Dr. Dan and Debbie Murphy Honored With People's Choice Award

From forming the Hancock Arts council to organizing the Hancock Historical Society, Dr. Dan and Debbie Murphy are a team who says they wouldn't have done it all without each other.

"Doing of the things and working with the people is the fun part, but the challenge of the time management is part of..., boy I made it through another day got it all accomplished, but I didn't," says Dan.  "I did it because Debbie's there helping me do it, making it work on the other end."
 
Dan and Debbie started dating their senior year of high school, it was then when Dan realized Debbie was the one.

"I recognized in her, she was very special in her abilities, her skills and her personality and her character," he said.

The couple runs their veterinarian practice from home.  When they're not working, they're out serving their community.  Dan is the longest serving mayor for Hancock, and also organized the Tri-State Civic Band which provides free entertainment.
Debbie is the chairperson for Hancock Parks and was instrumental in starting an open-air farmer's market.

"There are certain things that rise to the top and they get top priority, but the little things are good too, so we pace ourselves, says Debbie."

With all the service they do, they don't expect anything back,  so getting the People's Choice Award was a great honor for them.

"Took me a little time to absorb it," says Dan.  "I was familiar with the group and the award because we've had two dear friends from our little town receive it."

We're very humbled because we work within a lot of different groups, and I think in a small town you realize you have some leadership abilities, but we need everybody," says Debbie.  "And we have a lot of people we work with and they work just as hard as we do."

To top it all off , for the past six Christmases they've used their fire truck to help Santa deliver gifts to less fortunate children.

It's a service that's help made Washington County a better place to live.