Mark Damore Sr.

MarK Damore Sr.

CULVER-- Culver’s Lions Club honored two local citizens last Wednesday with a dinner and ceremony, an annual event for the group in past decades.

At the Jan. 23 event, Lions president Mike Overmyer introduced the winner of the Community Service Award, Original Root beer Stand owner Mark Damore, by describing Damore’s Chicago roots as the “son of a man who worked without regard for exhaustion.” Damore, said Overmyer, attended Northern Illinois University on a full scholarship for his gymnastics excellence before focusing his talents on Original Chicago Produce Inc., a company he still runs over 30 years later.

Damore wed his wife Becky in 1978 and the couple had one son, named after his father. Eventually the couple bought a house on the west shore of Lake Maxinkuckee (in 1998) and finally moved here permanently in 2002, said Overmyer. “From day one it was a safe bet that if you needed a donation of any kind, Mark Damore would be there to help,” Overmyer added

Damore purchased Eby’s drive in in Culver, changed the name to the Original Root Beer stand, and enhanced the business with a physical makeover and menu additions. “It would be very difficult to find an event in Culver that the rootbeer stand has not sponsored on some level,” noted Overmyer. “Mark would not have it any other way.”

Overmyer went on to describe some of Damore’s local efforts: running the fireworks campaign for Culver’s Lake Fest (and personally pulling the fireworks barges out on the lake), sponsoring the Lake Fest parade, raising funds or donating food to the Marshall County Humane Society, Culver After Prom, the fireman’s gold outing, Moneterey fire dept., St. Anne’s church, Culver library’s summer reading program, Kiwanis golf outings, Culver Academies, and Culver Elementary school, among others.

“Generosity is an attitude that not enough people in this world embrace, but Mark Damore and the Original Rootbeer Stand have made a habit of extending the spirit of giving to the town of Culver,”

Damore Ampatheater