By John Howell Sr.

Employees of Batesville’s Thermos Company celebrated a fellow employee’s newly cancer-free status with a balloon release Monday afternoon.

Not just any balloons. These were blue in honor of March as Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month.

When Beverly Jones learned on March 2 that she had become cancer-free after a colon cancer diagnosis last June, her excitement was shared throughout the facility. With the release of the blue balloons near the facility’s front door, Jones spoke briefly.

“I want to thank you for wearing blue in honor of colon cancer month,” she said. Jones also read from Isaiah and then asked Willie Lee to pray.

Following Lee’s prayer, Jones named other cancer victims who are were also Thermos employees including Lucinda Nelson, Robert Barksdale, Bill Darby, Nancy Burns, Frances “Polly Terry, Phil Krep, James “Bud” Sykes, Leonard Holsey, Martha Fowler and Carolyn Hubbard. She also named survivors currently in the Thermos work force including Donald Clark, John Bishop, Chester Woodard, Henry Menzie and Charles Riley.