Schipfer Awarded Citizen Leadership Award

Daniel C. Schipfer Jr., Darke County Parks Vice President for the Park Board of Commissioners was recently awarded the Citizen Leadership Award by the Ohio Parks and Recreation Association. Dan was presented the award on February 7th, 2012 while attending the OPRA Annual Awards Celebration that was held this year at the Kalahari Resort in Sandusky, Ohio. Mr. Schipfer was requested in 1972 by then-Darke County Probate Judge, the Honorable Edward Williams to serve on the first Park Board of Commissioners for the newly created Park District. “Forty years have now passed, and with the 40th Anniversary Celebration of the Darke County Park District, Daniel C. Schipfer Jr. has served continuously for that entire 40-year period as a Park Board commissioner, holding all three positions of president, vice president and commissioner-at-large. Quiet, strong lead¬ership has guided this commissioner in his visions for the growth of the Park District from the beginning," stated Executive Director Woody Woodward of the Ohio Parks and Recreation Association.

Dan’s 40 years of service have taken the Park District from a single 32-acre tract of land to be maintained as a nature sanctuary in 1972 to a regional park district with almost 1,000 acres of land in 11 different parks throughout Darke County. This also includes a 7,000-square-foot Nature Education Center and County Community rooms available for use by the local non¬profits and government agencies at no additional cost to those groups. More than 75,000 visitor occasions now takes place annually in all the parks combined.

Woodward continued, “We congratulate Daniel C. Schipfer Jr. as a quiet, yet strong leader with the intent to serve the community. His volunteer service often goes without fanfare, which is actually how Dan likes it. His dedication to the parks and recreation communities is unparalleled during this 40-year period of service. His passion for parks always includes visits during his vacations to national, state and local park districts to learn how “his” parks can continue to grow from the knowledge of others.”