Profile 2025

THE YEARBOOK OF SHELBY COUNTY

CAREERS OF COMPASSION

THE PEOPLE WHO MAKE A CAREER OUT OF SERVING, PROTECTING AND SUPPORTING OTHERS

Shelby County

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OYou often don’t see them until you face an emergency situation, but that doesn’t mean their work stops when you aren’t in need.

The heroes across Shelby County who dedicate their lives to supporting, protecting and helping others are second to none, which makes this county one of the safest in the state to call home.

It doesn’t matter if it’s a police officer, a firefighter, a healthcare worker, a social worker or someone else, they are constantly going the extra mile both in the spotlight and behind the scenes to be there for others.

We can easily applaud the job they do when we hear about it in the news or on social media, but there is so much work that happens that doesn’t get the limelight attention, so many backstories that led to dedicating their lives to helping others. It’s those moments that deserve recognition as much as any.

to cancer patients following a cancer battle of their own, chasing a dream in law enforcement, protecting our kids in the hallways or making the area safer for all, these professionals don’t hesitate to jump into action.

With more than 80 names in this publication, it just begins to scratch the surface on the number of people who put themselves aside to help others and help make Shelby County residents feel safe and comforted.

It is easy to forget what these people are doing when we don’t need them. The old saying, “Out of sight, out of mind” always holds true, but that’s what sets this group of individuals aside from those in other areas.

Profile

THE YEARBOOK OF SHELBY COUNTY

EDITORIAL

Michaela Bankston

Dave Domescik

Anna Grace Moore

Tyler Raley

Andrew Simonson

Noah Wortham

DESIGN

Sydney Allen

Jamie Dawkins

This year’s Profile publication is aimed at highlighting those people who have created a career of compassion, or simply put, dedicated their lives to protecting others, saving others and just being there to support others.

Whether it is responding in an emergency situation to save a life, helping deliver a baby on the side of the road, running a hospital in your hometown, praying over others for healing and peace, giving comfort

ALEC ETHEREDGE, PUBLISHER alec.etheredge@shelbycountyreporter.com

They always try to be in sight and in mind. They are constantly attending events, in the schools, at local restaurants, at the park with their families and so much more outside of their job so they can showcase that they are always there for you.

This project took months of hard work from our editorial staff, sales team and design team to make possible, and we couldn’t be more pleased to be able to share this product with you.

As you make your way through this year’s Profile, we hope that you have a newfound appreciation for what these people do on a daily basis.

CAREERS OF COMPASSION

Not only are we fortunate enough to live in one of the most economically strong counties in Alabama, but Shelby County remains one of the safest counties to call home as well. A big reason for that is the leadership we have dedicated to serving and protecting others. From law enforcement, to firefighters, to healthcare heroes, this year’s Profile is dedicated to those who step up to help when we need it most.

Rowan Futrell

Connor Martin-Lively

MARKETING

Kelsey Alexander

Noah Brakefield

Evann Campbell

Octavia Campbell

Rachel Henderson

Rhett McCreight

Viridiana Romero

ADMINISTRATION

Mary Jo Eskridge

Alec Etheredge

Stacey Meadows

Lauren Morris

Kayla Reeves

Leslie Reeves

Brittany Schofield

SHELBY COUNTY NEWSMEDIA,

FEATURES

8

Forging his path

Robert Rodgriguez fled communist Cuba with his family for a better life in America and now serves the community of Shelby County in several important roles.

24

All paths lead home

Baptist Health Shelby Hospital

President Holly Dean has worked diligently to earn the opportunity to lead the hospital just down the road from her childhood home, doing so with a driven community spirit.

32 Crisis Collaboration

Calera officer Mike Roberts and dispatcher Amber Hightower highlight what it means to work together to save lives and protect their community.

40

Catching Fire

Walter Singleterry makes a difference in the lives of those coming through Baptist Health Shelby Hospital on a daily basis through prayer and a heart for others.

48

Facing your inferno

From intern to full-time firefighter, Devarye Mack has quickly found his niche for making a difference with the Alabaster Fire Department.

56

Extending a hand

Pelham firefighter Drew Babyak joins forces with Homewood firefighter Joe Patton to create a business revolved around life-saving techniques.

65 Meet your first responder leaders

A look at the Sheriff John Samaniego and all fire and police chiefs in Shelby County

68

Building a safe Kulture

Local police officers work to solve sensory awareness through KultureCity and other programs to protect all citizens.

74

Take a bow

Lana Turner now dedicates her life to helping others with cancer after her own battle with the disease.

82 ‘I would do this job for free’

Chelsea firefighter Josh Rossetti jumps into action, finding joy in helping others in every situation.

90

Maternity Lee

Hoover firefighter Lee Kilgore delivers aid and public service no matter the call, earning him a unique nickname.

PERSON OF THE YEAR 2025 ROBERT RODRIGUEZ

FORGING HIS PATH

ROBERT RODRIGUEZ HANDLES DIFFICULT CASES, PERSONAL TRAGEDY WITH UNWAVERING FAITH AND EMPATHY AS HE SERVES SHELBY COUNTY

BY ANDREW SIMONSON | PHOTOS BY DAWN HARRISON

AAsk anyone who comes in contact with Sgt. Robert Rodriguez of the Shelby County Sheriff’s Office what makes him special and they’ll point to many things about him, but rarely will they start with his law enforcement accomplishments.

Although those accomplishments throughout his 15-year career in service to Shelby County are numerous and noteworthy; instead, they’ll point to the many positive ways he impacts those around him and the exemplary character that he shows in the process.

“Robert is the most godly, energetic, moral, kind, helpful, amazing young man, outside of my son and my family,” longtime friend Dale Sibley said. “I don’t know another

person as really very special as he is.”

For Shelby County Sheriff’s Office Chief Deputy Clay Hammac, there is one trait that comes to mind: compassion. It was the first thing that he noticed when Rodriguez started with the Sheriff’s Office, and it’s still one of his defining traits to this day.

It’s compassion that drove him to pursue a career in law enforcement after coming to America as a young refugee. It’s compassion that keeps him going in the face of difficulties in his professional and personal life. And it’s compassion that makes him rise above his peers to be one of the most loved and respected officers in Shelby County.

“I think he is a picture of the American dream, or at least what it should be, fleeing

communist Cuba, making a new life for himself and then giving back on top of all that,” Hammac said.

An immigrant’s inspiration

Before Rodriguez became one of Shelby County’s finest, he was a young immigrant with a dream.

Rodriguez was born in Cuba and immigrated with his mother in 1980 when the Jimmy Carter administration opened the door for Cubans to seek political asylum in the United States. The two of them moved from Havana to Miami to start a new life as refugees.

The U.S. brought numerous cultural

changes for the Rodriguez family, but one of the biggest differences Robert saw was in the police officers. Compared to military rule in Havana, police officers were a much more positive influence on him with how they served their community.

“I saw especially growing up in Miami a lot of police officers just helping, and not only being part of the community, but really serving in that community and that sparked my interest because I liked what I saw, how they were helping people like myself and my mom and our family that were refugees,” Rodriguez said. “They were kind of part of the process.”

Those officers inspired him to seek a

career in law enforcement from a young age. His dream eventually became a reality when he went to police academy and began serving with the Shelby County Sheriff’s Office upon graduation in March 2009.

When Rodriguez first joined the patrol division, his attitude drew the attention of his coworker Hammac, who at the time served in the criminal investigations department but is now the chief deputy.

“One of the first things that stood out to me was his humility,” Hammac said. “He was very meek and humble with how he addressed everyone in the room in such a way that you could tell that he had gratitude for being there. He was grateful for the job.

He was grateful for the opportunity to serve in this community, and that stands out and still stands out to this day in my mind.”

Much of that is because Rodriguez saw being a police officer as a way to give back to his community in the same way the Miami police officers served him and his neighbors growing up.

As a result, he sees each interaction at his job through a different lens. Instead of an obligation, he sees it as a chance to connect with people and be a light in a dark moment.

“I always tell this to the younger guys who are coming through, being in lawenforcement, you really have a front seat at life and you see the very best and the very

Birmingham

Cuba Miami

worst of people and everything in between,” Rodriguez said. “You really have that opportunity when you interact with a citizen or somebody in the community to really make a good impact. Not just writing a report or answering a question or responding to a scene of a domestic issue or an accident, but really taking the time to get to know the folks and the people that you interact with and that you serve and being involved in the community where you give back and talking to the kids that are maybe having a hard time or they don’t come from a good family so you can be that male figure that allows that young boy to see what a real man or real father should be. So, you can do a lot of that as a police officer by your interactions that you have with the community and the citizens from the very young to the very old.”

Now, Rodriguez is a sergeant who investigates crimes against children and is part of the crisis response team that assists in sensitive situations involving suicidal individuals or hostages.

He also serves on the board with Owens House, a nonprofit in Columbiana which seeks to end child abuse and provide a safe space for victims to heal.

Much of his work investigating child abuse cases intersects with the organization, and he uses his experience on the frontlines to help others on the board understand what is happening there and needed to continue their work.

Through it all, he encounters many opportunities to live up to his mission of positively impacting his community.

An empathetic ear

One of the ways that Rodriguez impacts his community is by the way he approaches each case that he works. He strives to come alongside the people affected by the cases as their neighbor and not just as another police officer so they can heal from their pain.

“We’re not just investigating the case,” Rodriguez said. “We’re also there to bring healing and somewhat assurance that you’re not alone in this horrible situation you’re in. We’re here for you, not as a cop, not as a police officer, as an investigator, but as Robert, another human being.”

One of the ways that he helps is by helping families make ends meet in the aftermath of a case. For example, if the breadwinner goes to jail and those left are suddenly without the ability to pay bills and put food on the table, he connects them with organizations who can help.

“I THINK HE IS A PICTURE OF THE AMERICAN DREAM, OR AT LEAST WHAT IT SHOULD BE, FLEEING COMMUNIST CUBA, MAKING A NEW LIFE FOR HIMSELF AND THEN GIVING BACK ON TOP OF ALL THAT.” -CLAY HAMMAC

He does that because he sees the pain that the victims experience and wants to help them navigate the process and bring healing to them.

“The way I see it is it’s not a case,” Rodriguez said. “You’re not just a number, but you are a person, and I become heavily involved in that process of healing, because when we receive a case like that, the child, their innocence has been robbed, and the family is now in an emotional roller coaster, and they’re trying to figure things out.

They’re hurt, they’re angry, and they’re on this ride, and I can be part of that.”

Rodriguez views his work as an opportunity to minister to others through his Catholic faith and spread the Gospel in their difficult moments.

He says that the first thing that he does when he receives a case is pray for the victim, for the family that is affected by the situation, for himself to receive guidance in investigating the case and for the perpetrator to receive a conversion of their heart. That helps him treat each party involved in the case with respect, even if the perpetrators have committed heinous crimes against children like the cases he typically deals with. He has found that approach to be effective in extracting confessions and delivering justice for families.

“It always turns out where if you treat

them with respect and you don’t condone what they did but you try to understand where they are coming from, why did they do what they did, and they see that you’re genuinely trying to speak with them as a human instead of like an animal or piece of trash, that’s important because that really kind of sets the foundation and the base for the case because now you’re bringing the facts and the details from the child, from the family, but you also need the defendant to cooperate,” Rodriguez said. “Having that ability to connect with them and treat them with respect and dignity, they open up and they start talking, and nine times out of 10, they’ll confess to what they’ve done to the child.”

Those skills also extend to his work with the crisis response team. During those moments where he interacts with suicidal individuals or in a hostage situation, he is able to give a caring ear to people who are going through very difficult situations in their personal lives.

In his experience, he has found that not trying to solve a situation but just being someone who is willing to listen makes a major difference.

“They’re not bad people. They just snap,” Rodriguez said. “That’s all that they could take, and then they become involved in a crisis situation when they’re emotionally on a high, they don’t see a way out, so as a negotiator, you bring that hope that, ‘There is tomorrow, there is light. It’s dark right now. You can’t even see your hands in front of you, but it’s going to get better, and let’s talk about why we’re here.’ You’d be surprised how many people just want to be heard. They want to be heard because nobody cares about them.”

That extends to those who he works with as he offers his support to people around him no matter who they are or what they’re going through.

At his previous job with Eternal Word Television Network in Irondale, Rodriguez became close with a woman 30 years his senior, Dale Sibley. Sibley was a newly converted Catholic at the time, and he helped her grow deeper in her faith while working at the network.

“I was a new convert to the Catholic Church when I met him and when he came to work for EWTN, so he was an incredibly, helpful, patient, godly man helping me to see how to be a better Catholic and Christian,” Sibley said.

While the two no longer work together, their families remain close friends. She views him highly as a strong man of character.

“I don’t know how to say any more clearly how much I respect him, and I truly do honor him as one of my very most godly, precious, loving, kind, strong, faithful friends,” Sibley said.

He continues to forge deep relationships with his fellow officers at the sheriff’s department. Hammac knows how stressful the job can be on a daily basis, and Rodriguez helps play a role in supporting the members of his work family through their struggles.

“What we go through on a day-to-day basis, what we see, what we experience on this job is something that no one should ever have to see or experience, and if we have not created a healthy way to address those emotions or how we decompress from those experiences, then it can certainly compound and create trouble for us later in our career and bleed over into our personal lives and our family,” Hammac said. “Robert has made it his priority to be that point of contact, to be a peer support person for other cops, and without even advertising. Everyone knows that you just go to Robert if you need an ear to talk to, and there’s no judgment, there’s no condemnation, he is there to listen, and whenever he offers council, it’s wise council. It’s solid. His

morality is absolute. I’ve said it once before, but he is one of the most compassionate and Christ-like servant leaders that I’ve ever had the pleasure of working side-by-side with.”

Strength through sorrow

On Sunday, Nov. 13, 2022, Rodriguez’s world was rocked and his positive spirit tested when devastation struck his family.

That day, his wife Jennifer passed away following a battle with breast cancer. The two were married for 25 years prior to her death at the age of 49, and he was left as a single father of two teenage daughters, 18-year-old Colette and 16-year-old Therese, both of whom are homeschooled.

While Jennifer’s loss still weighs heavily on him, Robert leans on his faith to give him the strength to go on. He credits God for being with him during difficult seasons in addition to his daughters.

“What I think has kept me going is, number one, my family, my daughters, but

my faith, God giving me the strength and the graces that I needed to take care of her when she was sick, especially towards the end, but even now two years later, he’s giving me those special graces to keep going,” he said. “Yeah, I miss her terribly. I love her to death, and she was my world, and my focus is now my daughters of course, but just having that faith and that good marriage that we had and those memories is what keeps me going. If it wasn’t for God’s grace, I don’t know what I would do without Him. He gives me those special graces when it gets hard, when it gets confusing, He’s there.”

