On Sept. 30 the Fire Department station located on North Oakes Street was awarded the Southeastern Spirit Award during a Chamber of Commerce luncheon at Twelve Oaks.

The Southeastern Spirit Award is an award given to a local business that goes above and beyond in it support of the university. The award was presented to Assistant Chief Stormy Lee, Captain John Thomas and Chris Ferrara, owner of Ferrara Fire Apparatus due to their creation and use of a Southeastern fire truck decorated with the university’s colors, athletics logo and realistic lion motifs.

“We worked really hard on getting this accomplished, with painting the fire truck and showing the support,” said Lee. “We kept fighting and fighting because the Southeastern University means a whole lot to the city of Hammond. We’re showing spirit of Southeastern University through sporting green and gold on the fire truck.”

The Southeastern Spirit Award began this year and is given monthly by the Hammond Chamber of Commerce and the university. The City of Hammond Fire Department was the fourth business to receive this award.

According to Lee the most challenging aspect of winning this award was raising enough money to pay for the paint. Lee, Thomas and Ferrara had been working on getting the fire truck painted green and gold since May of 2008, shortly after they first got the truck.  

“We had to go through a whole bunch of different things to get the money to pay for the paint,” said Lee.  “On behalf of the fire department we just wanted to show that we are supporters of Southeastern University, but the city couldn’t pay for the paint job.”

As a result of conversation between Lee and President John Crain, Southeastern gave the fire department the money needed to pay for the paint.

 “We got a plaque and a banner,” said Lee. “We put the banner up in front of the station.”

This banner can be seen from the main entrance of campus on Oak Street.

For more information about the Southeastern Spirit Award call the Hammond Chamber of Commerce at 985-345-4457.