GreatNews.Life celebrates community, connection, and commitment to Northern Indiana at 10th annual Good Life Awards

Chris Mahlmann and the GreatNews.Life team returned to Uptown Social on November 19 for the 10th annual Good Life Awards, inducting six new community and business leaders into the ranks of the Good Life Award honorees. This year’s ceremony was filled with laughter, tears, and a shared commitment to highlighting the good in Northern Indiana.

The 2025 Good Life Award honorees included John Jordan, owner and president of CertaPro Painters of Northwest Indiana; Bill Marshall, head football coach at Valparaiso High School; Andy Kostielney, director of business development and marketing with DLZ; Austin Bonta, mayor of the City of Portage; Julie West, founder of the Play for Jake Foundation; and GreatNews.Life’s very own Kami Tupiak, partnership and office coordinator.

The Good Life Awards recognizes and honors the individuals throughout Northern Indiana who are making a positive difference, making the GreatNews.Life mission of celebrating the good in our communities possible. 

“Sixteen years ago, we started something different with a mission built on one belief: good still matters,” Mahlmann, GreatNews.Life founder, said. “Every day, the noise gets louder, screaming at us from our phones, our TVs, our feeds, reminding us of the things that divide us. Today, in this room, we’re living what our moms taught us – that people doing the right thing deserve to be seen, heard, and celebrated.”

Each honoree was presented with an award created by GreatNews.Life Journalist Kyle Boyd. The welded pieces represent the strength of Northern Indiana, a reminder that good doesn’t just appear but is forged by the choices we make every day.

As Mahlmann welcomed each honoree to the stage, he shared stories exemplifying the grit, intelligence, and kindness that earned each award winner their place at today’s ceremony. 

Mayor Bonta emphasized the importance of communication during his acceptance speech. Bonta got his start as a special education teacher. During his tenure, he saw the way that students would help each other learn once they were given the right knowledge and resources. Now as mayor, he continues to apply that principle with his constituents.

“I don’t know if I’d be here without social media and that ability to get a message across,” he said. “Portage is a very online city, and I think we’ve proved that, if you take the time to teach people how local government works, they learn. They don’t necessarily agree with every decision that gets made, but they understand that there’s a process. We don’t live in a time where people want the public to be terribly well informed, but the more people actually, the better it is for everyone.”

West echoed similar sentiments in her acceptance speech. West started the Play for Jake Foundation after the loss of her son to sudden cardiac arrest in 2013, and she has since created state-wide change surrounding heart screenings and AED accessibility in schools. As part of her acceptance speech, West asked attendees to put community action into motion by having them text HEART to 46839.

“That’s going to urge your representatives to vote for funding we need for the HEARTS Act,” West said. “That funding will put AEDs and cardiac response plans in all of our schools at the federal level. Also part of that $50 million ask is that they will use some of that funding for researching cardiomyopathy and creating resources for parents.”

In addition to the new class of Good Life Award honorees, the 2025 Good Life Awards also introduced the Positive Spark Award. The Positive Spark Award gives Good Life Award honorees an opportunity to recognize the spark of good in community members of their choosing, letting the celebration of good extend beyond Mahlmann and GreatNews.Life.

“I feel very strongly about the Good Life Awards I give to people. I really put a lot of heart, emotion, and thought into who I’m choosing and why,” Mahlmann said. “I want to be able to pass that opportunity on. We created this award so our honorees can say, ‘I believe you exemplify the reasons I won a Good Life Award.’”

The Positive Spark Awards were also created by Boyd like the Good Life Awards. This year, former honorees Jenny Craig-Brown and Ashley Spargo nominated Jillian Koeneman and Philip Bolton, respectively, to receive the first ever Positive Spark Awards.

“We hope to give out a boatload of these,” Mahlmann said. “With that, the Good Life Award winners will pass on the values that were celebrated right here.”

The Good Life Awards would not have been possible without the support of sponsors like Flanagin’s Bulk Mail Service, Surf Internet, the Poor Handmaids of Jesus Christ, and Presenting Sponsors WSBT Channel 22 and FOX Michiana. A special thank you to everyone who joined the GreatNews.Life team this year in celebrating the 2025 Good Life Awards!