Throughout the grieving process, he has managed to balance his work and personal responsibilities, being present for important activities like piano recitals and family dinners while balancing that with his Catholic disciplines and work with the Sheriff’s Office.

Friends like Sibley marvel at how Rodriguez was able to be a strong and kind

person to his family and those around him while experiencing such immense grief.

“He was a rock of God for those girls, and he continued to be kind and understanding for them, to them, help them with their schooling as much as he could, and this is mixed in with long hours at the Shelby County Sheriff’s Department,” Sibley said. “He blended those together by asking God when to quit, when to stay, what to do, who to help.”

They credit his faith for helping get him through the process, and he turned to God for guidance with unwavering faith through hard times and received strength

“It’s like God just melted down on him all through everything he had to do,” Sibley said. “He was just so incredibly strong in the faith. He didn’t turn his back on God. He didn’t leave God out of his decisions that he thought he had. I would’ve thought I had some good answers, but he constantly, consistently put God first, and he did what he had to do to stay in touch with God, to be faithful to God, to trust God, and then do whatever God led him to do, no matter how difficult it was, how different it was from what he might’ve thought it would’ve been good for him to do. And it always turns out because he does what God asked him to do.”

For Rodriguez though, his spiritual life has always been his source of

strength. Diving into his faith gives him the ability to see people for who they are and offer respect to those that much of the world believes don’t deserve anything.

It allows him to carry on in the face of difficult circumstances that test his faith.

“The way I see it is I’m serving Christ really,” Rodriguez said. “It’s having a spiritual life that is the balance, because I personally have seen a lot of bad things and I have been involved in things that people have done, horrible things to children, but they’re still human. They still have the dignity that was given to them by God, and no matter what they’ve done, I always treat them with respect and the dignity that they maybe not deserve because of what they’ve done, but they do deserve it because of who they are there, they’re a child of Christ, child of God.

“So, having that spiritual life, that prayer life really balances the things that I have personally seen and we all see and in law enforcement, and just having that spiritual life is what allows you to put things in perspective, ‘Why does God allow things to happen to good people?’ and it helps me to navigate through some of those questions that I might even have myself.”

Through it all, that faith helps drive that one defining trait: his compassion. A compassion that not only makes him an exemplary police officers in the eyes of his peers, but an even better person.

CLAY HAMMAC

CHIEF DEPUTY, SHELBY COUNTY SHERIFF’S OFFICE

With oversight and operational command of criminal investigations, drug enforcement, uniform patrol, tactical response and media relations, Clay Hammac is one of the most influential people within the Shelby County Sheriff’s Office. Currently a chief deputy with the SCSO, Hammac is a 20-year veteran of the sheriff’s office. During that time, he has earned the honor of being named one of the top 40 law enforcement executives worldwide by the International Association of Chiefs of Police thanks to the many roles he has been tasked with leading.

SHAUN STYERS

Shaun Styers was called to fill the role of Shelby County chief juvenile probation officer in 2023. He is a familiar face to many in the community with more than seven years of experience service in the Shelby County District Attorney’s Office. Styers has served as a juvenile court prosecutor and the first assistant district attorney hired to work within the juvenile court. He now oversees the day-to-day operations of the juvenile probation office while maintaining cooperation with the community.

SHELBY COUNTY CHIEF JUVENILE PROBATION OFFICER

TIPHANEY SAILES

PARAMEDIC SERGEANT, BIRMINGHAM FIRE AND RESCUE

A graduate of Thompson High School, Paramedic Sergeant Tiphaney Sailes has been a proud member of Birmingham Fire & Rescue Service for more than six years, showing unwavering dedication, support, and strength. Recently, she reached an incredible milestone in her career with her promotion to sergeant, shortly after graduating from the Alabama Fire College Paramedic School. As a Sgt. Medic, Sailes not only brings her intelligence and service to the forefront but also plays a pivotal role in shaping how her department functions and serves the community. Whether through life-saving interventions or providing education, she embodies the very best of public service by always striving to be a positive example. Her leadership ensures the health and wellbeing of the Birmingham community is always prioritized.

DUSTIN SMITH GUSTAVO PEREZ &

ALABASTER

POLICE OFFICERS

During 2024, Alabaster police officers Gustavo Perez and Dustin Smith were dispatched to an erratic driver to perform a routine traffic stop. During the stop Perez interviewed the subject and performed field sobriety tests. Working with other officers, Perez relayed information from the subject, who claimed to be with the cartel, about a person he was holding in a home. His efforts along with other officers allowed Smith to relay the message to the agency in the neighboring county. They located a bound and confined subject inside the suspect’s residence, pulling them away from any further danger. The heroic acts of the two individuals upheld their pledge to protect and serve their community.

DR. SHEA DUERRING

MEDICAL DIRECTOR FOR PELHAM, ALABASTER, NORTH SHELBY AND ROCKY RIDGE FIRE DEPARTMENTS

One of the top emergency medicine specialists in the state of Alabama, Dr. Shea Duerring not only serves as the medical director for the Alabaster, North Shelby, Pelham and Rocky Ridge fire departments, but he also serves as the Assistant State EMS Medical Director for Pediatrics and is an Associate Professor of Pediatric Emergency Medicine at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Pelham Fire Chief Mike Reid said his presence for each of the local fire departments has increased their level of service, expertise and skills.

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ALL PATHS LEAD HOME

HOLLY DEAN CONTINUES TO BREAK BARRIERS AND LEAD THE WAY AS THE PRESIDENT OF BAPTIST HEALTH SHELBY HOSPITAL IN HER HOMETOWN

BY MACKENZEE SIMMS | PHOTOS BY DAWN HARRISON

JJust a few miles from the doors of Baptist Health Shelby Hospital stands the childhood home of hospital president Holly Dean. Now, just down the road, she leads management of the hospital where she was born.

“I just remember it was a great place to live–a very friendly, wonderful community,” Dean said. “Undoubtedly, Birmingham is home for me, which is why it is really nice to be back here, working in the same community I grew up in.”

Despite growing up a die-hard Crimson Tide fan, Dean attended Auburn University for her undergraduate degree. For her masters, Dean decided to move closer to home and study health administration at the Uni-

versity of Alabama at Birmingham.

“I’m very proud to be able to say that I went to one of the best programs in order to get the education and training I needed for the career field that I’ve chosen, and it’s amazing to be able to do that in your backyard,” Dean said.

During the third year of her graduate school program, Dean completed a residency in Florida where she stayed for the beginning of her career as the chief operating officer for Gulf Coast Regional Medical Center. While in Florida, Dean shared that she navigated several difficult situations that grew her abilities as a leader and taught her lessons that she still uses today. As COO,

Dean helped the hospital navigate challenges such as the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and Hurricane Michael in 2018.

Gulf Coast Medical Center is located in the Florida panhandle, which was directly in the path of Hurricane Michael which devastated Panama City in 2018. Dean explained that Michael’s impact was felt on all aspects of life.

For many hospital employees, the hurricane brought challenges to their personal lives, from home damage to transportation issues, and created problems in the hospital from limited supplies and resources. Dean said that Hurricane Michael demonstrated

the strength of those who work in healthcare and taught her lessons about crisis management that she still implements today.

“Something like a Category Five hurricane is not something I care to go back through again, but it was an amazing learning and teaching experience as a leader,”

Dean said. “It will teach you a lot about yourself, but it’ll also teach you a lot about your team and the teamwork that can be accomplished when you’re in crisis.”

In addition, Dean shared that her experience as a COO helped prepare her to ultimately step into a CEO role at Baptist Health Shelby Hospital.

“As COO, you’re really in the trenches,” Dean said. “You’re learning the nuts and bolts of healthcare operations. That’s important to have as a foundation for ultimate-

ly stepping into a CEO role where you’ve got to know enough about all the intricacies of us and what we have to do to provide healthcare each day.”

When it became time for Dean to advance to the next step of her career, it seemed only natural for her to seize the opportunity to give back to the community that raised her.

“I always said early on when I was in school that I would love to be able to come back and take care of my hometown, my community, and do what I love doing each and every day in my career,” Dean said. “Whether it’s Alabaster, Hoover or graduate school at UAB, they have given a lot to me and taken care of me in many ways. Now, I get the opportunity to give back.”

THE PEOPLE THAT SURROUND HER

In the fall of 2022, Dean joined the team at then-named Shelby Baptist Medical Center as the chief executive officer. Featuring more than 40 departments, the team at the hospital is comprised of roughly 1,000 team members that work together daily to continue allowing the hospital to care for patients.

“It’s very much like a puzzle, and each department is a piece of that puzzle,” Dean said. “We have to make sure that the pieces fit together right, and they’re tight and they’re secure.”

Hospitals are more than just doctors and nurses and patients. Hospitals contain multitudes including janitorial staff, imaging technicians, food service employees, thera-

A COMMUNITY OF HEALTHCARE

SHELBY BAPTIST HAS SHIFTED NAMES UNDER ORLANDO HEALTH TO BAPTIST HEALTH SHELBY HOSPITAL

Main focuses of the hospital include state-of-the-art heart and vascular care, digestive health, neurological care, orthopedics, women’s care, radiology and diagnostic imaging and emergency care

They also have primary and specialty care services, inpatient and outpatient rehabilitation, pulmonary services, sleep medicine, urology, wound care, surgical care and palliative care

The hospital opened in 1959 with just 35 beds Now, in 2025, the hospital is a 252-bed facility

pists, landscapers, pharmacists and administrators that ensure everything runs smoothly.

“We are a little city inside the four walls of this hospital,” Dean said. “The list goes on and on, and it takes each and every one of those partners for us to deliver the care that we have to provide every day.”

For Dean, the special part about her job and the hospital remains the relationships she has built and the people she has met at every level within the hospital.

“There are just amazing people inside this organization,” Dean said. “It is truly one of the most positive cultures that I think I’ve ever worked in. It’s just good southern people who love doing what they do each and every day.”

And the feeling is not a one-way street. Dean’s colleagues echo similar sentiments about her, such as Business Development Manager Virginia Sherrell.

“To work with a leader like Holly has been both refreshing and inspiring,” Sherrell said. “She has such a passion for this facility and our people, and that shows in her work every day.”

Current COO Watson Hughstonsaid he is excited to continue working with Dean in her new leadership role to guide Baptist Health Shelby Hospital into the future.

“Holly is a fantastic leader and advocate for the hospital and Shelby County community,” Hughston said. “I am thrilled to be a part of her team and excited to see where she takes Shelby Baptist Medical Center in the future.”

THE FUTURE BEFORE HER

In the past several years, there have been a few major changes atthe hospital, the most recent coming with Orlando Health purchasing Brookwood Baptist to take the hos-

pital into new ownership, since rebranding to Baptist Health Shelby Hospital. Dean believes that these changes have placed the hospital on the precipice of a bright future.

“Unfortunately, you could argue that there has been a reduction in services over the years, but I ultimately say that leads us to nothing but opportunity in the future ahead,” Dean said. “We are going to continue to rebuild, we are going to fix and we’re going to be better than we ever have. When I think about the next years for Shelby, I genuinely believe who we are today will be dramatically different than who we will be in two years. We are poised for growth.”

Dean said the staff’s response, as well as her own, has been tremendous with the changes, as community both internally and externally, has become key.

“When I think about how things have changed in general, I would just say that there’s a lot of energy and excitement,”

“TO WORK WITH A LEADER LIKE HOLLY HAS BEEN BOTH REFRESHING AND INSPIRING. SHE HAS SUCH A PASSION FOR THIS FACILITY AND OUR PEOPLE, AND THAT SHOWS IN HER WORK EVERY DAY.” -VIRGINIA SHERRELL

Dean said. “Sometimes change can be scary, but the sense I get is that this change is very exciting–exciting for the team members here, exciting for our physicians and exciting for the community.”

She added that the community has been a huge priority for Orlando Health, extending their reach beyond the walls of the hospital to make sure residents feel their passion for the area.

With the help of Orlando Health, Dean is excited to tackle several projects at Baptist Health Shelby Hospital.

“The objective in the next two years is re-

ally to fix, and we have things to fix,” Dean said. “Whether it’s services or whether it’s first impressions, we’ve got things we have to fix. That’s what we’re going to focus on in the next couple of years, so that we’re poised for what will be the need to grow in the future.”

As Dean looks toward the future of the hospital, she also looks toward the future of Shelby County. She has great faith in her home town and believes that Alabaster is on the verge of a boom of growth.

“What I’m most excited for is–simplistically put–the future for Shelby,” Dean said.

“The future is bright. Our service area is vast, and now we’re going to have the resources that we need to support us and to be able to have the outreach we’re going to need in this community as it continues to grow.”

When asked if she would like to share a message with the Shelby County community, Dean replied: Buckle up.

“It’s going be a fun ride,” Dean said. “Continue to support and believe in us because we’re going to be here for the long haul. We’re going to be in a position to support this community and be what it needs in a healthcare provider for years to come.”

CRISIS COLLABORATION

HIGHTOWER, ROBERTS BALANCE TRAINING AND COMPASSION IN CRITICAL SITUATIONS

BY NOAH WORTHAM | PHOTOS BY DAWN HARRISON

IIn April 2024, Calera patrol officer Mike Roberts was in his vehicle headed toward the location of a caller who had notified the department they were experiencing suicidal thoughts. Armed with his previous experiences as an officer and detailed information about the situation from dispatch, Roberts was ready for anything.

“I worked in Birmingham for 10 years, so we would get calls similar to this on a somewhat normal basis,” Roberts said. “Honestly, I was thinking it would be fairly normal.”

As he turned around the corner in his patrol vehicle, he spotted the caller outside their home as indicated by dispatch, but as he pulled in closer he noticed that the situa-

tion had turned much more critical as the individual was standing with a firearm pointed to their head.

As thoughts began to race in his mind, Roberts relied on his instincts and training and immediately stops the vehicle. He checked his surroundings and then put the vehicle in reverse in case he needed to escape.

He opened the door to the vehicle but remained inside and begins to communicate with the caller. Even now, he can still vividly recall those critical words, which were so delicately selected.

“I’m here to help you, and no part of me wants to bring you any harm,” he says. “I don’t want anything bad to happen to you.”

After a minute and a half of offering words of reassurance to the caller, the individual lowered the firearm and returned it to their own vehicle and proceeded to walk toward Roberts who led him to the patrol car to await the medics who were set to arrive shortly.

