Dalton honorees honored for ther honorableness
And their efforts have not gone unnoticed by the festival committee, which has named Cumpston the 2014 Citizen of the Year and Shoup the 2014 parade grand marshal. According to committee President Doug Grim, the men were chosen after a nomination process, with the grand marshal award generally recognizing past efforts and the citizen of the year honor recognizing a person for their current good works.
Cumpston is the owner of Miracles Happen Re-Upholstery on Main Street in downtown Dalton. “I'm one of the mainstays on the street,” Cumpston said of his 22-year tenure. He had worked a few different jobs and was employed as pizza delivery man when the owner of an Akron upholstery business made him a proposition: “I'll pay you triple what you make now and I'll pick you up and drop you off six days a week,” Cumpston recalled.
He stayed at the job for six years before he deciding to go into business for himself at his then-home in Marshallville. One of his first jobs was re-upholstering five sofas and 25 chairs for The College of Wooster.
And the jobs just kept coming, said Cumpston, who never advertises because so much of his business is word of mouth. Eventually, he asked his wife if she would prefer he move his business out of the house. “Would you like to stay married?” she asked.
A friend knew of a vacant storefront in Dalton and the move came shortly thereafter.
The name of the business is an homage to Cumpston's sobriety, now 24 years strong. “I thought it was a miracle I was sober. I thought it was a miracle I was doing this,” Cumpston said. “Let's give credit where it's due.” While Cumpston takes care of his elderly mother and his wife, who has health concerns of her own, he said, “I'll put business aside if it helps someone” get or stay sober. Sometimes, he said, people will just stop by and ask for some help.
Over the years, Cumpston got more involved in his adopted community and joined both the Chamber of Commerce and Rotary. He employs one person and also has a few women who do some sewing for him.
“I did not expect the overwhelming response I got from the community,” Cumpston said.
Cumpston is a fan of the Friday night business open house, which will begin at 5 p.m. on Dec. 5. Businesses stay open until 7:30 p.m., the Holidays Festival queen and court are announced, Santa will be on hand at First National Bank and Shady Lawn Healthcare Community will convert its shuttle into the Polar Express for the evening.
When 5 o'clock comes around, Cumpston said, “People start asking, ‘where's your coney?'” The coney is his signature giveaway for the evening and other downtown businesses have their own special attractions. At one point, the open house evening was almost done away with, a move which saw Cumpston take to the street to rally his fellow merchants. “It's nothing,” Cumpston said, “to have 250 people go through the store.”
His store also has been twice honored in the festival's decorating contest, which will be open to both businesses and residences in both Dalton and Kidron again this year. That honor is a credit to his wife, Cumpston said. “She really gets into it.”
He said he seldom sees the Saturday parade because he's hard at work, but this year Cumpston is looking forward to riding in it. The lineup kicks off at 2 p.m. on Dec. 6 and will be led by parade marshal Duane Shoup.
Shoup said he plans on having his whole family join him on the grand marshal's float. In the past, waving to parade crowds was the job of Shoup's daughter, Audrey, a former Little Miss Snowflake, festival princess and festival queen.
It was their daughter's involvement that led to Shoup's involvement, along with his wife, Louise. Since the early 1990s, the Shoups helped with the pageant, and Shoup has spent many hours putting out mats to cover the floor in the gym, the site of the festival's craft show, which this year will be Dec. 6 from 9:30 a.m.-5 p.m. and Dec. 7 from 11 a.m.-4 p.m.
The transportation supervisor for the Dalton Local Schools, Shoup is a lifelong resident of Dalton and said he can't imagine living anywhere else. “My plan was to get a good job, be a mechanic,” he said. “In high school, I wanted to get married and have a family.” It was in school that he met Louise, who is currently the school district's assistant treasurer.
Parents of two, the Shoups keep busy with their four grandchildren, all of whom live in the village. In their free hours, the couple loves to camp and also tries to get out as much as possible on their Goldwing motorcycle.
Their volunteer activities with the festival came to a conclusion last year, but “we support it, and if they need help doing something,” Shoup said, “they can always ask.”
After all these years, Grim said of Shoup, “He's earned his wings.”
For complete details on the Dalton Holidays Festival events, including its new train show, go to www.daltonfestival.org.