Chamber honors students, citizens

By DAN KEGLEY/Staff

Smyth County Chamber of Commerce held its annual Town and Country Barbeque in Chilhowie last week and honored students, a teacher, a businessman and a farming family.
Laurinda Sturgill, Virginia Cooperative Extension program associate for 4-H Youth Development, presented the student awards.
She said this year’s Outstanding Future Farmers of America Member, Ethan Atwell, has been a member of the Marion FFA Chapter for the past three years. For the last two years he has served as a chapter officer. He has been active in livestock judging, showing beef cattle, and agricultural mechanics. He has attended leadership conferences and the state FFA convention in June. As a rising senior, he hopes to continue competing in many FFA activities throughout the year and obtain his Virginia State FFA Degree at the state convention next June.
Atwell also participates in the 4-H Livestock Club, where he competes in stockman’s competitions, cattle working and cattle shows.
He works as a cook in a local deli and helps in the care of his two younger brothers and sister.
Atwell is the son of Ernie Atwell and lives in Atkins.
Sturgill said he “is one of those students who make teaching enjoyable because he is always eager to learn and do, especially when dealing with agriculture. It is with great pride that I present Ethan Atwell with this award.”
Sturgill said the outstanding Future Business Leaders of America member, Ashlyn Sheets, is a senior at Marion Senior High School. She has been a member of the FBLA for three years and will serve this year as its president. Last year she served as vice president.
Sheets was the chairperson of Community Service Project 2009-2010 that received fourth-place honors at the FBLA conference. She was also chairperson of the committee for Project ASK, the Association for Study of Children with Cancer, a state project of 2008-2010, Sturgill said.
Sheets was member of the committee that compiled the VFW Post 4667 Community Service Activity Scrapbook, conducted a dog and cat food drive for Promised Land Animal Rescue and the Smyth County Humane Society and a March of Dimes fundraiser, and produced the MSHS Scarlet Expressions, a school literary magazine.
Sheets has a 3.5 GPA in the business program, and she is a member of the MSHS Youth Alcohol and Drug Abuse Prevention Project, Sturgill said.
Sheets is also active outside of school and clubs. Sturgill said she was an office aide for the town of Marion through the MSHS Business Cooperative Education Program from August to June, and she was a receptionist for MSHS through People Inc. for the past two summers.
She is also a member of Valley View Baptist Church. In her spare time, she enjoys reading, camping, fishing, hiking, biking and playing softball.
Her future plans are to attend Wytheville Community College to study early childhood development and then to return to the Marion area to work with children with special needs.
She is daughter of Debbie Mullins and Jamie Sheets and the granddaughter of Ken and Debby Sheets and Steve and Beverly Ward.
Sturgill said Outstanding 4-H Member Whitney Elswick has excelled in many projects throughout her 4-H career. She started in fourth grade and has continued through high school. She is a member of the Smyth County 4-H Honor Club where she has served as vice president and currently as president. She has always had a great love for 4-H camp and has served as a teen leader for the past five years.
“This year she has been my right arm. She has been in my office many times helping with flyers, the 4-H camp book, helping with T-shirt and trophy orders,” Sturgill said. “She has also been a judge in the competitions that was held throughout this year and has given help anywhere that was needed. There is a saying that a dedicated 4-H person’s blood runs green, and I can truly say that about her.”
Elswick is a graduate of Chilhowie High School where she served as vice president of the Student Council and as an officer in the Co-Ed-Hi-Y, FCA, Tri-M and Beta clubs. She was a section leader in the Mighty Warrior Band, a co-captain of the Warrior Cheerleaders, and she participated in the Model General Assembly in Richmond for three years. She attended Virginia Highlands Community College last year and has transferred to Liberty University with plans to become a lawyer, Sturgill said.
Her parents are Kevin and Sandy Elswick, and her brother is Brandon Elswick. Sandy is a 4-H volunteer and Brandon is an Honor Club member who also volunteers whenever possible, Sturgill said.
Debbi Clear introduced the Children First Award recipient, “a very deserving individual who has served as an educator for more than 30 years: Ms. Joanne Groseclose.”
Clear said throughout her career, Groseclose “has focused her work on teaching children with special needs. She has led by example with determination and compassion, and has served as an advocate for children’s educational services – always putting Children First.”
Clear said Groseclose was the 1991 Virginia Teacher of the Year and holds national board certification and licensure.
“Outside of her teaching career,” Clear said, “Joanne has been very active in community service organizations. She currently serves on the Smyth County Community Hospital board, the Smyth County Community Foundation board, and the Board of Directors for the Lincoln Theatre. In addition, she teaches adult GED classes, leads student volunteer groups, and is an active member of Ebenezer Lutheran Church.”
Clear said Groseclose retired from teaching at Marion Intermediate School in 2010, and “will surely be missed by Smyth County Schools. However, it is our pleasure to recognize her work by presenting Ms. Joanne Groseclose with the Children First Award for 2010.”
Smyth County Extension Agent Matthew Miller introduced the Farm Family of the Year, C.W. Pratt, wife, Shirley, son, Jason, and daughter, Sara.
He said Echo Ridge Farm began as an FFA project for C.W. Pratt in the 1960s and has grown into an elite Angus seedstock operation encompassing 225 breeding females and selling seedstock through a variety of methods throughout the East Coast.
“Echo Ridge utilizes a full herd Artificial Insemination program and due to its success, will launch its own seedstock production sale this November in their new facility which has been built on the Echo Ridge Farm,” Miller said.
The operation has received numerous state and regional awards recognizing both the quality of cattle produced as well as the conservation and ecological preservation techniques employed on the farm, Miller said.
C.W. Pratt has worked as a livestock grader for more than 20 years with the Virginia Department of Agriculture. He is active with his church, serves on the Evergreen Soil and Water Board, serves as president of the Smyth Farm Bureau, and is president of the Southwest Virginia Agricultural Association.
Jason Pratt is the extension agent in Pulaski County, and Sara Pratt works as a loan officer with the United States Department of Agriculture Farm Service Agency. Shirley Pratt is retired after a full career of teaching at Atkins Elementary School.
Tom Graham introduced the business person of the year, D.C. Walker, who he said was born in the Old Quarry section of Saltville. In 1961, with a 1959 dump truck left by his uncle, he started Walker Paving. In 1968, he partnered with Jerry Lewis and they later formed W & L Construction and Paving Inc. which once employed over 300 people and, Graham said, “had an enormous impact on families and businesses across Smyth County.”
W&L became one of the preeminent paving and construction firms in the southeastern United States, Graham said. In 1998 Walker and Lewis sold their firm to an entity that maintained an interest in having a vibrant Smyth County workforce, Graham said.
Walker is retired but still is active in the Smyth County community as a farmer, real estate developer, a frequent anonymous benefactor, Baptist church member, owner of W&L Hauling Inc., and “perhaps most importantly as the grandfather to four grandkids,” Graham said.

dkegley@wythenews.com