ELKHART — The RV/MH Hall of Fame and Museum, on the brink of closing 18 months ago, is branching out and marketing itself also as the Northern Indiana Event Center.

They announced the hiring of a new event sales/marketing manager to draw in customers to the newly branded event center. It’s a big change from early 2011, when the RV/MH Heritage Foundation said that if things didn’t change soon, the hall would close within weeks.

By March of this year, officials announced they’d restructured the debt. Darryl Searer, recently appointed president and chief operating officer of the hall of fame, said at that time that the restructuring was only the first step.

Stacey Walworth will join the hall Sept. 10 in the new event sales-and-marketing position.

“We are delighted that Stacey is joining our staff. Her experience in sales/marketing and planning is a perfect fit to augment our existing staff,” Searer said in an announcement of the changes, “and her employment could not have been better timed. With the reduction of available event space in the Michiana area where many events were hosted, our opportunity for new business has dramatically increased.”

A month ago the hall of fame surpassed a challenge by the family of Robert “Boots” and Betty Ingram to raise $100,000 and get a matching grant of the same amount from the family by Sept. 1. With more than a month to go, they raised $60,000 above and beyond the goal, and the money will help pay down a loan.

Earlier this month the hall of fame was the site for the Midwest RV Super Show for the first time, and next month it will be one of the sites across the county for the informal RV open house.

The south entrance of the hall-of-fame building is now marked with the Northern Indiana Event Center name.

“The Event Center is an important segment to our mission and our financial stability,” said Searer. “We believe the addition of Stacey Walworth and the naming of the south entrance as the Northern Indiana Event Center are major steps forward in our goal of making the complex the premier location for events in northern Indiana and southern Michigan.”