Published: November 24, 2009 08:33 pm         

Servpro provides holiday food baskets for Terre Haute fire stations

TERRE HAUTE — Terre Haute firefighters are getting a little extra food to snack on for the Thanksgiving holiday.

Servpro, a local fire, water and mold restoration business, has provided food baskets for all eight Terre Haute fire stations plus the main Fire Department headquarters.

“It’s a good tradition,” said Jenny DeSanto, director of marketing for the business. “We want to keep telling them what a great job they are doing.”

This is the second year Servpro has provided the baskets, which contain cheese, crackers, chocolate, summer sausage and a ham, to city firefighters. The tradition started last year as a way for Servpro to thank firefighters for all of their extra work due to the June 2008 flooding.

The food in the baskets is designed to last three shifts at each fire station, DeSanto said. However, it’s hard to know how much is left for the third shift, she admitted. That may be something Servpro will want to look into, she said, smiling.

Servpro, which employs about 25 people in Terre Haute, provides restoration services in Vigo, Parke, Sullivan, Clay and Vermillion counties.

Firefighters “kind of go underappreciated, I guess,” DeSanto said as she put the finishing touches on the last of the baskets for delivery Tuesday morning. Firefighters work on Thanksgiving Day and Servpro hopes the food baskets make working the holiday a little more bearable. “We hope it gives them something to look forward to,” she said.

In 2008, Servpro purchased 10,000 ISU basketball tickets to provide free tickets to fans. The business owners, Chad and Natalie Overton, are ISU graduates.

Arthur Foulkes can be reached at (812) 231-4232 or arthur.foulkes@tribstar.com.