. Something you don't always see at bowling alleys these days. They continue to upgrade and make it even better. We have our Christmas party here every year and it is so great every year. The food is excellent and the atmosphere is wonderful. Have a great bar, tons of lanes, and they do something called hyper bowling, which is so much fun. Not a place to miss if you are in the Newcastle area.

Took my son and granddaughter and it was a great experience! This is the first time we've been…read moresince they remodeled and it's really nice now. It no longer has a funky smell and it looked so much cleaner. While the guy getting us set up for our game of bowling could have been a little more pleasant we still had a nice time. Food was a little pricey. Great bowling! Great arcade! And great food.