If you’ve been to the Scandinavian Festival, you’ve likely seen David Vaughan, or as many like to call him, Mr. Dave, dressed in his Viking best. He has been heavily involved with the Scandinavian Festival for decades and has been an integral piece of the culture that is found here at the Junction City Scandinavian Festival.

Mr. Dave has been a performer and director of the Adult Recreational Dancers, a Board Member with both the Scandinavian Cultural Foundation (he helped to form this 501(c)3 in 2012) and the Scandinavian Festival Association, a pageant producer and director, a booth owner and operator, and so much more.

It’s obvious he loves this Festival and his community as a whole, but if you need extra proof, we’ll take a moment to review his recent awards. He and his wife, Melany Vaughan, received The Gale Fletchall Lifetime Achievement Award in 2017 from the Scandinavian Festival Association. In 2018, Mr. Dave was also a recipient of the Tri-County Chamber of Commerce Lifetime Achievement Award for Public Service.

In short, there really is no short way to list all that Mr. Dave has given and volunteered to and for this community. The best way to describe his, and his wife’s, love for this event and community is said so well by David Vaughan himself:

“Each of [us] feel this deep level of involvement; this dedication to the fundamentals of giving to others is the reason the Scandinavian Festival of Junction City, Oregon, is the very fabric of life in Junction City.”
—David Vaughan