MELBOURNE — Donny Zahnd hadn’t been feeling quite right for almost a year before he finally went to a doctor and received an official cancer diagnosis in August, but the substation electrician who resides on Main Street in Melbourne isn’t the type of guy to let it slow him down.

On Friday afternoon, Zahnd, thanks to his friend and ULCS/ITC coworker Gary Sargent, a Marshalltown native, got a new furnace installed at no cost by Hardon’s Plumbing, Heating, Electrical and Air Conditioning of Tama through Lennox’s “Feel the Love” program, which has benefited homeowners in communities across the area such as Marshalltown, Albion and Tama over the last few years.

“This is beyond anything I ever thought would happen,” Zahnd said.

When he started to feel sick and lose a lot of weight, Sargent got on Zahnd’s case about going to the Mayo Clinic and getting a physical to find out what was wrong. Sargent had a previous connection with Hardon’s Owner Marty Hardon, who had worked on his house in the past, and he knew Zahnd needed some work done due to flooding in his basement.

Hardon quickly decided it would be a “perfect” project for Feel the Love, and they got the ball rolling to make the installation happen.

“We’re always looking for the right opportunity to help somebody, and it’s difficult to find that. We work with a lot of state agencies, and there’s always a list. So when you find someone that has a need, that’s where this program really works well because I can go to Lennox and say ‘I found this guy. He needs this,’ and it’s the best application of everything when you can do it like this and help somebody that you know,” Hardon said. “I knew Donnie before. We actually ran duct work in his house several years ago.”

Originally, Hardon had planned to simply donate the parts to get Zahnd’s unit working, but when he was working on a Feel the Love project in Tama, he realized nominations were still open and submitted one on the day of the deadline. There hadn’t been many in the area up to that point, so Hardon hopes more deserving candidates will emerge in the weeks and months to come.

To nominate an individual, business or organization, visit feelthelove.com or contact a local Lennox dealer.

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Contact Robert Maharry

at 641-753-6611 ext. 255 or

rmaharry@timesrepublican.com.