Healthy Dubois County awarded environmental grant

On April 8, 2014, Healthy Dubois County, Inc., was awarded a $500 grant from the not-for-profit environmental organization Heartwood.

HDC’s grant proposal titled We Can‘t Breathe What We Burn focuses on the prevention of further pollution-related cancers and asthma in Jasper and the Dubois County area.

Earmarked to support HDC’s renewed efforts to stop the proposed Jasper, Indiana, biomass incinerator, the award will be used to educate parents regarding the particulates and dioxins that the facility will produce and the subsequent long-term health effects upon children, according to a press release from the organization. The award will incorporate digital media to enhance public awareness and empowerment.

Heartwood is the seventeenth entity in the state and nation to acknowledge and support HDC’s ongoing efforts. In contrast, HDC is not aware of any citizens’ advocacy group, environmental organization, or peer-reviewed scientific journal supporting the Jasper “Clean Energy Center”.

Heartwood’s motto is “People Helping People Protect the Places They Love.” A regional network that protects forests and supports community activism in the eastern United States through education, advocacy, and citizen empowerment, Heartwood was founded in 1991 when concerned citizens from several midwestern states met and agreed to work together to protect the heartland hardwood forest.

Additional information can be found at www.healthyduboiscounty.org/home or www.facebook.com/HealthyDuboisCounty.