Your Stories

You are ACRES. You make it possible to protect land.

You are the explorers seeking respite, adventure and everything in between on the trails. You are the members who take responsibility and come together to protect land. You are the volunteers who invest your time, energy and sweat into ACRES. You are the land donors who permanently protect the places that matter most to you.

These are a few of your stories.

Sam Ropchan

“[In the] Great Northern Plains of Alberta, pioneers were surrounded by nothing but scrub, small stands of white or black poplar, and sloughs [swamps]. The land was all virgin prairie. Anyone who might be called a neighbor lived one to five miles away. Like the other Ukrainian, Romanian, Polish and German immigrants who settled on ...

Brett Bloom and Bonnie Fortune

“We hold the need to be in these places deep in our DNA. The search is for the connections that emanate from this place, that inspire love of place, give transcendental awe at the complexities of life,” said Brett. In 2015, Brett Bloom and his wife, Bonnie Fortune, began posting Instagram photos of their family’s ...

Dick Loney

“You know, I’ve been exploring with friends long enough that I’ve seen many places before they became nature preserves.” To date, long-time ACRES member and volunteer Dick Loney has seen roughly 467 nature preserves in Indiana. He’s also spent plenty of time on home turf, helping tend ACRES preserves. What comes of a lifetime quest—an ...

Kristie Fuller

“My grandfather, whose parents lived near here, remembered as a boy, trees so big on this land that three to four men together couldn’t put their arms around them.” Kristie Fuller’s recently donated 56-acre Wells County farm and forest, named for her father, Francis Fuller, and her grandfather, Hurb Fuller, tells her family’s story on ...

Pam George

“The colors, sounds and scents of the wild are exhilarating. They instill in me a feeling of order, purpose and wonder. If I can instill that sense in others, it’s been a successful day!”     Pam George, an active lifelong educator, taught elementary students, supported teachers as a principal, teaches future teachers at IPFW, volunteers for several Allen ...

The Stockman Family

“If you want the world to be a better place, it’s up to you to make it better,” he says. “These things don’t happen by magic. You can’t just assume someone else will take care of it.” When Felicity and Kieran Stockman wanted to sell lemonade in their front yard, their parents suggested they donate ...

Connie & Steve Richie

“No matter what the troubles, after I would come back from a walk in the woods, they had dissipated, and I had put them in perspective.” “The peace and calming is amazing,” says land donor Connie Richie, whose perspective came over time. She and husband Steve transformed 35 acres of marginal farmland into a planting of ...

Heather DeLorenzo

“When you love a place, you take care of it.” My name is Heather DeLorenzo and my story with ACRES Land Trust began in 2014 when I first discovered the organization and became interested in supporting their mission. Since then, a few ACRES properties in Wabash County have become near-and-dear to my heart: Kokiwanee is ...

Mike Saylor & Dave Ray

“He left me for dead in the rain. On the Appalachian Trail. I’m not kidding. There’s a video.” That’s how Dave Ray introduces his hiking buddy, Mike Saylor. The two Ohio pastors recently visited ACRES’ office to check out Helen Swenson’s hand-drawn map of Wing Haven, to see the office, and to meet the staff ...