Indiana American Water provides supports environmental education among youth of the Region

On Wednesday, September 3, representatives of Indiana American Water (INAW), the country’s largest water and wastewater utility company, traveled to the Dunes Learning Center (DLC) in Porter to present the center with a $15,000 check. 

The DLC, a nonprofit organization, has offered a wide array of environmental educational programs in the Region since it was founded in 1998. The $15,000 State Strategic Impact Grant was supplied by the American Water Charitable Foundation, a nonprofit philanthropy-focused organization established by INAW in 2012. After presenting Heather Hahn Sullivan, DLC executive director, with the check, INAW representatives accompanied Hahn Sullivan on a brief tour of the DLC grounds.

Over the course of its 13 years of operation, the American Water Charitable Foundation has provided eligible organizations and communities throughout INAW’s area of operation with over $20 million in grants and matching gifts. This shareholder-funded foundation adheres to three pillars of giving: water, people, and communities.

“We are incredibly excited to support the DLC with our charitable foundation,” Justin Mount, operations manager of INAW’s Northwest Indiana district, said. “We are situated on the shoreline of one of the largest freshwater lakes in the world, so this is a great area for kids to experience nature and learn about what’s in their own backyard. We wanted to take the opportunity to put some money into the community, all at no extra cost to our rate payers. As a water provider, we understand how important it is to care for both the environment and the community.”

The DLC is situated in Indiana Dunes National Park, which ranks as the sixth most biodiverse of the National Parks System’s 436 protected sites. Although it offers programs for people of all ages, the DLC largely focuses on educating school-age youth about Northwest Indiana and its environment. Each year, over 20,000 students from across Chicagoland and Northwest Indiana participate in DLC’s programming. At the DLC, students can participate in hikes, explore nature as they learn about water and the Lake Michigan watershed as well as Northwest Indiana’s natural and cultural history.

The DLC offers both an open enrollment week-long summer camp and year-round school programs. Students interested in participating in the school programs must register through its school. In some cases, the school is unable to pay for all students to attend the program. In such cases, the DLC provides students who have been nominated by their teachers with scholarships that will remove financial barriers and provide them access to the hands-on education that the DLC offers.

“This $15,000 grant will help support our scholarship fundraising,” Hahn Sullivan said. “The scholarships we offer are so helpful because they ensure that kids from across Northwest Indiana can come to Indiana Dunes National Park and learn about the natural world. This grant is a really wonderful show of INAW’s support of education here in the community. Since they are a water provider and we’re an organization that teaches about the Lake Michigan watershed, our educational goals complement their mission perfectly.”

The DLC and INAW are indeed closely intertwined. Lake Michigan plays an integral role in INAW’s Northwest Indiana operations. In fact, one of INAW’s Lake Michigan water intakes is located just two minutes down the road from the DLC site. In Mount’s view, this grant presentation is an excellent demonstration of INAW’s and the American Water Charitable Foundation’s values.

“INAW staff members live and work in the communities we serve,” Mount said. “We want to give back to our fellow community members however possible. We consider helping kids learn more about the environment and how to protect it to be extremely important. I am so thrilled to be here today. I know times have been tough for many of our national parks, but the DLC is a great organization and I am very pleased that we are able to support them with these funds.”

Please visit amwater.com/inaw for more information on Indiana American Water’s community outreach endeavors.