{"id":70810,"date":"2017-04-25T18:31:12","date_gmt":"2017-04-26T00:31:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/festive-furniture-builder-named-citizen-of-the-year\/"},"modified":"2017-04-26T00:31:12","modified_gmt":"2017-04-26T00:31:12","slug":"festive-furniture-builder-named-citizen-of-the-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/festive-furniture-builder-named-citizen-of-the-year\/","title":{"rendered":"Festive furniture builder named Citizen of the Year"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Dan
Dan Heeney gives a comical speech after accepting the Dolores Chambers\u2019 Citizen of the Year award at the annual spring banquet Saturday night.<\/span>Jim Mimiaga\/The Journal<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Every Colorado mountain town has that one character who embraces the adventurous spirit and love of community more than usual.<\/p>\n

And for Dolores, that person is Dan Heeney, who was named Citizen of the Year Saturday during the annual Chamber of Commerce Spring Banquet.<\/p>\n

Heeney, 48, moved to Dolores 17 years ago to open Rustic Style Furniture. His gusto for life, creativity and his work ethic kicked the town up a notch, giving it a more festive, artistic atmosphere.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s hard to imagine Dolores without him,\u201d says chamber president Lloyd Calvert. \u201cFrom his economic contributions and philanthropy, to his lively contributions to the local music and boating scenes, this man is the embodiment of what it means to be a citizen.\u201d<\/p>\n

Heeney\u2019s fine aspen furniture put the artisan side of Dolores on the map, Calvert said. The pieces are made from local aspen and can be found in many restaurants and homes in Colorado and beyond. Heeney regularly donates furniture for silent auctions depended on by local nonprofits.<\/p>\n

Hollywood has also come knocking, ordering his Western-style furniture for movies, including for Quentin Tarantino\u2019s recent \u201cHateful Eight,\u201d which was shot in Telluride. Heeney generously referred film scouts to other local artists who provided leather and metal work to the film.<\/p>\n

Heeney and his wife, Collette, have a sense of civic duty. Dan has served on the Dolores planning and zoning board for 10 years, and Collette served two terms as a Dolores Town Trustee.<\/p>\n

The Heeneys are known for throwing theme-based community parties, including epic pingpong tournaments, haunted houses and roller-derby New Years Eve celebrations. His all-invite jam sessions where he jumps from fiddle, to guitar, to drums are legendary.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m honored, and not sure how I rated so well among all the citizens that make Dolores a better town, but it might be because I\u2019m more visible and louder than they are,\u201d he said in a speech.<\/p>\n

It took some cajoling to get him to join the local Chamber of Commerce.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I heard I was nominated and had a chance to be Parade Marshall for Escalante Days, I said, \u2018No,w you\u2019re talking.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Heeney said he is grateful for Dolores and its people who helped him get on his feet and start a business.<\/p>\n

\u201cI look around this room and know how indebted to the Dolores people I am. In fact, I owe some of these people money, which I will not pay tonight, because tonight I am Citizen of the Year!\u201d<\/p>\n

Dolores\u2019 casual attitude and acceptance is perfect for Heeney and his business.<\/p>\n

\u201cHere you can be comfortable in your own skin,\u201d he said. \u201cBut you can\u2019t be invisible in this town, and this forces people to get involved and contribute.\u201d<\/p>\n

As is tradition for Citizen of the Year, Dan will lead the Escalante Days Parade, and is busy building one of his famous Giant Chairs for the occasion.<\/p>\n

Visit Rustic Style at 102 Railroad Ave. or check out their website at www.rusticstyle.co<\/a>m.<\/p>\n

jmimiaga@the-journal.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Artistic style and civic duty stand out<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":70811,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[640,44,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-70810","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-award-and-prize","tag-dolores","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70810","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70810"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70810\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/70811"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70810"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70810"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70810"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=70810"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}