This story is excerpted from an interview conducted in Rushville in August 2026 with Jerry Wellnitz and PW

PW: Just say one good thing about the schools is because they’re small, like our kids could be in absolutely everything, and they were. They can be in music and sports at the same time, and nobody laughed at them, because they both were. They can be in all the drama, and you know, they can do whatever they want, whether they’re real good at it or not. It doesn’t matter, and so I think that’s really important because it gives kids a better foundation. So. 

Jerry Wellnitz: Our oldest son started piano lessons when he was five because he was messing around the piano all the time. So she talked to piano teacher, and if she wanted to take him, and so he’s played ever since then. Then he got his thumb cut off at the joint, and so he can’t quite reach his reach anymore. But he still plays for funerals and weddings and. 

Shyanne Bellamy: I was gonna ask that. Did he like? Did he still- 

PW: Within two weeks, he was playing again. So, because I was worried, because that was who he was. 

Jerry Wellnitz: They had a guy at the machine shop here rig him up a little thing he could stick on his thumb, but he decided that didn’t work very good. So he just quit. And his hand, if he stretch out it, he can stretch out further and out that one hand against the other to reach.