{"id":22196,"date":"2024-11-08T01:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-11-08T01:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/goodnewsmags.com\/lebanon\/?p=22196"},"modified":"2024-11-18T20:16:25","modified_gmt":"2024-11-18T20:16:25","slug":"founded-on-relationships","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/goodnewsmags.com\/lebanon\/founded-on-relationships\/","title":{"rendered":"Founded on Relationships"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Whether it\u2019s through the Court Appointed Special Advocates board, the United Way board, or as chairman of the Lebanon Wilson County Chamber of Commerce in 2023, Wes Dugan is always serving his community. He serves in his day job as an agency manager for Farm Bureau Insurance of Tennessee, a company he has been with for 23 years, and his free time is spent the same way. He wants to give back, Dugan said, because the community has given so much to him already.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI\u2019ve always been involved in the community here,\u201d Dugan said. \u201cIf Little League comes and wants me to sponsor, I usually try to help them. [If] there\u2019s a local cause in the community I feel strongly about, whether it\u2019s Leadership Wilson or Empower Me day center or something to do with agriculture, with Farm Bureau \u2026 anything to help our community. I always want to try to give back.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A community is all about relationships, after all, and that is something at the core of Lebanon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThis town is really founded on relationships in my opinion, and so you just get to meet a lot of good quality people that have a heart of giving and want to help others,\u201d Dugan said. \u201cIf you\u2019re surrounded by [good] people, that makes a difference in you personally, spiritually, and also with your business.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" src=\"https:\/\/goodnewsmags.com\/lebanon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/13\/2024\/11\/1-4-1024x683.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-22198\" srcset=\"https:\/\/goodnewsmags.com\/lebanon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/13\/2024\/11\/1-4-1024x683.png 1024w, https:\/\/goodnewsmags.com\/lebanon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/13\/2024\/11\/1-4-980x653.png 980w, https:\/\/goodnewsmags.com\/lebanon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/13\/2024\/11\/1-4-480x320.png 480w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 0px) and (max-width: 480px) 480px, (min-width: 481px) and (max-width: 980px) 980px, (min-width: 981px) 1024px, 100vw\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>To foster those relationships, Dugan became a founding member of Lebanon\u2019s chapter of Business Network International Core Networking, a business referral group. For 15 years now, members have met every Thursday and formed networking relationships that move Lebanon forward. It\u2019s a group that makes a difference, Dugan said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s been a very good networking referral group that I\u2019m involved in, [and] that I\u2019m very happy to be in,\u201d Dugan said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Another organization that is especially close to Dugan\u2019s heart is Empower Me, a recreational, educational and therapeutic center for those with disabilities or special needs. As a parent of a special needs daughter, Dugan has been a part of the Empower Me family for a decade, and he said he is always looking for a way to give back to the nonprofit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWhat they do for special needs kids is amazing. That\u2019s one of the reasons why she\u2019s in it,\u201d Dugan said. \u201cThey have great counselors, they have students that are going to be special ed teachers or therapists that come help in the college, and [they\u2019ve] got a lot of good things going.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n<p>Empower Me is looking to build a new facility with many more opportunities for families to get involved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIt has a big place in my heart,\u201d Dugan said. Dugan supports and participates in fundraising events, including golf tournaments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>What Dugan is most proud of, however, is his time as chairman of the chamber of commerce in 2023. It gave him the opportunity to connect with a lot of new businesses, the people involved in education, and the people who run the day-to-day of the chamber.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI was very proud of the trust they gave me for that year to be involved and just see so much and see how great this community is,\u201d Dugan said. \u201cIt\u2019s amazing how it\u2019s growing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As Lebanon moves forward, Dugan hopes to continue to be involved in Empower Me and all the other organizations that serve the local community. He said he is also committed to making Farm Bureau a successful company and helping some of the young agents who work under him grow into leaders in the community. It isn\u2019t just those agents who can find an example in Wes Dugan, however \u2014 young people everywhere can look to his example of how to be a leader. <strong>GN<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Whether it\u2019s through the Court Appointed Special Advocates board, the United Way board, or as chairman of the Lebanon Wilson County Chamber of Commerce in 2023, Wes Dugan is always serving his community. He serves in his day job as an agency manager for Farm Bureau Insurance of Tennessee, a company he has been with [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":22199,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22196","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cover"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Founded on Relationships - Lebanon, TN Good News Exchange<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/goodnewsmags.com\/lebanon\/founded-on-relationships\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Founded on Relationships - Lebanon, TN Good News Exchange\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Whether it\u2019s through the Court Appointed Special Advocates board, the United Way board, or as chairman of the Lebanon Wilson County Chamber of Commerce in 2023, Wes Dugan is always serving his community. 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