Lemont Teen Revamps Fire Department Website

As a senior, Danny Banas has already accomplished more than some adults.

When he's not in class, Banas serves as the president of the school's Future Business Leaders of America chapter, and performs community service through Mission Possible and the National Honor Society. He also holds a job at the Lemont Park District, and has started his own DJ business, DJ-Danny.

Last semester, Banas took his professional interests a step further by continuing his studies in the school's Web Design & Development track. As part of his Independent Study program, he was given the opportunity to redesign the website for the .

Banas's teacher, John Aspel, said he was contacted several months ago by Lemont Fire Chief Carl Churulo, who was looking for someone to update the site.

"We've done things like this is the past, most recently with the Lemont Police Department website, which we launched last year," Aspel said. "Danny happened to be the only student in my Independent Study, so we sat down to see what was needed and whether he could handle the work."

What was needed, Churulo said, was for the website to become more "functional" and "user-friendly."

"We needed to get rid of the broken links and outdated information," he said. "I talked with (Lemont Police Chief Kevin Shaughnessy) about the work the high school kids did on their site, and I knew they would be able to do a nice job for us."

For the better part of three months, Banas produced drafts for Churulo, Deputy Chief Jay Nickleski and the department's information technology specialist, Fernando Alfonso. The goal was to keep the basic framework of the site and update it to make it more efficient and easier to use, Banas said.

"I enjoyed the challenge," he said. "It was definitely great to apply what I had learned in previous classes to a real-life project that actually benefits the community."

The website, www.lemontfire.com, was finished by January, and officially launched March 23.

Aspel said he was proud of Banas for all his work, a sentiment that was shared by Lemont Fire officials.

"With technology today, young kids are away ahead of us, and Lemont High School kids are fantastic," Churulo said. "Danny did a really nice job."

Banas, who hopes to run his own business in the future, said he enjoyed the experience and was proud to produce something the public could use.

"It's cool to see the finished product, and I really enjoyed working with Chief Churulo and Mr. Aspel," Banas said. "Design is definitely something I hope to apply in my future career."