December 20, 2016 - (Album) - The Joaquin Volunteer Fire Department held their annual Christmas party at the Joaquin First Baptist Church on Saturday, December 10, 2016 and honored several members of the department.
Rusty Wilson led everyone with an opening prayer and the event was opened by Jeremy Boyett who introduced guests.
Stephen Ewing, Training Officer, presented awards and gave recognition to three members for their years of service to the department. The first was to Rusty Wilson for 10 years of service and to his wife Marlena Wilson for her shared commitment.
"Any of you that have ever been involved with a volunteer fire department, you know that it's something that you can't do by yourself. If you're a married person and you're involved in this it's not easy, it's impossible to do without the support of your spouse. Miss Marlena Wilson will get a 10-year service pin from the Ladies Auxiliary," said Ewing.
Ewing went on to recognize Billy Sandifer for 25 years of service to the department, "Twenty-five years is a long time to be doing this when you're talking about the idea of getting woken up at all hours of the night and all different kinds of weather to go help somebody on the worst day of their life. But, we've got lots of guys that have done that."
Tommy Boyett, Traffic Officer, was the recipient of a plaque and pin recognizing his 35 years of service to the department. His wife, Anne Boyett, also received a pin in recognition for her commitment.
"Not only has Miss Ann stood by Mister Tommy for 35 years as he's been a part of this, she is also the president of our Ladies Auxiliary, worked really really hard. Anything we ask these ladies to do, they jump right in there, whether it's serving hamburgers at fundraisers, or you know sometimes we're on a major incident, they might be up there in the middle of the night brewing coffee,"said Ewing.
He continued by expressing appreciation to the Ladies Auxiliary for helping make it possible for the firemen to do their job.
Chief Perry Pugh was unable to attend the gathering as his grandson was participating in a state football game. In his absence, Chief Pugh was recognized for responding to the most calls for the year.
"We had a very low volume of calls this year, which is a good problem to have. We made 39 calls for service this year, Chief Perry Pugh made 30 of those calls. That's 79%," said Ewing. "Also we give an award for making the most meetings, Chief Pugh made all 24 of our meetings, so he gets an award for making 100% of our meetings."
Traditionally the firemen who received the Fireman of the Year award on a previous year presents the award to the newest recipient; however, Chief Pugh was not present. Jesse Parent who received the award on the year before Pugh made the presentation for the evening to Jeremy Boyett as the 2016 Fireman of the year.
"I won this award in 2014 and I couldn't have done it without everyone on the department. He does a lot, he does everything he can he's back and forth, he does everything. If it wasn't for Jeremy [Boyett], we couldn't do it without you man," said Parent.
Following the presentation of awards and recognition, Boyett announced the transition to the wall of honor inductions. The Wall of Honor was started at the 2015 Christmas Party.
"We've got three of our charter members Jim Hutto, Elmer Mathews, Steve Cockrell last year and also our previous fire chief, training officer, bottle washer whatever, Mr. [Mike] Wood. He's on there," said Boyett.
The names added to the honor wall for 2016 were Jackie "Buddy" Boyett, Jim Swindell, and Mike Cummings. A plaque was presented to family members of each honoree.
Boyett commented the Wall of Honor is something the department plans on doing every year in honor of everything put into the department by the honorees.
"They're still here, they're not here with us physically, but they're still here with us," said Boyett.
