Roomie the Lion made his way around town on Friday giving out the Hammond Chamber of Commerce’s Spirit Awards to five deserving local businesses.
Albertson’s, the Racetrac and the Walgreens on Thomas Street, Raising Cane’s and Emery & James each earned their own Spirit Award over the past few months and were rewarded with a photo shoot with Roomie and the Spirit Squad on Oct. 12.
“The Spirit Award was started back in 2011,” said Charlotte Banks, the executive director of the Hammond Chamber of Commerce. “It actually was an idea of our chairman at the time, Chris Moody. Part of its theme was ‘Go Green,’ which was thinking about recycling, thinking about supporting our university, thinking about having a green economy for the Hammond community. It started off as just talking about it, just figuring out what else could we do as a chamber to support Southeastern, education and our Hammond community, and we sat around and brainstormed ideas, and the whole idea is to just rally around supporting our local university because Southeastern is a huge economic engine for the Hammond community.”
The Spirit Award is given to one local business that shows Southeastern pride during each month of the spring, summer and fall semesters.  
“We came up with the slogan ‘Our Town, Our Team’ and it’s to support Southeastern throughout the year, not just during the time that school is in,” said Banks. “It’s to make sure that the community is supporting Southeastern, whether we are filling the bleachers at games, to just making sure that you’re doing donations, sponsorships of some form, visiting the Columbia Theatre, every facet of supporting our university here.”
On Saturdays during football season, Albertson’s gives anyone wearing a Southeastern shirt 10 percent off their groceries.
“It feels awesome. This is the second year that we’ve won a Spirit Award,” said Kevin Brunelle, the Hammond Albertson’s store manager. “We won it two years in a row, and the anticipation is to win it every year. Every year we plan on having the football tailgate party here at Albertson’s. We cook for everybody. If you show your Southeastern ID, you got yourself a free hamburger and a drink. We plan on doing that. We plan on being big supporters of Southeastern from now until the end of time.”
At the Racetrac on Thomas St. anyone who shows their Southeastern ID can get a free drink.
“Southeastern is obviously the home town team, and we’re excited to be involved in whatever is going on at Southeastern,” said Jon Bergeron, the store manager at Racetrac. “We’re excited about it because being associated with Southeastern is huge for us.”
Raising Cane’s shows Southeastern spirit through their restaurant decorations.
“Cane’s is very pleased to have received the Southeastern Spirit Award in April,” said Cody Yawn, the general manager at Raising Cane’s and a Southeastern alumnus. “We are very happy with our partnership with Southeastern and the Hammond Chamber of Commerce, and we look forward to continue working with them throughout the years.”
Walgreens sells Southeastern merchandise for reasonable prices.
“It was a great experience having Roomie come visit us,” said Donald Hetrick, the store manager at Walgreens. “We are a great supporter of Southeastern fans and the teams. We’re just glad this is the first time we have won the award.”
Emery & James, an insurance company in Hammond, is owned by two Hammond Chamber of Commerce members who show great support for the university.
“I just appreciate the support from Southeastern, and we would do anything we can for Southeastern,” said Brian Gohres, an employee at Emery & James.
Other locations that will be receiving Spirit Awards within the next week are Eddie’s Frozen Custard, the other Raising Cane’s in Hammond, the Racetrac location across from the mall and Bayou Booksellers, which is the recipient of the award for this month.