Fireman Mitch Boyette is "Model Employee"

Winning the "Clayton Fireman-of-the-Year" award is certainly an honor, but it often means more to some people than to others.

For Mitch Boyette, who won the honor last year, it's huge, because he intends to be a fireman for the rest of his life.

"I like being in on all the action," he said. "I want to work hard and advance. This is a good Fire Department to work with, a lot of good people who care about each other and work together. We make it fun to work here."

The 22-year-old Archer's Lodge resident already has a degree in Fire Protection Technology, and he's working on a degree in Fire Management at Fayetteville State Community College.

"He's a model employee," said Chief Lee Barbee. "You tell him what you want done, and he gets it done."

Mitch, who still helps out on the family farm, got into firefighting a few years ago when a group of his buddies in Archer's Lodge decided to help out the local fire department and asked him to join them.

"I just wanted to help out in the community," he said. "I liked it so much, I decided to do it full time."

He started out with the Department here in 2006 as a part-timer and then moved to full-time a little over a year ago.

Though his passion in life is firefighting, Mitch also has a second love---all things John Deere. He's been collecting all sorts of John Deere equipment models since he was young.

"John Deere equipment is what we have on the farm," he said. "I love John Deere. In my bedroom, the top two-thirds of the wall is John Deere Yellow and the bottom third is John Deere Green."

He also has a love of flying that's been nurtured by family members who are pilots, and he intends to pursue a pilot's license "for fun."

Clayton has a "combination" Fire Department, with 15 full-time and 55 part-time on-call positions working out of two main stations, with a third in the planning stages. The Department gets about 800 calls a year, though only a fourth are fire-related. Many of the calls involve rescue and other calls for service, including assisting Emergency Medical Services.

The Department regularly goes to the aid of other communities in the area, including Archer's Lodge, Cleveland, Garner and Wilson's Mills.

Training of all sorts has been a huge part of Department life in recent years, with full-time firefighters required to get 240 hours of training each year and part-time firemen 100 hours. Drills, training events and classes go on all year long. Just recently, the Department graduated a new advanced class of "Black Helmet" firefighters. "When we see a Black Helmet, we know they're Firefighter Certified," said Training/Safety Division Chief Jason Dean. "That's a milestone for these guys."