STYX RIVER, Alabama — At the recent annual firefighter awards dinner, Tina Holston earned the coveted title of “Firefighter of the Year” for outstanding service to the community where she resides.

In addition, 11 young volunteers were awarded plaques for their community service, outside Styx River, assisting victims during the historic and devastating August 2016 flood in Livingston Parish, Louisiana.

Holston follows a family of Firefighter of the Year recipients. In previous years her husband, Mike, and son, Hunter, also have earned the award.

She is a native of Baldwin County, raised in the Styx River community, attended Robertsdale High School, a member of the Styx River Baptist Church and has been employed 17 years at Lee Drug Store in Robertsdale.

Her fire training includes Firemanship I and II, AED and CPR Certification, Basic Wildland Firefighting and “Hot Box” survival, where firefighters experience and react to a flashover from an actual fire inside a mobile training facility.

When the heavy rains last August flooded the Amite River, it left the Baton Rouge suburb of Denham Springs with 80 to 90 percent of the homes underwater. The Styx River VFD made the decision to help their out-of-state neighbors and literally moved a mobile kitchen over to the area for several days, feeding over 5,000 meals to homeless victims.

Among the volunteers were 11 teens and preteens that learned the value of helping others in a time of need. They pitched in, hauling food supplies off trucks and trailers, keeping the food serving lines supplied, serving the meals and assisting with cleanup. They won't soon forget the families who lost everything and the local victims won't forget the generosity of the adult firefighters and the little band of young people that assisted.