In a critical situation where every decision has heavy consequences and where either Roberts or the caller could have ended up injured or worse, the perfect solution was reached thanks to the training, experience and the combined efforts of police and dispatch.

“What could have easily been a suicide or a deadly force encounter ended up resulting in an individual in a mental health crisis re-

“IT’S DEFINITELY A BALANCING ACT. TRYING TO BE THERE WITH A CALLER AND SYMPATHIZE WITH WHAT THEY’RE GOING THROUGH BUT ALSO MAKING SURE THAT THE OFFICER IS SAFE, ESPECIALLY IF THERE’S A WEAPON INVOLVED… JUST TRYING TO KEEP EVERYBODY CALM WHILE ALSO KEEPING YOURSELF CALM AND REMEMBERING TO BREATHE IN THAT HIGH-STRESS

SITUATION”

-AMBER HIGHTOWER

ceiving the care and treatment that was needed,” Calera Chief of Police David Hyche said.

Help is on the line

The response to each and every emergency situation begins with a phone call, and on the other line is a dispatcher who interacts with the caller and helps direct the efforts of emergency personnel. Being a dispatcher requires an individual who can think quickly, be empathetic and handle traumatic situations with serenity.

With a job that requires multitasking and burdensome responsibility, police have to ensure that the right person is selected for the job, and fortunately, for the Calera Police Department, Amber Hightower is more than qualified.

“I love my job,” Hightower said. “I know that, even if it’s a small way, I’m making some type of difference in the world.

Hightower has worked with the city of Calera for 13 years and has a bachelor’s degree in speech language pathology and a master’s degree in marriage and family counseling.

In April 2024, Hightower was sitting at her desk when she received an emergency call that would test all of her skills and training in order for everyone involved to come out unscathed.

“All that I knew was that the caller was suicidal, that he did have a weapon

but it was in his vehicle and he was inside the house and that he just wanted help,” Hightower said.

She immediately relied on her background in counseling and on her past experiences with suicidal clients. Hightower continued to talk with the individual and build rapport while simultaneously gathering details to help officers.

“I was thinking about, ‘Okay, how can I break through that barrier of him as the caller and me as the dispatcher and trying to find that common ground— something we can

relate together on,’” Hightower said. “It was really difficult to do that.”

She continued to tell the caller that she cared about them and begged them to stay with her.

The caller, however, didn’t want to talk anymore.

Hightower remembered hearing a door close and birds chirping in the background with noise from the road.

In that moment, she knew the individual had gone outside, which allowed Hightower to quickly relay that to Roberts.The caller then told Hightower he had the gun to his head and Hightower tried her best to convince him to not go through with it.

“We want you here, we don’t want anything to happen to you,’” Hightower said over the phone. “We care about you, we want you to not do this. We want to be here with you.”

Eventually, thanks to her own efforts in tandem with those of Roberts, the man relents and is able to receive help. The high-tension situation reached the perfect, peaceful resolution thanks to Hightower’s quick thinking and prior experience.

“It’s definitely a balancing act,” Hightower said “Trying to be there with a caller and sympathize with what they’re going through but also making sure that the officer is safe, especially if there’s a weapon involved… just trying to keep everybody calm while also keeping yourself calm and remembering to breathe in that high-stress situation.”

Partners in service

In order for a police department to make its mission of protecting and saving lives possible, it requires the collaboration of dispatch and officers to work together in order to achieve a peaceful solution with minimal harm for everyone involved.

“This is a great example of how important the two roles are together because the dispatcher engaged this man in conversation and really started the process of calm-

HOW TO SAVE A LIFE

988 DIAL FORSUICIDE HELPLINE

ASK

YOU THINKING ABOUT SUICIDE?

WITHOUT JUDGEMENT

ing him down and getting him directed away from hurting himself,” Hyche said. “But also, the dispatcher relayed information that could have potentially saved the person in crisis’s life or the officer’s life.”

said he was still having a little bit of trouble every now and then. There were some things that he was still working through but he did go to the hospital, the visit went well and (he indicated) that he was doing better.”

DON’T ASSUME THEY ARE FINE OR WILL GET OVER IT

Likewise, officer Roberts made rapid judgment calls and decisions on maintaining distance and safety while also safely engaging in dialogue with the caller to build rapport.

“Police officers are tasked with making split-second decisions in potentially deadly situations involving individuals who may be violent criminals, high on drugs, intoxicated or in the middle of a mental health crisis,” Hyche said. “Doing your job as a dispatcher or police officer in a calm, professional manner, while knowing that your actions could have saved or cost a life is an enormous burden that individuals in this profession willfully undertake.”

Hyche said both Hightower and Roberts are the perfect example of the type of people he wants working at the Calera Police Department.

“We are very openly proactive and we don’t apologize for enforcing the law but we also want people that are caring,” Hyche said.

Even months after the incident, Roberts continued to demonstrate that level of empathy by making a phone call to check in on the caller who appeared to be in much better shape.

“He said he was doing a lot better,” Roberts said. “He

Despite the stark and serious nature of the call both Roberts and Hightower responded to, it is unfortunately one of many calls the two first responders deal with throughout the year. And although both of them and their fellow officers deal with emergency situations like this one each and every day, their efforts often go unnoticed by the general public.

“I don’t find out about the vast majority of the great things that my folks do,” Hyche said. “It’s funny that whenever they do something wrong, I have hundreds of people telling me but when they do something that’s very heroic or even very kind and caring, I almost never hear about it.”

Although many of these acts of heroism go unnoticed, it wasn’t for Hightower and Roberts who were both honored in September 2024 at the Shelby County Chamber’s 2024 Public Safety Awards for their efforts to save the caller struggling with suicide. Hightower later received a promotion to dispatch supervisor.

“Officer Roberts and dispatcher Hightower demonstrated courage, compassion, professionalism and humanity,” Hyche said. “They treated an individual in crisis with compassion and dignity while doing their best to protect the public and the person in crisis.”

CATCHING FIRE

BAPTIST HEALTH SHELBY HOSPITAL EMPLOYEE WALTER SINGLETERRY IS LIVING OUT THE GOSPEL OF JESUS CHRIST, IGNITING A WAVE OF FAITH-FILLED MIRACLES IN SHELBY COUNTY.

BY ANNA GRACE MOORE | PHOTOS BY DAWN HARRISON

DDecades ago, Walter Singleterry found himself washed up on the wrong side of the tracks. A lifetime of regret clung to his clothes, weighing him down with every step.

His happiness was fleeting, but his remorse felt everlasting. Skies of gray clouded his mind, whispering lies that sounded like the truth.

Losing his battle with depression, Walter puffed his sadness away on a dimly lit cig, slowly slipping into a drunken slumber one fateful day. As he drifted off, a few tiny embers caught his bed in a fiery haze.

Paralyzed in fear, Walter recalls not being

able to wake up from a nightmare–one where demons fought for his soul. All of the sudden, roaring down from Heaven, a mighty voice ripped through the black bellowing, “This is your last chance.”

Walter woke with a fright as one of his family members shook him violently. Flames were rolling up into the rafters–the floorboards heaving and creaking, seconds from giving way.

The two barreled out the front door, just to turn and see the house engulfed in flames. Although the house crumbled, Walter emerged without a scratch.

He became a follower of Jesus that day.

“Once I accepted Jesus as my Savior, good things began to happen in my life,” he said.

“God gave me a car. I got a house. He’s just been so good to me. I wasn’t even worth it, but He gave me all of that.”

Now, Walter has a newfound purpose–sharing the Gospel.

“I think God is using me to teach this–this is very, very important,” he said, later adding, “He sacrificed Himself for us and died on the cross. He knew no sin. He left Heaven, a comfortable place, everything laid out for Him. He gave all that up to come down

“ONCE I ACCEPTED JESUS AS MY SAVIOR, GOOD THINGS BEGAN TO HAPPEN IN MY LIFE. GOD GAVE ME A CAR. I GOT A HOUSE. HE’S JUST BEEN SO GOOD TO ME. I WASN’T EVEN WORTH IT, BUT HE GAVE ME ALL OF THAT.”

-WALTER SINGLETERRY

here and die on the cross for [us].”

Walter said a man destined to die for humanity is a man worth living for, and he intends to do so every day he’s given this side of Heaven.

Walk by Faith, Not by Sight

Born and raised in Jemison, Walter struggled academically growing up, and he left high school before finishing to pursue different career opportunities. He joined the Alabama National Guard and served his country for a short time before leaving the service to travel the world.

It wasn’t long before home came calling, and Walter returned to be closer to family. As the second oldest of 10 children, he played

a big hand in helping raise his younger siblings.

During this time, Walter became a Christian, but he did not know yet just how the Lord was going to use him. So, he started working, painting commercial businesses.

After 10 years, he switched gears and began building furniture for a local company–a place he worked for 18 years until the 2008 recession cost him his job. Although he struggled, Walter never doubted the Lord’s plan for his life.

“He came to me, and He said these words, ‘I want you to go to Shelby Baptist. I want you to tell the people about me. You give them something to hope for, and His name is Jesus,’’’ Walter said. “I’ve been doing that for about 14 years.”

Not long after was Walter hired at Shelby Baptist Medical Center as a member of the environmental services team (EVS). In less than two years, Walter was promoted to cleaning patients’ rooms–a position he does not take lightly.

Phyllis Thomas, a manager in the EVS department at at the hospital, has worked at the hospital for 16 years. One of her first memories of Walter was of him smiling, joyfully saying, ‘Praise the Lord!’

It was a moment she’ll never forget.

“He’s a person that loves the Lord,” Phyllis said. “He has different songs. He goes down the hall singing, ‘This Little Light of Mine.’

That’s one of his favorites. You can always tell when Mr. Walter is in the building.”

Every chance he gets, Walter talks to pa-

tients, encouraging them and offering to pray for them. In his disguise with a broom or a mop in hand, Walter is living out the ministry of Jesus Christ, ensuring every person he meets knows the good news.

The Power of Prayer

Equipped with the Holy Spirit, Walter prays for the Lord to speak through him to each patient he’s privileged to meet. Whether that be reciting scriptures, offering words of encouragement or praying, Walter is never afraid or embarrassed.

In fact, he is always eager to share what Christ has put on his heart.

“They tell me when I walk into a room, ‘I can see you in spirit. You light up a room,’” Walter said. “I say, ‘It’s all because of God.’

They all tell me that. I always light up a room when I come in there. Why? Because I have Jesus, and He’s the light of the world.”

Interestingly enough, as a child, Walter struggled with public speaking. He abhorred having to make speeches or presentations in front of his classmates.

Prophetic words, praying for people–those were never on his radar. It was not until he said, “yes,” for the first time to Jesus that he slowly started becoming brave.

“I’ve never met someone so positive,” said Ashley Greer, Baptist Health Shelby Hospital’s EVS Director. “I’ve never known him to have a bad day. Every word is going to be, ‘Praise the Lord. Thank you Jesus!’”

Ashley said Walter’s most defining characteristic is his gratitude for God, for the life he’s living and for the people he gets to meet every day.

“When I first met him, I was like, ‘Wow, this man is on fire,” Ashley said. “He challenges me every day to put a smile on somebody else’s face.”

She gets calls nearly every week from pa-

tients who ask for “Mr. Walter.” Patients will call or visit, bringing Walter pictures of their family members–people he specifically has prayed over and has seen Christ heal.

Years ago, Walter strolled into a comatose patient’s room, beginning his cleaning duties. As he was cleaning the room, Walter reached out his hand, and from a distance, he prayed for the man to be healed.

The patient’s then-girlfriend came to visit and saw Walter praying. Without hesitation, Walter said he told her not to be afraid and the Lord would heal him.

Not a day later did the patient wake up.

The newlywed couple later visited Walter at the hospital, giving him a photo of their wedding and thanking him for his healing prayers.

Walter has prayed for hundreds of patients during his time at the hospital. He has even helped lead some to know Jesus; although, he gives all credit to God.

“I can’t make an impact on people without God,” Walter said. “Anytime you try to do something and you leave God out of it, it’s not going to work, and I realize that now. So, everything I do, I acknowledge God that He directs my path. He’s never failed me yet. He’s not going to fail me.”

Leaving the 99

Luke 15:3-7 says, “So Jesus told them this story: “If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them gets lost, what will he do? Won’t he leave the ninety-nine others in the wilderness and go to search for the one that is lost until he finds it? And when he has found it, he will joyfully carry it home on his shoulders. When he arrives, he will call together his friends and neighbors, saying, ‘Rejoice with me because I have found my lost sheep.’ In the same way, there is more joy in heaven over one lost sinner who repents and returns to God than over ninety-nine others who are righteous and haven’t strayed away!”

Walter believes it was a miracle the Lord saved him from that house fire all those years ago. For years, he never thought he was worthy of love, of friendship, much less of God’s forgiveness.

And yet, God rescued Walter, transforming his life and giving him purpose. Now, the Lord is using him to minister to hundreds.

Faith catches on like fire when one is brave enough to live like Jesus. The best part? Anyone, no matter who he is, is cherished by God and can do mighty things in His name.

After all, one man’s faith was enough to save the world.

Congratulations Bill Connor

Bill Connor, President/CEO AmFirst

OF THE YEAR

FACING YOUR INFERNO

THE CITY OF ALABASTER’S FIRST-EVER FIREFIGHTER INTERN IS NOW SETTING THE STANDARD FOR THOSE FOLLOWING IN HIS FOOTSTEPS.

BY ANNA GRACE MOORE | PHOTOS BY NEAL WAGNER

SScreeching in pulses, the fire tone wakes Alabaster firefighter-paramedic Devarye Mack out of a dead sleep. Half a second passes, and his feet hit the floor.

A race to the locker, Devarye quickly grabs his helmet and oxygen tank before bolting to the fire engine, grasping the bar to hoist himself nearly five feet in the air onto the first step, climbing into the truck. The wail of the siren echoes like a fearmongering spirit through the station.

This was it. No turning back now.

Riding in the witching hours, Devarye pulls on his boots and shimmies his gear up his back and over his shoulders before briskly zipping up his veil of protection. Barreling down a narrow county road, the engine

pierces through the fog clouding the roads as its wails crescendo, ricocheting off the hills in the distance.

Suddenly, Devarye spots an orange flicker in the distance. As he rides closer, that flicker licks up the roof in a fiery haze with black smog billowing from the rafters.

Devarye jumps off the truck and snatches the hose, leading his ranks up the stairs to the apartment door. Clutching his heart, but only for a moment, he whispers a prayer for his men.

“Let’s roll,” he shouts.

Setting the Standard

An Alabaster native, Devarye was just 18

years old and a senior at Thompson High School when he first considered a career as a firefighter.

