During the Winnfield City Council’s March 10 session, Mayor Gerald Hamms recognized two longtime Winn Parish residents with the “Hammy Award” recognizing for their “outstanding dedicational service and unwavering commitment to making a positive impact in our community.”

The first recipient of the Hammy was Audrey Calhoun, the first African American woman in the United States to earn a bachelor’s degree in forestry. Calhoun credited her accomplishments to her roots in Winnfield, citing the people she knew, the schools she attended, and everyone who made a difference in her life. “I always knew that I’d come back to Winnfield,” Calhoun said. Her career with the National Parks Service, much of that in Washington, D.C., spanned from the start of the Richard Nixon presidency through Bill Clinton’s second term (including Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush).

Hamms then presented the award to Bob Holeman. His journalism career included a decade with the weekly Coushatta Citizen followed by a 25-year tenure at the helm of the Winn Parish Enterprise. Though he “retired” in 2008, he began a new journey with online reporting as owner of the Winn Parish Journal. Holeman stated that his work was not so much about the money, but about “providing a service to the community and the opportunity to be involved.”