Eric and Pat Daniels share a passion for community service. The Glastonbury couple has served more than 15 area organizations over the past 27 years, acting as chairs, board members, event planners and trustees.
They attribute their success and motivation to strong family values.
“We were both fortunate enough to have parents that instilled in us the importance of community service,” Eric Daniels said.
Growing up in Bloomfield, his family made regular visits to nursing homes and the mentally disabled. Pat Daniels’ childhood in Natick, Mass. paralleled her husband’s, in a family focused on helping others. She considered joining the Peace Corps after finishing her master’s degree in social work.
Luckily for the duo, she chose law school instead and met her future husband in 1987 in the library of Boston College Law School. The two were married in 1994 and now pass on their humanitarian values to their three children: 15-year-old Jake, 12-year-old Christina and 9-year-old Catherine.
The couple began their charitable work through their jobs at Hartford law firm Robinson & Cole.
Eric Daniels started at Robinson & Cole fresh out of law school in 1986. He worked his way up to the position of managing partner, which he held from 2000-2009, then returned to his position as partner.
Pat Daniels arrived at the firm in 1987 and worked as a pro bono trial attorney for 11 years before leaving the office to raise her family.
Both say the company supported and furthered their many community service interests.
“Robinson & Cole encourages community service as one of its core values. At a different place, under different circumstances, they may have made me curtail my efforts,” Eric Daniels said.
He has served on boards at the Bushnell, iQuilt, Achieve Hartford!, New Horizons, the Wadsworth Athenaeum, Hartford Hospital, Interval House and the Greater Hartford Arts Council.
His next project will be taking on the position of campaign manager for the United Way of Central and Northeastern Connecticut’s 2012 Community Campaign.
“He’s taking the ultimate step to come in as chair. It’s a position that ties in with his affinity and involvement with children,” said Susan Dunn, president and chief executive officer of United Way of Central and Northeastern Connecticut.
Children have always been an important cause for Pat Daniels as well. She’s worked with Connecticut Area Residential Facilities, Catholic Family Services, A Child Among Us, The Village for Families and Children, and Cherish the Children. She said if she were to return to work, she would want to be a child advocate with the state Department of Children and Families.
Their altruistic efforts have not gone unrecognized. Eric and Pat Daniels recently were chosen by the Girl Scouts of Connecticut as Centennial 100 Award honorees in the community champions category.
“They put their hearts and souls into it and understand the importance of the causes,” said Dunn. “They have such a great attitude and joy for what they do; they are just role models.”
Despite all their accomplishments, Eric and Pat Daniels don’t consider themselves a power couple. They simply take pride in the effectiveness of their efforts, which wouldn’t be possible if they didn’t have one another.
“We have been together so long, and we know each other so well. We know each other’s strengths and weaknesses, and we capitalize on them. I’m impulsive, he’s compulsive, and it works,” Pat said.
Through the example set by Eric and Pat Daniels, the power couple has grown into a power family. Son Jake volunteers as an instructional aide in swimming and travelled to the Dominican Republic to install water filters. Daughter Christina has been involved with Heifer International, the Red Cross and Locks of Love. Catherine, their youngest, set up a lemonade stand to raise money for a local animal shelter.
The Daniels include their children in their charity work as often as possible. The whole family was in attendance when the couple won 2012 Volunteers of the Year Award in June from Hartford charity HARC. With the parents as co-chairs of HARC’s annual auction, the entire family raised record-breaking amounts for the intellectually disabled and their families.
“It’s important that the kids know what we’re doing and why,” Pat Daniels said.
