Help with JApplet

I need to write an event driven JApplet, with 15 labeled buttons. The buttons say nearly identical things, with the exception of a number. I do not want to write them individually, and I need to know a way I can group them in a JApplet.

Essentially I need a way I can just write one string such as:
buttons [i] = new JButton ("Seat " + (i+1) + " is open.");
and have it label all the buttons.

I have an hour to figure out how to do this.
Help is greatly appreciated.

>>24

Yeah, sorry if that sounds weird.

I just need something to call in buttons [i] to the if-else statement of this code:

>>22

The code was originally written for a Java Class and now I'm converting it to a JApplet.
I don't know if I would call in buttons [i] with some form of e.getActionCommand or not. I just assumed it would be because that's how the other buttons are called upon.