Fund Name / Purpose & Funds Use
1 / 4-H of LaPorte County Endowment Fund / The LaPorte County 4-H program reaches over 1,400 youth in grades K-12. 4-H provides fun, hands-on learning activities through participation in local clubs, workshops, trips, community service, and project work. More than 80 different projects are available for members to choose from. These projects help youth develop important life skills and often define career aspirations. As children progress and take on more responsibility within the program, they also develop important leadership and communication skills. The entire program is led by a dedicated team of more than 300 adult volunteer leaders.
Our goal is to build the endowment fund so that the LaPorte County 4-H program will have a healthy financial future. We not only want to sustain our programs, but reach even more youth in LaPorte County. We would also like to support the efforts of our adult volunteers, providing them with the tools and resources they need to empower young people to reach their full potential.
2 / Arts United Fund for LaPorte County / Love the arts, and want to help everyone? The Arts United Fund is for you! This fund supports the fine and performing arts, promotes interest and participation in the arts, and enables Unity Foundation to use the arts to enrich the quality of life in La Porte County.
Give Day funds will be used to entice a new generation to get involved in the La Porte County fine and performing arts scene.
3 / Boys & Girls Club of Michigan City Endowment Fund / Our mission is to enable all young people, especially those who need us most, to reach their full potential as productive, caring, responsible individuals.We use our national programs to accomplish this mission with a focus on three areas of positive youth development: Academic Success, Good Character and Citizenship, and Healthy Lifestyles.
Our approximately 400 members, ages 6 through 18, will benefit from your contributions. The funds will be used to support our efforts to implement our "Evidenced Based" programs that incorporate five key elements of youth development: 1. A safe, positive environment 2. Fun 3. Supportive relationships 4. Opportunities and expectations 5. Recognition. We will also use funds to transport our members to and from the Club and to offsite activities.
4 / Clarence Weinkauff, Jr. Grant Fund / This scholarship is in connection with the LaPorte County 4H Swine project. In essence it is to encourage local 4H children to breed and raise their own pigs to show at the local fair. The award is $500 and is given via an essay submitted to the local 4H extension office prior to the annual fair date. All names are removed prior to the family reading the applications and the choice is then made by majority vote of the family. Encouraging local families with an interest in raising their own livestock and then showing them at the fair is important, not if they win, but the rewarding experience of breeding and raising pigs vs. just buying a pig and showing it.
We would increase our capital and increase the amount of the annual award if the earnings exceed the current award.
5 / Dress for Success Fund / Beginning this school year (2012-13) Michigan City Area Schools adopted a "Dress for Success" dress code. Students at all public schools are now required to wear khaki, black or navy pants/shorts/skirts and white, blue, black, or gray shirts. "Dressing for Success" is instilling a renewed sense of pride among students, leading to fewer behavior problems and keeping the focus on academics. However, some families in our community struggle to make ends meet. This fund helps MCAS provide basic "Dress for Success" clothing items for children in need.
This support comes at a crucial time for our schools, as we strive to make sure all children have the clothes they need to meet the requirements of the new district-wide dress code. School principals are given access to funds based on the percentage of students in poverty who attend their schools. Cash is not given to families directly; instead, principals order clothing items that are then available for them to pick up at school.
6 / Dunebrook - The Children's Fund / Dunebrook is a family resource center, providing home visitation and parenting classes to support parents in raising their children. When abuse is alleged, Dunebrook’s Child Advocacy Center works with investigators by performing forensic interviews and providing family advocacy to help victims toward healing.
The demand for Dunebrook’s parent support programs is great, a tribute to the care, compassion and guidance of our home visitors. Programs are delivered without cost to families; however, that does not mean that the programs are without cost. Proceeds from this event will assist with program costs, and enable us to positively impact the lives of children and parents.
7 / Environmental Improvement Fund for LP County / Love the environment and want to make your money really count? This fund has leveraged tens of thousands of grant dollars. Results include the completion of both the Trail Creek and Galena Watershed Plans approved by IDEM. This fund is still small so please help us grow it! We’ll use these funds for air, water, land and wildlife quality improvement efforts.
8 / Festival Players Guild / The Festival Players Guild provides professional quality, live stage productions at the Mainstreet Theatre in the Uptown Arts District. These productions are provided at reasonable prices primarily during our Canterbury Summer Theatre season. Our goal is to expand our season by offering additional productions in the spring and fall including productions in association with Purdue North Central and children's productions.
