Unity Honors Moldenhauer

Unity Foundation of LaPorte County has awarded Save the Dunes Board President Nancy Moldenhauer with the 2023 Jana Nona Environmental Stewardship Award.

Nona was an ordinary senior who learned the local shallow aquifer — the source for drinking water in the Town of Pines — was poisoned by coal combustion waste. She then inspired other residents to join her and demand accountability by local, state and federal officials. The result was voluntary funding by “potentially responsible parties” to provide most homeowners with municipal water from Michigan City.

Save the Dunes, according to a press release, has reached new heights under Moldenhauer’s leadership for the past year and a half. An example it offered was her willingness to serve as a standing witness for Save the Dunes’ recent appeal of a Department of Natural Resource permit approval involving Ogden Dunes’ 2,970 foot-long shoreline revetment.

“Nancy is always striving to improve herself or whatever cause she is a part of,” Betsy Maher, Save the Dunes executive director, said in a press release. “Her passion, coupled with her well-rounded understanding of the complex issues facing our environment, make her an invaluable leader and mentor.”