News Photo by Alyssa Ochss Dennis Neumann is seen sitting in The Alpena News building in this photo.

ALPENA — At 76 years old Dennis Neumann has a long list of volunteer credentials and he doesn’t seem to be stopping any time soon.

Neumann is a former director of Immanuel Lutheran School. While he served in that role, he said, his mother retired from being a cook after 25 years.

“And my mom was a cook at Immanuel Lutheran school for 25 years so when she retired as the cook I happened to be the director of Christian education so on the certificate of appreciation to Florence Neumann for 25 years, Dennis Neumann got to sign his name,” Neumann said. “Which was kind of cool.”

A lot of his volunteering, Neumann said, started in the mid 70s.

“A lot had to do with our children,” Neumann said. “My son was in Little League, my oldest daughter was in pomponettes and girls’ softball. So I kept score and was assistant coach and stuff like that.”

Neumann has an extensive volunteering resume. Some of his work includes being on many church boards, going on mission trips to different countries such as Latvia, and building outdoor ramps for people who need them. He has also donated 98 pints of blood, something he only stopped due to medical reasons.

He said he was inspired by family members to get involved with volunteering.

“My Uncle was a Little League (manager),” Neumann said. “Then on my dad’s side, Martin Neumann who operated a gas station on the north side of town and I worked for him, he was active in the library, active actually when they first built the new library… so (my) uncle was a volunteer and pretty much because of family (I got involved), whether it was older relatives or whether my children, who wanted to be involved and do stuff with them.”

Recently Neumann and others helped build ramps for people in need of them. This project was through Habitat for Humanity and CRTC members gave their time to help. Neumann said this is a great showcase of how the community can come together to help people in need.

“That’s just an example of all the kinds of things that you can do with those, they’re action team awards. They don’t just give you the money you’ve got to write out a whole plan about how you’re going to use it to help the community,” Neumann said. “And in this case the grant was written to help the community because members of the community need handicap ramps built so they can get in and out of their homes.”

Neumann said he knows his kids are following in both his and his wife’s footsteps. When Neumman’s children were growing up, they also volunteered, helping with church activities and one instance where Neumann and his son helped prepare the field for Little League after the winter.

Today, all of his kids are active in their communities and churches to some extent. One lives in Saginaw where he helps out with his church as well as being a scoutmaster for a local Boy Scouts group.

“Hopefully my wife and I passed along, I know that we did, passed along that feeling (of) volunteering and doing stuff,” Neumann said.

Neumann said the best part of volunteering is the personal interaction. In his Habitat for Humanity work, he talks with the soldiers at the CRTC to get to know them a little better and also receives appreciation from the homeowners they’re building ramps for.

“Building ramps and my current situation,” Neumann said. “Homeowners come out, maybe in a wheelchair or maybe in a walker and they appreciate (it), they see this finished ramp that they can now get in and out of their home and big thank-yous and a hug or two. I guess the personal interaction with people.”