Author: Chamber Admin

Antwerp Local School District

Posted on by Chamber Admin

303 South Harrmann Road
Antwerp, OH 45813

Phone: (419) 258-5421

Our Vision Statement is for all students to graduate from our preK-12 educational facilities with 21st Century skills, knowledge, and behaviors that will enable them to successfully participate in the global economy as productive citizens. Ultimately, all students will graduate well prepared for success. 

Our Mission Statement is to enable all students to become productive and resourceful members of an ever-changing world using a variety of strategies and technologies. 

Community FactsThe Antwerp Local School District is a public school district located in Antwerp, Ohio, a rural community located between Fort Wayne, Indiana, and Defiance, Ohio. State Route 49 and US 24 intersect in Antwerp. Antwerp has several businesses and tourist points of interest (www.antwerpohio.com). 

School FactsThe Antwerp Local School District is currently organized into an elementary school (PK-5), a middle school (6-8), and a high school (9-12). All of the district’s approximately 700 students are housed in a newly built (2004), state-of-the-art PK-12 building located at 303 S. Harrmann Road. Antwerp High School, a four-year public high school, with an average enrollment of 350 students, is fully accredited by the Ohio Department of Education. Both the high school and middle school are on an eight-period schedule. The school year consists of four nine-week grading periods.  

Krazy Krafters

Posted on by Chamber Admin

My name is Tonya Walker, the best title I can think of is- Boss In This Crazy Hobby.

I don’t consider myself a boss, we try to make decisions as a group.

We enjoy krafting! We are Krazy Krafters it’s our hobby.

 We started doing kraft shows because we were running out

of room for our finished projects and still have more we want to try.

We do lots of krafts and try new ones.

We do krafts with the little ones in our family, encouraging their creativity as much

as possible, they might be future Krazy Krafters!

This isn’t one person. It’s a group of family and friends.

Mom, Vicki Thompson, does knitting, plastic canvas and has tried some floral arrangements.

Aunt Dorothy Brickel sews things. She does the cute stuffed owl pillows that everyone likes

along with some hot pads, placemats and table runners.

Michelle Walker tries to be the Martha Stewart of this krazy operation. She thinks she just needs to find the ideas and tell us to make them. She’s been told Martha’s been fired and to get busy! She helps with the krafts and always helps with setting up and tearing down at our events.

Uncle Larry Trautman helps with cutting things to size, putting hangers on things and making some of my krazy thoughts into a reality.

Aunt Diane Trautman helps with color combinations and ideas.

 We’ve recently added a couple of new krafters and hope they can continue to set up with us at future events.

Marilyn Graft does a few different krafts too. She sews cute stuffed dogs and elephants and does burp rags. She also has some wreaths and jewelry items.

Tina Winchester also sews. She has masks, bowl coozies, hot pads and does some quilting.

I do vinyl krafts, paper krafts can crochet and make some jewelry.

We have tried a few different things, some haven’t been in our kraft shows yet, maybe next year.

Somethings are one of a kind, some can be made to order, just ask.

We have done some custom and personalized items.

We try to keep our prices reasonable. We do our best to make our customers happy.

Our things aren’t perfect but they are made with care.

 We can’t say we make any kind of profits because we usually just go shopping

to buy more supplies shortly after our events. Our next big purchase plan is a sandblaster because we have lots of glass items we want to etch.

Maybe one of these days, after we win the BIG lottery, we’ll turn our hobby into a real business but for now we enjoy doing this for fun! #WeRKrazyKrafters

Check out their Facebook page at Krazy Krafters, or email them with a question at krazykrafters@frontier.com.

The Antwerp Chamber of Commerce is pleased to have the ladies and gents of the Krazy Krafters  partnering with us in the Antwerp Community.

Advanced Chassis

Posted on by Chamber Admin

Our Antwerp Chamber of Commerce spotlight for November is Advanced Chassis LLC. The owner of this business is Dan and Traci Bowers and it is located at 107 Victory Lane in Antwerp, Ohio.

Ken Bowers (Dan’s Dad) started the business in 1988 and moved it to Antwerp in 1997 where it resides today. Dan worked off and on with his dad for several years until BF Goodrich went on strike for six months. When they called him back to work Dan decided the factory life was not for him and followed his dream of building cars full time.

The business is a chassis shop that specializes in “door cars”. It turns out there are several types of racecars in drag racing. The long skinny ones are Dragsters, if you sit in the middle of a car it’s called an Altered, and if you set in the left side and you’re out in the open it’s called a Roadster. While they do build all of these types of cars along with mini rod tractor pullers, their core business is cars that look like regular cars. They take a fiberglass or carbon fiber body that is just the shell of car and they place it on a jig. Once they get the right distance off the ground they build the rest of the car. You can get almost any kind of shell that you want. There were all kinds of cars there when I was there. I saw a 1963 Avanti, a 2020 Mustang, a 1969 Camaro, 1970 Mustang and other cars I didn’t recognize. The prices of some of these things are astronomical if you’re not used to engines costing eighty thousand dollars or more! Dan told me the shell of the 2020 mustang was made from carbon fiber and cost almost fourteen thousand dollars just for the shell and the car would be north of a $150,000.00 by the time it goes down the track.

