Brothers all, forever
By John Joyce
Published in News on September 13, 2015 1:50 AM
Friday night at Lane Tree Country Club and Golf Course, while the nation turned its attention to remembering the men and women who gave their lives on Sept. 11, 2001, more than 300 Wayne County citizens turned out to honor a local hero.
Carey A. Winders served as sheriff from 1994 to 2014, when he died suddenly of a heart attack. Since then, his widow, Teresa, and a few close friends and family members have been working to find away to continue his legacy.
Together they created the Carey A. Winders Scholarship Fund, dedicated to preserving his memory and to sending young people to college to follow in his footsteps.
The first annual First Responders Appreciation Banquet honoring the firefighters, law enforcement officers and EMS workers who sacrificed their lives while trying to save the lives of strangers on 9/11 kicked off at 6:30 p.m. Afterwards, a live auction raised money to support the scholarship fund. A golf tournament at Lane Tree is scheduled for next weekend.
Mrs. Winders first asked the first responders in attendance to stand and be recognized for their service.
"Every day you put that uniform on and you put that gun on your belt, or our EMS workers when you put that uniform on, firefighters when you go on calls whether it be a car accident or a working structure fire, you don't know if you're going to come home," she said. "These people put their lives on the line every day for us, and we thank you so much for the job that you do."
Mrs. Winders said she started the fund in her husband's name to continue his legacy of helping people. She wanted future generations of her own family and those of every Wayne County family to remember who Winders was.
"He was probably one of the most kind, giving people and he loved helping people," she said. "He always had a way of putting people's needs before his own. He loved being able to give things to people, and he didn't give to receive. He gave because he wanted to."
Mrs. Winders thanked her family and also the many corporate and community sponsors who contributed to the banquet and to the golf tournament.
Guests in attendance ate, mingled and shared memories of Winders prior to the auction and then, at Mrs. Winders' request, opened their hearts as well as their wallets to support his legacy.
Maj. Tom Effler, who served under Winders, said there are days he can still hear his boot steps in the hallway and smell the cigarette smoke in his office.
"Which he wasn't supposed to be doing it, but that was Carey," Effler said.
Wayne County Commissioner Wayne Aycock and current Sheriff Larry Pierce both reflected fondly upon the man they both knew and worked with.
Before asking for a moment of silence to honor those lost on 9/11, Aycock provided some local statistics detailing the level of activity of Wayne County first responders faced last year.
"In 2014, we dispatched 123,793 calls," he said, adding that the figure included law enforcement, fire and EMS. "The total law enforcement dispatched calls was 98,438 calls."
City and county fire departments answered 5,191 calls and EMS responded to 18,551 calls, Aycock added.
Those numbers reflect the amount of times Wayne County first responders geared up and headed out not knowing what they might encounter or if they would return safely, he said.
And Johnston County Sheriff Steve Bizzle, who came out to support Mrs. Winders and her family, took a moment to remember his longtime friend and fellow sheriff.
"I was elected in November of 1998 in Johnston County, and the first call I got from another sheriff was from Carey Winders. Carey invited me to come over -- to his home -- and he introduced me to his wife and family," Bizzle said.
He said Winders, who had been elected in Wayne County four years earlier, said the two were going to be neighboring sheriffs and he wanted to help Bizzle anyway he could.
"So we formed a relationship, a friendship and a camaraderie. And Carey helped me a lot my first few years as sheriff," Bizzle said.
Winders devoted his life to helping people and he confided in Bizzle on more than one occasion that he would not have been able to do his job and serve his community without the support he received from Teresa and his children, Bizzle said.
"Carey was a big man, but he had an even bigger heart," he said.
The total figures for the amount of funds raised to support the scholarship fund will not be tallied until after the golf tournament next weekend. Early indications -- the banquet tickets themselves went for $25 at more than 300 sold, plus donations and the auction during which items sold for hundreds of dollars -- are that the fundraising will exceed expectations.
For more information on how to donate, contact Lane Tree director Mike Kelly at 919-734-1245, ext. 23.