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Morning Optimists name Drager ‘Citizen of the Year’

Drager

The Morning Optimist Club of Marshalltown will host its 2017 Citizen of the Year Roast to honor Dennis Drager on April 6 at Elmwood Country Club. Drager was selected by previous honorees to acknowledge his active involvement in numerous local as well as global community causes.

At the local level, Drager is currently on the Marshalltown Rotary Board of Directors, and will become the Rotary president in the 2017-18 year, having been a member of the organization for 17 years. He has been active in the Marshalltown Chamber of Commerce for six years, and served as its Chair in 2015-16. As a member of the Chamber, he participated in the D.C. Summit for several years. Drager currently holds a position on the Marshalltown Regional Partnership Board of Directors. He is a trustee for the Susie Sauer Trust and the Ann C. Keyser Charitable Trust. Other local activities include serving as a Vice Commander of the American Legion, as well as membership in the American Legion Riders. As a member of the First United Methodist Church, he has served on the Pastoral Relations Committee.

Drager has also served as a Cub Scout and Boy Scout leader, assisting in fundraising when his son Jason was a Scout. He was a member of the Iowa Valley Leadership Class of 2000, and served as a Marshalltown reserve police officer for five years. For 10 years, he served on the Board of the Animal Rescue League of Marshalltown, and stepped down when his wife, Heidi, applied for the director position.

Drager’s community service goes well beyond the Iowa borders. In 2005, he spent a week delivering supplies and caring for lost animals in Mississippi in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. He has traveled to Mexico and Africa to serve on Rotary mission trips. Currently, he is working to provide clean water in South Sudan, through both the Rotary organization and his position on the Board of Wellspring Missions.

Drager grew up with six siblings on the family farm near Tipton where his dreams of becoming a veterinarian began while helping with calving. Before focusing on that dream, he joined the Air Force where he became an avionics specialist. After four years of service, Drager attended Iowa State University, from which he earned his Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degree in 1985. Before purchasing a veterinary practice in Marshalltown in 1988, he practiced in Illinois and Wisconsin. In 2018, Drager will celebrate 30 years of veterinary practice at Animal Clinic – The Vet in Marshalltown. His professional involvement includes membership in the Iowa Veterinary Medical Association, the American Veterinary Medical Association and Traditional Chinese Veterinary Medicine.

Drager’s family includes his son Jason, a granddaughter Caitlin, and his wife of 10 years, Heidi. His favorite leisure activities include golfing, flying airplanes, hiking and fishing, as well as traveling.

Of his Citizen of the Year honor, Drager feels “honored to be a recipient, as an affirmation of a life well-lived.” He sums his life with a quote from Paulo Coelho, “A life without a cause is a life without effect.”

The Citizen of the Year Roast will begin with a social hour at 6 p.m. and a dinner at 7 p.m. Tickets are $40 each, and can be purchased at the Chamber of Commerce Office, by mailing a check, made out to Morning Optimist Club, to Morning Optimist Club, P.O. Box 1236, Marshalltown, or by calling 641-691-9048.

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