Our theatre, like many others, has fallen on hard times. All monies are being used to cover production costs, utility bills and miscellaneous expenses. Our theatre has been very conservative and has neither expanded our season nor grown our customer base. If other funds are available to "keep the lights on," we can concentrate on growing the theater's season and clientele.
9 / Food Bank of Northern Indiana Fund / Founded in 1993, the Food Bank of Northern Indiana serves 178 member agencies in Elkhart, Kosciusko, LaPorte, Marshall, Starke and St. Joseph counties. We solicit, store and distribute donated food through our network, distributing nearly 6 million pounds in 2012. Each dollar donated to the Food Bank can provide the equivalent of up to 8 meals for those in need.
10 / Foundations for Youth Fund / The Youth Service Bureau has been inspiring youth since 1972 in La Porte County. YSB believes the majority of our youth are assets, not problems. YSB believes youth need caring adults in their lives and joined forces in 1990 with Big Brothers Big Sisters to connect kids to positive role models. YSB recognizes that young people have the capacity to create a better tomorrow. YSB/BB-BS have been a steady source of opportunities for youth such as mentoring via Lunch Buddies, summer program, Teen Court, Kids on the Block (Abuse prevention program), Youth Philanthropy and more. Help us continue our efforts to inspire and strengthen our youth!
11 / Gail's Gift Scholarship Fund / Gail’s Gift Fund provides college scholarships for graduating seniors of Michigan City Area Schools. This fund was established in the memory of Gail E. Biggs, a wonderful woman who lived her life ‘giving’ to others. She spent many years volunteering and working with the students in the Michigan City Area School system. Her desire and passion to improve their lives will be carried on through this fund.
12 / Garner Foundation / We serve only two meals a year, but we have fed thousands. For more than 30 years, a group of dedicated volunteers had served meals on Thanksgiving and at Christmas to Michigan City people who would be hungry or alone. The number of people needing meals has dramatically increased.
Give Day funds will be used to feed more people, at a time of year when it’s needed most.
13 / M C Area Chamber Education Foundation / Dedicated to the enhancement of the local educational environment through efforts to achieve a high quality education in the greater Michigan City area. These efforts will better prepare students for meaningful and productive roles in the community.
14 / Hanna Indiana Community Fund / The Hanna Indiana community recently celebrated its sesquicentennial-150 years as a small, friendly town in southern La Porte County. For 65 of those years the Hanna Lions Club has been the key community betterment group serving its citizens. Small-town culture, families, history, agriculture, the environment, and recreation have been the centers of our community pride.
Funds are used to improve and maintain the Hanna Lions Club Community Park, to provide scholarships to local students, for community activities such as the Easter Egg Hunt and the annual HannaFest. Community needs dictate our donations and work.
15 / Harmony House/CASA of La Porte County, Inc. / Harmony House/CASA provides qualified, trained volunteers to serve as Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) who represent the best interests of children who are under the jurisdiction of the juvenile court due to abuse and neglect. Harmony House provides a safe home-like environment for children to have visitation with their non-custodial parent or a neutral site for the exchange for visitation to occur.
There are 30 children on a waiting list for a CASA volunteer to serve as their advocate. Funds will be used to recruit, screen and train additional volunteers. The funds will also be used to recruit, screen and train CASA volunteers who are appointed to represent those youth who are involved in juvenile delinquency court, to advocate for their best interest as well as serve as a mentor.
16 / Housing Opportunities, Inc. Endowment Fund / “I was overwhelmed with the pressure of not being able to find adequate work to support my family along with the seriousness of being evicted in February 2012. I prayed and cried and prayed and cried out for some kind of help. The Lord sent us a ray of hope. Today I am regaining my life and dignity, hand-in-hand with Housing Opportunities.”
Housing Opportunities, with offices in La Porte and Porter counties, supports families in crisis with many programs for homelessness prevention, crisis intervention, and to provide permanent, safe housing. Your support keeps families together and helps them to become self-sufficient.
17 / Indiana Dunes Environmental Learning Center Tuition Assistance Fund / Dunes Learning Center programs are a proven antidote to the challenges facing our youth. During their stay, students challenge themselves and work together. They encounter wild and beautiful places that few people visit. They experience classroom concepts first-hand while developing a sense of empowerment and responsibility to make a difference in the environment in which they live. Tuition assistance helps keep these experiences accessible and affordable.
Requests for tuition assistance continue to outpace available funds. A gift of $375 sends one child to Dunes Discovery Camp. $5,000 in tuition assistance funds could make it possible for 3 LaPorte county classrooms to experience a 3 day/2 night program at Dunes Learning Center at a cost of just $45 per student.
