Moroko is the MCC’s 2024 Firefighter of the Year
By Tim Hadac
Managing Editor
Southwest Chicago Post
Garfield Ridge resident Lisa Moroko was taken aback when she learned she is the Midway Chamber of Commerce’s 2024 Firefighter of the Year.
“I said, ‘Are you sure? I’m fresh, I’m just four years on the job.’”
 |
| Lisa Moroko and her son, Lucas. |
The man who nominated her, Garfield Ridge resident Mike Doherty, the MCC’s 2022 Firefighter of the Year, was sure.
“She’s a good kid…smart, capable, the type of person who can get the job done,” he says. “I see her career moving forward in the years ahead. I have no doubt she’ll be a success…she is proof that good people live here among us in the neighborhood.”
Moroko is a lifelong resident of the community. She attended St. Symphorosa School and then went to Mother McAuley High School, where she graduated in 2006.
For a handful of years, she worked as a hair stylist, but she decided to go to school to train as an EMT with an eye on eventually going to nursing school.
“But I wanted to be a paramedic. I really wanted to be a paramedic,” she says. “I started doing ride time in the suburbs (with the Summit Fire Department) because I had to do it for school, and I was like, ‘I love this.’ It was awesome, just so different—and that’s when I decided to take the [Fire Department] test for Chicago (in 2014).”
Back home, her dad, Rick (a city Water Department employee), was skeptical.
“I was saying, ‘I’m going to be a fireman. I’m going to be a fireman.’ And my dad’s like, ‘Uh huh. Uh huh.’ A hair stylist going to be a fireman. Crazy, right? So he’s like, ‘I don’t know. Really? Really?’ And I said, ‘This is amazing. I’m doing this.’”
And do it she did.
It took a few years for her to get the call, but it came. She went through the CFD academy, and she started on the job on July 22, 2020.
Currently, she works as a part of Engine 13, Battalion 1, downtown near Columbus and Wacker.
The camaraderie impresses her.
“I’m so glad I’m there,” Moroko says. “I am so lucky with the guys I work with. They are the most respectful. I mean, I played sports (water polo) in high school. It’s not like I was some kind of girly-girl.
“I enjoy spending time with them. We’ve all become friends. We hang around outside of work.”
While she acknowledges the value of helping people in emergency situations, in their time of need, she also mentions the rush.
“It’s the excitement, the adrenaline,” she says. “When you roll out of that firehouse, you never know exactly what you’ll find when you arrive at the scene [of the emergency call]. You never know what you’re going to get. You may wind up saving someone’s life, or you may be in a position where it’s not going to go so well.
“Not everything [about being a firefighter] is exciting, of course. But when it’s exciting, it’s exciting.”
MCC President Mary Ellen Brown says the Chamber’s members “are grateful for the role firefighters play in saving lives and protecting property. We take comfort in the wealth of firefighters, police officers and other public-safety workers living among us here in the Midway area. They help make this part of Chicago a better place for everyone. That’s why we established the Firefighter of the Year award. We recognize that and want to encourage that.”
Lisa Moroko, the Midway Chamber of Commerce’s 2024 Firefighter of the Year, with her son, Lucas.
Lisa Moroko, the Midway Chamber of Commerce’s 2024 Firefighter of the Year, with her son, Lucas.
No comments:
Post a Comment