Who Is Dave Druen Creator Of Daves Outdoor World?

I am the youngest of 7 children of Alice & Oden Druen from Kentucky. We lived in a small two bedroom house in a small sub division east of Rock Falls on Rt 30. My dad was employed at North Western Steel & Wire for 25 years. My mom and dad believed in God as I do and we grew up in church. After school at Rock Falls High I left for Texas for 18 years. Returned in 2004 and married my wife Monica Gallentine. She is a Traveling Occupational Therapist. We purchased a travel trailer and now travel from Sterling in the fall to Texas in the winters. My background is in Retail Sales Management & Sales. Spent many years managing for, Walgreens, Albertsons, Kroger and Convenience store supervisor over several stores.The last several years I have been self employed and currently am owner & Creator of Daves Outdoor World. I  have always been active on the Hennepin Canal and since 2004 have biked, kayaked, walked and researched the Hennepin Canal. Because of my love for the Hennepin Canal and wanting to be a part of revitalization and a renaissance of this beautiful and Historical Multi Recreational Trail that has been such a big part of my life. I created my own volunteer group. at one time there were 5 of us called the Rock Falls Canal Trail Blazers. Soon I realized I wanted to represent the whole area including Sterling and Dixon and beyond. We are all connected and need each other to create a large enough theme for tourist to want to stay for the weekend or a vacation. So I sat out to not only promote the Hennepin but the Rock River and all recreational opportunities in the 50 to 100 mile radius. During this time I joined the Friends Of The Hennepin Canal in Geneseo and attended meeting once a month for over a year or two. I have walked the west end of the main canal and learned much about the efforts of the Friends and other groups. I then also joined the Rock River Development Authority in Rock Falls that is part of the Canal & Rock River cleanups and part of the Rock Falls Trails. Former Mayor David Blanton was a member along with other city officials. I once tried to get the RRDA to team up with the Friends Of The Hennepin and things got crazy as they thought I was trying to take them over, which I was not. Just wanted them to partner together, but I was told by the new president James Marks that they did not have enough members and did not want to be part of the whole canal only their small area which I understood and moved on. I wanted to support the whole canal. I even tried to get the Friends to partner up with me and tried to connect them with other groups in our area by inviting them to town hall meetings on the creation and start of the Rock River Trail Initiative where I was asked to be the Illinois Coordinator of the Rock River Trail Organization.I tried to get these groups together along with asking the Blackhawk Hills organization to help us bring all these groups together and nothing ever happened here either. No one had the desire or will to have one group bringing many together. During this time I had many town hall meetings in Rock Falls, Sterling, Dixon with all officials from Sterling, Rock Falls and Dixon there.No one stepped up and wanted to form this new River Action Group.They all agreed that it would be good but nothing ever came out of it. Everyone went back to their individual ways. I will not get into all my travels and all the people that I met and emails and phone calls I made. I have been very active over the years trying to bring people together but no one wanted to and now you can see why many years later while we are making progress that progress could have been much faster. I am still a council member on the Rock River Trail in which in 2013 was designated as a National Water Trail . The RRTI formed partners and have had success in bringing people together. Today many have still not utilized this Organizations efforts to promote tourism and help promote their communities . After creating Daves Outdoor World because I wanted to promote Rock Falls and the Hennepin and the surrounding area including the Rock River I still have hope. Some think I am pushy or they say that I need to attend meetings, well I have and years later not much has gotten done. That's why I decided to go out on my own and I believe by myself I have been able to bring awareness, education and fun to many many people...