FRENCH LICK – Accelerate Indiana Municipalities (Aim) is honoring the City of Whiting with a 2019 Community Placemaking Award for its National Mascot Hall of Fame. The city will receive the award on August 28 at the Aim Annual Awards Luncheon, presented by Baker Tilly, at this year’s Aim Ideas Summit. Whiting won in the under 5,000 population category.
Whiting recently opened Northwest Indiana’s newest tourist attraction, the National Mascot Hall of Fame. The interactive children’s museum, financed by the Whiting Redevelopment Commission and operated by the city, is a one-of-a-kind amenity that honors professional and collegiate mascots through a series of educational exhibits that promote the fields of science, technology, engineering, art and math. The project not only repurposed a prominent brownfield site, but it will act at a tourism draw to Whiting’s downtown business district.
“The Mascot Hall of Fame is emblematic of the unique sense-of-place Whiting is known for,” Aim CEO Matt Greller said. “The bold vision of Mayor Joe Stahura and city leaders to attract a world-class amenity as a strategy to strengthen the city’s tourism economy is an effort worth celebrating. Promoting our downtowns is necessary as we look to the future of our cities and towns, and we applaud Whiting for its newest addition.”
In its 43rd year, the Aim Annual Awards program, presented by Baker Tilly, recognizes communities and individuals in municipal government for excellence and outstanding achievement. A nine-member panel of qualified judges selected this year’s winners from a competitive field of nominees from around the state.
Conference Facts:
2019 Aim Ideas Summit
August 27-29, 2019
French Lick Resort
Attendance: 700 (pending final registration count)
Further information: www.aimindiana.org
Since the 1890s, Aim, formerly the Indiana Association of Cities and Towns, has been an advocate for Indiana municipalities. Aim is the official voice of municipal government in Indiana, with more than 460 cities and towns as members. Our purpose is to foster, promote and advocate for the success of Hoosier municipalities as laboratories of innovation, hubs of talent and the engines driving our state’s economy.