LITTLE CURRENT—Dave Draper is the jovial face that often greets anyone stopping by the NEMI landfill site’s transfer stations. Once described by a letter writer to The Expositor as “the best ambassador” for the community, even going so far as to suggest he should be mayor, Mr. Draper is far more than just a town employee with a friendly smile and a ready joke or quip to brighten your day.
Mr. Draper is one of those hardy individuals who wear the yellow and purple vest of the Lions Club and can be seen working at a wide range of events during the annual Little Current Lions Club Haweater Weekend.
Joining the Lions Club was not something Mr. Draper and his wife Lori (another indefatigable Lion) did on whim.
“No, no,” he laughs. “We thought about it for quite a while before we did. I didn’t want to join and then, a couple of weeks later, decide it wasn’t something for me.”
While he was considering joining the community service club’s ranks, and long before he took the plunge, Mr. Draper and his family would step up each year to put their shoulders (sometimes literally) to the task of making Little Current Lions Club Haweater Weekend a success. It was while leaving one Haweater event, the fireworks (hands down the dirtiest gig of the weekend, and that’s including cleanup after the Hawfest Dance) that he made up his mind.
“I turned to Lori and said, ‘we should join the Lions Club,’” he recalled. The rest was history, as the Draper family, wife Lori, daughters Beth and Cheryl, son-in-law Russ and grandson Bryce followed him into the fold, with Lori’s mother, Eunice Beaudin, affectionately known as ‘Lion Nana,’ not far behind.
“Four generations is pretty rare, especially four generations in the same club,” noted Mr. Draper, a fact that did not escape the notice of The Expositor and thanks to an article published in the paper, they also soon caught the eye of Lion Magazine. “They put us right on the front page,” grins Mr. Draper.
The November 2018 edition of Lions Magazine featured a reprint of that story.
“You have to give back to the community,” noted Mr. Draper as to his personal reasons for joining the club. “A person gets a really good feeling from helping to make your community a better place,” continues Mr. Draper, “Not only that,” he quips, “you get to hang out with all the cool kids.”
