Paying Christmas forward: Deputy continues a tradition

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Paying Christmas forward: Deputy continues a tradition

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In the photo at left, by Beacon photographer Marsha McLaughlin, during the 2003 Christmas season, then-Sheriff Ben Johnson helps 4-year-old Seth Long place an ornament on the Sheriff’s Office Christmas tree.

It’s a long-standing tradition of the Sheriff’s Office to invite children to help decorate for the holidays. That year, the deputies invited children from Merry Day Preschool to help.

In the photo at right, fifteen years later, Seth Long is a deputy with the Volusia County Sheriff’s Office, and he’s helping first-grader Darrionte Hill place an ornament on the Sheriff’s Office tree Dec. 3.

When Long shared this photograph with his mother, Lisa Long, she remembered a newspaper clipping from 2003 featuring her son and the sheriff, and she shared the pay-it-forward Christmas story with The Beacon. We were able to find Marsha McLaughlin’s original photo in our archive.

Darrionte is in Christa Bryant’s class at Starke Elementary School in DeLand.

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Barb and her husband, Jeff, were both born in Kokomo, Indiana, a factory town surrounded by cornfields about 50 miles north of Indianapolis. In 1979, they set out on a road trip that would define their lives, and would end with their taking up residence in DeLand. After working at the DeLand Sun News and the Orlando Sentinel 1979-92, Barb helped found The Beacon, and was appointed publisher and CEO in 2013. Since late 2004, Barb has also managed Conrad Realty Co.’s historic property in Downtown DeLand, where The Beacon is an anchor tenant.

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