City of Rockwall honors inaugural recipient of Hometown Heroes Award

He doesn’t do it for the recognition or praise. In fact, he’s often very quickly onto the next project, or in this case, how to make this one even bigger and better. You may have heard of Dr. Stan Lowrance, DDS, but you may have no idea what the local dentist has done behind the scenes to make Rockwall such a great place to live, work and play. That’s why Mayor Jim Pruitt has chosen Dr. Stan Lowrance as the inaugural recipient of the new Hometown Heroes Award.

The goal of the new award is to highlight the efforts of those working tirelessly, often behind the scenes, to continuously improve the City of Rockwall. During his time in office, Mayor Pruitt has noticed we actually have a lot of these heroes—and he wanted to showcase their good work. Interestingly, Dr. Stan’s project to help area veterans was born out of a lifetime of service to others. With more than 30 years of experience in volunteering and mission work, Dr. Lowrance is always looking for ways to help, and when this opportunity presented itself, he knew he had to act.

As a successful dentist in town, it may come as no surprise that Dr. Stan’s idea grew from helping a woman in severe tooth pain. It’s how he helped her, and the action to help others like her on a grand scale that has elevated him to heroic proportions. When Dr. Stan heard Theresa’s story, it spoke to him, and he knew he could use his talents to help. This nurse had beaten the odds, and overcome cancer. However, the radiation and medication had ravaged her teeth, leaving her in constant excruciating pain. Upon hearing the woman’s story, and especially that she was a veteran, Dr. Stan jumped at the chance to help.

That day spawned an idea that grew into a one-day, D-Day for V-Day, event. Over the past three years, Dr. Lowrance and his associates have helped nearly two hundred Rockwall area veterans. He has partnered with the Terry Fisher American Legion Post 117 in Rockwall to find more veterans in need of dental assistance, culminating in a record 40 dental professionals caring for 84 veterans in one day in 2019. With experience duplicating his brainchild fundraiser the Hot Rocks Bike Ride for other Rotary clubs, Dr. Stan has already helped to expand D-Day for V-Day into multiple cities as well.

Dr. Lowrance has received a Congressional Recognition Award for his efforts in Rockwall, and now he’s working on a plan for further expansion—duplicating the program and taking it across the nation. “There are so many more veterans who need our help, and it’s what we need to do,” said Dr. Lowrance. “Veterans are the real heroes, and I can easily teach other dentists across the country how to copy the program so these patients get the help they desperately need. It’s my dream.”

“Dr. Stan is the perfect recipient for the new Hometown Heroes Award,” said Rockwall Mayor Jim Pruitt. “His actions exemplify the caliber of people we have living and working in Rockwall. We want to recognize him as a role model and someone who’s going above and beyond to give back to our community.” Mayor Pruitt and the Rockwall City Council honored Dr. Lowrance with the first Hometown Heroes Award at their regular meeting on Tuesday, January 21.