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Courtesy of Community Hospice & Palliative Care of North Central Florida. Bryant Oxendine and some of his former students. -
Courtesy of Community Hospice & Palliative Care of North Central Florida. Bryant Oxendine smiles for a photo with his wife, Titania Oxendine, after receiving the Community Servant's Hummingbird Award earlier this month.
Community Hospice & Palliative Care honored a Putnam County coach and community mentor for his decades of dedication.
Bryant Oxendine received the Community Servant’s Hummingbird Award from the Putnam branch of Community Hospice on May 11. The award, according to the agency, is given annually to a community member who embodies a servant’s heart.
“This unique opportunity honors exceptional individuals who have positively led and influenced our community, who have chosen to serve the public, and represents a life dedicated to selflessly helping others,” a statement from Community Hospice said.
Oxendine was born in Georgetown and went on to serve in six years in the United State Army after graduating high school. Oxendine was honorably discharged from the military in 1984 and worked for the Department of Justice in 1985. He began his career at the United States Postal Service in 1986, from which he retired in 2009, Community Hospice stated.
The agency said Oxendine decided he wanted to give back to his community and, in 1997, he began coaching youth basketball and Pop Warner football in Palatka. The Georgetown man received the Ricky Gibbs award nine years later for being a top assistant coach in Pop Warner football.
He was offered the assistant football coach job at Palatka High School and eventually the assistant head coach position for the boys’ basketball team. Oxendine named coach of the year for the 2016 - 2017 season at Palatka High, officials said.
Oxendine works now as the head coach for the Interlachen Junior-Senior High School boys’ basketball team and continues to mentor local youth.
“Mr. Oxendine was chosen for his service to his community related to mentoring to youth,” stated Billie Dodd, the North Central Florida regional director for Community Hospice. “He has enabled young men to gain access to college and see opportunities never imagined before.”
Community Hospice officials said Oxendine became an ordained minister in 2003 at the Church of God in Christ, where he served for a year as the regional supervisor for the community group called Oasis. The community group, according to Community Hospice, supports parents in every Putnam County school.
Oxendine stated that he was humbled to receive the award and thanked God that the community and his family thought of him. He stated receiving The Hummingbird Servants Award inspired me all over again to continue to serve and be an inspiration in the community.
He called the Community Hospice staff genuine, loving and people who are filled with God's spirit and compassion.
“The Community Servants Hummingbird Award is such an awesome award and an honor for me to be the recipient,” Oxendine stated. “I looked at the godly and honorable men that received it before me and was immediately grateful to be even thought of for such a prestigious award.”