Episode 8: The Blessed Urn

August 8, 2025

Loie recalls the challenges and breakthroughs of Project Neighbors’ earliest years — when Barbara Cotton moved into Valparaiso and the neighborhood faced harassment, threats, and even cross burnings. She tells stories of students standing night watch with coffee urns and sleeping bags, a hidden toast to Barbara sealed inside the walls of her new home, and the deep lessons she learned about the difference between charity and true sharing. Loie also reflects on the families who followed Barbara — Betty Ballard, Gladys Allen, and others — how education became the key to opportunity, and how, in her words, “our whole life was a response.”