WINONA LAKE – The Northern Indiana Lakes Festival will have interactive arts activities this year thanks to a Kosciusko Leadership Academy white paper project. The Lakes Festival is June 7-9 in Warsaw and Winona Lake. The Run for Others 5K, part of the festival for the past three years, also has a new starting point this year. During the festival, Amanda Zambrano, 2013 KLA graduate, with group members Ginger Packer and Sheena White, will implement their project titled “Art Around the Lakes.” “When our KLA group set out to promote the arts within the community, we needed an avenue to engage a large audience,” Zambrano said. “By developing an arts component within this existing festival we will immediately provide a way for our community to interact with the arts.” This will include a lake-themed art display to showcase local artists. The group is looking for artists to submit their lake-themed pieces for viewing. Artwork by the winners of the 2013 Wonderful Water Student Art Contest also will be on display. In addition to viewing artwork, festival attendees will be able to create their own works of art through stations like watercolor bubble art, a chalk walk, a community canvas, a fish coloring contest, fish prints and sand bottle art. There also will be an instrument “petting zoo” for community members to try out musical instruments. To submit lake-themed artwork for the display, go to www.lakesfestival.org The registration deadline is June 5. The Run for Others starts at 4 p.m. June 9. Runners can expect to line up at the Trailhouse Village Outdoor Store in Winona Lake. The race will then follow the greenway to Roy Street. “Starting at the Trailhouse is more convenient for the runners with closer parking and less road traffic,” said Jeremy Blackburn, race director. “It should also be better for spectators to view the race.” Proceeds from the race go to Integrated Community Development International, a Warsaw-based nonprofit that provides clean water to villages in Central Africa through well drilling and well repair programs. Participants can pre-register for $15 online at www.icdi.org/r4o until Saturday. Day of event registration is $18 and ends at 3:41 p.m. The race is made possible by top-level sponsors and longtime ICDI supporters Silveus Insurance Group and MudLOVE. For more information about the race, contact Blackburn at winonarunforothers@gmail.com or 574-267-5904. The Lakes Festival is organized by Kosciusko Lakes and Streams, a center for water research and education at Grace College, with sponsorship from Toyota Motor Sales USA, Biomet, Zimmer, CenturyLink, Kosciusko County Community Foundation, Louis Dreyfus, Silveus Insurance Group and Trupointe.
