County honors live savers, Soggy Bottom shooters

Jan 06, 2024

The Soggy Bottom Shooting Sports Team, and coaches, from Surry Central High School pose with the board of commissioners. The teams competed at the District 7 Youth Hunter Education Skills Tournament earlier this month in Harmony.

The Surry County Board of Commissioners Monday evening welcomed members of Surry County Emergency Management to be recognized for their accomplishments. Members were recognized for benchmarks in number of lives saved over the course of their career. Monday evening the board recognized Dustin Bowman, Kristin Stevens, Kaylee Mastromonica, and Erin Swaim for having saved five lives each.

Austin Holloway, Lakyn Booker, Ashley Hinshaw, Samantha Rose, and Matthew Thomas received the county's thanks for saving ten lives.

Assistant Supervisor Josh LeCrone was recognized for saving 25 lives.

There were a few jaws on the floor and an audible gasp from one in the crowd when supervisor Jose Butron was honored for having saved 50 lives during a career with Surry County.

The commissioners expressed their deep gratitude and Emergency Management Director Eric Southern was caught off guard when asked to give remarks yet offered, "Surry County is extremely pleased, blessed, and thankful for the ones we have here tonight who do represent some of the best that we’ve got."

"Life saves are just a small achievement in what they went through to become paramedics and what they do every day for the county and the citizens of Surry County. I thank you all," Southern said.

In other action at the board meeting:

– Melissa Hiatt spoke to the board on behalf of the Greater Mount Airy Chamber of Commerce to inform the chamber is restarting its public policy committee under chairwoman Tonda Phillips.

"The goals are to be the organized go-to source for businesses in the community about public policy and things that happen in this meeting, and things that happen in municipal government and at the state and federal level so they have someone to go to for that sort of information.

"We also want to be a conduit from you to the business owners, so we will report to you quarterly on things that are going on with the chamber, or are interesting to business owners. We would like you to send that information back to us when something is coming. We want to work as a partner in economic development and with municipalities to make sure that business owners feel that they have a voice, are being heard, and have a resource that they can count on."

Hiatt went on to say that as part of the chamber's goal to "advance, promote, and encourage" it would also be bringing back the Candidate 101 Forum for anyone curious about running for public office to learn more about the process, "So that when folks want to run for office they can know more about it."

– To help better educate the next generation of hunters and shooters the North Carolina Wildlife Commission is conducting a series of training and has been holding district tournaments to send youth shooters to state finals. Earlier this month, the District 7 Youth Hunter Education Skills Tournament was held. The Soggy Bottom Shooting Sports Team represented Surry Central High School well at the Hunting Creek Shooting Preserve in Harmony, located in Iredell County.

Contests were split into age groups as well as individual and team events including shotgun, riflery, archery, and a hunter-skills exam. The Wildlife Commission expects more than 3,500 students to participate and 60 teams in the nine statewide districts will advance to the state tournament, April 29, at the Lentz Hunter Education Complex in Ellerbe, located in Richmond County.

Organizers said the tournament seeks to promote public awareness of the state's Hunter Education Program and offer young people a positive experience with shooting sports, as well as help youth across the state experience and learn a variety of legal hunting methods, focusing on efficiency, operation and effectiveness. Learning these practices can enable students to evaluate the safest and best equipment that can be used to hunt or target shoot.

Head coach Brian Parker and assistant coach Brian Parker Jr. were recognized as were all the members of the team that Coach Parker said had grown from 6 to 17, "excellent shooting sports kids."

"In the day we live in, for kids to be able to shoot guns and be from a certain school district is unheard of. Luckily, we have a principal at the high school and the middle school and a few of our school board members who are supportive of youth hunting sports," Parker said.

"I have an amazing coaching staff and I can't thank them enough, and an amazing group of kids. I am proud of all of them and thankful for our coaches, and our commissioners that they recognize and support the youth that want to participate in shooting sports. So, I am grateful and thankful," Coach Parker said.

Recognized were coaches Brian Parker and Brian Parker Jr., Stephanie Holder as coach/teacher, Christy Parker as coach/administrator, Crue Martin as skeet coach, Evan France as archery coach, and Mark France as rifle coach.

The athletes recognized were: Caleb Blevins, Saige Belton, Kloey Easter, Wyatt Fallin, Jake Hutchens, Ryan Taylor, and Nichole White. Also, Zane Williams, Sawyer Belton, Landon Easter, Peyton Holder, Lucas Hutchens, Waylon Snow, Annie White, and Emmamae White.

Recognized for individual accomplishment were Cheyenne Ricky who competed in skeet, archery, rifle, and hunter skills, placing 28 out of 288 contestants, and Morgan Brooks who placed 64 out of 288.

Surry County school board members T.J. Bledsoe and Dale Badgett were in attendance Monday to offer their congratulations to the team and their coaches.

Badgett said programs like there are the exception. "We live in a time where it may not be the easiest to do what you’re doing, but I firmly believe that when kids learn gun safety they are better and smarter at defending themselves and better at using and handling weapons. I hope you understand what you’ve been able to achieve is not very common. You’re going to be better citizens and better defended and be able to help keep our nation strong because of what you’ve learned."

There are few schools or school systems that are fielding shooting teams. In fact NC State University just announced last week they were shutting down their co-ed shooting team, one of the nation's oldest, after 65 years in existence.