On Thursday, February 5th, 2026, we held our annual 2025 Safety Banquet at the Farmville Depot to celebrate the safety achievements of the past year.

As shown in the photos below, each employee was invited to bring a guest to join the festivities. The evening included a delicious meal by Debra Dail Catering, safety presentations, awards for safety and service, door prizes, and three grand prizes!

This year was especially meaningful because, instead of having a guest speaker, we premiered our new company safety video. This video was created over the past year to replace our 25-year-old safety video, and it was a great reminder of what safety means to our team today. Morgan did a great job putting this together, and we want to thank all the employees who starred in the video and helped make it a success.

A highlight of the night was recognizing employees’ safety records, with cash bonuses awarded for each year of safe work. This year, we awarded amounts ranging from $150 to $800. These bonuses are just one of many incentives we offer to encourage and strengthen a culture of safety.

Celebrating Retirement 🎉

This year, we were also honored to celebrate the retirement of Charlie Watt, who retired at the end of January after 35 years with Farrior & Sons.

Charlie has been a great, hardworking employee who always took pride in doing things the right way — and he was especially known for looking out for the company and finding ways to save time and money. He will truly be missed.

Both Bill Farrior Jr. and Bill Farrior Sr. shared many kind words and memories, and Charlie was presented with a retirement plaque to commend his years of dedication and service. We will miss you Charlie!

Service Awards

The Safety Banquet is also our opportunity to honor employees for their years of service with the company. We celebrated the following milestones this year:

• 1 Year: William Farrior and Matt Stoeckle
  (Received a Farrior & Sons collared shirt and framed certificate)

• 20 Years: Armando Leal, Jim Ricks, and Dennis Taylor
  (Received a $500 gift and certificate)

• 35 Years: Charlie Watt
  (Received a $3,000 gift — a Mississippi River Cruise — and certificate)

Door Prizes & Grand Prizes 🎁

To show appreciation for our employees’ commitment to safety, we held a door prize drawing, where every employee had a chance to win one of 15 prizes.

The night was topped off with the grand prize drawings, which included:

• 1st Grand Prize: $500 cash — Joe Casteel

• 2nd Grand Prize: Turtlebox Speaker — Derek Williams

• Ultimate Grand Prize: A 3-night stay at Chetola Resort in Blowing Rock, NC for two — Jim Ricks
  (Includes 1 day of paid vacation, a $300 spa credit, and $500 spending cash!)

We’re proud of the hard work our employees put in every day to keep safety a top priority. Thank you to everyone who attended, participated, and helped make the night such a success.

See photos below.