Tell us a little about yourself.

I was the small town farmer’s daughter that always longed to live in the big city. After graduating from college, I moved to the Indianapolis area where I met my husband. As luck would have it, I found one of the few city boys who desperately wanted to live in a small country town. In 2013 we relocated to my hometown, LaFontaine. In that time, I’ve developed a passion for living in rural Indiana. I appreciate this area in ways I totally took for granted growing up. We are planted here and absolutely love it.

My hobbies currently include keeping my 3-year-old twins alive and starting an event center/daycare. In past slower seasons of life, I enjoyed writing, home renovating, and coaching volleyball.

How in the world do you pronounce your last name?

Langey – bar – tolls

Langebartels is German for “long-bearded ones”. You know I really love my husband because I chose him in spite of the last name. No one has ever pronounced it correctly by just reading it, and we’ve heard all sorts of attempts. It’s the long E sound in the middle that messes you up.

Why did you choose to be a part of these projects?

This past fall I walked through the elementary for the first time since… I can’t even remember. Walking those halls brought such a feeling of comfort and joy. Every corner of the building is filled with memories from my childhood, and I could envision so many future possibilities within those walls. It was overwhelmingly obvious that the building still had life left in it. When I thought through the logistics of what it would take to make it into something great, my soul felt like it was coming alive. The idea of being an active part of those logistics made me giddy!

Professionally I’ve worked mostly in the Communications and Event Planning worlds, which is all about managing lots of details. Although I have never started a business, I knew I was good at making things happen, so I offered Evan my services to get things off the ground.

As we’ve ventured into these projects it’s been very rewarding to see many of the professional skills I’ve developed over my career come of use. At times it seems this is what God has been preparing me for professionally. It’s taken a lot of time… like, a whole lot of time! But I feel we’re building towards something bigger than we even realize and I’m really grateful to be a part of the process.

What would you like the community to know?

I passionately believe small towns deserve quality services just as much as large cities. But the reality is that we need our community to be actively involved if this thing is going to work. I’m really hoping our community sees the value of what we’re trying to create and chooses to join us in the journey, whether that’s by sending their children to LaFontaine Learning Community, or renting a space from The Elementary for their next party. Every bit of connection will help.

I want to give young families a reason to choose this area for raising their family! Through providing more and better services, while still keeping the beautiful qualities of small town life, I believe we’ll create a place for families to desire and thrive!