Born and raised in Northwest Indiana, Eddie Melton returned to his roots after graduating from Kentucky State and became deeply devoted to the his community and the organizations that strive to help those in the community.
Currently, Melton works for NIPSCO as the Manager of Corporate Citizenship and Employee Involvement. Before joining the NIPSCO team four years ago, Melton worked for the Legacy Foundation as a Community Initiatives officer. When he heard about the opportunity at NIPSCO, he decided to give it and try and was hired onto the team.
His main role at NIPSCO is to lead the Charity of Choice campaign. For this campaign, the employees identify one initiative and raise the money to support the chosen organization. In past years, they have raised over a hundred thousand dollars for both the Boys and Girls Club and the Red Cross. This year's initiative is to raise money for veteran organizations across northern Indiana.
"I work with such great people here, and I love helping the employees connect with volunteer opportunities," Melton said. "Having the opportunity to figure out how we can help organizations that are doing good work in the community is just amazing."
In his spare time, Melton to volunteer his time as a mentor to the community's youth. After returning home from college, Melton began working for a youth services organization where he first became involved with mentoring troubled youth. Currently, he mentors young men in the community that face a variety of problems and need some kind of guidance, whether professionally, academically, or socially.
"A few year back, I had the pleasure of mentoring a young man who had found himself in a smidge of academic trouble. I was able to help him get back in school. I saw him graduate from high school and go on to college," Melton said. "Just being able to see people's lives change in a positive way is such a great thing to be a part of. When you're doing something like this, you want to volunteer from a good place in yourself – to make sure that you're truly helping others get to a better position."
Back in 2005, Melton started an organization called Redd Karpet Achievement, a program that provides free tutoring and other services offered in various contracts for the youth that comes in. Melton also works with mentoring services offered through NIPSCO, and offers his time to local food banks. Now, Melton is working with the Mentoring Trust, which is an organization that was started this year and is partnered with the Indiana Youth Institute. Melton and everyone else involved are actively trying to build a network of mentoring organizations in northern Indiana.
In Melton's free time, he likes to read leadership development books by John Maxwell and loves spending time with his children.