Hometown Hero's Awards Dinners

  The NBC Watertown staff gathered with members of the North Country to celebrate some of our local Hometown Heroes at Zero Dock in Carthage. 

  The third annual Hometown Heroes Dinner was the culmination of a months-long process in which members of the community are asked to nominate their heroes, be it a first responder, paramedic, firefighter, etc. Our staff then has the impossible task of selecting a few names from a typically quite long list of deserving candidates. This year’s process yielded 4 recipients, two of which were from the same department. 

  The nominators are then contacted and invited to dinner, and asked to bring along their nomination as well as family and friends. We had a terrific turnout and got to hear some incredible stories about this year’s recipients (all of which you can watch below).

  Our first recipient was Corey Dorchester, Deputy Fire Chief from the Town of Clayton. Corey’s son Alex Orvis spoke about a fire that Corey had responded to, in which he had assisted an Amish family in escaping the building but also in making several trips back into the blaze to save belongings as well. 

  Next was Pamelia Fire Chief Harry Faulk Jr., whose daughter Emily spoke about how involved JR is in the community. A long time member of the department, JR also volunteers a substantial amount of time with local organizations, including the Joel Davis Legacy for Youth Sports, Evans Mills Youth Baseball, and the Watertown Wolves and Thousand Island Raiders hockey organizations. 

  The third Hometown Hero recognized was Luca Hasko, a US Army recruiter who was nominated by his wife, Sarah. Luca volunteers time with the Evans Mills Ambulance Squad as an EMT. Luca’s family was in attendance as well as his Commander, which was pretty neat to see. 

  Our last recipient was Nichole French, a Town of Pamelia Fire Captain, who was nominated by her husband, Gregory French (who is Assistant Chief for the town of Pamelia). Greg spoke at length about a call that he and Nichole had responded to while off duty. Nichole (with no turnout gear) assisted several individuals out of a basement of a burning home despite heavy smoke, and did so with no hesitation. 

  All four of the recipients were incredibly deserving of our praise and our recognition, even if they may not feel that way themselves. At NBC Watertown, we pride ourselves as being involved in the community and events like these are the least we can do to give back to those who go above and beyond to keep the North Country safe. 

  Huge thanks are in order to  Midway International for sponsoring this year’s Hometown Heroes Dinner, as well as Zero Dock for hosting and providing an excellent turkey dinner, and Jen’s Backroad Blooms for creating beautiful centerpieces for the tables.