PANAMA CITY − County Manager Joel Schubert said Jared Sasnett was “the epitome of a servant leader.”
In a meeting on April 21, Schubert, along with members of the Bay County Commission, took time to remember Sasnett, a captain for Bay County Emergency Services, who died in a traffic crash on April 18. Sasnett spent more than a decade working in public safety in Bay County.
“We lost one of our finest in Capt. Jared Sasnett,” Schubert said during the meeting. “Certainly, our hearts and our prayers are with his family, with his wife and with his four daughters. It’s absolutely tragic. Captain was the best of us. He was the epitome of a servant leader.”
Sasnett’s death was publicly announced in recent Facebook posts on the Bay County Emergency Services and Bay County Sheriff’s Office pages.
A separate Tuesday post on the Bay County EMS page notes crowds of first responders honored Sasnett during the procession to Wilson’s Funeral Home.
“Law enforcement agencies, fire departments from across the region and aerial support from Walton County all came together in a show of respect and unity,” the post reads. “We are also deeply grateful to the Walton County Sheriff’s Office Honor Guard for their role in transporting Capt. Sasnett with such dignity.”
By noon on April 22, the post had about 1,600 reactions, almost 190 shares and more than 55 comments.
“Bay County on April 18 lost a true hero,” Commissioner Daniel Raffield said. “Capt. Jared Sasnett was unlike any firefighter. He was a true leader with a servant’s heart. … I believe the words he used to motivate with were also the words he lived by. These are his words − ‘Set the example. Don’t quit or else you’ll quit forever. Be the standard. We get to do this, we’re the lucky ones. Conceive it, believe it and achieve it.’
“He not only spoke those words, but he led and lived by those words.”
A GiveSendGO fundraiser was set up to help the Sasnett family. By noon April 22, it had raised almost $40,315 of its $100,000 goal.
For more information on the fundraiser, visit www.givesendgo.com/help-the-sasnett-family.
This article originally appeared on The News Herald: Bay officials remember Capt. Jared Sasnett of Bay County EMS
Reporting by Nathan Cobb, Panama City News Herald / The News Herald
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