Fairborn Daily Herald
FAIRBORN — The Fairborn Festival Committee has named former city mayor, Joan Dautel, as the Grand Marshall for the 2016 Fourth of July parade.
“I do thank the festival committee for this honor,” Dautel said in an email interview. “And a huge thanks go to all the volunteers who work so hard every year to make this parade the best Fourth of July parade in the Miami Valley. As a former president of the Fairborn Rotary Club, a big thanks to them for sponsoring the parade.”
An active participant in Greene County and the Fairborn community, she has been a member of the Fairborn Zoning Board of Appeals, the YMCA Board, the Rae Burick Women In Sports selection committee and the Greene County Library Committee. President of the Fairborn Rotary Club from 1998-99, she was selected to the Fairborn City Council in 1987, served as Deputy Mayor from 1991-94 and again from 2007-09 until being elected mayor from 2009-11.
Dautel is currently president of the Greene County Violence Prevention Center and an executive board member of the Greene County Community Foundation. She is also a member of the Greene County Board of Developmental Disabilities, the Greene County Library Board, the Fairborn Parks and Recreation Foundation, the Fairborn Development Corporation, a member of the Fairborn Area Chamber of Commerce, Fairborn Christmas in Action and the 100 Women Making a Difference In Greene County organization.
She was named to the Greene County Women’s Hall of Fame in 2000 and was the 2002 Fairborn Sweet Corn Festival queen. She received the Fairborn Ministerial Association Peacemakers Award in 2002 and the Rex Aukerman Track and Field Classic Service Award in 2006.
Dautel was very surprised when she got the news. Local Business Owner Mike Foy had rang her phone from a private number, which she ignored until City Manager Deborah McDonnell asked if she had heard from Foy the following day. Confused, Dautel asked why she needed to get in touch with Foy, which McDonnell explained that she just needed to get in touch with him.
“I hope everyone comes out to the block party on the third, the parade on the Fourth and the fireworks to celebrate this great country and the freedoms we enjoy because of the sacrifices and service of all our military men and women,” Dautel said. “God bless the United States of America.”
A Fairborn resident, Dautel enjoys attending Dayton Dragons baseball games, golf, auctions, flea markets, collecting baseball cards and reading.
