Outstanding students across Chilton County as well as the Business of the Year and the Farm of the Year were honored Thursday night at the annual Farm-City Week Banquet.

Awards were given to students active in Future Farmers of America; Family, Career and Community Leaders of America; and 4-H chapters from schools throughout the county.

The following students were honored for their involvement with FFA: Justin Bavar, son of Kim and Allen Bavar and a Chilton County High School student; Cody Emerick, son of Christy Reinhardt and a student at Jemison High School; Adrianne Lucas, daughter of Jeannette Wallace and Jerry Lucas and a student at Maplesville High School; and Aaron Thornton, son of Jeff and Cathy Thornton and a student at Thorsby High School.

Students recognized for their work with FFCLA were: Shelby Cleckler, daughter of Jamie Cleckler and a student at Isabella High School; Kelsey Jackson, daughter of Chris and Tracey Jackson and a student at Thorsby High School; Cameron Morrow, son of Evelyn and Carl Morrow and a student at Maplesville High School; and Wendy Waldrop, daughter of Donna Waldrop and a student at Jemison High School.

Adam Heflin, son of James and Sherrie Heflin, and Anna Grace Parnell, daughter of Jimmy and Robin Parnell, were honored as outstanding members of Chilton County 4-H.

Winners of the Chilton County Farm-City Poster contest were also recognized.

Hayden Yeargan, daughter of Brittany and Brad Yeargan, won the kindergarten through third grade division. She is in the first grade at Maplesville.

Anna Walling, daughter of Melanie Walling, won the fourth through sixth grade division. She is in the fourth grade at Jemison Elementary School.

BUSINESS OF THE YEAR

Dr. Ritky Dy’s medical practice was named Business of the Year, as announced by Mike Robertson with the Chilton County Chamber of Commerce.

Dy moved to Clanton in 1994 and has practiced medicine in Chilton County for 17 years now. He is board certified in both Family Medicine and Geriatric Medicine, having completed residencies at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston and the University of Minnesota’s affiliated Hennepin County Medical Center. He also completed a fellowship in Geriatric Medicine at UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles.

He has worked as an emergency room physician at Chilton Medical Center, as urgent care physician at PriMed in Prattville and Montgomery and with Family Health Care for five years.

Dy decided to open his own private medical practice in 2002, renovating and expanding the building he is still in at 7th Street South across from Chilton County High School.

His staff includes nurses Ethel Dixon, Diane Moore and Aminta Inestroza and front-desk personnel Sarah Connell and Maria Taylor.

Dy currently serves as Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Chilton Medical Center.

He has been married to his wife, Roxanne, for 24 years and they have three daughters, Tiffany, Abigail and Giselle. Tiffany is a freshman at UAB School of Medicine. Abigail is a pre-med junior at Birmingham Southern College. Giselle is a senior at Chilton County High School.

FARM OF THE YEAR

Rocky Farms, owned by Truett and Jean Maddox, was named the Farm of the Year.

Truett Maddox was born in 1935 in Covington County and grew up working in the fields, where his family raised corn, cotton, peanuts, cattle and hogs. After school and in summers, it was part of his responsibility to weed the fields and tend to the milk cows.

He graduated from Covington County High School, where he was a member of FFA for three years. After graduation, he served in the Army during the Korean Conflict.

After the war, he attended Samford University and the University of Alabama.

He spent 44 years in the cookie business, with 22 years at Bremner Biscuit Company and 22 years at Greg’s Cookie Company in Birmingham.

During college, Maddox started out as a “dough dumper,” literally dumping out dough used to make saltine crackers. He worked his way up to sales, covering the entire Southeast and then to purchasing agent.

Having grown up around cows, he knew he wanted to get back in the business. He purchased his first bull and five heifers in 1985. He now has an Angus bull and his cows are Angus, Simmental and Limousine mix.

Mrs. Maddox is certainly a partner in the business, where she too has “done it all,” from building and repairing fences, raking hay and feeding cattle.

Mr. Maddox participates in cattle board sales and is a member of the Alabama Feeder Calf Marketing Association, the Alabama Cattlemen’s Association and the Chilton County Cattlemen’s Association, where he serves on the board of directors. He is also involved with the Chilton County Jail Ministry, a Gideon and member of Mineral Springs Baptist Church.

Truett and Jean Maddox have been married for 42 years and have five children, Lynn Purvis, David Maddox, Chuck Maddox, Beverly Wyatt and the late Steve Maddox. They have 11 grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.

Sponsors of the Farm-City Week Banquet are Clanton Kiwanis Club, Chilton County Farmers Federation, Chilton County Office of Alabama Cooperative Extension System and Chilton County Chamber of Commerce.