Abbotsford resident Cory Hoffman didn’t know she’d been nominated for the Gandy Installations “Feel The Love” initiative until Shannon Gandy phoned her from the Langley-based business to tell her the news.
Hoffman had heard about the program that provides state-of-the-art heating and cooling system upgrades to deserving people — she’d even joked about getting a friend to nominate her.
Her granddaughter, Maddie Chamberlin, did just that, but decided not to tell her grandmother so she wouldn’t be disappointed if she didn’t get it.
“Did you enter in the contest?,” an amazed Hoffman asked Maddie.
“Well, yes I did,” Maddie replied.
“What did you tell them?”
“Everything.”
How Maddie, 15, and her younger sister Payton, 13, ended up being raised by Cory, their grandmother, after they ended up in foster care.
How her grandmother gave up what Maddie describes as a “free life” to become a full-time parent, again.
“She was driving a sports car, she was travelling,” Maddie said.
“She’s really kind,” Maddie told the Langley Advance Times.
“I’m very grateful.”
Cory was in shock.
“I was crying, I was laughing, I was hugging this kid,” she recalled.
Their house gets extremely hot during summer months, enough to melt candles without a flame.
Cory has seen the indoor thermostat climb all the way to 99 degrees, and has been told it would likely be even higher except for the fact the display was limited to that upper number.
A central cooling system would help, Maddie felt.
“I thought it would benefit everyone in the house,” she said.
On Saturday, Oct. 15, Gandy general manager Taylor Gandy, along with a crew of volunteers from the company, showed up and installed a central air conditioning system.
“It’s great to see a family that really deserves it, get something they need,”Gandy said.
“We look forward to this every year.”
A grateful Cory baked them all muffins.
“They’re just incredible,” she said of the Gandy crew.
For the “Feel the Love” initiative, the Lennox company provides brand new high-efficiency furnaces, and participating dealers across Canada and the U.S. donate the installation materials and labour, all free of charge to deserving nominees.
READ ALSO: Aldergrove pensioner ‘Feels the Love’
In 2018, the first time Gandy Installations had a nominee accepted by the Lennox Feel the Love committee, the beneficiary was an Aldergrove pensioner named Sam, who’d been getting by with electric space heaters after his furnace packed it in several years previously.
In 2021, a non-functioning furnace was replaced for a family of four.
READ ALSO: VIDEO: ‘Feel The Love’ initiative comes to the aid of Langley family left without heat
Gandy Installations is a family-operated business started by Charlie Gandy and Ken Atwell in 1957.
Charlie’s son Chuck is the current owner-operator, and his grandson Taylor is general manager.
Have a story tip? Email: dan.ferguson@langleyadvancetimes.com
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