American Legion presents its Distinguished Citizenship Award

Nov. 10—BLUEFIELD — A Mercer County resident who asks God every day to help him make his community a better place to live was honored Thursday when he was named the recipient of the 2023 Riley-Vest Post 9 American Legion Distinguished Citizenship Award.

Since 1937, Riley-Vest Post 9 of the American Legion has presented the award to recognize a Bluefield area resident who has rendered service to the community beyond the call of duty.

The recipient is chosen by a secret committee of Legionnaires and the public is invited to submit nominations for the annual honor.

Dr. Randy B. Maxwell, DC, of Princeton arrived at the Clover Club in downtown Bluefield and soon learned that he was this year's recipient of this award.

Legionnaire Tom Helton told the gathered veterans and guests about the 2023 honoree and Maxwell quickly realized who he was describing. Helton outlined Maxwell's many contributions to his community.

"Our honoree helped found the Youth Day at the Range Program in conjunction with the West Virginia State Police, the West Virginia Department of Natural Resources, the National Guard and the Princeton Rescue Squad," Helton said. "The event required the donation of one unwrapped toy to the Marine Corps Toys for Tots in one of their most successful toy drives. Unfortunately, the event became uninsurable after four years and was discontinued. However, it saw over 1,000 young girls and boys learn the proper and safe way to handle a firearm."

Maxwell has also done much to aid veterans who are far from home.

"Our man of the hour began a movement to secure much-needed supplies for our local deployed soldiers, collecting and filling over 100 United States Postal Service flat rate boxes of supplies and shipping them to the Brushfork National Guardsmen in Iraq," Helton stated. "This movement expanded, shipping donated supplies to multiple detachments around the globe."

Maxwell also co-founded the Veterans Breakfast and Stand Down event in Princeton. Tractor-trailer loads of supplies from the Department of Veterans Affairs were distributed Nov. 4 to area veterans after they were served breakfast.

"This event is a huge event that honors over 700 vets and their families each year and it continues to grow annually," Helton said.

Besides working to honor and aid veterans, Maxwell has helped bring aid to people fighting breast cancer.

"2016 brought another adventure for our recipient," Helton said. "His wife, Michelle, loved to ride the Hatfield-McCoy Trails, and she wanted to host an event showcasing that trail system while also bringing attention to breast cancer. Michelle had a rich family history of this terrible disease and wanted to bring more awareness to our area. The event was scheduled to happen in October 2018."

"In June 2017, Michelle was diagnosed with triple-negative breast cancer. Committed to beating it, she continued planning the event. During her fight, she learned that many women were not fortunate enough to have a wig during chemo; and many could not afford transportation, supplements or medications that are needed for them win their fight; so these aspects were added to the event," Helton said. "In July 2018, Michelle won her battle with cancer and went to be with the Lord."

Thanks to help from special friends and volunteers, the first Riding 4 A Cure event happened as scheduled. It became a nonprofit organization in 2021, and has raised over $150,000 since its inception to help local cancer fighters, he said.

With his two sons, Maxwell founded the WV Gal Hope Salon on Locust Street near Princeton to make sure cancer patients who needed hair would have it. In 2022,Cancer Transportation West Virginia was established to provide transportation for radiation patients in Mercer and McDowell Counties to their appointments.

In addition, You Are Loved West Virginia was formed in partnership with the Mercer County Health Department, Blue Prince Family Health, MammoCare 3D and Community Radiology to streamline their screening and early detection needed to treat breast cancer.

"Breast cancer has had a huge and terrible impact on our honoree's family, Helton said. "He and his two sons have endeavored to make a difference in the lives of breast cancer patients in our local area and to carry on the mission and vision of Michelle and the Riding 4 A Cure movement."

"I thought I was just coming for lunch But, you know, thank you guys," Maxwell said. Thank you all."

Maxwell said he has moved many times, but Mercer County is the first place that has really been home.

"When I left for college in 1990, this is as close as I've ever been home since I moved here in 2006. My dad retired from Jewell Smokeless Coal Company down in Vansant, but he was one of the founding members of our local Lions Club and he was a charter member of our rescue squad; in fact, him and my neighbor drove to Detroit, Michigan and got our first ambulance off the assembly line, drove it home and it was parked in our driveway for many years."

"And so it's the first place I've ever been where I've been invested," he said. "This community wrapped its arms around me and my family. And they welcomed me, and they fed me and they fed my kids."

"It's just a place where I try to do a little bit to make it a better place to live," Maxwell continued. "Every day when I'm in my office, we start our day off with prayer. I ask the Lord every day to help me make my town a better place to live."

Matt Sampson, WV State Commander of the American Legion, was this year's keynote speaker at the awards ceremony.

"I'm going to talk about the concept of service and military service specifically and then the concept of servant leadership," Sampson said. "I noticed on the program it said 'Deeds Not Words.' That ties in with what I'm going to talk about. What does it mean to serve? For some of us, the basis for our motivation to serve is perhaps our religious faith, which is to serve God and to serve one another. Also within our community, we have a secular community and we want improve our community. That motivates us to serve. Some of us included are in Rotary International."

Rotary's motto is Service Above Self, Sampson said.

"So Service Above Self is very similar to the Air Force motto. Service Before Self," he said. "What does that mean? Professional duties take precedence over our personal desires. Regardless of your branch of service, you know what the means. It sounds a lot like duty. Service is the basis for our military members and their service to our country."

"What does selfless service mean? Put the welfare of the nation, the Army and your subordinates before your own," Sampson said. "Leaders in the Army know that a leader eats last. It's not an etiquette thing. If they run out of chow, the leader goes hungry and that doesn't happen again. It's the leader who has the power to fix that."

How does one serve? Sampson asked.

"One way is to be as our American Legion national commander says, be a servant leader," he said. "There's that word again. Servant leader. A servant leader is dedicated to the growth of others. It's a style in which you lead by putting the needs of our team first. That's not strictly pertaining to military leadership. That can apply to business leaders, business owners, managers, our community organizations."

The American Legion Riley-Vest Post 9 thanked King Tire, Summit Community Bank and the Stellio & Betty Corte Foundation for their contributions to the post.

— Contact Greg Jordan at gjordan@bdtonline.com

Contact Greg Jordan at gjordan@bdtonline.com