(New Carlisle) - For several hundred Trump supporters, Saturday was a beautiful day for a rally and a parade through LaPorte County. Around 10 a.m. Saturday morning, over a hundred vehicles gathered at the American Legion in New Carlisle. Most of them were decked out in multiple flags and banners supporting President Trump. Leading the parade was a Ford Excursion stretch limousine driven by Pat Kindig of La Porte. A life-like mannequin of President Trump was perched out of the moon roof. Kindig said he bought the Trump figure in Auburn, Indiana for $1,000. “He’s worth every dime of it,” Kindig said, “It’s just a nice day out for a Trump rally, and here we are.”
Police stopped traffic briefly so the caravan could hit the road. They traveled west along US 20 to SR 39, then north to New Buffalo, before heading east through Three Oaks back to their starting point.
Mingling with supporters afterward were St. Joseph County Commissioner candidate Derek Dieter, State Senator Mike Bohacek, and U.S. Congresswoman Jackie Walorski. “There’s nothing more American than what’s happening out here,” Walorski said, “These events are everywhere. They’re spontaneous; they’re community-based, and it’s because a lot of these people have one thing in common: they want four more years of Donald Trump.”
Rob Leinen of New Carlisle spearheaded the event. He said he didn’t do much except post the idea on social media. “That’s all I did,” he said, “I made an event for it, made it public, and it went from there. It had 600 likes in a couple of days.” Rob Hutchison and his wife came down from Three Oaks, Michigan after seeing the post. He said that Saturday’s rally was the third one he had been to recently; and that it was the largest.
The rally was also a benefit for a local charity. Participants filled a van destined for the Rolling Prairie Food Pantry. Sue Hartwick, the food pantry manager, was thrilled with the results. “We’re just super happy to get this,” she said, “And they did give us some monetary donations, which we weren’t expecting at all. So we’ve been very blessed.”
