Community leaders, local and state representatives, and NIPSCO employees were in abundance at Thursday night’s 5th Annual NIPSCO Luminary Awards ceremony. Since 2012, NIPSCO has been hosting the ceremony to recognize achievements in four different categories: Environmental Stewardship, Education, Economic Development, and Community Leadership. The Luminary Awards provided NIPSCO the opportunity to highlight some of the best and brightest people and organizations in Northwest Indiana.
The selection process for the awards each year is a feat and it’s something NIPSCO doesn’t take lightly. A team of employees involved in community organizations select a pool of candidates for each category, and then the selection process to choose the most worthy recipient begins.
“The selected individuals have quite frankly given their hearts and souls and have passion for making Northwest Indiana a better place to live and work in,” stated Violet Sistovaris, Executive Vice President of NIPSCO. “It takes all of the critical elements that we are honoring - leadership, education, environmental, and economic - to grow and develop the community. We want to recognize others in the community who are invested the way that we are. It’s one of the things we get to do to give back to those who make such a difference in our region.”
After the crowd chatted, mingled, and enjoyed some great food the ceremony began, with the first award given to their Environmental Stewardship recipient. The Shirley Heinze Land Trust was selected, and it was received by Kris Krouse, Executive Director of the Shirley Heinze Land Trust.
“When you have partnerships with wonderful entities such as NIPSCO, you can really do a lot of wonderful things,” Kruase stated. “Our success is because they support us and we’re really honored that they’re recognizing us today.”
The next reciepent called to the stage was Thomas Keon, Chancellor of Purdue University Northwest, who was being honored for Purdue Northwest’s achievements in Education.
“Numerous graduates of Purdue Northwest go on to work for NIPSCO,” Keon explained. “They do a lot of internships for our students and then hire them. That’s the best kind of partnership you can have! We’re honored to be recognized by a company that puts so much into our student and into our community.”
Jim Staton, Business Recruitment Director for the Indiana Economic Development Corporation (IEDC), was the recipient of this year’s Luminary Award for Economic Development.
“Economic development is such a team sport and I’m just lucky enough to be the guy on the team who got picked this year,” Staton explained. “It’s been a pleasure to work with NIPSCO all these years. This award is an honor and my whole team feels very fortunate to get this recognition and assistance.”
In the category of Community Leadership, Barb Young, President & CEO of the Porter County Community Foundation, accepted her award as recognition for her decades of work and charity in Porter County.
“NIPSCO does a wonderful job of recognizing all of the communities across Northwest Indiana, so I feel very privileged that they recognize the work I’ve done in Porter County," Young stated. “It’s been a privilege to be with foundation with the foundation for twenty years, and I’ve been the face of the public face of the foundation for the eighteen years. But we all know if you have a great team, it’s really thanks to them because though I get the recognition, they make it happen. By working with NIPSCO we’ve been able to work across geographic lines and they’ve set an example of how organizations can work together.”
Though NIPSCO handed out their annual Luminary Awards to deserving organizations in each category, a special Luminary Community Service Award was presented to Bert Valenkamph, a NIPSCO employee. Due to his dedication to raising hundreds of thousands of dollars through coordinating various local events over the years, he has made a huge impact at NIPSCO and in the community. Pink cancer awareness pins were being worn by many attendees throughout the room to show support for The American Cancer Society, the Charity of Choice for Bert and other NIPSCO employees fundraising efforts. After receiving his award, Valenkamph proudly displayed an $87,000 check to The American Cancer Society - all funds raised by him and his co-workers. Additionally, NIPSCO presented an additional $50,000 check to ACS as they matched their employee donations.
“NIPSCO is so great and awesome to work for because of how much they donate back to the community,” Valenkamph stated. “It also means so much giving employees the opportunity to participate in those activities. This award is very humbling and means a ton.”
Just because the 2016 Luminary Awards have come to a close, there are still many candidates that NIPSCO already has in mind for the upcoming years. They find themselves very fortunate to have such a long list of outstanding citizens in Northwest Indiana who are worthy of the award and are surely looking forward to recognizing a new batch of outstanding citizens in 2017.