The Stevens County Conservation District Board celebrated their 74 years of Conservation service with their annual meeting Saturday, January 13. Introductions were made by Luke Grubbs and Invocation was given by Loren Seaman.

Citizens State Bank sponsored the delicious meal prepared by Hunny’s. Hugoton FFA members helped with the serving of the refreshments. Speakers for the evening were Abe Lollar for Ducks Unlimited and Michael Ask with Dragon Line Mobile Drip Irrigation.

Lollar was born and raised in Derby. He is currently serving as the Chair for the Upper Arkansas River Regional Advisory Committee, Chair for the Finney County Conservation District and the President of the Upper Arkansas River Watershed Group.

Ask is the Director of Operations at Dragon-Line Mobile Drip Irrigation. He lives in Ulysses with his wife Deborah and his two sons, Clavin and Parker. He is from St. Louis originally but has lived in the High Plains area for the last 16 years.

Loren Seaman introduced the Windbreak, Wildlife, Grassland and Soil Conservation winners for 2023. The awards were presented to the winners by Grubbs and James Murray. Wilhelm and Maria Reimer were the Windbreak winners, Bryne and Tina Sullins were the Wildlife winners. the Grassland winners were Dale and Janine Beltz and Wilbur and Julie Kinser won the Soil Conservation award.

The conservation poster winners were introduced and given their awards by Abel Sullivan and Tom Lahey. Door prizes were handed out by Sullivan and Lahey. Larry and Nelda Brady were chosen this year to receive the Community Service Award. They have spent a lifetime serving the communities in which they have lived.

They were both born and raised in rural Alfalfa County, Oklahoma near the towns of Lambert and Cherokee. Larry attended Northwestern Oklahoma State in Alva, Ok. and then transferred to and graduated from Oklahoma State University in Stillwater with a degree in Ag Education.

Jobs were hard to find at the time, but there was a position available at Balko High School, a small school in the Oklahoma Panhandle. Larry suggested to his new bride Nelda that they could move to Balko and take the teaching position for a couple of years and then move back to the Alva area when a job comes open. So they moved to Balko and ended up staying there for 33 years.

During this time, Larry spent much of his time, not only in the classroom, but also on the road travelling to livestock sales and shows with his FFA students. He ended up teaching and mentoring three generations of students in the Oklahoma Panhandle. Nelda spent much of her time raising their three children while Larry was on the road. She also was a cook at the school, a cook at Falls Creek Church Camp in Davis, Ok. and operated a café at Bryan’s Corner called the Red Barn Café. She also helped clean and care for the Balko Baptist Church where they were members and regular attenders and served in several positions.

After Larry retired from teaching, he worked for Larry Steckline at the radio station in Liberal. Nelda continued to operate the Red Barn. They both continued to serve the Balko community until 2002, when they decided to move to Hugoton. Larry brought his garden and show pig operation and Nelda brought her restaurant and opened Pigs R Us in Hugoton in March of 2003.

For 20 years they have served the Hugoton community. Larry has been a substitute teacher at the school and helped mentor numerous 4H and FFA livestock youth projects. He has also worked as an enumerator for the USDA. Nelda caters to the Turpin senior citizens, the Hugoton Lions Club, and has organized several bus tour trips to destinations all across the United States. Larry and Nelda have been married for 64 years.

They have three children, eight grandchildren and six great grandchildren scattered across Oklahoma, Texas and Kansas. Their lives have always been an example of service to the people in the communities where they have lived.

Congratulations and thank you Larry and Nelda Brady.