Votes are in for top citizens, groups
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| Rockbridge County Emergency Management Coordinator Robert Foresman is the People's Choice Awards' Public Employee of the Year. (CAMERON STEELE/ Rockbridge Report) |
Robert Foresman doesn’t panic in an emergency.
As Rockbridge County’s emergency management and hazardous material coordinator, he knows how to react during crises. When there are wrecks on Interstate 81, he puts together teams to clear away mangled tractor trailers and road debris. When someone is missing, he coordinates search and rescue missions along the Maury River. And he knows what to do when a fire department needs backup or reimbursement.
Now those years of overseeing and responding to emergencies have finally been recognized.
Rockbridge County citizens gave him the Public Employee of the Year Award at the county’s annual People’s Choice Awards Banquet on Nov. 5, sponsored by the local Chamber of Commerce.
“I feel very honored,” Foresman said of receiving the award. “There are a lot of outstanding public servants in Rockbridge County.”
This fall marks the 10th anniversary of the Rockbridge County People’s Choice Awards. The chamber’s Quality of Life Committee, which comprises various community service clubs in the area, started the program to honor individuals, businesses and organizations who improve the “quality of life” in Lexington, Buena Vista and Rockbridge County.
“We have so many people in the community who qualify for these awards,” said Sammy Moore, a member of the Quality of Life Committee and executive director of the Lexington-Rockbridge Chamber of Commerce.
In addition to Foresman’s award for public service, there were two other individual community service awards. Dean Knick and Chuck Barger won Volunteer of the Year and Citizen of the Year, respectively. The volunteer and citizen awards are hard to distinguish, said Moore, but they generally go to unpaid Rockbridge County citizens who have affected the community in a large and cumulative way.
For health services, Dr. William McClung won Healthcare Provider of the Year, while the Carillon Stonewall Jackson Hospital Emergency Department took home the Health Group of the Year Award. In entertainment, the individual honor went to Mark Cline, and the group award went to Washington and Lee’s Lenfest Center.
Employer of the Year Awards went to Kroger Company in the big business category and to Rockbridge Area Recreation Organization for small businesses.
All Rockbridge County, Lexington and Buena Vista citizens are eligible to vote for the People’s Choice Awards. But it wasn’t always that way. The awards program started as an internal endeavor by the Quality of Life Committee. The committee members would nominate and elect the winners with little or no public input, said Moore. But as the program began to receive more attention and comment from area citizens, the committee decided to reform the voting process.
“The process has definitely evolved over the years. Now, the election comes from the people,” Moore said. “No one person can control the outcome anymore. It’s kind of that ‘for the people, by the people’ type of thing.”
Moore also said that the awards program has become increasingly competitive. There have been one or two ties in the past few years, and many instances where only two votes differentiated the winner and the runners-up.
“Our line over the years has been: ‘Everyone who is nominated is a winner,’” he said.
A breakfast is held in Washington and Lee’s Evans Dining Hall on the first Wednesday morning in November to honor the winners. Jim Bennett, a former member of the Rockbridge County Ruritan Club, emcees the event. Bennett researches the recipients beforehand, and tells stories about them as they accept their awards.
The awards are framed certificates for each winner.
Foresman described the experience as “very humbling.”
“I don’t do this for myself. I do it for the community,” he said. “I realize they were recognizing an individual, but honestly that award was for everyone in the county and in the two cities.”
Foresman considers the new Citizen Alert System via text message his biggest achievement as emergency management coordinator. “Without people working together it wouldn’t be possible to have that [emergency response coordination.] I’m just one small part of the whole process.”
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