“As a kid, my parents were big sticklers about doing well in whatever you want to do in life,” Devarye said. “That starts in the classroom. They would do things like pay me for every ‘A’ but never pay me for a ‘B.’

From a young age, that’s pretty easy to get

‘A’s’ in addition and subtraction, but as I got older, they were like, ‘Alright, we’re not going to pay you anymore. This is now a standard.’ That standard stuck with me throughout high school.”

The older Devarye became, the higher he set his standard. No matter if he was playing point guard or later on, fighting fire, Devar-

ye viewed challenges as opportunities to grow.

During his senior year, he learned about Alabaster Mayor Scott Brakefield’s citywide, paid internship program. The first of its kind, this program provided Thompson High School seniors the opportunity to intern with city departments and assess if careers in trades were the right fit for them.

Although Devarye had already received several college scholarship offers, he decided to apply for the internship “just to fill his time” as his basketball season was ending. The Alabaster Fire Department was the first out of the city to hire interns.

All applicants had to complete a rigorous firefighter training course to even be considered for the internship. Devarye, joking he has always been athletic, was surprisingly

humbled at the mere physicality required during training.

He was selected as one of only two interns out of 20 applicants. He was hired in March 2022, and on his very first day, he witnessed a live house fire training.

“I was like, ‘Oh God! They set the building on fire!’” Devarye said, chuckling. Sure enough, that one house fire training piqued his interest in what would become his dream career.

“He is the guy that has set the standard,” Alabaster Fire Chief Tim Love said. “What he has shown us is that we need to show kids that are in school that municipal jobs, and for us specifically, the fire service, are not just jobs. They’re careers. He got hired at a young age. He can retire with full benefits at a very young age. He has all the tools he

needs to move up. He’s the poster child for what an intern program should do.”

Under his Wing

Devarye was assigned to Alabaster Fire Lieutenant Chad Trautwein during his internship. Chad, who has worked in the fire service for 20 years, trained with Devarye after school let out on every B-shift, teaching him the ropes.

Chad first coached him on navigating a scene in his turnout gear and self-contained breathing apparatus, which is a tank funneling clean oxygen into a firefighter’s mask. The gear alone is 80 pounds, and Devarye struggled learning to run and climb in his gear while being weighed down.

Despite the burden, he set a new standard

for himself, “Take one more step in my gear today than I did yesterday.”

“He was always positive and eager to learn,” Chad said. “He never came in with a bad attitude. He always had a smile on his face and was always excited to be here.”

Alabaster Fire Captain Zach Cruce agrees, saying Devarye has become the role model for future interns to follow.

“Everyone who meets Dmack loves him,” Zach said. “He has a great attitude, strong work ethic and is a great fit for our organization. He is working hard to learn his craft and is not afraid to get out of his comfort zone and learn new things.”

From March-June 2022, Devarye rotated around all of the fire stations in Alabaster, learning from different professionals and observing them on calls. He practiced taking ladders off of firetrucks, throwing ladders up to assist victims and even hooking up supply lines from the fire truck to the fire

hydrant.

He also learned several life lessons during his internship such as how to change a tire.

Chad said the beauty of interning for a trade career is the practical knowledge one gains first-hand.

Then came the real challenge: Saving people.

“I remember riding with one of the battalion chiefs, and we got dispatched to an overdose,” Devarye said. “I remember Chief checked his pulse and said, ‘You need to start CPR.’ I remember being so amped up to be able to help. All I could think of was ‘Revert to my training.’ Funny enough, me thinking like that then is how I think now running calls.”

Devarye started compressions on the patient, praying silently that he would live. Hearing the crunch of the patient’s sternum made it real–the patient’s vitality was slipping through Devarye’s fingers.

He pressed harder, steadily, almost to the beat of his own accelerated heartbeat, counting, “one, two, three, four,” desperately trying to revive the patient. An eternity of a minute or two passed, and the engine crew arrived to relieve Devarye.

By the grace of God and the assistance of several talented firefighters, the patient lived.

“For any patient I serve, I want to do right for their sake,” Devarye said. “Every patient deserves proper care, no matter who they are. They have a right to get the best out of us as a department.”

That was the first time Devarye ever performed CPR on a live victim. He’ll never forget feeling the warmth of a body retreat into the depths of the soul.

He also won’t forget a lesson he learned that day: Each person will face his own inferno–his own trials–in life. Yet, what makes one emerge victorious is not his suc-

“FOR ANY PATIENT I SERVE, I WANT TO DO RIGHT FOR THEIR SAKE. EVERY PATIENT DESERVES PROPER CARE, NO MATTER WHO THEY ARE. THEY HAVE A RIGHT TO GET THE BEST OUT OF US AS A DEPARTMENT”

-DEVARYE MACK

cess, but his courage to face his fears, especially for the sake of someone else.

Navigating his Journey

Devarye graduated from Thompson High School in May 2022, and by that August, he was hired as a full-time firefighter recruit with Station 3. The following month, he attended the Alabama Fire College and later completed recruit school, earning his Fire Fighter I/II, Hazmat Awareness and Operations and Rescue Intervention certifications.

He earned his EMT License from Herzing University in April 2023–the same month he began training to receive his Paramedic License, which he received in May 2024. In March 2024, Devarye also earned his Apparatus Operator “AO” Pumper certification, and that November, he received his AO Aerial Pumper.

Thanks to his parents, Devarye took enough dual enrollment classes in high school that he only has four semesters worth of classes to take towards earning his bachelor’s degree. In September 2024, he enrolled at Columbia Southern University and is on track to graduate in fall 2026 with his Bachelor of Emergency Medical Services and Administration.

“There’s nothing wrong with going right to the workforce out of high school and going ahead and getting a career because for so long, I think people put it in kids’ heads that if you don’t go to college, you’re not really going to amount to much, which is not the case at all whatsoever,” Chad said. “I didn’t go to college. I got hired here in Alabaster when I was 18, and it has been one of the best choices I’ve ever made in my life.”

Numerous firefighters in Alabaster have received higher education and can retire early in life with full benefits, but hardly any of them took the conventional route out of high school. The reason their success may look different but is no less impressive is because there’s no cookie-cutter route to navigate one’s journey in life.

Accomplishment comes not from textbooks, but from life experience. The best young people make of it is often how they measure their own success–setting standards for themselves, achieving their goals and working toward their next, big dream in life.

Devarye wants to become a battalion chief one day. Now, the question is not “how,” but “when” he’ll achieve that standard before setting a new one.

EXTENDING A HAND

FIREFIGHTERS DREW BABYAK AND JOE PATTON FORM BUSINESS TO TEACH PUBLIC ABOUT LIFESAVING TECHNIQUES

BY RACHEL RAIFORD | PHOTOS BY DAWN HARRISON

JJoe Patton and Drew Babyak, both seasoned firefighters, realized that one of the most crucial skills they could share with the public was CPR (Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation) after years of seeing lives saved by the immediate actions of bystanders who knew how to perform CPR. They’ve also seen lives lost due to the lack of CPR knowledge among the general population. They felt compelled to make this life-saving skill more accessible to everyone.

Whether it’s a call to a family home or a workplace, both Patton and Babyak have experienced their share of difficult emergent calls. This is not only what called them to continue their work at their departments— Pelham for Babyak and Homewood for Patton—but also to start a new business.

“There have been countless calls where

there is a cardiac arrest, we get on scene and nobody’s doing CPR because they don’t know what to do,” Patton said. “Those family members, bystanders or coworkers—anybody, they just don’t know what they’re doing, so they do nothing.”

Patton also pointed out that this lack of knowledge can cause distress for the loved ones of those who pass from cardiac arrest.

“It takes a mental toll on them,” Patton said. “They’ll think it’s their fault that their family member passed. However, it was only a lack of knowledge. It wasn’t their fault.”

Launching the business

The duo began their CPR business, Rescuer LLC, with a clear mission: to teach people

how to respond effectively to cardiac and respiratory emergencies. Their business combines the professional expertise gained from their years of service in the fire department with a passion for educating the public.

“While it is a side business for us, it has value to it,” Babyak said. “Teaching people these life-saving skills goes hand in hand with what we do—it’s valuable.”

Rescuer LLC offers a range of CPR and first aid certification courses tailored to different audiences. The training is hands-on, practical and designed to build confidence in life-saving skills.

They offer American Heart Association

Basic Life Support training which teaches participants to recognize several life-threatening emergencies and how to react in those

situations. They also offer CPR/AED certification courses and a basic First Aid course.

“We’ve gotten calls from some of our clients about them using the skills we taught them in a real scenario,” Babyak said. “Although the situation is unfortunate, they were able to use the knowledge and tools we gave to them. Getting a call like that makes it worthwhile.”

Community

engagement and growth

What sets Rescuer LLC apart is its commitment to engaging the community. Patton and Babyak frequently partner with local schools, businesses and community organizations to offer group training sessions, providing CPR and first aid certification for employees.

“At our schools we try to keep the class re-

ally upbeat and truly get into the course with them,” Patton said. “Not everyone enjoys a full day of training, so we try our best to have fun with everyone. If we’re having a good time, the teachers are having fun.”

As the business has grown, so has the network of instructors. They have expanded their team to include six other first responders, allowing them to meet the increasing demand for training sessions.

Isaac Cruz, a fireman at the Pelham Fire Department, is one of their newest instructors.

“When we’re on the job, we’re trained to act fast,” Cruz said. “Being an instructor for Rescuer LLC has given me the opportunity to instill that mindset in others—to respond without hesitation and know exactly what to do when every second counts.”

Babyak was introduced to Cruz through

their shifts at the Pelham Fire Department. This is where Babyak asked if Cruz would be interested in being an instructor for Rescuer LLC.

“The business had already been up and running for a year when he approached me,” Cruz said. “He told me about how impactful it was on the community and how convenient it was to do in addition to our work at the department.”

Cruz said he tells every one of his classes that his goal is to ensure that each participant leaves the class feeling confident and capable of performing CPR in an emergent situation.

“I open and close every class with that,” Cruz said. “I want people to realize that CPR isn’t difficult, and they can do it themselves if they ever need to. I’ve even had people come up after a class and thank me for that

bit of confidence I gave to them.”

Impacting lives, one class at a time

According to both Patton and Babyak, the most rewarding part of their business is knowing they’re making a tangible difference in not only the community but also in their instructors’ lives.

“(With) firefighting, your schedule is 24 (hours) on, 48 off,” Patton said. “A lot of us work at two stations, so that’s 48 on, 24 off. It’s not good for mental or physical health.”

Babyak added that this was another reason to start up Rescuer LLC.

“Firemen are extremely hard workers; they’re not going to sit at home for two days before their next shift,” Babyak said. “So, instead of two 24 hour shifts at a fire station, we hire our own guys to be instructors. It helps us because we have a larger number of qualified instructors now, but it’s helping them have an adequate amount of rest for the work that matters.”

In addition to Babyak and Patton, there are six instructors for Rescuer LLC. All of the

instructors are firefighter paramedics, perfectly qualified to teach life-saving techniques to clients.

Not only have they helped train hundreds of people in CPR, but their work has also empowered individuals to be confident in emergency situations.

“It’s our side business, sure, but it’s satisfying, life-saving work. There’s nothing more satisfying than hearing that someone used the skills we taught them to save a life,” Patton said. “No matter who it is, we know we’ve had a part in that. That’s the result we want

SAFE STRONG & SUPPORTED

The Pelham community truly appreciates and supports its first responders! We are consistently ranked one of the safest cities in Alabama thanks to the professionalism, dedication, and bravery of the men and women of the Pelham Police & Fire Departments.

“THERE’S NOTHING MORE SATISFYING THAN HEARING THAT SOMEONE USED THE SKILLS WE TAUGHT THEM TO SAVE A LIFE.”

-JOE PATTON

and it’s an amazing feeling.”

Looking to the future

With a growing client base and an expanding network of certified instructors, Rescuer LLC shows no signs of slowing down. The founders are dedicated to continuing to improve the quality of their courses and reach even more people with life-saving skills.

“We started getting calls from different organizations,” Babyak said. “People realized the importance of having staff who were trained in CPR. It’s a must-have for workplace safety and schools.”

Through their hard work, passion and commitment, Patton and Babyak have not only built a successful business but also helped create a safer, more prepared community-one CPR class at a time.

It’s clear that their experience as firefighters not only prepared them for the pressures of the job but also for the challenges of entrepreneurship. In the years since founding Rescuer LLC, Patton and Babyak have built a business rooted in a shared commitment to life-saving work. Their story is a testament to the power of passion, teamwork and the belief that anyone can perform life-saving techniques in an emergency.

Even Better Together

When two leading healthcare systems come together, extraordinary things happen. As Baptist Health Shelby Hospital — now strengthened by award-winning healthcare leader Orlando Health — we are bringing you expert medical care with the patient-first approach you deserve. With an even brighter future ahead, we’re excited to enhance exceptional, faith-based care in your community. Giving you more reasons to choose well. BaptistHealthAL.com/ShelbyHospital

In a safe, caring atmosphere of teaching and learning, Hoover City Schools provide each student with opportunities to develop exemplary character and achieve personal excellence through a rigorous and relevant curriculum.

HCS MOMENTUM

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JOHN SAMANIEGO

The highest law enforcement officer in Shelby County, John Samaniego was first elected sheriff of the Shelby County Sheriff’s Office in 2014, taking office Jan. 20, 2015. He has since been re-elected to the position twice, leading a department responsible for the safety of the more than 220,000 residents in Shelby County. Samaniego leads a staff of nearly 250 employees and is responsible for the county’s jail. A University of Alabama graduate, he has been in law enforcement for more than 40 years, starting with the Tuscaloosa Police Department. He became assistant chief of police with the TPD before moving to Shelby County to take over as the chief deputy with the SCSO in 2003, eventually being elected sheriff 11 years later.

SHELBY COUNTY SHERIFF

PROTECT AND SERVE

GET TO KNOW SHELBY COUNTY’S FIRE AND POLICE CHIEFS

CURTIS RIGNEY

ALABASTER POLICE CHIEF

The leader of the Alabaster Police Department, Chief Curtis Rigney has spent most of his career in law enforcement with the city of Alabaster. His career spans more than 35 years. Rigney worked his way up the ranks in Alabaster, becoming the chief of police in 2012.

TIM LOVE

ALABASTER FIRE CHIEF

A veteran in the firefighting industry, Tim Love has been working in fire departments for more than 40 years. He got his start in Birmingham, serving for 39 years before retiring. After which, he earned a dream job to serve as Alabaster’s fire chief in 2018.

