Glassy Mountain Fire Department honored its firefighters during its Annual Christmas and Awards Banquet in December.  Lieutenant/Emergency Medical Responder (EMR) Chadler McMakin (Taylors) was named Cadet of the Year; Firefighter (FF)/Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) Hunter Ward (Travelers Rest) was named Rookie of the Year; Firefighter/EMT Donald Blanchard (Greer) was named Volunteer of the Year; Captain Caleb Palmer (Greenville) was named Career Firefighter of the Year; Captain Greg Lamb (Tigerville) was named Officer of the Year and Captain Russell Rafferty (Greer) received the Fire Chief’s Award. 

Five-year length of service awards were presented to FF/EMR Mark Smith, EMR Eric McCarson, FF/EMR John Roggy, PM Sybil Russell, SGT-PM Shawn Jenkins, FF Nick Adams and FF Gerald Gaige.  Ten-year length of service awards were presented to Engineer/PM Donald Jeffers and Webmaster Jerry Bender. 

The Call of the Year Award was the Department’s response to Tropical Storm Irma on September 11 – 12, 2017.

Guest Speaker was Joe Palmer, Executive Director of the South Carolina State Firefighters’ Association. 

Outgoing Commissioners Jewell Bayne (Travelers Rest) and Dennis Geagan (Landrum) were also honored.

– submitted by Sharyn Arnold