Syracuse-Wawasee Park Foundation – Trail’s Office
813 S. Huntington St., Syracuse, IN 46567
Phone: (574)675-6433
email: ed@syracusewawaseetrails.com
The Syracuse-Wawasee Trail Committee is part of the Syracuse-Wawasee Parks Foundation, a not for profit corporation. The Committee is an advisory group helping coordinate the planning, construction and maintenance of local trails located on city and county property. The Trail Committee meets at the Trail’s office the third Monday of most months, at 6:00 p.m. Call to confirm. Please join us!
Committee Members
Erlene Yentes is the Executive Director for Syracuse-Wawasee Trails. She began her duties on December 2, 2019. She describes this position as her “dream job” and an opportunity to utilize past work experience combined with her passion for biking and trails! “Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.” She is excited to begin this new adventure and looks forward to continuing the trail’s vision of a network of walking/biking trails that connect our community and Lake Wawasee. She is a native of Auburn, Indiana, spent family vacations on Dewart Lake for years, and moved to Syracuse in April of 2020. She is a member of the Syracuse-Wawasee Rotary Club, the Syracuse-Wawasee Rotary Foundation and a member of the Run Walk Advisory Committee in Warsaw. She can be contacted at ed@syracusewawaseetrails.com.
Kay Young is the president of the Syracuse-Wawasee Trail Committee. She has been associated with TODD REALTY since 1988 and has been Top Salesperson 16 times. She is President of the Wawasee Property Owners Association, Past President of the Kosciusko Board of Realtors,and KBOR/MLS and was Realtor of the Year for Kosciusko County in 2005. Kay was awarded the WACF 2010 Cattail Award for her outstanding environmental service to the Wawasee area. Kay represents the WPOA on the Trail Committee, as well as helping with advertising and public relations. She can be contacted at KayYoung@toddrealty.com.
Tom Edington serves in various roles on the Syracuse-Wawasee Trail Committee. His position as former superintendent of the Wawasee Community School Corporation leads to an interest in trails for student and community health, along with being an attraction for visitors to the area. He can be
reached at tedington@gmail.com.
Chad Jonsson has been involved with the Trail Committee since his coming to Syracuse in 2005. Chad is currently the Park Superintendent for the Town of Syracuse and the Executive Secretary for the Syracuse Wawasee Park Foundation. Chad can be reached at cjonsson@syracusein.org.
Jerry Wright has lived his entire life in Syracuse-Wawasee Area and retired from Parker Hannifin in 2020. Representing the Syracuse Lions Club, Jerry is serving on the Trails Committee for the second time. He enjoys living in the area and giving back to his community. He can be reached at jlwright@centurylink.net.
Angie Racolta focuses on community outreach for the Syracuse-Wawasee Trail Committee since 2018. She is a top producing REALTOR/Broker in the area and is owner of The RGroup Real Estate At Keller Williams Realty. She is on Kosciusko County Board of Realtors (KBOR) Board of Directors, KBOR Public Relations committe member, and Real Estate member of the Wawasee BNI chapter. Angie has lived in Syracuse since 2007. In her free time, she enjoys the many amenities that make the trails and lakes area a great place to call home, which includes walking the trails, boating, supporting local causes, and following the Indianapolis Colts. Angie can be reached at angie.racolta@kw.com.
LuAnn (Yentes) Wojtczak has been in the Syracuse area most of her life. She currently resides with her husband, John between their homes on Dewart Lake and Lakes James in Steuben County. Being retired allows both of them time to enjoy their six grandchildren’s sporting events, boating and traveling. LuAnn’s favorite activities include water skiing, spending time with family, cruising on the pontoon and walking. LuAnn’s responsibilities for the trail committee are recruitment of new board members and community outreach.She can be reached at leather1953@yahoo.com
Sherm Goldenberg is a native of Huntington, Ind., a graduate of Indiana University, a married (Karen) father of three and co-ownerand publisher of G&G Media Group LLC, a trade magazine publisher based in Elkhart, Ind. He has served on several area non-profit boards over the years,including the Lakeland Youth Center, the Wawasee Area Conservancy Foundationand the North Webster Community Center.
Tony Pawlicki is a native of Syracuse, Indiana and an avid real estate professional. A 2010 graduate of the University of Notre Dame, Tony lived in Baltimore, Maryland for four years while completing a Masters degree and teaching music at a private preparatory school. Currently, he is the Director of Bands for the Wawasee School Corporation and a broker associate at Todd Realty ERA Powered. Tony is also a member of the Wawasee Kiwanis and lives with his wife Hannah, son Nikolas, daughter Alexandra, and dog Josey in Maxwelton Hills.
Steven Coyle As a Hoosier native growing up in Huntington, I have been a “vacationer” at the Lakes for decades. Starting at East Shore Syracuse as renters, my family eventually bought a cottage on the south shore of Wawasee where I’ve taken over our wonderful retreat. My background is environmental science/engineering and I hope to help Syracuse-Wawasee Trails in providing the best experience possible for folks traversing our trails. As a member of the WACF Ecology Committee I want to continue our partnership since many of our trails go through ecologically important areas. While we’re quasi-snowbirds, wintering in the “balmy” St Louis area, as a retired couple my wife and I feel like we’ve become an integral part of the Lake area community.
Jared Pritchard is our newest member on the trails committee. Having grown up his whole (young) life at 19 years old in the Syracuse community, Jared is passionate about getting involved in the community and being apart of something that does so much good for people. Jared graduated from Wawasee High School in 2019 and is currently a Sophomore at Purdue University studying supply chain and sales engineering technology with minors in organizational leadership and entrepreneurship. At Purdue, he is involved with the university’s ski and snowboard club, College Mentors for Kids, Purdue Rising Professionals, the Operations and Supply Chain Organization along with serving as the operations director for his fraternity. He enjoys surfing, snow skiing and traveling in his free time. Jared can be reached at jaredmpritchard1@gmail.com.
Shaun Fedder joined the Syracuse-Wawasee Trail Committee in 2022 and has
extensive experience serving as a Director and Officer for various non-for-profits organizations. Professionally, Shaun is a 20+ year veteran of the Wealth Management industry beginning his career with The Northern Trust Company in Chicago, Illinois and Vero Beach, Florida and then serving as Managing Partner for a Registered Investment Advisory firm. Currently, Shaun is a Vice President and Wealth Management Officer with Southern Michigan Bank & Trust. Shaun was born and raised in South Bend, Indiana and graduated from Indiana University – Bloomington with a B.A. in History. When not working, Shaun enjoys spending time outdoors with his wife Natalie and their two children, Madelynn and Sadie, playing sports, watching Notre Dame Football and volunteering his time with various youth-focused nonprofit organizations. Shaun can be reached at shaunfedder11@gmail.com.