Friends of Hoover civic group honors Bluff Park's Dan Fulton as Volunteer of the Year

The Friends of Hoover civic group on Monday plans to “roast and toast” Bluff Park resident Dan Fulton as Volunteer of the Year.

Fulton, a 72-year-old retired social studies teacher from Birmingham City Schools, was very active in the fight to save Hoover school buses in 2013 after the Hoover school board voted to eliminate bus service for most students and later to charge students fees to ride buses instead. Both of those decisions were reversed due to community opposition.

Fulton also for the past several years pushed for change among Hoover’s elected officials. He created a “Hoover Vote 2016” campaign years ahead of the 2016 municipal election. That election resulted in a new mayor and four new City Council members.

“Change was needed in the way Hoover was governed, and I would say he [Fulton] was the most influential person in that change,” said Arnold Singer, a Riverchase resident who is the program coordinator for the Friends of Hoover and who decided which person would receive the Volunteer of the Year award.

Fulton, even while battling cancer, records most meetings of the Hoover City Council and Hoover Board of Education. He posts the audio recordings online for others to hear the discussions, which is quite a civic service, Singer said.

Fulton also this past year served on the finance and budget committee of the Hoover school superintendent’s advisory council, and he served as a volunteer for Meals on Wheels from 2002 to 2012.

He grew up on Alford Avenue in Bluff Park and moved back there to live with his elderly mother in 1998.

He said he is just one of many people who were involved in the efforts to save Hoover school buses and get new people elected to city government positions. He said they now must hold those elected accountable, and he’s already had a “Hoover Vote 2020” T-shirt designed.

Fulton will be honored Monday at the Friends of Hoover meeting at the Capers on Park Avenue restaurant. Lunch is to be served at 11 a.m., and the program is scheduled to begin at 11:45 .am. While the lunch costs $13, attendance at the program is free.

Both are open to the public, but the Friends of Hoover group asks that people planning to eat lunch provide advance notice on a Facebook event posting.