AREA — The word is spreading about Lennox’s “Feel the Love” program to install free heating and air conditioning unit replacements for deserving individuals and organizations who are nominated, and last week, the company worked with three separate local contractors to complete projects — two in Marshalltown and one in Albion.

It started in Marshalltown on Tuesday morning with Shawn May, who lives on North Third Street and was nominated by his pastor at Journey Church, Jacob Rahrig. Kapaun and Brown of Marshalltown completed the installation.

Rahrig said he nominated May, who drives for Schwanz, because he has worked with him on fixing up his home and wants to help him make it better for his future family.

“I heard about this opportunity through Sam (Wiese) and said I knew somebody I could nominate,” Rahrig said.

Above all else, May simply felt grateful.

“It means a lot. I’m very thankful for something like this to actually happen to me. I hear things like this happen to other people but never happened to me,” he said. “We’re working towards (the future). Doesn’t look like it now, but.”

On Wednesday, Marge Hurley of Albion, who was nominated by her daughter Ashley Anderson, received new systems through Hardon’s of Tama. Hurley uses oxygen and has been widowed since her husband Terry passed away last year, and she admitted that just about everything has been more difficult in his absence.

“He was my caregiver. I’m in a state now where I’m waiting for medical help, and we don’t know for sure how long that’ll be,” she said. “I’m the type of person that I don’t look out for myself. I’m always looking out for everybody else, and apparently, I had a little lady that knew of my situation, Terry being gone so suddenly and winter coming on and I don’t have the extra hands to do any of this stuff. And financially, I’ve taken a big hit. It’s cut everything in half, so there’s an angel out there, I tell you. I have an angel, and I think her name might be Ashley. I’m pretty sure her name is Ashley, and she’s been my guardian angel since Terry’s been gone.”

Her kids have even set up a “Mom needs” chat so that anytime she’s running low or out of something, they’ll take care of it for her. Of course, something like replacing a furnace and air conditioner requires a substantially larger investment, but that’s where Lennox and Hardon’s stepped in to lend a hand.

Anderson heard about the program through a previous story in the T-R earlier this year and thought her mom would be a perfect candidate.

“I just kind of read into it and I was like ‘Well, she could use that.’ Terry had just passed away, maybe a month before that, and I knew that all of her stuff was older since I grew up in the house too,” she said. “(And) knowing that she, financially, has been struggling with other issues that if she were to have an issue like that, lose her furnace or her AC, with her health, she has to have both. She can’t deal with the heat in the summer and then obviously in Iowa winters.”

On Thursday, Lennox partnered with B&G HVAC to complete a replacement at the Animal Rescue League of Marshalltown, which actually utilizes multiple furnaces and air conditioners due to the size of the facility. Cindy Brodin, an ARL board member who has attended several of the “Feel the Love” installations, nominated the organization, and interim Executive Director Deirdre Gruendler was thankful that they were able to make it happen.

“This is huge — more efficient, help us with cost, make sure that we’re gonna get through the winter and next summer safely for our animals, so having the heat and the air conditioning from Lennox. We’re so grateful to our friends at B&G for taking the application through and our friend Cindy for spotting the opportunity,” Gruendler said. “This is great. We love cash donations. We love donations of things that we use. We had cat litter come in earlier, and having a local company like Lennox really think about their hometown is a huge gift.”

Nominations are always being accepted, and they can be submitted at https://www.feelthelove.com/.

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Contact Robert Maharry at 641-753-6611 ext. 255 or

rmaharry@timesrepublican.com.