SILVERHILL, Alabama — John Eringman is no stranger to hard work.

A native of St. Petersburg, Fla., Eringman’s father, who worked for the Army Corps of Engineers, moved the family to Fairhope when he was in the sixth grade.

After dropping out of school at age 16, Eringman got married, earned his GED and went to work for Delchamp’s where he worked for almost 10 years.

“I realized after working 121 hours one week that I needed to do something else,” he said.

So he saved up enough money to go back to school, earning his associates degree from Faulkner State and a Bachelor of Science degree in bank depository finance from the University of South Alabama.

After leaving Delchamp’s he went to work for the Best Western Battleship Inn to pay for his last year at USA and got a job as a teller with Regions Bank in Mobile shortly after graduation.

He worked in various departments at the bank for almost 10 more years, but in December of 2006 found himself once again looking for work.

“After Regions merged with AmSouth, certain departments were centralized,” he said. “Unfortunately my department was one of them.”

So in 2007, he got an opportunity to work for United Bank, starting out in Atmore before moving to Bay Minette and finally to Silverhill about two years ago.

“I really love it here,” he said. “I love what I do and I love helping people.”

Eringman was named assistant manager for loans in 2011 and recently was given the opportunity to go back to school to earn his master’s degree.

Eringman is certainly no stranger to work and about a year ago, he decided he wanted to put his work ethic to further use, volunteering with the Central Baldwin Chamber of Commerce.

“I had only been here about 10 months and I just wanted to do something more to help out,” he said.

So he approached his boss at the time, Russ Banks.

“I knew that many of our front-office staff volunteered with the Chamber and I asked him as long as I didn’t spend any money, could I do the same. He said sure,” Eringman said.

Eringman contacted co-worker Charlie Crocker, who volunteers with the Chamber and will serve on the Chamber’s Board of Directors this year and asked how he could help.

“I don’t have a lot of money, but what I can give is my time,” he said. “God has blessed me with the ability to work and I get a lot of satisfaction out of helping people.”

So Eringman went to work, volunteering with the Chamber. He began helping with the Chamber’s monthly Business After Hours and Third Thursday breakfast meetings. He also volunteered for trash duty during the Chamber’s annual Flavors of the South event.

“I get a schedule by email once a month telling me what events are coming up,” he said. “Then I go to my boss and coordinate my schedule so that I can be available to volunteer. So far, it hasn’t been a problem.”

When the Chamber Annual Banquet rolled around this year on Thursday, Jan. 17, Eringman was again available to help out. His wife, Stephanie, was there too helping out.

When his mom came, he thought that was a little odd, but they said since he was volunteering and didn’t need a ticket, she was able to come using his ticket.

“It sounded plausible to me,” he said.

When he noticed several of his co-workers there, including some former bosses, he didn’t really think anything of it.

“United Bank had a table there, so I figured they were there along with the company,” he said.

Eringman was too busy to think about it anyway, helping out with the setup, whatever needed to be done to help the Chamber.

Then the program started. The first award of the evening was to be given to the Volunteer of the Year.

A short way into his introduction, David Garbo mentioned that the recipient had attended the University of South Alabama about 12 years ago.

“I thought, ‘I may have gone to school with that person. That sounds like about the time I would have been a student there,’” Eringman said.

But then, when he started talking about Regions and United Bank, Eringman had a sudden realization.

“I turned and looked at my wife and she had a big grin on her face,” he said. “’He’s talking about me isn’t he.’ She said, ‘I’m sorry I couldn’t tell you.’”

In the end, Eringman had to go to the front to accept his award as Central Baldwin’s 2012 Volunteer of the Year.

“I didn’t really know what to do,” he said. “(Chamber Director of Operations) Jamie (Mangion) said I had to go up on stage and have my picture taken, so I did, but I couldn’t say anything. It was just so overwhelming.”

His award now has a special place of honor in his home, which he shares with his wife, a daughter from a previous marriage, Alexis, 10; and three step-children, Stephanie’s children, Brittany, Cassidy and Heather. Eringman also has a son from a previous marriage, John Roach’e, who is 24.

He and his family attend Lighthouse Baptist Church on County Road 64 between Loxley and Rosinton.

“It’s such a huge honor,” he says of his award. “I enjoy working with the Chamber and love working with the people there. I love getting to work with such a diverse group of people and we all get along so well. I’m a positive person and this is such a positive atmosphere to work in.”