Stillman Valley Teacher Nominates Former Student as Hometown Hero

Every week JB Love and I get the privilege to read through several letters about amazing people doing amazing, selfless things here in the Stateline community. Choosing a weekly "winner" is often a difficult choice, but when we came across this nomination from a Stillman Valley teacher named Jay Williams, we automatically knew we had found this week's Hometown Hero. The nomination was about a former Stateliner currently living in California who works for the United States Forest Service fighting wildfires.

Here's what Jay had to say about this week's Hometown Hero, Sam Stone;

I am the Agriculture instructor at Stillman Valley High School.  Sam Stone is a former student of mine.  He was raised in Stillman Valley, and got his degree from Stevens Point in forest Management.  For the past several years, Sam has been employed by the USFS fighting wildfires.  This year, particularly, Sam has made it to a Hot Shots crew.  This is the toughest group to get in to within the forest service.  He is fighting wildfires in California this year.  He is risking his life to help save others that he does not even know.  He has also taken the time, on his day off, which he only gets 2 a month, to do a zoom meeting with my Horticulture class.  He spent about an hour online with my students.  He talked about his experiences in the industry, how he got where he is, and allowed a bunch of high school students to ask questions.  As I mentioned before, Sam is truly a hero!  I am proud to say that I have had the honor to know Sam Stone.  He is not just a former student, he is also a very good friend now.  I could not find an address for Sam at this time, because he is out on a fire right now.  I will not be in contact with him for another two weeks.  Thank you for your time and consideration.

Sam Stone, we will never be able to properly thank you for the courage you put forth every single day and the amazing example you set for today's youth, but we're hoping a $100 Amazon gift card from our friends at Gustafson's Furniture and Mattress will allow you to do something nice for yourself for once.

If you know of someone in the 815 or 608 that is going out of their way to better this community, please nominate them for the Hometown Hero honor, here. 

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