When they are not building cars they are building the parts for other people to build their cars from. They build custom rear-end housings for drag cars and truck pullers. They build mini rod tractor pullers in kit form and send them all over the world. They have tractors competing in England, Australia, Switzerland, The Netherlands, and Germany. They supply other builders with parts along with the general public through the World Wide Web. They will also build you custom headers for your specific car or complete turbo systems and all of the plumbing.

It takes a lot of people to do all of this stuff and Dan has a great crew of young people that are super talented in this field. Most have been with him since they came out of high school, and many of them including Dan are Vantage graduates. Currently there are nine employees including Dan that work at Advanced Chassis full time. He has found it’s better to find them young with skills and teach them exactly how to build cars his way than try to teach an old dog new tricks.

Dan tells me he texts pictures of their progress almost daily. He explains that when you’re building the dream in someone’s head you have to keep constant communication with the dreamer so the build comes out like it looks in his head.

Paulding county residents don’t make up much of their customer base but they do a lot of stuff for the “locals”. They do a lot aluminum rim repair, pontoon boat welding, powder coating, and fixing of the building whatever needs done for the village.

Did you know that Dan and Traci have tried to bring the excitement of their world to Paulding County by putting on the Horsepower Holiday Weekend every year at the fairgrounds. They bring in tractor pulls, dirt drag racing, tug a trucks, and hundreds of ATV’s to come and play for a weekend every year.

Dan’s proud of the fact that in 33 years they have never had to lay anyone off and have a long list of customers waiting to get their car in the shop to have it transformed into their dream car.

If you want to learn more about their unique business look them up on Facebook, or check out their website at AdvancedChassisllc.net. The best way though is to stop in and check their business out first hand. Dan is always glad to give a little tour to newcomers that want to check it out.

The Antwerp Chamber of Commerce is pleased to have Dan, Traci and their crew at Advanced Chassis, partnering with us in the Antwerp Community.

KS Works of Art

Posted on by Chamber Admin

Our Antwerp Chamber of Commerce spotlight for October is KS Works of Art.  This business is an in-home business that began as a hobby and has become a direct sales business.

The artist is Kimberly Schneider, wife of Pastor Mike Schneider of the United Methodist Church here in Antwerp.  Kimberly has always enjoyed creating art and sharing it with others. She is constantly learning and being inspired by many things.  Having her studio in her own home gives her the ability to be flexible with her schedule while being creative and entrepreneurial at the same time.  Her goal is to create artwork that brings joy to people.

While her main forms of art are Watercolor painting, acrylic painting, stained glass and photography. She admits that watercolor is her passion. It requires letting go and letting the paint move and blend.  Kimberly is most known for her painted rocks, which is her favorite type of acrylic painting.  She gathers all her rocks from Lake Erie and then creates art that that she hopes makes people smile.  Rock art is a major component of human history.  Rock art sites are a record of ancient experiences and spirituality that ancient man recorded in a visual form. One of her favorite forms of rock painting is the Mandala dot art. These rocks are a fun way to own art at an affordable price.

Kimberly and her husband, Mike took stained glass classes together about 10 years ago. They love working together to create pieces that are unique as well as functional.

Her love of photography springs from her love of God’s amazing creation.  She enjoys capturing moments of beauty whether it is in nature, in the eyes of a child, or in the smile of a bride.

Above all, flowers remain her favorite subject and they show up regularly in all of her work. Although she has only taken a few basic art classes, most of what she has learned has been trial and error.  She has been known to seek help from other artists. 

Kimberly has taught both adult and children’s classes and is considering starting classes for adults and children again.    She has been teaching art at an art center in Lakeside, Ohio one or two weeks each summer for the past 10 years.  She has recently begun doing custom order items. She recently created a piece of art for her son that represented the logo of the college he works for.  When the college chancellor saw a copy of the art, he contacted Kimberly and ordered 20 prints to be used as gifts by the college.   

Kimberly began her business doing bazaars.  Her work has been displayed throughout Antwerp during Day in the Park, Grab your Neighbor and Explore your Downtown events and at the annual Methodist Church bazaar.   She serves mostly local and Northwest Ohio and she is also able to ship items.  She is currently creating a line of Christmas cards.

Since Kimberly does not have a store front, she can be contacted at ksartforyou@gmail.com.  You can contact her and set up an appointment to view her unique, one of a kind artwork. Be on the lookout for a Facebook page in the future.

As a home based business, she is looking forward to seeing everyone on Small Business Saturday on November 28 at the Scavenger Hunt HQ.

The Antwerp Chamber of Commerce is pleased to have KS Works of Art and Kimberly, partnering with us in the Antwerp Community.