CRESTVIEW — City Councilman Joe Blocker's perception of Dr. Naomi Barnes surpasses her professional title.
“It’s hard for me to call this lady ‘doctor,’” he said. “To me, it’s Sister Barnes. Her heart is for other people. To know this lady is to love her.”
Other city leaders agreed.
“I praise the Lord we have you in our schools and community,” Councilman Mickey Rytman said during a Monday ceremony recognizing her as Citizen of the Year.
“I’m happy we have citizens like you who step forward even when they’re not called upon,” Council President Shannon Hayes said.
Before Barnes appeared in the City Council Chamber that evening, she had been up since 6 a.m. doing what she always does: supporting other people.
A volunteer with the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, she spent Monday morning making the rounds of Crestview High School, Davidson and Shoal River Middle Schools, and Richbourg E.S.E. School.
At each she joined Christian student athletes for morning prayers around the schools’ flagpoles.
The retired educator, a former Southside Elementary School teacher, is modest about her countless hours of volunteerism in Crestview.
“My job is to do the will of the Father,” she said. “I had a grandma who told me, ‘If you can’t do good, don’t do nothin’ at all.”
‘DO SOMETHING’
As Mae Reatha Coleman — the citizen of the year recognition’s namesake — lauded the honoree’s dependability, she presented Barnes with gifts provided by Glitz and Glitter, the Jewelry Garden, Applebee’s and Ryan’s Family Steakhouse, Mae.
“When I need something in the community, I call Sister and Brother (Felton) Barnes,” Coleman said. “I never heard anybody who moans and groans do anything. It’s the people like her who get up and move.”
Future Mae Reatha Coleman Crestview Citizen of the Year Award recipients also will be expected to have been active in the community, Coleman said.
“It’s an award that you work for,” she said. “Get out and do something. Let’s see what we can do for our community. But we can’t do it staying at home.”
Email News Bulletin Staff Writer Brian Hughes, follow him on Twitter or call 850-682-6524.
This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: City, community leaders recognize Citizen of the Year