B.C.’s Glenn Dreger nominated for Volunteer of the Year

“It makes me feel good to pay it forward,” says Glenn Dreger as he explains his more than 30 years of volunteerism with DUC.

However, for many years, the DUC Volunteer of the Year nominee from Knutsford, B.C. was unaware of the work done by the organization.

“I have been a duck hunter since I was 13-years-old. I had heard about Ducks Unlimited, but always thought it was a club for wealthy American sportsmen.  While I was paying my way through school, and building my home, I continued to believe this,” he says.

After attending a DUC volunteer recruitment event with a friend in the early 1980s, things changed.

“Once I got involved with DU and realized what a grassroots organization it was, I was determined to make sure as many people as possible saw it for what it really was,” says the nominee.

Dreger’s years with DUC are a “constant source of good memories,” he says. But during times of major accomplishment with the organization, he was experiencing personal challenges.

For a short period in 2011, Dreger served on the DUC Provincial Council as a district chair. The night before the provincial convention, Dreger began to feel severe back pain. “I developed an exceedingly rare auto-immune problem that destroyed most of my motor nerves.”

The disease left Dreger in a wheelchair and led him to relinquish his duties on the provincial council.

The setback didn’t curb the sportsman’s involvement with his Kamloops chapter.

Since first becoming involved with the organization, Dreger has chaired his local annual signature dinner committee, gathered donations from supporters, participated in the launch and running of the chapter’s sporting clay shoot, helped organize Greenwing Day for youth, and assisted in the coordination of the last DUC Provincial Convention.

He continues fundraising efforts to this day. “Next month I will be in a local pub, selling tickets on a Sportsman’s Raffle we are organizing. I am no longer the force that I was in the past, but will do what I can,” says Dreger.

Ever humble, when asked how he would feel if named the DUC’s National Volunteer of the Year, Dreger says, “I know others who deserve it more.”

Vote Glenn for DUC’s national Volunteer of the Year to celebrate his efforts and show some provincial pride! You can vote once a day until voting closes Friday, April 1, 2016.