At the recent Purdue Extension La Porte County Annual Meeting held at the Tracy United Methodist Church in Hamlet, Diana Werner was announced as the recipient for the 4th annual Ned E. Kalb Community Leadership Award. Diana was presented a plaque and will have her name added to the permanent plaque, donated by Dick Reel, that hangs in the Extension Office.
For over 30 years Diana Werner has had a huge impact on her family, the family’s business, the local community, and thousands of people and families in the south La Porte County area. She and her husband, Otto, have run a family farm in the Hanna Community their entire lives. They have raised a family, and now their children and grandchildren carry on the farming tradition. The Werner family has been an important part of the Hanna First Lutheran Church for their entire life in Hanna. She has been a Sunday school teacher and still serves as the Church treasurer after 23 years.
An even larger impact has been her volunteerism with the South County Food Pantry which is located in Hanna, but serves a wide area of south La Porte County and beyond. Diana has been a leader in the organization and perpetuation of the Pantry for 28 years. She single-handedly runs the pantry now, from stocking to serving as treasurer, to keeping records, to filing the required government paper-work. She is also the liaison between the pantry and the Northern Indiana Food Bank in South Bend. Working closely with 14 area churches is also part of her volunteer duties with the pantry.
Diana’s impact as a community leader has been apparent from family to business to community for many years. Many thousands of individuals and families have been helped over the 28 years of Diana’s leadership at the pantry.
The annual leadership award is a partnership between the Purdue Extension La Porte County office and Leadership La Porte County. Ned Kalb served as Extension Director for many years and was a catalyst for the formation of Leadership La Porte County. He died in November 2011, and the award was created soon after to honor his memory. John Coulter received the award in 2012, Purdue Chancellor James Dworkin received the honor in 2013, and George & Dory Morley received the 2014 honor.
“Ned served La Porte County in so many ways. He saw needs and brought people and resources together to solve the challenges, not only locally, but across Indiana and the world,” said Hugh Tonagel, current Extension Director. “Ned was a mentor to many and an excellent teacher of community development and leadership,” added Jim Jessup, a volunteer for Leadership La Porte County. “Ned, Kathryn Dearborn, and I worked several years together during the planning, organizing, and facilitating of the leadership program,” Jessup said. Monica Komasinski, Executive Director of Leadership La Porte County, stated, “The mission of Leadership LaPorte County and the impact the organization has had on the community is a lasting legacy of Ned Kalb’s vision. We are proud to honor him and to recognize good community leadership with this award.”
Nominations for the next award will be taken beginning in January 2016. For more information contact either the Extension Office or Leadership La Porte County.