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NASBLA recognizes the 2020 Southern Region Educator of the Year

By Taylor Matsko posted 12-01-2020 06:20 PM

  


NASBLA recognizes the 2020 Southern Region Educator of the Year
*This is a transcript of the "NASBLA recognizes the 2020 Southern Region Educator of the Year" video from the virtual recognition ceremony on Monday, November 9th, 2020.

DARREN RIDER:

Hello everyone! We hope you are all staying safe and healthy during these times. As many of you know, NASBLA typically recognizes all of our award winners in-person at the Annual Conference. However, this year the Annual Conference was held virtually, so we were only able to recognize some of these winners during the short awards ceremony that was held on September 30th.

Today, we are meeting virtually again to recognize and show our appreciation to one of the 2020 NASBLA award winners!

Numerous individuals and organizations assist NASBLA in various ways throughout the year. To show our appreciation for this invaluable assistance, NASBLA recognizes outstanding individuals and groups for their contributions to recreational boating safety through its awards program.

Generously sponsored by Fresh Air Educators and Kalkomey, the Pamela S. Dillon Educator of the Year Award was launched by NASBLA in 2011 to recognize those who go above and beyond to engage students and boaters, raise awareness, and make boating education initiatives relevant, thorough and exciting.

The 2020 Southern Region Boating Educator of the Year award is presented to Lieutenant Brad M. Stoop of the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission.

In 2006, Lt. Stoop began teaching standardized field sobriety testing procedure with a team of outstanding instructors. Since that time, Lt. Stoop has had the opportunity to travel to several states to attend the NASBLA Instructor Seated Battery course. He and the team of instructors were able to take this curriculum across the state of North Carolina and present it to all NCWRC officers. It has since become an integral part of the basic training program for NCWRC recruits.

This past year, Lt. Stoop coordinated a Law Enforcement and First Responders boating safety class for a local fire department and the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) wildlife damage agents. Over the two-day period, 40 professional firefighters received classroom instruction and on-water training from area officers. The training included basic boat handling, docking, rescue operations and small boat handling.

Overall. Lt. Stoop’s knowledge, coupled with his unwavering commitment to enhancing the safety on North Carolina’s waterways, does not go unnoticed. Day in and day out, Lt. Stoop plays a role in the safety and education of the people in North Carolina. This is not something he takes lightly and is something he takes great pride in. This is consistently exhibited through his efforts to educate the public about safe boating practices in and around the water. Congratulations Lieutenant Brad Stoop!

So, at the time of this nomination, Brad Stoop was a Sergeant, but has since been promoted to Lieutenant. Congratulations Lt. Stoop for that promotion!

At this time, I would like to give Major Ben Meyer the opportunity to say a few words…

 

BEN MEYER:

Thank you, Darren. You said most of it.

But I would like to say that Lt. Stoop has been an officer of the North Carolina Wildlife Resource Commission since 2000. Since the day he came on, he has always had the heart of an instructor, which I know this is the reason why he was awarded this at this time. He always keeps the people in mind that he works for and he is public-service oriented.

Lt. Stoop is trying to make people better. Not just himself, but developing all those around him, to make them better, not only professionally, but personally as well.

And, you know, you spoke about him, not just serving the constituents in our own agency, but all the public as well, and he has done that. He is also one of our lead firearms instructors and trains our basic school on all things like that to provide a safe boating environment for all the citizens of North Carolina and providing for future generations.

So I'm very appreciative of this award for Lieutenant Stoop, and he is by all means very well-deserving of this award. Thank you!

DARREN RIDER:

Thank you, Major Meyers. So, Lieutenant Stoop, do you have a few comments you'd like to add?

  

BRAD STOOP:
Thank you, Colonel. Thank you, Major. I appreciate the kind words.

Really, it is absolutely a team approach in everything we do here. I could not be or do the things that I do without the other officers that I'm associated with and work closely with on a daily basis. I appreciate their efforts, which allow me to do a little bit more instructing and some things like that, more so than our regular duties and it has really helped me out. It is with their help that we're able to present these quality programs and things like that across the entire state.

I'm humbled by the award for sure. Then the kind words that were said about me, I really appreciate it. I look forward to continuing those instructing efforts in our area and more abroad as is needed. Thank you so much.

 

DARREN RIDER:

Thank you, Lieutenant Stoop. So, NASBLA would like to thank Lt. Stoop for his continued dedication to boater education and safety on the water. Congratulations Lt. Brad Stoop!

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Watch the full NASBLA Southern Region Education of the Year recognition video on NASBLA's Vimeo channel!

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