The Carter County Imagination Library’s Educators Hall of Fame celebration will be held this Saturday at 6 p.m. in the fellowship hall at First Christian Church in downtown Elizabethton.

The highlight of the dinner will be the induction of the new members of the Educators Hall of Fame.

The Hall of Fame honors outstanding educators and their contributions to their students and their community, event organizer Lilo Duncan said.

Each year, two educators, one living and one deceased, from the Carter County and Elizabethton City school systems, are added to the Hall of Fame.

Inductees this year will be Tommy Jenkins and the late Richard Winters for the Carter County schools and Ronnie Taylor and the late Harold Ellis for the Elizabethton City schools.

Thomas “Tommy” Jenkins taught with the Carter County school system for 36 years. He received his degree from Milligan College and also attended classes at East Tennessee State University and Cumberland University.

Jenkins started his teaching career at Little Milligan Elementary before moving to Valley Forge Elementary where he taught fifth grade until he retired in 2010.

Winters had 28 years experience in education, all with the Carter County schools. Winters attended Shell Creek Elementary, Cloudland High School and ETSU, where he received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees.

Winters served as English teacher, assistant principal and principal at CHS; principal at Hampton Elementary Schools; Honors English teacher and principal at Hampton High School; and elementary supervisor and curriculum supervisor for Carter County Schools. Winters also served as a Carter County Commissioner and Carter County Board of Education member.

Rondald “Ronnie” Taylor has 38 years of teaching experience, with 16 years in the Elizabethton City Schools. Taylor graduated from Unaka High School, and attended King University, where he received his bachelor’s degree. He received his master’s degree from ETSU.

Taylor started his career at Unaka High School as a teacher and basketball and baseball coach, later serving as principal at Unaka Elementary. He then moved to the Elizabethton City school system and became principal of East Side Elementary. When he retired, he was assistant director of the ECS system.

Ellis had 19 years of teaching experience, all of those in the ECS, teaching 7th-grade life science at T.A. Dugger Junior High School. Ellis graduated from Elizabethton High School and received two bachelor degrees from ETSU.

Ellis was also a baseball and basketball coach and was the first educator to be certified by the Tennessee Wildlife Resource Agency to teach hunter safety in junior high curriculum.

Past inductees from Carter County schools have been Margaret Broome, Kate Ensor, Janice Willette Ericson, Helen Finney, John Hyder, Newland Hyder, James G. “Buddy” Jones, Margaret Jones, Cathy Ogg, Jack Pearman, Edna Potter, James Potter, Glenda Ranshaw, Mary Rasar, Zola Shankle and Glen Tester.

Elizabethton city school inductees are Bill Armstrong, Frank Baker, Gertrude Bishop, Mary Emma Brown, Willie Church, Harry Fine, Sam Greenwell, Thomas J. Harville, Jobelle Hood, Melville Kelly, Anna Kinch, Charles Lipford, Donna Netherland, Reuben Pierce, Fannie Stover and Bertie Summerlin.

The $20 tickets can be purchased at the Elizabethton/Carter County Public Library. A limited number of tickets will be available at the door the night of the event. All of the money raised from ticket sales will benefit the Carter County Imagination Library.