A La Porte County Life in the Spotlight: Nick Meyer

A La Porte County Life in the Spotlight: Nick Meyer

Nick Meyer originally was born in the south, then was raised in Northern Kentucky and has since continued to travel farther and farther and colder and colder north to the little town of Long Beach, Indiana. Settling in the La Porte County region with his wife and three kids, Meyer has made a permanent home in the community.

Meyer met his now wife Colleen at Indiana University Bloomington on a blind date. After graduation, with a degree in telecommunications, the two decided to relocate to Chicago, where he worked within public relations departments in several agencies. When it was time to start their family about five years ago, they knew they wanted to live in Northwest Indiana where Colleen grew up.

For the last 10 years, Meyer has worked with NIPSCO, drawn to the company for their dedication and passion to helping the community, more so than the energy industry part.

“I didn’t have much background in the energy industry, but had worked with public relations and was very surprised early on about the involvement of the company in the community,” he explained. “I am really fortunate to find a place that encourages their employees to be so involved.”

What he is referring to is the encouragement of their employees to join organizations, boards, volunteer, and let the community know that the NIPSCO company is a one more friendly neighbor.

There is one program, Meyer mentioned, called the Dollars for Doers, where the company will match the number of hours of volunteer work with donations to that organization.

Meyer usually contributed his hours to the projects and events hosted by the Food Bank of Northwest Indiana where he served on the board for the last seven years. He recently stepped down from this role to free up time for his next leadership role: taking his seat on the Long beach Town Council. He also serves on the Indiana Energy Association committee and in the next few months, he plans on picking up another organization to get involved with in the Michigan City and La Porte area, he said.

He added beach cleanups along Lake Michigan are always go-to volunteer events for NIPSCO employees as well.

Nick-Meyer-02At NIPSCO, he is the Director of External Communications, responsible for primary media. He is the spokesperson for the company and manages all crisis community communications, as well as takes care of all other marketing and advertising initiatives.

It is a busy schedule to keep and many different platforms to manage, not to mention the constant message, notification, and ad to reply and to approve. The ability to multitask and balance his responsibilities at work is then replicated at home, where he and his wife balance the activities of the lives of his five, four, and 20-month-year-old children.

“They keep us very busy,” he claimed. As a family, they spend many weekends visiting the local YMCA’s in the area.

“They all have unique programs and sporting activities, so we like to hop around to each one,” he said. “We enjoy the Valpo Y because of the pool and swim programs they have to offer and at the Michigan City branch, our kids are involved with basketball and soccer.”

The La Porte YMCA and the Long Beach branches are also great weekend getaways for fun, but once the weather permits, the Meyer family spends as much time as they can outside.

“We are always very interested in what the area has to offer from the outdoor standpoint, like hiking and going to the orchards,” he said. “We really love experiencing the great outdoor activities that NWI has to offer.”

These of course include the local parks, the Indiana Dunes, the lakefront, and visiting orchards.

The family always enjoys attending the summer events, Jammin’ With Save the Dunes and the Lightning Bug Festival in Valparaiso.

Meyer has lived in several places and can honestly say his home in Northwest Indiana truly has it all. He does not want to compare his town to Chicago, and tells people that we do not need to try to compete with the big city, since we already have it all here.

“We should continue to focus on Northwest, Indiana. We have so many things to offer; you have just about everything you want or need,” he said. “All of the natural assets that other states across the country would love to have are right in our back yard!”

Plus, the arts, the culture... the zoo.

“There are just so many thing to do and ways to be involved,” he said.