Surrounded by more than 60 of their closest friends and family members, volunteer firefighters Kelvin Dixon and Lewis “Skip” Tuttle bade a fond farewell to the Richmond Hill Fire Department at its first ever retirement banquet on Monday night at the John W. Stephens Wetlands Education Center in J.F. Gregory Park.

“My service has really been a joy,” said Dixon, the department’s now former rescue captain. “When I moved here 24 years ago, I wanted to do something for the community. This was it, and I loved doing it.”

Tuttle, who was appointed to assistant fire chief in 1997, joined the RHFD as a volunteer firefighter in 1982 after moving to Bryan County from New York.

“I’ve been a firefighter since 1975,” he said. “I thought with my experience I could help.”

Read more in the May 25 edition of the News.