Smile

What makes Justin Cowan smile? “Working with the youth every single day and helping them get better and inspiring them to empower and everything like that,” said the  26-year-old Noblesville resident, the teen director for Boys & Girls Club of Noblesville of nine years. Before being the teen director, he worked in the Club’s games room. He is a 2015 graduate of Noblesville High School. He is the son of Brad and Kelly Cowan. “I just really like working with the youth. I’m interested in sports. I’m really into family….When I’m not working, I’m usually hanging out with family or friends.” He was found in 2019 with Club kids and his team members, sister, Amanda Lavore, and Noah Green, Dewayne Simpson and Vivian Zahiga, pushing the winning bed across the finish line for The Club team at the 2019 Darlington Bed Race on the Courthouse Square to benefit the Boys & Girls Club. It was a first-time win for The Club team. The 2023 Darlington Bed Race will be at 7 p.m. Friday in downtown Noblesville where Ninth Street, between Logan and Conner streets, will be closed to vehicular traffic. The annual race has teams competing, pushing customized beds on wheels that they race half-way down the block, turn around and quickly push to the start-finish line. Proceeds raised from team entry fees go to the Boys & Girls Club of Noblesville, which started in 1951 and in 2023 served 2,306 members. Admission is free to watch the Bed Race. For more info on the race, programs and how to donate to the club,  visit www.bgcni.org. Also, going on Friday, the Noblesville Lions Club’s Grillin’ on the Square, formerly known as Lions’ Pork Chop Festival, which has added chicken to its pork chops menu and will serve 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Friday on the Square, and then pancakes from 7 a.m. to 11 a.m. on Saturday.