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Kosciusko County Convention, Recreation & Visitors Commission held their final meeting for 2025 to discuss the final allocations of funds before 2026.
Greg Demopoulos, Kosciusko County Velo co-founder and vice president; and Nick Hauck, KCV treasurer, asked for a tourism sponsorship for the 2026 Fat and Skinny Tire Fest. Demopoulos remarked that this year marked the 20th anniversary of the festival, and they hope to continue the success they saw last year.
“Road racing, we saw a nearly 30% increase. We are one of only a handful of races in the United States … we’re one of a handful that has seen an increase,” stated Demopoulos. “On our registration platform, it has a heat map. So, for the first time ever, we’ve seen the heat map have to expand beyond the United States. We had racers from Mexico, the Bahamas, Canada, as well as California, Washington State and Colorado.”
Demopoulos stated that last year, they were the Indiana State Road Race championships, and this year, they were the flagship for the Midwest Cup, which is a new series that all Midwest states can participate in. Demopoulos also remarked that almost every event they had was up compared to last year.
Hauck stated that he was grateful for the use of Placer.AI because they can now cross-reference from the data they’ve had. They had seen 7,400 unique visitors come to The Village at Winona; and to downtown Warsaw, there were 2,400 unique visitors just on Friday of the event. Hauck stated that this was just the road racing, and not the other events.
A $32,850 sponsorship amount to KCV for Fat and Skinny Tire Fest was approved by the commission.
Jeff Owens, race director for the Warsaw Breakfast Optimist Club, asked for a tourism sponsorship for their sprint triathlon. He was asking for $6,000 to help with advertising. Owens started out thanking the commission for having him back and stated that this is a 2026 request.
When he came in May, the Commission supported the triathlon, and it was successful as they brought in about 250 visitors. In the expenses for last year, over half of them were made locally; the trophies made by the Warsaw Career Center, and the finisher medals were made by a local shop. Owens stated that they tried to keep at least 85% of their products local to northern Indiana.
For 2026, the Club wants to use the $6,000 sponsorship in three ways: for online marketing, focusing on large surrounding cities through this online marketing and for print marketing. Through these three areas, Owens stated that this will help bring in more people that are from further away, meaning they will stay overnight in local hotels.
“I want to get people to stick around after the race,” stated Owens.
Owens did state that with the youth races, there are only 12 to 14 participants, and did not know exactly why they were continuing this. By using funds from the KCCRVC, he hopes that it will increase and make the youth race a bigger success.
Owens did admit that the $6,000 sponsorship is supposed to help get around 300 participants, and they want to increase the receipts by 20%.
Lyle Schrock, vice president of the Commission, asked if only 1 percent participated in these endurance races, how much of that was youth. Owens responded that he was not sure, and Schrock admitted that it was a good idea to promote more youth coming to participate.
Kathy Ray, Commission member, asked when they would be advertising for the 2027 race, and Owens stated that it would be during the race in 2026.
“Since this is a reimbursement, is it possible that you could come back for a portion of the 2027 amount at our meetings starting next year?” asked Ray. “If we fund a portion, if you could come back, we could fund the other portion.”
Ray then motioned for the commission to fund $4,000, which was seconded. Owens got his clarification on how he was supposed to come back for the rest of the funds after using part of whatever he gets today. Matt Metzger, Commission member, asked when he was planning on starting to advertise, and Owens stated that he was planning it around Christmas.
“The challenge for me is this is a not-for-profit organization. I would be spending the club’s money with no guarantee that we’re going to be reimbursed, and I don’t feel comfortable with that,” stated Owens.
The Commission agreed that they would give him $4,000 instead of the full $6,000, which he could come back later next year to ask for.
Owens asked for clarification for advertising later on, and if he still had to keep KCCRVC’s logo on the goodie bags and the bibs for runners, which Skibowski stated, “Yes.” Owens stated he would come back in May for more if needed.
Michael Kuhn, executive director of The Magical Meadows, asked for a sponsorship to help with the new riding arena that they are still working on funding. He asked for $10,000 to help with marketing outside of Kosciusko County and complete the funding for the Growing with Heart Capital campaign.
The campaign involves an expansion project for two indoor riding arenas, and to make them into year-round facilities. Kuhn is hoping that this will help get the word out about Magical Meadows, because there are a lot in Kosciusko that do not know what services are offered. Kuhn stated that the entirety of the project costs about $2.3 million, and as of right now, they have raised $1.25 million. Kuhn is hoping that with the KCCRVC’s help, they can get word out to the radio stations in Allen and Elkhart counties about what The Magical Meadows has to offer.
Kuhn also stated that with this project is something that will expand for impact for decades. The Magical Meadows serves over 200 people, and with the expansion, they are looking at 700 to 1,000 visitors who will also be bringing their families.
“The reach of this far exceeds just the number of people that are directly being served, and that’s an important piece,” stated Kuhn.
He also stated that 1,500 people have visited their site in the last 12 months, and Placer.AI has helped to give The Magical Meadows a way to show where people go after visiting them.
“The $10,000 you’re talking about marketing, is that just radio, are there different avenues you’re looking at?” asked Ray.
Kuhn stated that it will be a multi-media campaign with radio, broadcasting and social media. Kuhn also stated that they were looking at a billboard to place on U.S. 30 somewhere in Whitley County.
“We have a large percentage of our riders coming every week from outside of Kosciusko County, especially Marshall County,” remarked Kuhn. “There are a few other therapeutic riding centers up in that region … but we still have people that make the trip to us …”
The commission approved the full $10,000, with Skibowski stating that he would deny because of the amount being too much.