18 / International Friendship Gardens / This fund, started by an anonymous donor, supports the Gardens, which was started in the 1930’s inspired by the Chicago World’s Fair. These beautiful grounds have gardens representing different countries and cultures. It is a popular place for outdoor weddings and Lyric Opera performances. It is cradled along the banks of tranquil Trail Creek. Help us to maintain this treasure!
19 / Ivy Tech Michigan City Pejic Campus Fund / Get more for your money! Each $2 given to this fund will earn a $1 match from the Unity Foundation! Help us reach our goal of $100,000 AND make a great investment in education.
Give Day funds will be used for much needed renovation and repurposing of the facility acquired in 2011 by Ivy Tech through the generosity of Drs. Rade and Leslie Pejic.
20 / Jack and Shirley Lubeznik Center for the Arts / The center provides outreach to Michigan City and LaPorte after-school children to encourage academic success and engage families in their children's education.Funds will support a project for children to create art to be installed on storm drains in Michigan City. It will include education on the environment and the importance of storm drains on our ecological system and drinking water.
21 / Jim Jessup Future Leaders Fund / Leadership La Porte County has been training local leaders in La Porte County for almost 30 years. Each year several applicants for the program need tuition assistance to participate. This is especially true for the citizens of rural La Porte County and our local non-profit organizations. This fund helps provide those scholarships.
The funds will be used to provide local citizens financial assistance to participate in future leadership training programs through Leadership La Porte County.
22 / Junior Achievement of LaPorte County / Junior Achievement (JA) connects the business world and education. Here students learn economic lessons that have impact far beyond the classroom. Through simple lessons, we help students understand business principles such as supply and demand, concepts like opportunity cost, and practical skills like how to balance a checkbook. When they apply what they learn through JA, they’re developing skills that will last a lifetime.
This past school year we empowered over 5,400 students to own their economic success by offering over 200 classes at the elementary, middle school and high school levels. Your support of Junior Achievement is not just an investment in their future - it's an investment in our community's future. It's just good business!
23 / La Lumiere School Endowment Fund / La Lumiere School is committed to a racially, religiously, ethnically, and socio-economically diverse student body. We are determined to help close the gap between what a family can afford and the cost of a La Lumiere education. Each academic year, La Lumiere provides financial aid assistance to 1 in 4 of our students, who for financial reasons could not otherwise attend La Lumiere. Financial aid decisions are based upon the need of the family and have no bearing on our admission decisions. Every family is expected to contribute, to the extent they are able, a portion of the cost of their student’s education.
24 / La Porte County Mental Health Fund / Passionate about mental health? This fund helps many persons and families! This fund supports direct patient care for those under financial and emotional stress, and increases awareness of mental health issues and resources. It was started when the La Porte County Mental Health Association dissolved in 1998. This fund carries on its mission of supporting mental health for La Porte County residents.
25 / LaPorte County Park Foundation Endowment Fund / The La Porte County Park Foundation assists the La Porte County Parks by accepting gifts of cash, land, or other assets, and holding them in trust until needed by the Parks to maximize their effectiveness. The Foundation has leveraged over $4 million to benefit park development in La Porte County during its 20-year existence.
All funds raised will go to park development at the best possible time to match grants and get quick results.
26 / LaPorte County Habitat for Humanity, Inc. Endowment Fund / Our mission is to eradicate substandard housing and homelessness one house at a time by building affordable homes for low-income families through volunteer labor and love. Since 1986 we have built 44 homes throughout La Porte County for families who needed a helping hand up, not a hand out. Building homes enhances our communities and builds our economy.
Funds raised will largely help to purchase building materials and supplies for the next Habitat house to be built in La Porte County.
27 / LaPorte County American Red Cross Endowment Fund / Your home burned and you have no place to go. Your son is in the military, his father is in ICU and you need to get in touch with him. You are scheduled for surgery and may need blood. The Red Cross will be there to help with trained volunteers and staff.
Funds will be used for preparedness activities in LaPorte County. This includes:
•Training volunteers to respond to house fires as well as opening a shelter after a tornado.
•Purchasing of beverages (Gatorade, water, coffee and hot chocolate) which are given out during a disaster response.
•Printing and distribution of educational materials to the general public.
28 / LaPorte County Symphony Orchestra Endowment Fund / Founded by musicians who wanted to perform orchestral classics, the La Porte County Symphony Orchestra has become a cultural leader.