The Abingdon Fire Company held its annual banquet Saturday night marking its 87 years of service to the community and honored a Ladies Auxiliary member who recently died.
The banquet, held at Level Fire Hall, honored the memory of Frances P. Espey, of Edgewood, who spent 30 years in the auxiliary, receiving many awards and serving as the chaplain during her time. Mrs. Espey was 84 years old when she died Jan. 10 at Upper Chesapeake Medical Center in Bel Air.
Her husband, Lew, attended the banquet and stood up front with Rose Kracja, Technical Support Vice President, when she presented the fire company with a plaque to honor Mrs. Espey and all other life auxiliary members who have died.
Krajca also took a moment to present Chip Riley, of the Charlie Riley Community Service Scholarship Foundation, with a donation to the fund. The foundation honors the late Charles Riley, who served as an active member of the Abingdon Fire Company for 52 years.
There were several individual awards Saturday evening, two of which went to Tim Graham, who was named the EMS Person of the Year. Past Chief Steve Pennington presented the award and thanked Graham for his efforts.
Earlier in the evening, Pennington recognized Graham for organizing and developing an automatic system to keep track of EMS supplies.
Graham was also one of the top 20 EMS responders, finishing 10th with 88 calls for 2011. The other top EMS responders were Antoinette Thomas with 195, Theodore Spruell and Chavez Wilson with 190 each, Steven Duvall with 174, Dan Holthaus with 114, Matthew Golueke, with 111, Stacy Frantz with 95, Jesse Spruell with 89, Valerie Graham with 88, Toloria Spruell with 87, Nicole Bolling with 85, Katie Schuler with 84, Justin Eberle with 83, Gary Gullion with 77, Cassandra Kilduff and Ian Smith with 69 calls each, Karen Zeiler with 67, Eric Lopes with 64 and Aleq Lewis with 63.
The Firefighter of the Year was Peter Von Bank, who was not able to attend the banquet.
The top 20 fire responders were Theodore Spruell with 844, Jesse Spruell with 650, Fred Causey with 644, Brandon Clary with 628, Adam Horky with 559, Eric Lopes with 545, Steven Muccioli with 523, Brendan Donoho with 505, Paul Bersani with 501, Charlie Williams with 486, Cubby Bair with 437, Sam Hobbs with 433, Kenny VanderWiele with 415, Joseph Spruell with 382, Brian Frantz with 372, Gary Gullion with 344, Tyler Dinan with 343, Glen Hall with 330, Steven Duvall with 309 and Chris Wolski with 294.
For 2011, Abingdon Volunteer Fire Company responded to 3,651 ambulance calls and 1,806 calls on the fire side.
Steve Pennington himself was also honored at the banquet and given an ax for his time as a chief of the company. In his brief speech, he emphasized that he was not the one to be praised.
"Thank you very much," he said, "but the thanks belongs to all of you because you put yourselves in harms way for the community."
Representative from the Harford-Cecil Firemen's Association, Bill Lay and Austin Amos, were also in attendance to induct two new members into the Hall of Fame. These Abingdon members were Dale Pennington, who has served more than 36 years, and Joe Tolliver, who has served for 35 years.
Jerry Anderson Sr. was also recognized for 60 years of service to the company.
President Charlie Williams also gave out several awards for different services members provide to the company, including one to Patty Autry for her volunteer work as the human resources person for 10 years. Autry was also recognized by Pennington for her work with the company.
He also recognized treasurer Tom Schultz, calling everything he did "outstanding."
Susan Langbeam, Jean Kranz, Karen Hinckle and Donna Geisel, called "Charlie's Angels," were also recognized for their administrative service to the company.
"They do an outstanding job," Williams said, "and they are the backbone of Abingdon Fire Company when it comes to administration."
Pennington also recognized Langbeam, Geisel and Hinckle for their administrative work, including answering phone calls and collecting reports. He also recognized Jaime Taylor, Erik Reinhart, Valerie Graham, Cassandra Kilduff and Renee Drehmer for their service.
At one point in the evening, Pennington also took time to thank the responders and their families as a whole for their service to Abingdon Fire Company.
"I appreciate all that you do," he said, "and I know the community does as well."