A sure bet at Charles Town: The 16th Annual Tri-State Telecommunicators Banquet and Awards Ceremony.
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All pictures by Sam Statter, the official photographer for STATter911.com.
Read a list of those who were honored Saturday night
If West Virginia’s Charles Town Races & Slots was where I spent every Saturday night I can assure you I would be a lot poorer than I am. I don’t have a system any better than the woman who told me to bet on the number 9 horse in the 6th race because she liked the name Bepponin Betty (of course I did).
Thankfully this was only a one time visit to the track and there was a lot better reason to be there than to play the ponies (not that we didn’t have a good time). This was my second appearance at the Tri-State Telecommunicators Banquet and Awards Ceremony. Two years ago it was at a different venue, not one where you were likely to come away with a lighter wallet, unless you happened to be sitting next to someone who needed to borrow a few bucks for the 50-50 raffle.
This time the telecommunicators (can’t I just say dispatchers?) had some relief from my tired stories and jokes and got to hear from Mrs. STATter911.com. Like the audience, the wife also knows how to talk on the radio. She’s heard Monday to Friday, from 2:00 to 7:00 PM on WTOP Radio (103.5 FM), using the name Hillary Howard. (Would you want to use the name Statter after what I did to it with this blog?)
Enough about us. It was a real treat to be with the first, first responders from Maryland, Virginia and West Virginia. They represented the counties of Carroll, Frederick (MD), Jefferson, Loudoun, Washington and Kent.
It is one of the very few such ceremonies I have been involved in dedicated only to honoring the call takers, dispatchers and supervisors who run the 911 centers.
Well there was one ringer. The group decided to recognize Loudoun County Fire-Rescue Chief Joseph Pozzo for recently receiving his Chief Fire Officer certification from the Commission on Professional Credentialing. Chief Pozzo is a big supporter of the group’s efforts.
It was a really nice gathering and there were some wonderful write ups for some of the awards. There is a link at the top of the page with the list of recipients. Please take a look.
One more note. The pictures on this page were taken by 9-year-old Sam Statter. It’s not so much another case of nepotism as it is, in this economy, he works cheap.
