T-R PHOTO BY NICK BAUR Tami Rogers (wearing glasses and headband) stands alongside her daughter and Cindy Brodin backdropped by B&G employees and realtor Matt Brodin after the installation of Rogers’ new heating and cooling system Thursday.

Two local businesses joined forces this past week to provide Marshalltown resident Tami Rogers a brand new heating and cooling system in her home as part of Lennox’s Feel The Love community program.

Rogers moved to Marshalltown from Georgia in 2017, where she bought a home and settled in the northwest quadrant of the city. But as the years passed, she began to lose her vision, now nearing the point of total blindness, which forced her out of the workforce.

She then also began to notice that her heating and cooling system in her home was not working properly, and as a result, it was costing her a pretty penny.

“I’m disabled now, and disability checks don’t get very far,” Rogers said. “It was expensive, because I was having to run it more than you normally would.”

Even after spending hundreds of dollars last year to try to extend the life of her system, Rogers said the cost of the repairs put her “in a bad binding” and took several months to pay off with her fixed income. Additionally, she says, it would still, “run constantly” but “never really felt like it was.”

“It just wasn’t efficient, even after having it fixed,” she said.

With each month becoming more and more costly, and with very little flexibility to upgrade to a new system, Rogers admits she was preparing for the worst.

“I would have had to have done without,” she said.

It was here that Matt Brodin, the Marshalltown real estate agent who sold Rogers her home, stepped in and nominated her for Lennox’s Feel The Love program.

The program provides HVAC equipment, support, and tools to regional HVAC outlets, who then donate their time, labor, and supplies to install the systems into nominated homeowners residences, all free of charge.

For Rogers, who became visibly emotional talking about the donation, the new system was life changing and took her completely by surprise.

“​​It’s just a huge blessing,” Rogers said. “Not only because of the people who are donating their time, donating their equipment, but the community that saw fit to do it for me, and Matt [Brodin] who saw fit to nominate me… I feel completely embraced by the community.”

She joked that the only thing she has ever wanted in her entire life was a “Romeo and Juliet” poster in the seventh grade, and now for her to be receiving this significant, transformative donation, she said, “I still cannot believe it.”

Particularly meaningful for Rogers is the peace of mind now provided to the homeowner.

“I don’t have to worry. Every single season I would be like, ‘Is it gonna work? Is the heater gonna work?'” she said. “I’m still kind of in shock… It has literally changed my life, and it’ll just continue to do so.”

As Chad Gauthier, co-owner of B&G HVAC, said, the local outlet was more than willing to lend their time to a local in need.

“It’s a great program that Lennox provides,” said Chad “We’re very happy to be a part of it.”

For more information about the Feel the Love program or to nominate someone in need in the community, visit feelthelove.com.

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Contact Nick Baur at 641-753-6611 or nbaur@timesrepublican.com