DEPS President and CEO Tom Vermillion pitches during a kickball game at Grainger Stadium. Photo by Catherine Hardee / Neuse News

A local business celebrated a milestone Thursday, while also supporting the Down East Wood Ducks in the wake of the cancellation of the 2020 Minor League Baseball season.

Employees of Down East Protection Systems organized a surprise celebration to honor CEO and President Tom Vermillion in recognition of his twenty years at the helm of the company. Employees and family gathered at Grainger Stadium to enjoy food, fellowship, and a hotly contested kickball game on the baseball field.

Vermillion said there have been ups and downs during the last twenty years, but the success the business has achieved wouldn’t have been possible without a great team of employees. 

“It means the world to me that they organized this. I’ve got a great team, and we have done a lot of good stuff,” Vermillion said. 

DEPS Human Resources Manager Shannon Strickland said plans for the event had been under way for nearly a year. With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the parameters of the event had to change, but, Strickland said, she reached out to the Wood Ducks in hopes of finding a way to still hold the event at the stadium.

“This has been a little bit of normal for us, since we always had our family fun day here,” Strickland said. 

Wood Ducks Vice President Wade Howell said the support of a long-time partner such as DEPS means a lot to the organization, given the financial difficulties from the loss of the 2020 season. 

“Without a baseball season, we are trying to schedule as many events at the stadium as possible. We did all we could to support our restaurant partners at the beginning of the shutdown, and now it is nice to have support in turn. It means so much to us, and will help us stay in business. It is a case of partners helping partners,” Howell said.