American Legion honors community heroes
John F. Thompson American Legion Post 52 singled out eight individuals for special recognition at its annual awards banquet, with Bill Partridge, finance committee chairman, serving as emcee. .
Chris Hemming was named Firefighter of the Year. He is a firefighter/EMT who is assigned to A Shift at Fire Station 2. A nephew of Lt. Lee Hemming, he has served as a HFD employee for seven years.
Lucas Hogan, a patrol officer with four years of law enforcement experience, was selected as winner of the Police Officer of the Year Award.
The recipient of the Teacher of the Year Award was Vicki Blankenship, a fifth grade math teacher at Crestline Elementary School.
In presenting the award, Crestline Principal Robin Varwig commended the honoree for her unique teaching style.
“I feel blessed. It’s a blessing and a responsibility to be a teacher,” Blankenship said. “But the teacher can’t do it alone; it taken a village to educate a child.”
Jimmy Wiley was recognized as Legionnaire of the Year and Post Commander Don Collum accepted the award in his absence.
A new award–City Employee of the Year—was presented to Byron Turney, Public Works superintendent.
In making the presentation, Councilman Don Hall described Turney as “an employee who is willing to take on any job at any time and stay on the job until it’s finished.”
“This is an honor and I appreciate it,” Turney said. “But what we do is a group thing. I’ve got a great team to work with and I want to share this with them.”
Kids Day Chairman Jerry Cleek presented awards to three individuals who helped with the 2009 Kids Day Program. They were Josh Smith, Nancy Train and Donna Maze.
