A La Porte County Life In The Spotlight: Sandy Gleim

A La Porte County Life In The Spotlight: Sandy Gleim

Sandy Gleim has not always lived in Northwest Indiana. She grew up in Central Illinois, but eventually job choices brought her to Northwest Indiana. The environment from the two areas is not much different, but one thing Sandy really likes about Northwest Indiana is the friendliness of the community.

“There are so many great people in the community that are dedicated to trying to make improvements, to help each other, and it is just a friendly place,” she explained.

Sandy gets hands-on experience with making improvements and helping others within the community from her past and current positions with nonprofit organizations.

“I’ve been lucky enough to work with nonprofits and other nonprofit partners that have been able to do a lot of good in the community,” stated Sandy.

Sandy started off in nonprofits in Northwest Indiana as the Executive Director of Healthy Communities of La Porte County.

“I worked with the tobacco-free grant, the drug-free partnership, and recovering families insurance programs. I also focused on issues such as transportation, cultural unity, and literacy.”

She ran Healthy Communities for eleven years before accepting the role as the Vice President for the Unity Foundation of La Porte County four and a half years ago. As Vice President, Sandy is in charge of grant/scholarship management, marketing/public relations, and development/donor assistance.

“I work with grant and scholarship processes, supporting community leadership projects, such as the coordination of the ‘Home Team,’ which is a coalition supporting homelessness efforts. I also work with fiscal, human resources, office management practices, and public relations and marketing.”

The Unity Foundation of La Porte County’s vision and mission is to make La Porte County and Northwest Indiana a better place for all by building permanent endowments, providing leadership, offering philanthropic vehicles for everyone, and being a catalyst for social and economic vitality.

The Unity Foundation accomplishes this in many ways by donating to multiple nonprofit organizations as well as to students in need of scholarships to further their schooling. This is done by volunteer committees, that Sandy oversees, that come together to evaluate where the money goes.

“There are volunteer committees that read the applications from the nonprofits, as well as from scholarship students. They then evaluate the applications and they get together to make the hard choices of how to divide up the money and spread it out as far as possible to benefit the community,” said Sandy.

This year, the Unity Foundation of La Porte County was able to give out over 50 grants for nonprofit organizations, and over 100 scholarships for students continuing their education.

“It’s very exciting to support the committees as they really help people to further their education, and to just support a lot of great work happening in the county.”

Outside of work, Sandy enjoys many hobbies, such as acting in community theater, singing with her church’s contemporary rock and roll band, volunteering with the La Porte Service League Organization, being the Treasurer of the La Porte County Drug-Free Board, and writing.

Sandy has written two books and is currently working on her third.

“I knew from a very young age that I wanted to be a writer. Because of that, I pursued a journalism / communications degree at Eastern Illinois University and started my career working as a writer and editor for Gannett. After getting involved with nonprofit organizations for many years, I had an idea to write a book, so I started writing these books that are based in La Porte County.”

With her third book in the works, Sandy is planning on taking an early retirement to focus on writing. Even though Sandy is retiring, she is still planning on volunteering and staying active within the community.

“I really never anticipated ‘retiring’ this young, but the writing is just calling to me, and I am just really excited to dedicate my time to it.”

If you would like to learn more about, or donate to the Unity Foundation of La Porte County, visit http://uflc.net