MIKE REID

PELHAM FIRE CHIEF

With more than 30 years of experience as a firefighter and paramedic, Mike Reid was named the city of Pelham’s Fire Chief in 2020. Reid takes the job seriously and loves being able to work with a group that aim to protect and help residents in Pelham.

DAVID HYCHE

CALERA POLICE CHIEF

David Hyche places emphasis on keeping the public informed. Sworn in as the Calera police chief on May 4, 2020, Hyche has an extensive law enforcement background. After working for the University of Alabama Police Department and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives in Atlanta, he became the Calera chief in 2020.

SEAN KENDRICK

CALERA FIRE CHIEF

Sean Kendrick has been the leader of the Calera Fire Department since 2009. He joined the CFD following 13 years of service as a captain with the Hoover Fire Department. His top priority has been to help people feel safe and creating a department that residents can lean on.

JOE LEE

CHELSEA FIRE CHIEF

Joe Lee carries a passion for the role he got following the passing of the city’s first fire chief Wayne Shirley. He earned the role of chief on Feb. 16, 2021, continuing a remarkable career in fire service with the goal of building a safe community in Chelsea.

CLAY BENTLEY

HOOVER FIRE CHIEF

Nearing 10 years of service as the Hoover fire chief, Clay Bentley took over the position in 2017 following the retirement of Chuck Wingate. Bentley started with the Hoover Fire Department in 1997 as a firefighter and worked his way up the ladder over the next 20 years.

BUDDY WILKS

CAHABA VALLEY FIRE CHIEF

Buddy Wilks earned the opportunity to become the Cahaba Valley Fire and Emergency Medical Rescue District chief in in 2021. He started with Birmingham Fire and Rescue in 1991 and retired following nearly 27 years of service before taking a job as battalion chief at Cahaba Valley before becoming fire chief.

NICK DERZIS

HOOVER POLICE CHIEF

Nick Derzis is one of the most tenured police chiefs in the state. He joined the Hoover Police Department in 1979, two years after moving from Virginia. He climbed the ranks, earning the position of assistant chief in 1999. Derzis was named Hoover chief in 2005, leading one of the largest police departments in the state.

JEREMY LITTLETON

MONTEVALLO POLICE CHIEF

Now in his 12th year as the Montevallo police chief, Jeremy Littleton has dedicated his life to law enforcement. With 18 years of experience when he became chief, Littleton is now a 30-year veteran. His goal when taking over was to move the department forward and that has remained a focal point of his leadership.

BRAD DAVIS

MONTEVALLO FIRE CHIEF

Taking over for Bill Reid in 2019, Brad Davis has served as Montevallo’s fire chief for nearly six years. A volunteer fire department, Davis has been big on highlighting all of those who help keep Montevallo safe. Davis and his wife Ji Ji Davis are both leaders in the county with their volunteer efforts making a difference.

TIM ALEXANDER

UNIVERSITY OF MONTEVALLO POLICE CHIEF

An important position for the safety of students, Tim Alexander has a passion for protecting young people as they pursue their college degree at the University of Montevallo. The chief since 2018, Alexander has nearly 30 years of experience in law enforcement. He recently announced his retirement, which will go into effect soon.

JOHNNY HOWARD JR.

COLUMBIANA FIRE CHIEF

A staple name in the community of Columbiana, Johnny Howard Jr. has been the fire chief in Columbiana since 1991, giving him just shy of 35 years of experience leading the fire department. Becoming a firefighter in 1986, he quickly became assistant chief in 1987 and then the chief at the young age of 21 in 1991.

JEFF BOWERS

COLUMBIANA POLICE CHIEF

Jeff Bowers took on the role of police chief in 2019 and has dedicated his time to leading Columbiana’s police department. Bowers has been with the department since January 2008, giving him 17 years of experience. Shot in the line of duty early in his career in 2009, he has laid his life on the line for the city.

BOBBY GREENE

VINCENT FIRE CHIEF

The leader of Vincent’s volunteer fire department, in 2014, Bobby Greene started volunteering with the Vincent department before joining the Harpersville Fire Department. He has since returned to Vincent and continues to work as a leading figure in the community with the goal of growing and leading the volunteers who help keep Vincent safe.

DAVY EDWARDS

WILSONVILLE FIRE CHIEF

Davy Edwards has been a leader for the Wilsonville Fire Department as the chief. The leader of a volunteer department that dates back to 1961, Edwards dedicates much of his free time to leading this organization. His goal remains to give the community a sense of safety, while leading a group of firefighters to reach their full potential.

CHRIS MILLER

HELENA FIRE CHIEF

With nearly 20 years of fire service experience, Chris Miller currently serves as the Helena Fire Department chief. He got his start with the Helena Fire Department in 2007 as a firefighter and paramedic on a part time basis. Miller worked his way up the ranks, winning firefighter of the year before taking over as chief in 2023.

RANDY SIPE

NORTH SHELBY FIRE CHIEF

North Shelby Fire Chief Randy Sipe began volunteering as a firefighter in 1995. Just a few years later, he was hired beginning a career that has spanned more than 25 years. He was promoted to chief in 2020. He is now leading a department that covers one of the busiest areas in the Birmingham-metro area.

BUILDING A SAFE KULTURE

LOCAL POLICE DEPARTMENTS TAKING PROACTIVE APPROACH FOR SENSORY AWARENESS AND SAFETY OF ALL CITIZENS

BY ANDREW SIMONSON | PHOTOS BY JEREMY RAINES

AND CONTRIBUTED

IIn August 2024, Tyron McAlpin encountered a pair of police officers in Phoenix, Arizona. That meeting quickly took a turn for the worse simply because of the way McAlpin attempted to speak to the officers.

McAlpin is deaf and has cerebral palsy, meaning he could not respond to officers’ verbal commands. When he tried to use sign language to communicate with the officers, body camera video showed that he was immediately grabbed, punched and Tased before being charged with resisting arrest in addition to false felony aggravated assault charges made by a white bystander to the Black McAlpin. Only when he was questioned did he get a chance to reveal his preexisting

conditions.

Those charges were dropped after the case received national attention, including from retired Helena Police Department chief Brad Flynn.

“This is why I dedicate myself to sensory awareness,” Flynn said in a text attached to a news report of the incident. “To keep this from happening again.”

Flynn and the Helena PD spearheaded a nationwide movement to raise awareness of sensory needs and disorders among law enforcement officers, speaking on and promoting specialized training for how officers should interact with those who exhibit such needs.

Now, such training is standardized and

mandated across the state of Alabama, and Flynn’s goal is to expand it even more across the region and country.

Because for him, it’s personal.

Close to home

Flynn’s 13-year-old son Colin was diagnosed with Trisomy 5, a rare disorder that is very similar to autism and causes him to exhibit similar mannerisms and physical cues as those who have autism.

Because of his son’s diagnosis, Flynn has sought ways to make the world a better place for him.

“One of the things I like to say is that when

you’re the parent of a special needs child, that in addition to just loving them and getting them through their day, you will to find a way to make their life better and change the world that they’re going to grow up in,” Flynn said.

He got a chance to change the status quo when he was approached by KultureCity, a Birmingham-based nonprofit which provides tools and training for organizations to accommodate those with sensory needs.

KultureCity originally got its start training large public venues to recognize behaviors from people with invisible disabilities and accommodate them by allowing them to bring certain objects like iPads for communication and provide resources at the venue to assist them.

KultureCity was brought on board by police in Salt Lake City, Utah after another high-profile incident in 2020 where an officer shot and seriously injured a 13-year-old boy with Aspergers syndrome experiencing a moment of crisis. The organization was tasked with retraining officers on how to in-

teract with those with sensory needs, particularly through de-escalation.

Shortly after, KultureCity reached out to Flynn about being the first police department in the state to be certified in sensory awareness and inclusion.

“We knew chief Brad Flynn through mutual connections and when we started having conversations on, ‘How do we provide first responders with a training that’s going to be helpful, that’s going to support them,’ he came first in mind,” KultureCity’s Uma Srivastava said. “He and his team are really able to help us out, build out scenarios and implement the training and then continuously being an advocate for us.”

In 2021, Helena PD officially partnered with KultureCity, making it just the second department nationwide to do so after Salt Lake City, and Flynn currently volunteers as the organization’s law enforcement liaison.

Under Flynn’s leadership, an Alabama city with a population of 22,117 led the national charge in growing the ranks of certified police departments

and modeling what sensory acceptance and inclusion should look like.

“Salt Lake City was No. 1, Helena is No. 2, and I’m OK with that,” Flynn said. “We in Helena have set the standard thanks to the support of our mayor and city council that the rest of the world follows.”

Back to the academy

Flynn said that sensory training is so important because those with sensory needs sometimes exhibit behaviors that officers could wrongly assume are attributed to something else.

For example, someone who is acting erratically in public could be under the influence of alcohol or drugs, but they could also have a condition like autism that causes them to act in such a way. Another example Flynn gave was with someone not responding to an officer’s commands to turn around and put your hands behind your back. That could come from an unwillingness to comply or it could instead stem from a person who is non-verbal.

Those situations would normally

provoke an officer to escalate the situation. For those with sensory needs, that’s the last thing you do.

“As police officers, we’re trained by the academy to maintain control of the situation,” Flynn said. “And when someone is verbally or physically non-compliant, we escalate. With an individual with sensory needs, once you do that, you’re pouring gas on the fire. It makes things worse.”

To combat such misunderstandings, KultureCity provides crisis intervention training (CIT). The training is centered on deescalating a moment of crisis for an individual by doing things like turning off police car lights for those with sensitivities to light, not calling in a diesel-fueled fire engine for someone with a sensitivity to smell or avoiding escalating the crisis by sending someone to the hospital for something that is completely normal for them to experience.

The training also helps officers learn behaviors like stemming, where individuals with sensory needs run objects through their fingers to help calm them down. For Flynn’s son Colin, his stemmer is a curtain, but it could be a different object depending on the person, such as a string, rope or fidget spinner.

More than anything though, the goal of the training is for officers to be compassion-

ate to a group that Flynn calls one of the most vulnerable populations, giving them the care they need and avoiding more high-profile incidents of police brutality.

“That’s what we’re trying to prevent is because we’ve seen nationwide of, especially over the last five to 10 years, an exponential increase in negative use of force and unnecessary use of force by law enforcement against these individuals because they just didn’t know,” Flynn said. “And this is where what you don’t know can hurt something, can hurt an individual.”

KultureCity’s CIT course is fully online and lasts just over an hour. As the organization’s law enforcement liaison, Flynn speaks around the country about the need for sensory awareness training and to show the results that Helena has seen since training its officers. In certain instances, he even leads the training, as he did in October 2024 for the University of Kentucky Police Department.

The hope is to make it as easy as possible for officers to take the training and implement the lessons into their daily lives.

“This is not a training that we want the officers to dread or not want to go to,” Flynn said. “When they leave this training, which is basically a little over an hour, we’re going to give them all the tools they need in a little

Mary Harris Wilson

Ms. Wilson

Mary Harris Wilson

position of Circuit Clerk of Shelby

Ms. Wilson

over an hour and they can go out and positively impact the world for so many people. And why would you not want to be a part of that?”

Going the extra mile

However, Helena has done more than simply mandate the training for law enforcement and call it a day. Flynn and the police department have led the way for the entire city to become more accepting of those with sensory needs.

After becoming the second department behind Salt Lake City to mandate the training for police officers, Helena was the first to require an annual CIT course for all city employees, from the Helena Fire Department to EMS to Helena Parks and Recreation and beyond.

Helena was also the first to put KultureCity’s sensory bags throughout the city. The bags contain noise-canceling headphones, non-verbal communication cards, fidget spinners and other tools to help individuals destress and communicate with those around them. Every police car and fire truck has a sensory bag in addition to buildings throughout the city.

The police department then went a step further in 2022 and purchased a sensory

trailer which contains all the features of KultureCity’s sensory rooms that are installed in large venues like Protective Stadium and Legacy Arena in Birmingham and State Farm Arena in Atlanta.

The trailer is designed to calm those with sensory needs with heavy insulation, LED lighting, bubble lamps, bean bags and textured and carpeted walls. Helena was the first city to purchase one and now brings it to major events like Helena High School football games and Old Town Live.

“We have all types of things in there to help these individuals calm down, get away from the excitement, get away from the people, and get back to where they want to be so they can go back and return to whatever event that we’re at,” Flynn said.

Flynn has also helped make other cities outside Helena more sensory inclusive. Through his work with Alabama representative Leigh Hulsey, they have passed a state law that mandates all fire, EMS and police departments in Alabama to take a CIT course.

For Flynn, the law’s passage marked a watershed moment in his advocacy journey as his search to make the world a more accepting place for his son has now led to meaningful change to how first responders are trained in the state of Alabama.

“That’s something that I’m the most proud of, because that ensures that anyone that my son may encounter in his life moving forward is going to have that additional training and is going to say, ‘My son’s not drunk. My son’s not on drugs. He’s not acting erratically. This is how he acts all the time,’” Flynn said. “And they’re going to be able to recognize that and go, ‘OK, let’s stand down. Let’s deescalate here. This is not something that we need to be necessarily warriors and defenders of. We need to be compassionate responders and get this individual to where they need to be.’ And that is so much better than obviously loading them in an ambulance or putting them in the back of a police car because of a false assumption based on your lack of education when it comes to sensory awareness.”

Change in action

Shortly after Helena started offering CIT for officers, school resource officer Blayne Browning encountered a situation where he had to put it in practice.

While on patrol, Browning received a call about a car sitting idle in the middle of the road on the corner of Highways 58 and 17 in Helena. Upon responding to the scene, the driver was listening to incredibly loud music

that drowned out both of them when they tried to speak.

After talking him into turning down the music, the driver told Browning he was very upset and had a lot going on in his life at the moment. While talking to him, Browning realized that the driver likely had a mental condition and was concerned that he would drive off and hurt himself.

That led Browning to simply lend an attentive ear to the driver on what was going on in his life.

“I just wanted to talk to him, just kind of get an understanding, try not to agree with him too much because I don’t know what other people are going through and I might not be going through what they are,” Browning said.

Browning got the driver’s wife on the phone and had the fire department come and evaluate him as well. While the driver was adamant about not going to the hospital, Browning eventually talked him into going to get evaluated while giving him additional resources.

He also gave him one resource that he had never given away before: his personal phone number, which the driver requested. Brown-

ing obliged with his request and told him that he could call him at any time and help as long as he wanted the help.

The driver ended up getting the help he needed, and his wife even thanked Browning for his actions that day.

