The annual Veterans Day picnic, Boots, Badges and Burgers, sponsored by Waldron-based STI CEMS, had the best turnout in its five year history. The event offers a complimentary lunch to Veterans, military, law enforcement, firefighters and other first responders in appreciation for their service to the community. The community is encouraged to attend and asked to make a donation to the Wayne Watkins Scholarship fund for their lunch.
STI decided to go forward with the annual event despite the fact that COVID-19 has made events in 2020 a challenge, if not impossible. To accommodate the pandemic they offered outlets for patrons to submit their orders before and during the event via a Facebook event page or through a text message option. Additionally, they had designated areas hungry lunch-comers could pull up to and submit their order and have their order delivered to their car, so they didn’t have to get out. The vast majority of the orders in general were taken by patrons to-go, whereas normally they eat at the event.
Wade Day, STI President said “we believe the success of this year’s event was due to the great weather.” For the past two years, the Scott County Boys and Girls Club has been home to the event because the weather was cold or rainy. This year, with ideal weather, they were able to hold it at the pavilion of the Forster-Davis City Park. “This being our fifth year in a row, I think it is starting to become a tradition that the community and veterans look forward to. We’re pretty proud of that. It seems like the community enjoys pausing to honor the vets as much as we do.”
STI is a Veteran Owned Small Business and a Service-Disabled Veteran Owned Small Business. Wade Day started STI CEMS in 2003 with the help of Tracy Williams and the late Wayne Watkins. Since then, the company has grown to 23 employees with nine working out of the Waldron location, and the remainder working throughout the nation. STI CEMS provides, services and maintains the emission monitoring systems that are required on factory smokestacks. They are very proud that half of their employees are veterans of the US Military. The staff in the Waldron location take the day to be on hand to serve at the event.
The Wayne Watkins Scholarship fund raised its highest amount of donations hitting a total of $1,100.
“Wayne was a sacrificial giver to the community of Waldron. Many of the people that came to our event knew Wayne and got to work with him, but it is always great for me to share what a special guy he was when someone that didn’t know him asks about him,” explained Day.
As a simple gesture of love and in celebration for the spirit of service that Wayne embodied, STI CEMS established the Wayne Watkins Scholarship in 2016. When the idea of creating this event came up there was no way STI could host an event honoring service men and women and not somehow include Wayne. So, the Wayne Watkins Scholarship was established for the first Boots, Badges and Burgers. Since then the scholarship has awarded $3,500 in scholarship money to seven Waldron High graduates who have exemplified a spirit of service in the community. The Boots, Badges and Burgers event is the primary fundraiser for the fund. “We are excited at the generosity of folks towards the scholarship fund and we have been blessed to increase the amount of scholarships we have done each year and will continue to do so as the fund grows.”
Application for the scholarship opens in January of the Spring semester. Applicants are selected based on their volunteer activity, community involvement, grades and are asked to complete an essay.
If you are interested in donating to the Wayne Watkins scholarship, you may do so anytime at PayPal.me/WatkinsScholarship
Other Bio Info on Wayne:
Wayne Watkins was a lifelong resident of Scott County, a graduate from Waldron High class of ’89 and a tremendous man with a heart of gold. Wayne started working in the emissions monitoring industry shortly after high school and stayed with it until he passed in 2016. When he wasn’t laughing, pranking and “working” at the STI shop, he was enjoying the outdoors, or helping out around town. From running the chains at the Friday night football games to coaching pee-wee baseball and football Wayne was helping. He proudly served for over 20 years on the Waldron City Fire Department.
Wayne married his love Tiffany. With her he enjoyed his son Trevor, two step-daughters Carly and Cameron, and granddaughter Jaylee.
