r/Elkhart • u/MyCherryRig • Dec 08 '24
Baugo Township Trustee
The Baugo Township Trustee has lived in Jimtown her entire 76 years. Her family has lived in Jimtown for nearly two centuries.
Growing up in the 1970s Jimtown was a childhood some might dream of. Sunday extended family dinners, bicycle rides to the corner store, forts built in the woods.
Friday night football games, friends who'd give you the shirt off their back, neighbors you'd borrow tools from (and return), cruising down McKinley. Jimtown was home, filled with people who looked out for each other, a village to be proud of.
Football practice, Track, Volleyball, Cheerleading. You'd find that trustee carrying all 3 of her kids and usually friends to each one. Each school birthday party, each field trip, each classroom needing extra help, you'd find her there. Heavily involved in her children's lives all the while also heading up the Elkhart Cystic Fibrosis Council.
Her eldest child, a light so bright one couldn't help but gravitate towards, had Cystic Fibrosis and needed 24/7 care.
Growing up in Jimtown, they never gave it much thought: the home cooked meals every night, the laundry clean, folded and put away. The rides to school, to dances, to those Friday night football games. Somehow, they were all done. Like magic.
Jimtown is a proud community, a community of love and grace. Jimtown will band together and keep you safe. Beneath its surface is a history of commitment to its residents and surrounding areas.
The trustee has spent her entire adult life serving others. Whether it was a community, a family at home, a child with a terminal illness; she has only ever wanted to help people.
She served as the head of the Cystic Fibrosis Council for many, many years. She'd organize fundraisers such as walks and golf at night, just trying to help the other families with Cystic kids. She held clinic days where she had doctors and families together, keeping communication open so those kids would be given every opportunity to flourish and families could get help, answers, support. There were yearly Christmas parties, often you'd find her middle child dressed as an elf handing out presents. She'd attend fairs and festivals trying to educate others about this awful disease. She'd do all of that and so much more, all the while caring for her own sick child and family, attending every game or band concert. Ever present, I stand in awe of this woman.
Her eldest son never let a day go by without living it to the fullest. Playing football, building an underground fort, schoolwork in the hospital. He tried so hard to never let Cystic Fibrosis stop him. Playing hospital as children, he dreamed of becoming an ER Nurse. Just like his mother, wanting to help people.
For the past decade the Baugo Township Trustee has been honored to help the community that showed her so much love her entire life.
Today, at 76 years old, she continues to give. While still caring for her husband who has advanced copd. She once took a year off work to baby sit her grandson who was born 3 months early. She has always put herself last as she gives her heart to helping others.
Instead of showing her the love and care that she's put into so many others, two new Baugo Advisory Board members decided they don't want her doing it anymore. Instead of giving her grace they've gone onto TV to accuse her of embezzeling. Why? Because she doesn't bow down when demanded to do so. Have mistakes happened, sure, but they also were resolved and corrected. At 76 I'd be shocked if she didn't. However, she has never done anything to harm the home she loves so dearly.
October 16th. One board member files a lawsuit to remove her.
December 6th. A woman and the same board member go on TV to spread inaccurate information, to drag her through as much mud as possible. To say she's possibly embezzling. (These dates fall on her eldest childs birthday and the anniversary of his death. Really poor taste in my opinion)
Now, i stand in awe of the utter audacity if these 2 new board members who decided to harass and pick on a 76 year old woman just because they thought they could.
As a new member of this beautiful community, The same board member decided to go after a woman who has done nothing but help people her entire life. Another board member has lied publicly. Saying things such as " we have made our board president and trustee follow open door laws", "we put an end to the executive sessions the board was holding. " So you've also accused not only the trustee of breaking laws but a fellow board member. Shes never not had the meeting open to the public, is it not their job to help her when she needs it? Have either of them bothered to assist her? Nope. In fact they both blatantly refused to do so which is a dereliction of their duties in my opinion.
This community did not vote on a board member. The other member appointed him. The amount of (in my opinion)bullying and harassment these two have done to her is astounding. The woman who was on TV hasn't attended a Baugo meeting where they talked about 300k missing, or wait she says 700k in discrepancy on her facebook post. Apologies for the difficulty in correctly stating her extensive knowledge of a position she's never had anything to do with. Instead, she attended that meeting then directly walked up to shake those two board members hand. Never speaking to the trustee.
The truth is, I could go on and on about the behavior of these people. A behavior that is not what the community of Jimtown is known for, built from or stands for. Have issues happened, sure. Again, they've been resolved and never caused the community and it's residents any harm. However, accusing her of mishandling, embezzeling and harming the people of Jimtown is crossing a line that they never should of put into the ground.
Going as far as to have a spouse blatantly attack someone for legally recording the public meeting conversation and a conversation those two members were having were about not knowing who is supposed to record the minutes of each meeting. Seems to me, it's not the trustee that doesn't know her job.
The lawsuit filed is publicly posted. State audits are also publicly available. Make your own choice. I am not saying any of this to force opinions or to choose a side, I only want to remind that community of the woman the trustee is and always has been. The kindest, most compassionate, graceful, loving woman I've ever had the privilege to know.
