Rusty Wilfong has been named the Bill Best Humanitarian Award winner for the 2023. The award is one of the most prestigious honors given to a citizen in Lincoln Parish and is presented by the Ruston Rotary Club.
Wilfong is well known for his cooking for community events and the trademark Karl Malone Toyota Cooking trailer you see around town at various events. Wilfong and his cooking crew are a fixture for cooking and serving jambalaya at the Dart Radiothon and at Rotary events. As part of his service to the community, Rusty and his crew cook at every LA Tech home football game and the LA Tech student athletes welcome back every fall at LA Tech. He and his team served First Responders with cooked crawfish and shrimp this past spring at the Argent Pavilion on the LA Tech campus.
Wifong has worked with Rotary on it trailer fundraiser for the past five years, securing the cook trailer along with all details of getting the trailer ready plus displaying the trailer for the annual fundraiser. The fall cook trailer fundraiser provides money for many of the Ruston Rotary community events.
Wilfong said of the honor, “I am humbled over the award. I am fortunate enough to work for Karl Malone that allow me to do all these activities.”
In the nominating form, Bill Elmore said of Wilfong that he is true public servant and a deserving candidate for this award.
Clearly, Wilfong is known for cooking Jambalaya for the DART Radiothon held in October of every year. Many local residents come for the Jambalaya and help DART raise funds for the domestic violence program. 2023 DART Radiothon was a record fundraiser event.
DART’s Terri Queen Autrey said of Wilfong that he does an outstanding job of personifying the giving spirit of the Bill Best Humanitarian award.
Stephanie Matthews of Ruston’s Christian Community Action (CCA) was last year’s winner. The award will be presented at the Ruston-Lincoln Chamber of Commerce Banquet to be held on Thursday, February 1.
In 1997, the Ruston-Lincoln Chamber of Commerce established this award to recognize a local citizen for their outstanding contributions to humanitarian interests, unselfish giving, and the service to others in time of need. The selection process places an emphasis on voluntary service to others over an extended period of time or extraordinary contributions toward a single endeavor.
In 2006, the Ruston Rotary Club took responsibility of administering the award and renamed the award ‘The Bill Best Humanitarian Award’ to honor Rotarian Bill Best. Best was President of Ruston Rotary in 1982-83 and owned the Kentucky Fried Chicken franchise in Ruston. Best is also the 1987 Robert E. Russ award winner. He was a civic leader that exemplified the intent, spirit and character of the Humanitarian Award. As a Rotarian he lived the Rotary motto of ‘Service above Self’.
