Meet the Family

Donna Pappas

During my 32+ years as a Portage resident, I have volunteered for the following organizations:

  • Drifting Dunes Girl Scout Council as a Service Unit Manager
  • Drifting Dunes Girl Scout Council as a Troop Leader
  • The Portage Little League
  • The Nativity of Our Savior Activities Association, including the coordination of bus trips
  • Aylesworth Elementary as a room mom for 3 classrooms including one special education classroom
  • Jones Elementary as a room mom
  • 22 years as a volunteer at the Aylesworth, Jones, Kyle, Myers, Central, and South Haven Elementary Fun Fairs
  • Worked the concession stand at Portage High School football home games in support of the Music Boosters
  • Member MCJROTC Booster Club
  • VFW Auxiliary
  • American Legion Auxiliary

As an elected official I have:

  • Served as the Portage 5 Precinct Committeeperson where I moved the polling place to a safer location
  • Successfully lobbied the Indiana General Assembly for amendments to the Indiana Open Door and Access to Public Documents statutes
  • Successfully amended the City’s Tax Abatement Ordinance
  • Successfully lobbied the County Council for the inclusion of prevailing wage and an application fee for tax abatement

Tom Pappas

  • Married to Donna over 40 years
  • Over 32 year Portage resident
  • Retired from Bethlehem Steel after 36 years and 8 months service in the Quality and Processing Technology Dept.
  • Served on the Legislative and Strike Task Force Committees of Local Union 6787 and as a registered Indiana lobbyist for the USWA
  • Served as the last President of the Porter County Central Labor Council
  • Served as the second Vice-President of the Northwest Indiana Federation of Labor
  • Twice decorated
    • Air Medal
    • Air Force Commendation Medal—for voluntary service in Viet Nam with the U.S.A.F.
  • Two terms on the Portage Township School Board
  • 21 years as a volunteer at the the fun fairs of Aylesworth, Myers, Jones, Kyle, Central, and South Haven elementary schools
  • 5 years as a music booster concession stand volunteer at the Portage home football games
  • 30 years of working with the Portage MCJROTC
  • Served on the Indiana Adult Literacy Coalition with Indiana’s then First-Lady Susan Bayh
  • Served on the Board of the Indiana Association for the Gifted. Secured two funding increases and began the legislative process that led to a gifted education mandate in Indiana
  • Served on numerous city committees including as the President of the Portage Economic Development Commission where we enacted a moratorium, in 1991, on the construction of new subsidized apartment complexes in Portage
  • 6 term elected Democrat Precinct Committeeman
  • 2001 Porter County Democrat of the Year
  • Currently semi-retired with a seasonal position in the chemical distribution industry

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