“I know his wife praised to the department with what was done that day and said they’ve had terrible interactions before with other police departments and they said a while back, he had a firearm pointed by police at him in another city,” Browning said. “They were very grateful of what I was able to do that day, and I take pride in what I did.”

The incident ended completely contrary to how McAlpin’s encounter with police did in Phoenix–with a positive outcome and the driver receiving the help and support he needed.

It’s an example of how CIT is helping raise sensory awareness and acceptance throughout the country and especially in Helena.

“I’ve been in this for close to 10 years now, and the progression of no training at all and not really recognizing people who have sensory overloads or sensory problems or even some mental states, PTSD and so on, you

don’t realize it until you actually attend these classes and KultureCity,” Browning said.

“It’s a mandated thing now through the state and so knowing that that’s happening and taking these classes, you don’t know what people are actually going through until you take these classes, and I think it’s crucial that we start doing this more and more, and I think there should be more programs or even more hours required for the state of what’s being required now.”

For Flynn, it’s a sign that what he is doing matters. What started as a personal crusade is now impacting lives across the country, and in turn, making the world a more accepting place for Colin and others like him to live in.

“There’s no doubt at some point in his life, my son is going to come in contact with law enforcement. And I’m not going to be there, or his mother’s not going to be there,” Flynn said. “I want that to be a positive encounter and I want him to be treated with the same respect that any other individual would, and them recognize that he’s one of our most vulnerable citizens and they want to help him get where wherever he needs to go.”

TAKE A BOW

LOCAL RESIDENT MAKING A DIFFERENT FOR THOSE WITH CANCER AFTER HER OWN BATTLE WITH THE DISEASE

BY MACKENZEE SIMMS | PHOTOS BY JEREMY RAINES AND CONTRIBUTED

IIt was the February of 2020, and while most of Lana Turner’s classmates were doing homework, Lana was struggling with news that would change her life forever.

Lana had just started the second semester of her freshman year at Troy University, but was feeling under the weather. She visited the on-campus clinic and left armed with cough syrup and pain medicine to treat her “stomach bug.”

“I was so sick that I wasn’t even questioning it,” Lana said. “I went home and called my mom and she Facetimed me. I was glued to cold bathroom floor. I just did not want to get up. She noticed that under my eyes was

super, super black. She’s like, ‘I’m gonna come get you.’”

Lana’s mother, Danielle Turner, made the two-hour drive to pick her daughter up from college and then drove another two hours to bring her home, all so Lana’s college roommate wouldn’t catch the same “stomach bug.”

But after a few days, Lana still wasn’t feeling any better. Unable to keep food down, she was too weak to even shower. That Friday, they decided to visit the local clinic.

The clinic tested Lana for everything from influenza to strep throat to mono, and her blood work revealed that the situation was

far worse than originally feared.

“The blood work came back and (the doctor) thought their system was broke because my blood numbers were like something he had never seen before,” Lana said. “He ran them again and was like ‘something is going on.’”

An ambulance transported Lana from the clinic to the nearest emergency room at Shelby Baptist Medical Center. After more rounds of testing, a medical resident first said the word that would change Lana’s life forever… Cancer.

While Lana and her family wrestled with

that word, there was a debate about where to send her. UAB Hospital or Children’s of Alabama? Just 13 days shy of her 19th birthday, Lana technically could qualify as a patient at either. After another hour of deliberation, it was decided and Lana was transported to Children’s.

It was almost midnight that evening when the doctors at Children’s officially diagnosed Lana with cancer, but it wasn’t until the next week that they could pinpoint the specific type: Acute myeloid leukemia.

For Lana, this diagnosis was devastating. One week, she was a college freshman, trying to get back into the swing of things following the holiday break. The next, she was a patient at Children’s of Alabama, starting her first round of in-patient chemo therapy.

“There was a lot of anger, a lot of sadness,” Lana said. “That's when I was officially diagnosed with depression. I mean, as you can imagine, it's not a walk in the park.”

THE PANDEMIC

Just weeks after Lana’s life had been

turned upside down by her diagnosis, the whole world came to a screeching halt with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“In the beginning, for the month that I could see people, it was hard, but at least I got to see people. I got to have some sense of normalcy,” Lana said. “Then COVID hit, and I was so isolated. I was very depressed. Literally, I never wanted to get out of bed when I was in the hospital.”

According to Lana, Children’s allowed two caregivers to visit patients during the COVID-19 pandemic, normally the child’s mother and father. But because Lana’s father had tragically been killed in a drunk driving accident the year prior, Lana’s sister, Lindsey, was allowed to visit as her second caregiver.

Her mother and her sister were the only people allowed to visit Lana while she was in the hospital, meaning she went weeks on end without seeing her brother, her sister in law or her dogs.

Lana missed her family, but she also missed her old life. She missed going to class, stressing about exams and spending

time with her friends. And while the rest of the world figured out a new normal during COVID-19, Lana viewed it all through a hospital window.

“To be blunt, it was a very hard journey,” Lana said. “I know that sounds so simple, but I was in college. I was also having to deal with the grief that I lost my dad, but also the grief of missing out on this normal college experience that people are supposed to get. The whole outside world was kind of getting to go on with their lives, and I was stuck fighting cancer. It was very depressing and lonely.”

THE HOSPITAL

After her diagnosis in February of 2020, Lana spent a total of eight months in the hospital and underwent five rounds of inpatient chemo therapy and a month of targeted oral chemo.

Despite the pandemic, the patients were still allowed to leave their rooms, provided they wore a mask and followed safety precautions. During her stay in the hospital,

Lana built several connections with other families and became friends with the other patients on the floor.

“(At first), I had no one to talk to, no one to connect with, but I kind of got over that hump,” Lana said. “It's different having to be friends with smaller kids, because obviously, mentally we’re different and maturity-wise we’re different… but they're fun to play with.”

Lana shared that she became very close with another patient, Ruddy, and that the pair are still friends to this day.

“I was a 19-year-old with a 2-year-old best friend,” Lana said. “But to me, it wasn't about looking at his age. It was almost like I was playing like a little brother, a little sister or a little cousin.”

THE GOLDEN BOWS

As Lana adapted to treatment and hospital life in the months following her diagnosis, the situation for the Turner family continued to strain. Lana’s mother, Danielle, couldn’t work her job as a real estate agent while caring for her daughter in the hospital.

“I couldn’t work, and of course this was all during COVID too and I’m a widow,” Danielle said. “We had no other income than what we had saved.”

In September 2020, in honor of Childhood Cancer Awareness Month, some of Danielle’s friends at work decided to sell golden bows—the color ribbon representing childhood cancer—as a way to raise money for the Turner family.

“My mom had to swallow her pride and accept help because she was a single mom with three kids who had done it for a year,” Lana said. “She could keep doing it, but no one can afford cancer. No matter how rich you are, the richest person in the world will never be able to afford cancer and everything comes with it.”

The money raised by the bow sales helped the Turner family through the end of Lana’s inpatient chemo at Children’s, as well as the following year of oral chemo which Lana finished in the fall of 2021.

When September rolled around in 2021, the Turner family remembered the blessing of the golden bow sales and what that meant for their family and decided to carry on the

“WE SAW WHAT PEOPLE DID FOR US, AND NOW WE WANT TO GIVE TO PEOPLE WHO ARE IN OUR SAME SHOES OR VERY SIMILAR SHOES.” -LANA TURNER

tradition to support other families.

“When we saw the amount of people supporting us through our journey financially, it was our turn to give back,” Lana said. “We saw what people did for us, and now we want to give to people who are in our same shoes or very similar shoes.”

Danielle learned how to make bows from her mother, Lana’s grandmother, and together the mother-daughter duo host annual bow sales. Every summer, Lana posts a video to remind people that bow sales are coming. Each bow costs $10 and Lana hand delivers any local sales or ship bows further abroad for an additional fee.

Lana and Danielle take all of the money raised from the bow sales and purchase gift cards. Some are Visa gift cards while others are for gas, groceries or restaurants near the hospital. They deliver these gift cards to the social workers at Children’s to ensure that the gift cards go directly into the hands of families with children receiving treatment for childhood cancer.

“Even if it's something as small as a $10 gift card, that's $10 you don't have to worry about for a Starbucks or food or gas,” Lana

said. “It's very rewarding for me to know that I'm taking a burden off of a family because, like I said, we know the feeling. Seeing firsthand how it affected my mom, it's just rewarding to know I'm basically blessing someone who is similar to our family and our story.”

In addition to directly helping families like her own, Lana shared that the golden bow sales also serve to raise awareness for childhood cancer.

“When I was first diagnosed, they told

me childhood cancer is rare, but it’s not that rare,” Lana said. “There are so many children being diagnosed every day and being taken from this world too soon because there’s not enough options for them. Meanwhile, people don’t know about childhood cancer because it’s not in their face.”

In order to help raise awareness through the bow sales, Lana writes the story of a childhood cancer patient on the lengths of golden ribbon she fashions into bows.

According to Danielle, the stories on the

bows have a profound impact on those who purchase them. People return year after year and request bows that share updates about the children featured on bows the year prior.

“To me, it's not just a bow,” Danielle said. “When you put the name of a child on there and you get to read the story, it makes it a little bit more than just the yellow bow. It makes it real to these people.”

And while Lana shares the stories of other childhood cancer patients through

her golden bows, she continues to share her story as well to raise awareness.

“If I can help one person know to get blood work done when they’re having headaches that are not going away and no one can find anything—if that is what helps diagnose them— then I know I’ve done my job at the end of the day,” Lana said.

“Even if I reach one person, it could help them,” Lana said. “Being able to share my story is very rewarding and it does make me feel like this was all worth it.”

THE FUTURE

In October, Lana celebrated the third anniversary of the day she finished chemo therapy.

Lana started this journey as a fresh-

man at Troy University studying psychology. Now, Lana is a graduate student at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, studying clinical medical social work, after graduating with her bachelor’s degree in April 2024.

Lana shared that a major factor in her current life trajectory was the social worker she worked with while she was a patient at Children’s of Alabama.

“I tell everyone this because it's so true, but (my social worker) was my sunshine on my rainy days. She was our saving grace,” Lana said. “Her being there for us mentally and emotionally when we couldn’t have our family there with us, it was genuinely life changing.”

As Lana looks toward the future, she plans to continue to raise awareness for childhood cancer and to help those affected by it, both through her work and her bow sales.

‘I

WOULD DO THIS JOB FOR FREE’

HELPING PEOPLE MAKES FIREFIGHTING A PASSION FOR JOSH ROSSETTI

BY STEPHEN DAWKINS | PHOTOS BY DAWN HARRISON

BBehind the wheel of a 500-horsepower bright red Chelsea Fire Department ladder truck driving down Shelby County 43, Josh Rossetti’s eyes grew wide as he rounded the corner to a nightmare.

Following a rescue operation in the woods for a person in cardiac arrest, Rossetti was following the rest of his crew down the county road in Chelsea as they transported them to the hospital once a LifeSaver helicopter they were waiting for never showed up.

Rounding the corner, however, Rossetti realized what happened to the emergency helicopter when he saw it crashed in the highway.

Chelsea residents were rocked by the event in April 2023 that resulted in two of

the crew members dying with one survival, but as they looked for solace in a difficult situation, they looked no further than Rossetti’s story.

With adrenaline running and emotions trickling through his body due to his relationship with the crew members, Rossetti wasted no time jumping into the burning helicopter to cut off the fuel supply and helped with the effort of pulling the victims out of the wreckage.

Rossetti received recognition for his role in what would be considered an extremely rare event by firefighter standards, but he’s not defined by that incident.

He insists that anyone would have done the things he did that day.

For Rossetti, the decision to become a

firefighter—a risk-filled decision he and others make anew every day—is based not on a headline-grabbing incident but the opportunities each day to help people in the community.

These “small” acts, from assisting an elderly person who has fallen to checking someone’s blood pressure, make it worthwhile for Rossetti.

First responders family suffers traumatic loss

Shelby County 911 received a call about a hiker off County Road 43 in Chelsea suffering a medical emergency with breathing issues and chest pains. First responders arrived on the scene and realized the subject

was about 2 miles off the road into a wooded area.

Four firefighters entered the woods with a Search and Rescue All-Terrain Vehicle to extract him to the roadway.

The subject went into cardiac arrest and was defibrillated. At this point, Rossetti said the firefighters knew the situation was critical, so they called for air transport.

“When time is of the essence, we try to get as many resources there as we can,” Rossetti said. “And [LifeSaver responders] have more experience on the drugs and ventilators that might be needed.” LifeSaver responded and put a helicopter into the air bound for the location.

Rossetti works a flight paramedic for LifeSaver as a second job and knew personally the crew that was dispatched. After the call was placed, Rossetti texted members of the crew with the latitude and longitude for their position.

The firefighters and subject emerged from the woods, and there was no sign of the helicopter, as the crew was apparently searching for a suitable landing spot. The decision was made to go ahead and load the subject into the Chelsea Fire transport vehicle and drive him to a hospital.

While the other firefighters transported the subject, Rossetti drove the ladder truck alone. As they were leaving the scene, another call came in about a wrecked helicopter. “I thought, ‘No way. Somebody just saw a low-flying helicopter and called it in.’ That’s actually not uncommon,” Rossetti said.

But as Rossetti rounded a corner in the ladder truck, he came upon the heli-

copter on the ground, engulfed in flames and black smoke.

Shelby County Sheriff’s Office deputies were on the scene and had pulled the pilot out of the helicopter. One of the first components of training to fly with LifeSaver is the fuel shutoff. Rossetti was able to cut off the fuel to the engine in hopes of slowing the fire.

Of the three crew members aboard the helicopter, two died: 63-year-old Marc Gann and 43-year-old Samuel “Adam” Russell. Paramedic Amanda Daniels was the lone survivor of the helicopter crash.

“To say I am completely overwhelmed by the outpouring of love and prayers for our LifeSaver family would be a complete understatement,” Daniels said shortly after the incident. “My heart is shattered into a million pieces. My body is bruised and sore but will heal. My heart will not. I lost two very important people in my life. We all did.”

SCSO Chief Deputy Clay Hammac put into words at the time of the incident the pain felt by local first responders.

“This is a very difficult time for our public safety profession, here specifically in Shelby County because we count ourselves to be a family of all first responders, fire, medical and law enforcement,” Hammac said. “Many of us in this profession know these individuals that were involved, so this affects us very deeply.”

