NIPSCO’s eighth annual Hope for the Holidays – an effort that combines company and employee donations – allowed the company to give back to communities throughout northern Indiana this holiday season. During this year’s campaign, NIPSCO raised and donated more than $62,000 to benefit various nonprofit organizations across its service area to help support their individual missions during these uncertain and unprecedented times.
Under normal circumstances, NIPSCO would have held its annual holiday market at its Merrillville headquarters, among other in-person fundraisers, where all proceeds go to buy toys and wish list items for the Marine Corps Toys for Tots program. This year’s fundraising efforts were done virtually in order to keep everyone safe and maintain COVID-19 safety protocols. Despite the change, NIPSCO employees still came together to raise the much needed funding.
NIPSCO’s employee donations matched by the NiSource Charitable Foundation made it possible for $2,000 to be donated to each of the eight Toys for Tots organizations throughout the NIPSCO service area. Counties supported include:
- Lake County
- North Lake Co. (Gary, Hammond, East Chicago, Whiting)
- Porter, Starke and Jasper
- LaPorte County
- Miami, Cass, Howard, Fulton, Wabash, Grant and Tipton
- Allen, Adams, DeKalb, Huntington, Noble, Steuben and Wells
- Elkhart County
- St. Joseph County
“Our annual Hope for the Holidays campaign, though different this year, remains a favorite of our employees,” said Rick Calinski, NIPSCO’s director of Public Affairs. “We’ve created a culture of employee giving back at NIPSCO. With many employees working from home this year, we came together virtually to help contribute to these organizations and make a positive impact in the communities we serve.”
Along with the employee-giving efforts supporting Toys for Tots, NIPSCO also made donations to various nonprofit organizations. The recipients included:
- Carmelite Home
- Community Harvest Food Bank of Northeast Indiana
- Kokomo Rescue Mission
- LaPorte County Sheriff’s Office
- NICK Foundation
- St. Joseph County FOP Lodge 155
- Plymouth FOP Lodge 195
- St. Jude House
- Salvation Army of Lake County
- United Way of Miami County
For the fifth consecutive year, NIPSCO has partnered with Adams Radio Group (Indiana 105/X-Rock 103.9/z-107) in support of the Salvation Army’s “Spread The Warmth” campaign providing winter coats, hats, gloves, mittens and scarves to those in need. This holiday season the campaign did take a different approach and only new winter-wear items were donated to the Salvation Army due to COVID.
For more information on other ways NIPSCO gives back to the community, visit NIPSCO.com/GivingBack.
