Candidate: Dana Mark Stancel

Some Personal Information

I was born in Portland, Maine and grew up in Hazelwood, Missouri, a suburb of St. Louis. I have 3 children and 5 grandchildren. After an early marriage ended, I became a single parent, raising 2 of my kids on my own. So, I know how hard raising kids can be. During this time, I was an Assistant Cub Master, Boy Scout Quartermaster and Scout Master for my son’s Scout troops.

After many years, I reconnected with Donna Marie Stancel at our 50th high school reunion in 2019. Donna and I were married a year later in 2020, and we relocated to Palm Coast in 2021.

I played competitive softball until the age of 64. I am now an avid golfer and bowl in 2 leagues. I also ride my bicycle an average of 50 to 60 miles per week on our beautiful trails here in Palm Coast. I also enjoy playing Canasta and Bingo.

My Career

The Military

•  When I was 20, I joined the United States Army, and served for over 20 years. During this time, I served four tours in Germany and one tour in South Korea.
   
• As a non-commissioned officer, I held many positions of authority in both Germany and South Korea. I served in the Military Postal System as an Operations NCO, COPE (Custodian of Postal Effects), Physical Training Instructor, Weapons Instructor, Urban Tactical Instructor.
   
• While in Germany, I was tasked by the “U.S. Army Postal Group Commander” to consolidate the cities of Frankfort, Geissen, and Hanau postal units into one postal finance unit. I received an award for successfully accomplishing this task. 
   
• My last duty was at Fort Ord, California. I was Chief of Admin for the Directorate of Reserve Component Support. I handled the finance and personnel records for Army Reserves and National Guard that came to Fort Ord for training. 
   
• Along the way in my career, I was also a U.S. Army Recruiter, helping to recruit young men and women to serve our country. In addition to working in a recruiter’s office, I also went to high schools to speak to gymnasiums full of soon-to-be graduates about the benefits of becoming part of our military. 
   
• During my entire military career, I was known for making good, sound decisions, adding valued improvements to operational systems.

After the Military

After retiring from the military, I worked 19 years for the United States Postal Service as a Letter Carrier and Carrier Technician. Everyone knows what a Letter Carrier is. A Carrier Technician, however, is a position that requires knowledge of five different routes, so every day was a different route to service. In this job, I had the privilege to meet and get to know lots of people on ALL of those routes. This was an enjoyable experience in those jobs. I retired from the Post Office in 2012.

Living in Palm Coast

After retiring from the Post Office, I started spending time in Florida, and fell in love with this area, motivating me to move here. When Donna and I were planning to be married, I asked her how she felt about living in Florida. Since she had no experience with Florida living, I brought her to St. Augustine for a vacation. She immediately loved it, and we began searching for a new home here. We finally settled on having a new home built in Palm Coast, all in just the two short weeks of our vacation. We settled into our new home in late June of 2021.

Since moving to Palm Coast, we both felt the need to get involved in our community. We didn’t know many people, so we decided to create a seniors’ luncheon group so that we could meet more people. That effort has been so successful, we have over 150 people on our mailing list, and we enjoy luncheons and “excursions” with people in our group several times a month.

We also started attending events like City Council meetings so that we could be made aware of what was happening in and around Palm Coast.

We’ve met a great many people who were attending these events, and over time, started letting it be known that we were interested in a more active role in the community.

Part of getting involved in our community, I felt the need to get involved with local government. I have been appointed to the “CAC” (Citizens Advisory Committee) to represent Palm Coast. I have also been appointed to the Code Enforcement Board for Palm Coast. Both of those positions required a majority vote by the Palm Coast City Council.

Donna, in the meanwhile, became more involved by attending events in and around Palm Coast, and meeting others who were community like-minded similar to us.