Mary C. Lange to receive Distinguished Citizen Award in Ferdinand

Mary C. Lange’s name is already built into some of Dubois County’s most visible community assets, and Buffalo Trace Council will put her service in the spotlight again when it presents her with the Distinguished Citizen Award on Oct. 7 at the Ferdinand Community Center. The honor recognizes people who have shown outstanding service and commitment to their communities, and Lange’s record includes major support for local health, recreation and charitable projects that still shape daily life in Ferdinand and beyond.

The award comes with a public ceremony hosted by Scouting America’s Buffalo Trace Council, which uses the annual banquet to recognize civic leadership across its region. In 2025, the council honored Dan Fritch at a banquet at the Huntingburg Event Center, continuing a tradition that reaches well beyond scouting ranks and into the wider community.

Lange’s impact is especially visible in Ferdinand. The Tri-County YMCA was renamed the Clem and Mary Lange YMCA after the Langes’ support, tying their names to a facility that serves Dubois, Perry and Spencer counties and counts more than 3,100 members. The YMCA later announced an expansion at the Ferdinand site that would add a 3,300-square-foot space with a therapy pool, sauna, cold therapy area and stretching area, underscoring how the building continues to grow as a community hub.

Her charitable footprint also extends to education, health care and local philanthropy. Dubois County reporting has said Clem and Mary Lange made the lead donation for Memorial Hospital’s Lange-Fuhs Cancer Center and supported both the Tri-County YMCA and the Ferdinand Community Center. The Dubois County Community Foundation also reported that a $400,000 estate gift from Clem Lange was the largest single contribution it received in 2022, designated for the Clem and Mary Lange Best Chairs Endowment serving Ferdinand, Holland and St. Henry.

More recently, Lange helped make possible Best Home Furnishings Stadium at Forest Park, a project that brought an artificial turf field and a new facility name to the local athletic landscape. Taken together, those investments explain why the Distinguished Citizen Award carries weight in Dubois County: it is not just a tribute to one person, but a public acknowledgment of the institutions and projects that have been strengthened by her giving. Buffalo Trace Council serves more than 16,000 Scouts and Scouters across 15 counties in Indiana and Illinois, but the October banquet will land squarely in Ferdinand, where Lange’s legacy is already visible in concrete places residents use every day.