Dr. Eslick Daniel was highly instrumental in the founding of Boys & Girls Clubs of Maury County, and continues to serve on its Board to ensure the success and growth of the organization. As the organization’s longest running Board member, Dr. Daniel has been involved since the organization’s founding in 1999. In addition to serving on the Board since the very beginning, Dr. Daniel is also one of twelve individuals who were key in getting the fledgling Club up and off the ground, and he has since outlasted them all! Dr. Daniel was approached by Ora Thompson and John Porter to help found the Club, and as soon as he heard about it, he saw the importance of the mission and serving the community’s kids. Dr. Daniel has taken on personal responsibility for ensuring the Club’s success over the years. “He is the one key person who has been there through both good and bad times, and he has basically been the glue of the organization,” says former Executive Director and 2013 TN Hall of Fame Inductee Mr. John Stephens.

In 2012, Dr. Daniel was honored with the Club’s “Ora Thompson Service Award” at the Club’s annual Dream Makers Dinner & Auction. This award was first introduced in 2010 in honor of Ms. Ora Graham Thompson, a lifelong Maury County resident who, at the age of 87 in 1999, donated $50,000 to the just chartered Boys & Girls Club. With this generous donation, the Club was able to hire its first executive director and to secure a permanent location. The award was created to honor her incredible commitment to the Boys & Girls Club of Maury County, and Mrs. Thompson was posthumously honored as the award’s first recipient. Mrs. Thompson’s generosity paved the way for everything that the Boys & Girls Club has achieved to date. The Ora Thompson Service Award is presented annually to the individual who has demonstrated over an extended period a genuine passion for the mission of the Boys & Girls Clubs of America and has shown significant support to the local Club in pursuit of its mission.

Very fittingly, Dr. Daniel was the third recipient of this lifetime achievement award for the BGCMC, after Ora herself (posthumously) and John Porter.  As many have said, there simply wouldn’t be a Boys & Girls Clubs of Maury County without Dr. Eslick Daniel!  His service and contribution to the Club since 1999 includes two terms as Chairman of the Board, multiple Jeremiah Milbank Society memberships, founding and organizing fundraising events, recruiting new supporters and Board members to the mission, securing in-kind donations, leading Club tours, and countless volunteer hours.  For years, he even conducted free annual physicals for Club staff. Dr. Daniel and his wife Annie also host an annual fishing trip at the lake on their property for Club youth and Board members to enjoy a day of fishing together. This day is treasured by both the Board volunteers and youth who attend each year, and provides an opportunity for Board members to teach the kids how to fish, to serve as positive role models for Club youth, and to mentor the kids.

Dr. Daniel (or “Doc” or “Slick,” as he is affectionately referred to by other Board members) is regularly called upon to serve as the organization’s historian, providing key history and knowledge about donors and Boys & Girls Club activities, since he has also been involved longer than any current staff member.  However, he is also very active in the Boys & Girls Club’s current business as well, serving on both the Management and the Resource Development committees.  He also served on the Search Committee that conducted the organization’s recent CEO search in 2016. He played a key role in BGCMC’s recent expansion to open 11 new school-based sites and quadruple the number of youth served, even volunteering his time to man parent registration tables at the Club to sign up new families. His work and the work of fellow Board members garnered BGCMC the High Performing Board Team Award for the entire Southeast Region of Boys & Girls Clubs of America in March of 2017.  Simply put, Dr. Daniel is passionately dedicated to serving “those who need us the most,” and he has devoted significant philanthropic and volunteer efforts since 1999 to ensure there is a Boys & Girls Club in Maury County to achieve this mission.