Bloomfield wins second place with community support

"Back Home Again in Bloomfield" efforts proved successful as the Indianapolis Motor Speedway will be awarding the town a cash prize.

Bloomfield Chamber of Commerce committee members rallied the community together to decorate and organize, and won the second-place prize of $2,500.

"We are very excited, but a little disappointed because there was such a big difference in the first- and second-place money," said Matt Miller, who was the Chamber president when they took on the project.

The first-place prize of $20,000 went to Greenfield.

The Chamber had hoped for first place in order to sponsor a team from the Ball State University's Architecture Program.

The $13,000 program would help develop a "Comprehensive Redevelopment Initiative" for the downtown revitalization project.

"I think we can still go ahead and use this as a springboard to jump start our fundraising for the Ball State program. ... The Chamber has got some seed money we can use for a portion of what it will cost us," Miller said.

Despite the money objective, Miller said he was especially proud of the Chamber and the community coming together to be triumphant.

"There was a lot of hard work put in by people in the community. We were ecstatic about how the community got involved and supported it," Miller said.

Businesses had their windows decorated, houses sported Indy 500-style decorations and flags lined the streets.

Ian Smith helped put together the video submission to the Indy 500 contest, featuring video and photos from the junior princess and queen competition, children's games, the Bloomfield 5.00 Run/Walk, Classic Car Cruise-In, racing memorabilia and the decorations around town

The event day was well attended -- despite rain -- and saw 37 participants in the 5K race.

Winner of the 5K race, Jason Giesler, even mimicked Indy 500 traditions with a wreath wrapped around his torso, a glass of milk in hand and kissed the "bricks."

"Deb Johnson, the art teacher at Bloomfield School, and her art students helped out tremendously, and the school in general," Miller said.

Johnson's art students spent part of their Spring Break painting windows with Indianapolis Motor Speedway decorations, and painting a patch of bricks on S. Franklin Street for the start and finish line for the 5K race.

Elementary PE teacher Susie Schulte helped to create an Indy 500-style Field Day and balloon release at Bloomfield Elementary School.

Miller said Melinda and Kayla Hendrix had wonderful ideas in the planning stages of the "Back Home Again in Bloomfield" events.

"Sammie Sparks and Kay Allen took lead on princess contest, and did a great job with that," Miller added.

Abby Jo Hartzburg, a fifth-grader at Bloomfield Elementary School, was crowned queen of "Back Home Again in Bloomfield" events against the 10 princesses ages 8-12.

Linton-Stockton graduate, and current Indy 500 Festival Princess, Jessica Tharp participated in the preliminary elimination round.

"Sawyer Sparks stayed on top of our Facebook presence," Miller said, noting part of the judging was on an Internet presence. "Joe Nicholson did a lot of work getting archived pictures for the video."

He added he was thankful for the community's help in voting for the video as a part of the judging process.

"It was fun -- and it was a lot of work, too -- but we had a lot of support from the community," Miller said.

Chamber members did not attend the award ceremony at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, but are hoping to have a representative bring the check to Bloomfield.

"We thought it would be a good way to get some people who worked on it and people from the community to come by and take part," Miller said.

He added arrangements are still pending for the disbursement of the check.