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Some this and that before heading into the work week …
UPDATE ON EARHART EXPEDITION, ONE WEEK OUT: Set to leave next weekend, members of a Purdue-affiliated crew heading to a remote point in the Pacific Ocean to investigate a clue they believe will lead them to the lost airplane of Amelia Earhart will give an update on the expedition Monday afternoon.
Some members of a 16-member crew will leave for Tarawa, Kiribati, from the Amelia Earhart Terminal at Purdue Airport on Oct. 3 in a trip looking to uncover whether an object seen in satellite images of a small Pacific island might be remnants of the Lockheed Electra 10-E aviator Amelia Earhart was attempting to fly around the world in 1937.
From there, a crew of archaeologists, filmmakers and Purdue representatives assembled with the Archaeology Legacy Institute will travel six days by ship to Nikumaroro, roughly midway between Hawaii and Australia, to check on what has become known as the Taraia Object.
Monday’s update, steaming live at 3 p.m. Monday, will include Richard Pettigrew, Archaeological Legacy Institute executive director; Steve Schultz, Purdue general counsel; Sirisha Bandla, Purdue graduate, astronaut and expedition member; and Marc Hagle, Purdue graduate and expedition member.
The Purdue Research Foundation is helping to stake the trip to investigate. PRF had helped Earhart – who spent two years in West Lafayette as a career counselor for women on campus and an adviser for the university’s budding aeronautics program – purchase the Electra for the round-the-world flight. Earhart went missing on one leg of the attempt to fly around the world. Earhart and Fred Noonan, her navigator, had taken off from Lae, New Guinea, heading toward Howland Island, a small island in the Pacific, to refuel on July 2, 1937. They never made it, prompting a massive, months-long search that came up empty.
For more on Earhart’s legacy at Purdue and the mission set to leave Oct. 3:
And here’s where to watch the update on the plans, set to stream live at 3 p.m. Monday:
COMING UP
INAUGURAL POET, NOW A PURDUE PROF, READING ON CAMPUS OCT. 1: Richard Blanco, the fifth presidential inaugural poet in U.S. history and who recently joined Purdue as a professor of English and Dean’s Fellow in the College of Liberal Arts, will read from his work at 7 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 1, in Room 1136 of Lynn Hall. The reading is part of the fall 2026 Visiting Writers Series and will include selections from his most recent book, “Homeland of My Body.” Blanco read his poem “One Today” at President Barack Obama’s second inauguration in January 2013. The reading on campus is free.
LAST CALL, MOCKTAIL MONDAY: Bartenders from across Greater Lafayette will team up with local notables for the annual Mocktail Monday, an annual fundraiser built around a night of nonalcoholic drinks hosted by Mental Health America-Wabash Valley Region. This year’s theme is spy-inspired. Funds raised will help support Mental Health programs and resources, including peer support, mental health education, screenings and youth-focused prevention initiatives. Mocktail Monday will be 5:30-7:30 p.m. Monday, Sept. 28, at Gathering Acres Event Center, 5074 E. County Road 550 South. For tickets, a list of participants and ways to tip/donate now, go to MocktailMonday.org.
DE-TRASH THE WABASH, VOLUNTEER CALLOUT: The fall 2026 edition of De-Trash the Wabash will be Saturday, Oct. 3. The registration deadline to volunteer is Wednesday, Sept. 30. The effort to clean parts of the riverbanks along nine miles of the Wabash River is coordinated by the Tippecanoe County Partnership for Water Quality, Wabash River Enhancement Corporation, Tippecanoe County Recycling & Solid Waste District and Wabash Riverkeeper Network. Starting at 9 a.m. Saturday, volunteers will check in at the Riverside Skating Rink in West Lafayette’s Tapawingo Park before being assigned to a stretch of the river. Since 2011, the groups report that more than 20 tons of trash have been collected during twice-a-year De-Trash the Wabash events. To sign up or to get more information, go to bit.ly/de-trash.
WOOD HAVEN OPEN HOUSE: Wood Haven Rescue Farm will host its 2026 Open House from 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 3, at the farm at 6310 S. County Road 900 East. The annual event includes tours of the facility for rescued farm animals – including horses, miniature horses, goats, llamas, alpacas, peacocks and others – vendors, a bake and silent auction. For more about the farm and the open house, go to: www.woodhavenrescue.com/2026openhouse.
SHAQ … EDEY?: Shaquille O’Neal in a Purdue jersey running out a set as DJ Diesel at the Tippecanoe County Amphitheater and declaring he was “Shaq Edey” in a nod to the Boilermakers’ National Player of the Year? Well, OK. The Purdue Exponent snagged this account from Saturday night in West Lafayette: “DJ Diesel takes over Purdue after dark.”
CORRECTION: An initial version of an edition that went out to inboxes Saturday said renovations had started for the Long Center in downtown Lafayette. Those renovations are being done to the Lafayette Theater at Sixth and Main streets, as noted throughout the rest of that edition, looking at a studio apartment project slated next door at the former Valley Oaks Health offices at 610 Main St. That edition has been update online. Find it here:
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