Sharing stories

Aric Hartvig loves to tell stories.

That’s what he’s doing for a living these days at WFYI in Indianapolis.

And some of those stories involve Jay County.

“I really appreciate this community,” Hartvig told the Portland Rotary Club on Wednesday.

A 1998 graduate of Jay County High School, he received his bachelor’s degree from Taylor University and now lives in Upland.

As a high school student, he was a regular on the “Jay Today” staff and a stand-out heavyweight wrestler who went by the nickname “Thor.”

But it was telling stories in video and film that captured his imagination.

While he had done an internship at a Fort Wayne television station, it wasn’t until he connected with WFYI and Public Broadcasting that he found his true calling.

“Our mission (at WFYI) is to empower, entertain and connect people,” Hartvig said. “It was a mission I was proud to be a part of.”

These days, Hartvig is an Emmy-nominated producer and freelance videographer. But before he could begin telling stories on his own, he had to pay his dues.

That meant starting at the bottom as an intern.

“They found out I was good at carrying a lot of stuff,” he joked.

His first big break came with a show called “Communities Building Communities,” which was the brainchild of Judy O’Bannon, widow of the late Gov. Frank O’Bannon.

“We bonded over breakfast,” Hartvig said of O’Bannon. “And I got my chance to do my very own storytelling.”

His first topic: Arts Place.

The segment aired on O’Bannon’s program, but because the broadcast signal of WFYI doesn’t reach Jay County and the station wasn’t carried on Comcast’s cable TV service, few saw it.

Hartvig’s family actually booked a hotel room so they could watch his WFYI debut as a producer when it was broadcast.

He then became affiliated with another WFYI program, “Across Indiana,” working on the show for five of its 20 seasons.

“The story telling didn’t stop,” he said.

Among those stories for “Across Indiana” was a piece on the restoration of the Loblolly Wetlands Nature Preserve in northern Jay County.

Currently, Hartvig is working on a couple of projects simultaneously.

One focuses of Holocaust survivor Eva Kor of Terre Haute. The other has him working with Redkey pastor Randy Davis and Brianna’s Hope — A Better Life.

“Right now, I’’m working on the opioid crisis,” he said. “I try to focus on the good news. … We’re going to try to tell positive stories within the opioid crisis. … This is hopefully going to be a story that has a happy ending.”