Editor’s Note: This information was provided by the Orion Area Parade Group.

Orion Township resident Dan Dewey has been named the Orion Area Parade Group’s (OAPG) 2019 Citizen of the Year.

For the past 13 years, Dewey has delivered Starbucks coffee to chemotherapy patients at St. Joseph Hospital and Beaumont Hospital chemo centers.

In 2006, while his father was receiving chemo at the Michigan Cancer Institute Clinic at St. Joseph Pontiac, Dan offered to grab coffee for his father and some of the other patients. That began a weekly visit to bring coffee and a smile to help distract and entertain those undergoing treatment.

It was a simple act of kindness, but it had a lasting effect on Dewey, as well as the many cancer patients he has met along the way.

“Sometimes someone will come up to me and say, ‘You don’t remember me but you brought me coffee,’” Dan says. “That makes my day. The smiles I get are just phenomenal, nothing compares to it.”

Dan credits his mother with his spirit of giving.

“My mother was a volunteer forever; never said a word,” he said. “She was the church secretary for 40 years, was never paid and never complained.”

His father drove the Red Cross truck for many years too.

“If I could have one wish,” he said, “I would wish my mother could be around and go with me (delivering coffee). That would have been fun. That would have been a treat.”

Dewey’s story has caught the attention of many local and national news shows, and a visit to the Queen Latifah show led to Dewey meeting and having coffee with Starbucks founder and CEO Howard Schwartz at their Seattle headquarters.

In 2013, Dewey met Vice President Joe Biden who urged him to “keep doing this as long as you can.”

As he told Schwartz when asked about his story, “I bought a cup of coffee for someone who needed it, and now I’m here talking to you.”

Dan retired from the Technology Department at Birmingham Public Schools in 2010 and has been a lifelong resident of the Orion area, graduating from Lake Orion High School in 1965.

A lifelong runner after being diagnosed with asthma as a child, Dan is proud to say he has run the 26-mile Detroit Free Press Marathon 35 times since 1980.

It’s been an amazing run for the shorts-clad runner who took an opportunity to do something nice for someone and should inspire anyone to practice some random acts of kindness to make this world a better place. Look for Dan as he goes on his many runs around Orion Township.

Anyone who would like to help finance Dan’s Coffee Run can visit his GoFundMe page at https://www.gofundme.com/f/dans-coffee-fund.

The Orion Lighted Christmas Parade begins at 6 p.m. Dec. 7 in downtown Lake Orion. This year’s theme is “A Family Game Night Christmas.”

More than 100 illuminated entries, including bands, floats, dignitaries, dancers, school groups, community organizations and businesses, shine their holiday light on hundreds of spectators braving a winter night.

The parade travels from Blanche Sims Elementary School through downtown Lake Orion to the Ehman Center on Elizabeth Street. After the Parade, Santa welcomes visitors at the Village Hall for photos and refreshments.

The Orion Lighted Christmas Parade has been a Lake Orion tradition for over 20 years and has the distinction of being one of the largest lighted Christmas parades in Michigan. The parade group is staffed by volunteers and counts on the support of the community to bring this event to town each year. For more information about the Orion Area Parade Group, visit www.orionlightedparade.org.

Each year the parade group seeks nominations to recognize an outstanding individual who contributes to the community in a manner that is nonpolitical, not job-related and not a paid position. This year OAPG received a record number of nominations. The board reviewed all nominations and Dewey was selected. He will have the honor of riding in one of the first cars to lead off the parade.