‘I didn’t think I was going to fly again’

Rossetti was recognized during the Shelby County Chamber Public Safety

“I DIDN’T THINK I WAS GOING TO FLY AGAIN. AT THE TIME, I WAS A PRETTY NEW FLIGHT MEDIC. I HAD BEEN DOING THAT JOB FOR THREE MONTHS. YOU SEE SOMETHING LIKE THAT AND YOU THINK, ‘I DON’T KNOW IF I CAN KEEP DOING THIS.’”

-JOSH ROSSETTI

Awards in September 2023, for his efforts during the incident a few months earlier.

“He represents the kind of attitude and dedication to training and knowledge that we look for in our department,” Chelsea Fire Chief Joe Lee said at the time.

Rossetti accepted the plaque and smiled for the picture, but understandably, the incident had a profound effect on him. Suddenly the risks associated with his profession were stark.

“Aircraft calls are very unusual—something you never expect to see,” he said. “I didn’t think I was going to fly again. At the

time, I was a pretty new flight medic. I had been doing that job for three months. You see something like that and you think, ‘I don’t know if I can keep doing this.’”

Rossetti said he thought back to why he got into the emergency line of work in the first place. “This is an industry of danger,” he said. “There are a lot of risks when you put yourself out there. It’s not necessarily anybody’s fault, but bad things happen.”

Born in Florida, Rossetti moved to Chelsea while still in school and graduated from Chelsea High School in 2013. He volunteered with the Chelsea Fire Department

while in high school.

After graduating, Rossetti joined the United States Marine Corps. “I wanted to do something cool,” he said. “I’ve always had the thought that I don’t want to look back and say I wished I did something. A desk job for a few months after completing his military service only reinforced the idea in Rossetti’s mind that he needed a career helping people, so he joined the Chelsea Fire Department in 2017.

“I wanted to have something with purpose,” Rossetti said. “I wanted to make a difference. I always had a heart for service

and wanted to give back. I grew up here, so why not serve the community that I know.”

‘You do good every day’

Lee has been with the Chelsea Fire Department since 2015, after retiring as a lieutenant with about 25 years of service in Bessemer, and chief since February 2021. The department encompasses three stations, three engines, a ladder truck, two transport units, and 12 firefighters on duty each day.

Lee said that during the hiring process, he looks for good work ethic and good moral character. “We can usually tell that from their work history and also how they answer questions during the interview,” he said. “We put a high value on integrity. Josh certainly has both of those things.”

Integrity is so important because of the fire department’s role in the community—

and not just when there’s an emergency. The department hosts a CPR program with one class a month for those who are interested. It also maintains a regular presence in the schools, including donating items to the EMS program.

“We have a really good relationship with the people we are entrusted to care for, and we take that very seriously,” Lee said.

Rossetti is currently a shift commander for the fire department. He is charged with the tactical decision making on scene while also managing staffing and scheduling—kind of the link between department administration and the firefighters going on calls.

“Josh is highly intelligent,” Lee said. “To be so young, he has a really good head on his shoulders. He’s very motivated— self-motivated. We don’t have to motivate Josh to do the things he needs to do.”

What any given day holds for firefighters

is anyone’s guess, and Rossetti said that’s one of the things he likes about the job.

“There are calls on everything you can imagine,” he said. “I’ve delivered a baby in the front seat of a car. So that was pretty good, a life coming into the world instead of going out, which we also see. There are calls about severe bleeding from cuts, cardiac arrest, situations where people open their eyes and start looking at us after doing CPR on them for 10 minutes.

“You do good every day. You might be picking up an old lady off the floor. To us, it’s nothing, but to her it probably means everything.

“That’s how you make a difference: the little things. I love what I do. I wouldn’t do anything else. I would do this job for free… I’d probably have to do something else on the side to make some money, but I would do this job for free.”

MATERNITY LEE

HOOVER FIREFIGHTER LEE KILGORE DELIVERS AID, PUBLIC SERVICE

BY NOAH WORTHAM | PHOTOS BY DAWN HARRISON

FFire Engineer Lee Kilgore was at Fire Station 11 in Hoover when the fire department received a call to assist a woman in labor.

After receiving the alert, which was not an unusual situation for a firefighter to deal with, Lee leaves Fire Station 11 and makes a left turn to get to the house which happened to be close by.

Lee pulls in behind the rescue truck where men are preparing equipment and a stretcher, and he is the first to enter the home.

After he steps inside he’s greeted by the husband of the woman in labor.

“She’s in here,” the man said as he directed Lee where to go.

However, as he follows the husband, he soon discovers the mother laying on the floor of a small, walk-in closet.

She had entered the closet to change clothes earlier in the day and when her water

broke, she had sat down in the closet and the baby began crowning.

With the baby almost there, Lee realized he had no choice but to get to work and help her deliver the baby—something he had never done before.

As he crouches down inside the closet to assist, the father and other personnel look on and hand him equipment. While helping the mother through the process, her 3-yearold daughter sits in the closet with them— expressing her excitement for her brand new baby brother on the way.

“That’s my mama,” she said. “She’s doing good.”

While maintaining a calm demeanor and remembering prior training and teaching, Lee keeps focusing on the job and continuing to safely usher the baby into this world.

With the baby successfully delivered and

the mother in good condition, it was another emergency taken care of—at least until he received another call three weeks later in which he delivered another child in a critical situation, earning him the new nickname, “Maternity Lee.”

Birth of a firefighter

Nearly two decades earlier, after growing up in Warrior, Lee decided that he wanted to begin a career as a firefighter. And with that new employment in mind, he knew just where to aim for.

“When I got into the fire service, Hoover is where I wanted to be,” Lee said. “They were always ahead of everybody else is how I felt. They always wanted the best, they paid the best, they got the best employees here. So, I just wanted to be a part of the best team.”

However, like any career, it was a journey to get there and it took determination and effort for Lee to rise through the ranks.

Lee first got his start in June 1996 working as a volunteer firefighter for the Warrior Fire Department. In 1997, he completed Basic EMT and won firefighter of the year for the city of Warrior. He then began work for Blount EMS and eventually became an EMT paramedic. In August 1999, he was hired by the Tuscaloosa Fire Department where he served the technical rescue team. While serving at Tuscaloosa Fire, he was hired as a part-time fire medic for Warrior where he climbed through the ranks to fire chief in 2022. Lee eventually joined the Hoover Fire Department in 2004.

Now, with November 2024 marking 20 years of service to the city of Hoover as a firefighter, Lee still feels the same way about the Hoover Fire Department.

“All 20 years have been great, even the rough years,” Lee said.

According to his supervisor Cpt. Brandon Harbison, Lee always comes into work with a smile and gets along with his coworkers.

“He’s always level-headed, he’s calm,” Harbison said. “I feel more comfortable when he’s on a call with me.”

It’s that clear-minded approach and calm demeanor that carried Lee through a difficult call that could have led to the death of two individuals.

Knowing the basics

Three weeks after Lee helped deliver a child for the first time while responding to a call, the Hoover Fire Department received another alert involving a woman in labor. However, this time the call indicated a much more critical situation as it reported a possible breech birth.

“That’s a very dangerous birth, even in a hospital setting,” Lee said. “So, I’m just like, ‘Man, I don’t know. Let’s hope it’s not happening.’”

A situation that was already difficult became even more demanding when Lee realized that the next engine over was already dispatched serving a different territory and

the rescue truck on the way was coming from the other side of the city.

After arriving and knowing the severity of the situation, Lee and a single other responding fireman grabbed and OB kit, a monitor, an airway bag and any additional supplies. After entering the home, they met the father.

“Thank goodness y’all are here,” the father said.

Lee found the mother upstairs in active labor with her feet hanging at the front of the bed. He grabbed the OB kit along with a sterile sheet and sterile gloves. As he investigated, his eyes confirmed that the baby was breeched.

As Lee began the delivery process the baby made progress, and he was able to determine that the umbilical cord wasn’t wrapped around the baby’s neck.

“We’re going to take a little break for about three seconds, then we’re going to push for 10,” Lee said.

And after two or three bursts of strained effort, the baby finally made it out.

“We never know what we’re going to get (when we’re called),” Lee said. “As long as you stay calm in a situation like that, normally everybody around you will also try to calm down too. You just try to focus on the basics. And if you handle the basics good, everything else is going to take care of itself most of the time.”

For his efforts in delivering two babies by himself, Lee earned a new nickname from his peers.

“I like to give people nicknames,” Lee said. “When the guys found an opportunity to call me something, they decided they would call me ‘Maternity Lee.’”

In addition to his new honorary title, Lee was named the Hoover Fire Department’s 2024 Paramedic of the Year by Chief Clay Bradley at The Shelby County Chamber’s Public Safety Awards for his character and efforts in delivering two babies.

“That was a true emergency,” Bradley said. “A life-threatening emergency for the child and the mother, and due to his actions that day, both survived and are healthy.”

“WE NEVER KNOW WHAT WE’RE GOING TO GET (WHEN WE’RE CALLED). AS LONG AS YOU STAY CALM IN A SITUATION LIKE THAT, NORMALLY EVERYBODY AROUND YOU WILL ALSO TRY TO CALM DOWN TOO. YOU JUST TRY TO FOCUS ON THE BASICS. AND IF YOU HANDLE THE BASICS GOOD, EVERYTHING ELSE IS GOING TO TAKE CARE OF ITSELF MOST OF THE TIME.”

-LEE KILGORE

Serving the people

Firefighters and paramedics are prepared at all times to deliver any number of services to residents in need. No matter the situation or call.

“No two shifts are the same,” Harbison said.

However, unlike Lee’s deliveries or the extravagant tales that are often displayed on television, sometimes answering the call of those in need means handling something much less glamorous such as a hurt knee, a medical issue or helping an individual who has fallen down.

Regardless of any situation, the victim matters, their issue matters and the HFD are prepared to aid them and provide what is necessary.

“A lot of it is just knowing the basics,” Harbison said “Make sure they’re breathing, make sure their heart is pumping (and) their blood circulating. And if you handle those vital checks, things turn out better for you.”

In addition to the life-saving services that the Hoover Fire Department provides, it is also able to build camaraderie with the general public thanks to its plentiful resources.

“Hoover does a lot of things for the citizens that probably some departments might not, or might not have the people to do,” Assistant Chief Matthew Javinett said. “We do a ton of community work.”

One year, Fire Station 11 participated in a Fourth of July golf cart parade and Lee and the other men at the station worked together to decorate an ATV like a fighter jet—utilizing their own money and effort to make it possible.

“Lee’s one of those guys that, any time he interacts with the public, it’s 100 percent customer service,” Javinett said.

Passing down the torch

As Shelby and Jefferson counties grow and develop, public safety continues to advance and the needs of the people continue to evolve.

“Fire service has changed and Hoover has changed,” Javinett said. “We used to hire people that had, sometimes, years of experience with other fire departments. We’re not doing that anymore. We’re hiring sometimes right out of high school.”

The Hoover Fire Department recently undertook a mentorship program, and according to Harbison, Lee played a role in preparing those young men and getting them ready.

“Lee’s the type that—he can be on you to aggravate you and kind of get in your head but he’s very encouraging and he’s fun,” Harbison said. “ They like to learn from him, they want to be pushed by him to get better.”

During the mentorship, the recruits learned all of the necessary technical skills involved in firefighting while also receiving life advice to set them up for a successful career.

“I really feel like the guys that are working with Lee are going to learn, not only the things on the fire engine they need to, but how to get through this career and come out on the other side successful,” Brandon said. “I’m appreciative of what he does.”

SERVING THE PUBLIC

LEADERS DEDICATING TO KEEPING US HEALTHY AND SAFE

WESLEY LASH

FIREFIGHTER AND EMT, ALABASTER FIRE DEPARTMENT

A nationally registered advanced EMT, Wesley Lash has been with the Alabaster Fire Department for more than 16 years. He holds sever life-saving certifications and was named the department’s firefighter of the year in 2024. In addition to his consistent leadership, an event that helped earn the praise saw him simultaneously handle a house fire and major motor vehicle accident. His composure was key in both incidents and is something others in the department learn from.

BRAD BUSH

DEPUTY, SHELBY COUNTY SHERIFF’S OFFICE

With someone’s life on the line, Shelby County Sheriff’s Office Deputy Brad Bush jumped into action this past year. Responding to a call that involved a person with a gun, Bush took quick action by disarming the individual, which likely saved the life of his partner in the moment. Sheriff John Samaniego described the act as one of the top five actions on the part of any officer in his time. Because of his heroic act, he was named as the 2024 Officer of the Year for the Shelby County Sherriff’s office.

CHARMAN HARPER

ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF NURSING AND SIMULATION LAB DIRECTOR, UNIVERSITY OF MONTEVALLO

A former nurse at Baptist Health Shelby Hospital in Alabaster for eight years, Charman Harper has an array of experience in helping others from her time at the hospital to her time as a social worker and an educator. She received the 2024 Shelby County Chamber Committed to Community award due to her support for local high school healthcare academies. Now, she serves as an assistant professor of nursing at the University of Montevallo, where she continues to prepare the next generation of leaders in the medical industry.

DERRICK WRIGHT GALEN SMITHERMAN &

FIREFIGHTERS, PELHAM FIRE DEPARTMENT

Galen Smitherman and Derrick Wright have each been with the Pelham Fire Department for more than two years and were recently awarded the Firefighter of the Year award in 2024. A big reason for their recognition has been their work with the Rapid Sequence Induction program. The pilot program is offered through the Alabama Department of EMS. At the PFD, there is a select group of individuals who specialize in this area, Smitherman and Wright being two of them. Their dedication to teaching has not only benefited Pelham’s firefighters but others across the state.

MARCUS CHAMBERS

FIREFIGHTER, HOOVER FIRE DEPARTMENT

Marcus Chambers was selected as the firefighter of the year by his fellow firefighters at the Hoover Fire Department for his positive attitude, strong work ethic and character. Hoover Fire Chief Clay Bentley detailed an instance in which Chambers put on protective fire equipment in order to approach a dog that was attacking a victim. With his gear on, Bentley wrestled the dog away from the victim and removed it from the house to allow medics to treat the victim, showcasing his selflessness.

GEORGE “BUDDY” INGLERIGHT

RETIRED PELHAM FIRE DEPARTMENT FIRE MEDIC

Buddy Ingleright recently retired from the Pelham Fire Department. While serving in Pelham, Ingleright was a member of the Honor Guard and a charter member of the department’s peer support system. He also pioneered the Rapid Sequence Intubation paramedic pilot program for the PFD. Ingleright may be retired from service at the PFD but he will continue to serve the public as a flight medic.

