PANAMA CITY, Fla. — Gulf Coast State College recognized some of their own on Thursday with the unveiling of the 2018-2019 Distinguished Service Award recipient.
The award took on symbolic meaning this year, as it recognized every single college employee who worked in the year following the hurricane.
“It just shows the collective work and will to keep this great institution together,” said Brent Beacock, a long-time GCSC employee. “If we can rebuild after this we can do anything.”
GCSC President, John Holdnak, said the employees were a huge part of the school’s recovery; working out of classrooms covered by plastic tarps and helping to clean up the campus.
He said due to their diligence, all students scheduled to graduate did so on time.
“How do you pick out one person who was responsible for putting the college back together and getting us running 27 days after the storm crossed the coast,” asked Holdnak. “I couldn’t.”
The award lists every single employee’s name who worked for the college during the 2018-2019 school year.
