Active Southern West Virginia takes great pride in its Community Captains. We strongly believe that without them our mission would be impossible. They are dedicated to making their communities a happier, healthier, and an altogether brighter place to live. We are forever grateful for their service and passion for creating free opportunities for their community members to participate in. We are highlighting Whitesville Community Captain Gary Dillon to both show appreciation for his service and to showcase a little bit of his story. We hope it will resonate with some of our readers and motivate them to start their journey toward a healthy and active lifestyle change.
Gary began programming with Active Southern West Virginia in May by leading the Whitesville Walking Group with local PE teacher Dennis Dye. The group began meeting every Thursday at 6pm, and in June when Gary went to hike the Grand Canyon and Dennis left the country for a mission trip the participants in the group still met consistently. When Gary and Dennis returned they increased the amount of times the group met from one day to twice a week, to include Fridays at 6pm.
Gary has been physically active his whole life, realizing at a young age the positive impact it had on him physically, mentally, and spiritually. Because of the benefits he has found from physical activity he is highly self-motivated and loves a challenge and setting goals for himself like anything from increasing the amount of time he can hold a plank to climbing a mountain. He played football through college and then joined the Marines when he was 19, after the Marines he continued with weight lifting and won the State Championship for the Bench Press in the Masters Division of 40 and over. He is also involved in the adventure sports activities sky-diving and scuba-diving, but says his most challenging experiences involve Mountaineering with climbs of Mt. Rainier, Mt. Hood, Mt. Shasta, Mt. Kilimanjaro, Mt. Orizaba, and Mt. Aconcagua. In March 2016 he plans to fulfill his dream of going to the Mt. Everest base camp.
Gary decided to help his community become more physically active because he wants to show people what they can overcome if they set their mind to it. He says, “I just like to see success stories of what people can overcome, such as being able to get off of high Blood Pressure medicine or controlling Diabetes and weight and overall just feeling better by moving. So many people have just forgotten what it feels like to feel good. It is not easy but the results and rewards are well worth the effort.”
Gary is also heavily involved with the Whitesville community in other ways and is always willing to help when called upon. This year he attended Santa Claus School in Indianapolis, Indiana so that he could spend this holiday season making the kids in the area excited to meet Santa. He also gives talks about Mountaineering in Whitesville when the movie Mt. Everest is shown at the Salamy building.
Gary’s piece of advice to anyone thinking about becoming a Community Captain is: “If you feel you have something to offer and you have excelled or have a love for any physical activity, biking, running, hiking, etc. please pass this knowledge along. It could really make a difference in someone’s life.”