HUNTER BLACKBURN

FIREFIGHTER, HELENA FIRE DEPARTMENT

Part of a firefighter family, Hunter Blackburn currently works with the Helena Fire Department and is a third-generation firefighter as are his two brothers. The oldest of the three brothers, Hunter has watched Luke and Grady Blackburn both follow in his footsteps as well as the footsteps of their father and grandfather. Hunter has worked with multiple local fire departments in volunteer efforts and full-time status, making him a household name when it comes to helping others across the county.

JACOB MUELLER PAUL SHEARON &

FIREFIGHTERS, HELENA FIRE DEPARTMENT

Firemen Jacob Mueller and Paul Shearon were recognized as Helena’s firemen of the year at the Shelby County Chamber’s 2023 Public Safety Awards. Their response, quick action and selfless dedication to rescuing those in harm’s way were put on full display June 26, 2023 when they rescued two teenagers who had been hit by a train in Helena.

POLICE

CHRIS LAWLEY

OFFICER, UNIVERSITY OF MONTEVALLO

A dedicated police officer with the University of Montevallo Police Department, Chris Lawley was named the University of Montevallo’s 2024 Police Officer of the Year for his lead-by-example nature. Described by UM Police Chief Tim Alexander as an impactful person, Lawley continuously does the small things to make a big impact.

WILLIAM “BILLY” RICKETTS

CAPTAIN OF TRAINING AND EMS, CHELSEA FIRE DEPARTMENT

A two-time Chelsea Firefighter of the Year winner, Billy Rickets earned the honor again this past year for his developmental work with the department. He specifically developed and implemented a performance evaluation program, which helped enhance efficiency across the department. He uses strong coaching and encouragement to make the program a success.

GINGER BENTLEY

REGISTERED NURSE, INPATIENT WOUND CARE COORDINATOR, BAPTIST HEALTH SHELBY HOSPITAL

Ginger Bentley has been a clinical resource for Baptist Health Shelby Hospital for many years. During her time with the organization, she has worked tirelessly to positively impact the lives of so many patients through preventative and restorative wound care. Bentley does a great job of earning appreciation and confidence from her patients and their family members in her abilities. She is an excellent teacher and takes pride in her role as a mentor to students entering healthcare. In addition to her countless hours inside the hospital, she plans at least one mission trip per year to help support and educate others in wound care treatment for better outcomes.

CALEB SIMMS

POLICE OFFICER, MONTEVALLO POLICE DEPARTMENT

The Montevallo Police Officer of the Year in 2024, Caleb Sims went above and beyond for his community, saving the life of a wounded victim during an emergency call. That moment represented a more recent illustration of his continued dedication to serving residents of Montevallo, according to Montevallo Police Chief Jeremy Littleton.

RONALD AUSTIN BOWEN

POLICE OFFICER, PELHAM POLICE DEPARTMENT

This past year, Ronald Austin Bowen was named the Pelham Police Department’s 2024 Officer of the Year for his efforts during a traffic stop that ultimately prevented a criminal from attending a kid’s birthday party. During a traffic stop, the nine-year veteran of the PPD was able to seize 5 pounds of fentanyl from an armed individual who was on their way to an undisclosed child’s birthday party. In addition to making a difference in the community, he does the same for the department, serving as their field training officer.

RYAN MIZELL

FORMER FIREFIGHTER, HELENA FIRE DEPARTMENT

Ryan Mizell dedicated his life to helping others as a member of the Helena Fire Department. Spending more than a decade with the HFD, he also spent eight years with McAdory Fire Department. Sadly, last April, Mizell was diagnosed with Stage IV colon cancer, which had spread to the liver and lungs at just 47 years old. He has faced several major surgeries since that moment, but the firefighting community has rallied around him as has his family, which has always been his top priority. His service to communities is now coming back to help him as Helena residents have helped raise more than $10,000 for the family. He continues to fight, while others continue to try and help in that fight, now trying to protect him following his years of protecting others.

POLICE OFFICER, HOOVER POLICE DEPARTMENT

A detective with the Hoover Police Department, Todd Henningsen has dedicated his life to protecting and serving the Hoover community. He was honored this past year as the department’s officer of the year for his efforts in investigating and apprehending two suspects that were involved in a series of burglaries and stolen property that totaled $65,000. Police Chief Nik Derzis said that this is only one example of Henningsen’s devotion to duty as a skills investigator.

CHRISTOPHER DRISKELL

RESIDENTIAL CLINIC LEAD, CENTRAL ALABAMA WELLNESS

Driskell has spent 15 years serving as a therapist for residential and permanent supportive housing clients at Central Alabama Wellness. He works as a Residential and PSH Therapist. He is known statewide for being someone who goes above and beyond. Driskell was recently nominated and awarded the 2024 Heart of Healthcare award by the Shelby County Chamber of Commerce. He is dedicated to changing lives as a compassionate therapist.

PETE VALENTI

RETIRED

FIRE CHIEF, HELENA FIRE DEPARTMENT

Pete Valenti recently retired from the Helena Fire Department after nearly 40 years of service for the Helena Fire Department. He first began at the Helena Fire Department as a volunteer before going on to receive his paramedic’s license from the University of Alabama at Birmingham. From that point forward, his life was dedicated to helping others and the community he worked for. He was promoted to chief after roughly 17 years with the department, spending the rest of his time nurturing the department and helping new firefighters grow into leaders.

ANDREW

DUNLAP

MICHAEL FOSHEE & & ROBERT BAYLIS & NICK BURCH

A group of firefighters who were named firefighters of the year in 2023 by the Cahaba Valley Fire Department for their heroic life-saving attempt during a structure fire. With the building burning, Andrew Dunlap, Michael Foshee, Robert Baylis and Nick Burch all jumped into action trying to save an individual from the fire. Ultimately, their selflessness is something that defines what it means to protect and serve your community to the best of your ability. FIREFIGHTERS, CAHABA VALLEY FIRE DEPARTMENT

& ACE KEVIN HOLLIS CLIFF HARRIS & BRIAN JOHNSON &

SCHOOL RESOURCE OFFICERS, SPAIN PARK HIGH SCHOOL

Spain Park High School has three outstanding school resource officers—Officer Kevin Hollis, Officer Cliff Harris and Officer Brian Johnson—who dedicate themselves to serving the students, faculty, staff and community. All three officers hold NASRO Practitioner status, a recognition of their advanced training and expertise through the National Association of School Resource Officers. Each morning, they’re joined by Ace, the HPD K9 unit’s beloved helper, who partners with Hollis and greets everyone with a wag! This month, Spain Park bids farewell to Officer Harris as he retires. The school is thankful for his time and his exceptional service to SPHS. Now, they look forward to welcoming their new SRO to the Jag family.

JESSE MOORE

POLICE OFFICER, HELENA POLICE DEPARTMENT

The Helena Police Officer of the Year in Shelby County, Jesse Moore played a key role in helping an elderly resident recover $28,000. The resident had sent funds by mail to a scammer in New York. Moore quickly went to work and was able to work his contacts that led to them tracking the scammer down in Manhattan before the check arrived. The NYPD was then able to confiscate the check to prevent the resident from losing the money. Helena Police Chief Brad Flynn credited the success of the quick resolution to Moore’s dedication and ability to build relationships.

JOEL ROBERSON

POLICE OFFICER, COLUMBIANA POLICE DEPARTMENT

A member of the Columbiana Police Department since 2021, Joel Roberson is an extension of the community he protects. A sergeant with the department, he not only has an impact on the other officers and protects the community, but he works to build relationships to make those he protects feel comfortable in the place they call home.

NIC SCHOGGEN

LIEUTENANT, CALERA FIRE DEPARTMENT

A paramedic and 13-year veteran for the Calera Fire Department, Nic Schoggen was named the CFD’s Firefighter of the Year in 2024 for his efforts with the department and his leadership in the community. Additionally, he serves as an adjunct instructor at the Alabama Fire College where he teaches hazardous materials technician, confined space rescue and recruit school.

AUSTIN JENKINS KEITH JOHNSON &

FIREFIGHTER AND PARAMEDIC, CALERA FIRE DEPARTMENT

Both dedicated to their job as firefighters and paramedics with the Calera Fire Department, Austin Jenkins and Keith Johnson were put to the test in 2023. The two responded to a call about a girl who had fallen down a waterfall and was severely injured. The two firefighters with more than 10 years of experience arrived on the scene and were able to rescue the girl, putting themselves aside for someone else. Both were named the department’s firefighters of the year for their efforts. It was just one of many examples of their dedication to helping others in Shelby County.

DR. EVERITT SIMMONS

PHYSICIAN, BAPTIST HEALTH SHELBY HOSPITAL

Dr. Everitt Simmons is a wound care physician with Baptist Health Shelby Hospital who many characterize as a man of God who is caring, selfless, encouraging, kind and compassionate. He is active in his church and community and never seeks acknowledgement for the work he does. Simmons believes in teaching and is putting a positive mark on the next generation of healthcare professionals to be the best. Equally, he spends time supporting local fire departments, short- and long-term care facilities, and supports various community service efforts throughout the year. Many say that he is the best of the best.

STONE PRITCHETT

FIREFIGHTER AND PARAMEDIC, HELENA AND MONTEVALLO FIRE DEPARTMENTS

The former Helena Fire Department Firefighter of the Year in 2022, Stone Pritchett works as a firefighter and paramedic for the Helena Fire Department, while he also serves as a fire paramedic for the Montevallo Fire Department. A servant leader of Shelby County, he goes to work each day with the goal of serving the communities, carrying a happy and positive attitude with him.

ERIC ROZELL

FIREFIGHTER, CAHABA VALLEY FIRE DEPARTMENT

A member of the Cahaba Valley Fire and EMR District since 2021, Rozell has quickly left his mark, earning the 2024 firefighter of the year award for the department due to his quick actions and overall qualities. He earned the honor this past year for his ability to quickly translate during a stressful emergency situation, keeping everyone calm to help benefit the patient and the family. Aside from that, his compassion, faith and dedication are what chief Buddy Wilks said make him such a success.

DAVID JUSTICE

SENIOR IT SPECIALIST, BAPTIST HEALTH SHELBY HOSPITAL

David Justice has been with Baptist Health Shelby Hospital for several years and works diligently to ensure the support needed by team members is met. The spiritual nature of a member isn’t readily seen but helps the hospital’s operations run smoothly. He is a hero to many and supports this team behind the scenes.

KATIE SULLIVAN

SCHOOL RESOURCE OFFICER, GREYSTONE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL

Greystone Elementary is fortunate to have Officer Katie Bonham-Sullivan overseeing the safety of the students and staff. Her passion for training led her to become a National Association of School Resource Officers instructor, where she shares her expertise with SROs across the nation.

EMILY CHANNELL

REGISTERED NURSE, BAPTIST HEALTH SHELBY HOSPITAL

Emily Channell started her career on one of Baptist Health Shelby Hospital’s Medical/Surgical nursing units and has worked in several areas since joining in 2013. She was the charge nurse and played a role in leading the way through COVID. She has always kept a positive attitude.

CALEM HICKS

CAPTAIN, ALABASTER FIRE DEPARTMENT

Alabaster Fire Department Captain Calem Hicks is an Alabaster native who came to firefighting in his teenage years. He was a volunteer firefighter in Alabaster while earning his EMS certification. After 22 years with the Alabaster Fire Department, Hicks was promoted to Captain and has recently taken on a new role as the EMS Officer. He has been instrumental in bringing Ambulance Transport units to Alabaster. He’s been working closely with other departments to train the firefighters at the AFD and bring more transport units to the department.

ROBERT PRICE

POLICE OFFICER, HARPERSVILLE POLICE DEPARTMENT

With several years of law enforcement experience, Robert Price joined the Harpersville Police Department in 2023 and made a quick impact. His impact was felt this past year when he earned the department’s officer of the year award for quickly realizing the action needed for an overdose victim. He quickly administered Narcan to the unconscious individual, which ultimately made the difference in saving that individual’s life.

MAJOR, SHELBY COUNTY SHERIFF’S OFFICE

A member of the Alabama House of Representatives, representing District 49, Russell Bedsole is far more than a politician. A leader in Shelby County, Bedsole has been a member of the Shelby County Sheriff’s Office since 1999, dedicating his life to keeping Shelby County safe. This past year, he was promoted to the rank of Major, continuing his growth as a leader with the SCSO. He is also an alum of the FBI National Academy and has led many different divisions within the sheriff’s office. A graduate of Auburn University, he lives in Alabaster with his family.

EDGAR ANGEL

POLICE OFFICER, ALABASTER POLICE DEPARTMENT

A veteran of the Alabaster Police Department, Edgar Angel is a decorated officer who took another step in his career in 2024 by earning the department’s officer of the year award. He earned the award for his consistent leadership, while he was also recognized for deescalating a situation that involved an armed individual who was contemplating suicide. Angel’s courageous and compassionate efforts led to saving the life of the individual.

SERVICE DOG WORKING WITH CLIENTS IN CRIMINAL JUSTICE SETTINGS

It’s not the first time you have seen Fitz’s name in our Profile publication, but you can’t leave the 8-yearold Golden Retriever, Lab mix out of a publication dedicated to making a difference. Fitz’s job is to make people feel more comfortable by mitigating stress and anxiety related to forensic interviews, medical exams and court hearings. This can be especially helpful for younger victims.

DR. TAYLOR PAYNE

EMERGENCY ROOM PHYSICIAN, GRANDVIEW MEDICAL CENTER

A former employee of Shelby County 911 and EMT with Southeast Shelby Rescue, Dr. Taylor Payne is now a lead emergency room physician at Grandview Medical Center. A 2013 graduate of the University of Alabama, Payne got his doctor of medicine from the University of Alabama at Birmingham in 2018 where he then became an Emergency Medicine Resident before taking an Emergency Medicine position at Grandview. He has certifications from the American Board of Emergency Medicine in both emergency medicine and emergency medical services.

COURTNEY WALTERS

DIRECTOR, GRANDVIEW MEDICAL CENTER

A resident of Shelby County, Courtney Walters is the assistant director for nurses in the emergency room at Grandview Medical Center. In addition to her great work with patients throughout her career, her ability to be a great teacher, leader and manager has led to success in her current position.

FIREFIGHTER, CAHABA VALLEY FIRE DEPARTMENT JOHN YANCEY

A Shelby County native, Cahaba Valley Fire Department Deputy Chief John Yancey is a 20-year veteran of the fire service in Shelby County including Cahaba Valley and Harpersville fire departments. He serves as the operations chief and fire marshal and recently designed a new logo for the department. Fire Chief Buddy Wilks said that Yancey is a talented individual that brings more to the fire service than firefighter training and has been instrumental in leading the department through improvements over the past four years. He is married to Vincent Middle High School Principal Lauren Yancey.