Carla Kapitan Tucker Share

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Car­la Kap­i­tan Tuck­er was born in North Dako­ta in 1944, and grew up in Yank­ta, South Dako­ta. She found Indi­ana through pur­su­ing high­er edu­ca­tion at Mar­i­an Uni­ver­si­ty in Indi­anapo­lis. She dis­cov­ered Mar­i­on, Indi­ana through her hus­band, whom she fell in love with on a blind date. Mar­i­on was his life­long home, and it soon became hers.

Upon mov­ing to Mar­i­on in the 1960s, she made a point to get acquaint­ed with the com­mu­ni­ty through two orga­ni­za­tions: Girl Scouts of Amer­i­ca and Mar­i­on Civic The­atre. She dived into work­ing with the local Girl Scouts pro­gram dur­ing a time when there were around 2,000 girl mem­bers as opposed to about 200 today. ​“With­out the Scouts, there wasn’t much sports & recre­ation oppor­tu­ni­ty for girls back then,” explained Tuck­er who devot­ed over 50 years to the Girl Scouts, giv­ing Grant Coun­ty a voice when the pro­gram was lat­er con­sol­i­dat­ed. She also became a shin­ing star on and off the stage of Mar­i­on Civic The­atre, coor­di­nat­ing and accu­mu­lat­ing a vast cos­tume col­lec­tion, the rental of which is a source of income for MCT, even uti­lized by sur­round­ing coun­ties. Tuck­er is known as the ​“Wardrobe Mis­tress” in the area, and is still active with them.

Tuck­er served with numer­ous oth­er non-prof­its through­out the years. Among them, she was one of the char­ter mem­bers of Marion’s pres­ti­gious Com­mu­ni­ty School of the Arts where she served on vir­tu­al­ly every com­mit­tee and even led the board. She also serves as an inte­gral piece of the Mar­i­on-Grant Coun­ty Cham­ber of Com­merce, notably the 2013 ATHENA Award® Recip­i­ent, and 2014 Ambas­sador of the Year. She has been duti­ful­ly active with St. Paul Catholic Church out­side of her employ­ment with St. Paul Catholic Parish as the Music & Litur­gy Coor­di­na­tor. For 25 years, she watched over many elec­tions as an inspec­tor in her precinct.

In recount­ing all of her vol­un­teer expe­ri­ences, the com­mon thread was that it has nev­er seemed like work. Tucker’s phi­los­o­phy is, ​“bloom where you’re plant­ed.” She adds, ​“Go with your pas­sion. You’ll have too much fun for it to seem like work.”

Tuck­er also recent­ly received the Sep­tem­ber 2018 ​“Cel­e­brat­ing Grant Coun­ty Seniors” Award from the Grant Coun­ty Senior Center.