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Adam Gormely looked away from the speaker at the lectern, leaned forward, and whispered four words you can view as high praise from one Maine game warden to another.
“This is a good one,” Gormely said Friday as the speaker began explaining why Mike Joy of South Berwick deserved a Meritorious Service Award.
Gormely knows “a good one” when he hears it.
He’s a warden up in Greenville, and he and his sergeant, Dan Menard, and fellow wardens Jared Herrick and Terry Hughes, also received citations from the state at Friday’s annual Maine Warden Service awards banquet.
All Gormely and his group did was head out onto the biggest and baddest of Maine’s lakes – Moosehead – on Sept. 11 and 12 of last year and surf 10-foot swells for hour after hour while looking for boaters in distress.
They did that in a 24-foot boat that really couldn’t handle that kind of water. They did it because it was their job. They did it, despite the fact that they got very, very wet … and there was nobody else to call if they’d gotten in trouble.
They did it … and still said the kind of thing Joy did – he waded into thundering seas with a co-worker to rescue the owners of a foundering sailboat – were more impressive.
All the men and women in green headed to Winslow on Friday, and some of those tales were told … again … so the folks who make their livings protecting Maine’s woods, waters, critters (and citizens) could show each other a bit of in-house appreciation for a job well done.
Those jobs well done, I figure, are also jobs that aren’t appreciated as much as they should be.
The Warden Service is a dirty, time-consuming, dangerous line of work. During hunting season, everyone they approach is armed. Most of the year, plenty of the people they meet aren’t too happy to see them. But they keep going out there and doing their jobs. And once a year, they get recognized for the feats you often don’t hear about.
Roger Guay, a warden sergeant in Greenville, was honored as the distinguished supervisor and, along with his dog Reba, won the search and rescue canine case of the year award.
Retired warden Eric Wight was named the Legendary Game Warden. Former Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife Commissioner Lee Perry won the Colonel’s Award.
And Kevin S. Adam of Dexter won the biggie: He was named the state’s Warden of the Year.
In his spur-of-the-moment remarks, Adam opted for the kind of comments you’d expect … but the kind you believe when you hear them here.
He credited his co-workers. He said the team makes everything possible. He said he was surprised … and honored.
“It’s like a career award,” he said. “You’re getting recognized for all the hard work you’ve done.”
His colleague, Gormely, describes the award a bit more vividly than the man who just won it can afford to.
“It’s the cr?me de la cr?me. It’s the top. It’s the highest honor we can award,” Gormely said. “There are honors of valor and meritorious works, but this is a recognition of your peers.”
Adam is a search and rescue expert. If you get lost in the woods, you’re welcome to pray to whatever god you wish. You may also want to hope that Adam is in charge of finding you.
He’s the chief of planning for the search and rescue overhead team, and has been instrumental in combining global positioning systems with other mapping technology in order to mount logical, thorough and successful searches.
Adam didn’t expect to win the award, and was surprised when he reached the lectern and found his wife, Bobbie-Jean, had joined him.
Bobbie-Jean knew about the award, you see. She was there to enjoy it with her husband. And she hadn’t said a thing.
For a paid law enforcement officer, that was among the most stunning parts of the banquet.
“I didn’t know she was in the back. My wife deceived me,” he joked. “I found out my wife could deceive me.”
The list of Friday’s winners (feel free to tell your local warden “congratulations” when you see him in the field): Meritorious Service Awards: Wdn. Sgt. Norman Lewis of Bryant Pond, Wdn. Justin Fowlie of Kennebunk; Wdn. Mike Joy of South Berwick; Wdn. David Georgia of Milford; Wdn. Mike Morrison of Charleston; Wdn. Sgt. Dan Menard of Greenville; Wdn. Adam Gormely of Greenville; Wdn. Jared Herrick of Greenville; Wdn. Terry Hughes of Oakland.
Seach and Rescue Canine Case of the Year: Wdn. Sgt. Roger Guay and dog Reba; Conservation Law Enforcement Case of the Year: Wdn. Mark Merrifield and his dog, Aspen.
Exemplary Service Awards: Wdn. Terry Hughes of Oakland; Wdn. Scott Thrasher of Madison; Wdn. Roland Tilton of South China; Wdn. Milton “Skip” Bates of Greenville; Wdn. Gary Sibley of Fort Kent.
North American Wildlife Enforcement Officers Association Award of Valor: Wdn. Scott Thrasher, Madison.
Distinguished Supervisor Award: Wdn. Roger Guay, Greenville.
Colonel’s Award: Lee Perry.
Colonel’s Certificate of Appreciation: Fred Hurley.
Legendary Game Warden: Eric Wight.
Maine Warden of the Year: Kevin Adam, Dexter.
In Thursday’s column, I related the story of my opening day of fishing.
In a nutshell, it didn’t go too well. The fish didn’t bite. It was cold. And I broke the top three inches off my (only) fly rod after about an hour and a half.
Well, on Thursday morning, I got a phone call you may be interested in. In that column I’d mentioned that my rod was an L.L. Bean model … and apparently L.L. Bean was listening.
Mark Robinson, who works on the Hunting and Fishing Hotline at the company, said he read that I’d had a problem with a piece of equipment, and wanted to make sure I knew what to do next.
Robinson gave me the address for the company’s on-site rod repair facility and assured me it would be returned as soon as possible.
After handling that piece of business, we had a nice chat about fishing holes, equipment, and items I might be interested in purchasing in the future.
Now, I’ll be the first to admit that making a phone call to an outdoors columnist who just happened to have mentioned that a particular company’s equipment had failed … on opening day, no less … was a pretty obvious PR move.
I’ll also say it was appreciated.
For your information, what they did for me was no less than what they’d do for you (with one small exception: When I gripe about a rod breaking, this paper’s circulation around the state assures that a variety of people hear about it … including, in this case, the folks down in Freeport).
The fact of the matter is, L.L. Bean’s lifetime guarantee on all its products is legendary, and doesn’t need much tinkering with.
I didn’t get any special deal, nor want any special treatment. I just asked if the miscue was my fault, found out it wasn’t, and was given the information I needed to get my rod repaired.
When representatives of one of the industry leaders goes out of its way to make sure customers are happy, I think it’s worth mentioning.
John Holyoke can be reached at jholyoke@bangordailynews.net or by calling 990-8214 or 1-800-310-8600.
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