corporate care

Nonprofit Organizations Heat Up This Winter

Neal Harris Services Experts provide assistance to area nonprofit organizations.

 
Winter can be brutal, even fatal, for people without heat. This winter, however, many of the people who rely on area nonprofit organizations to help get them through the winter are getting a helping hand from the Severe Weather Action Team of Neal Harris Service Experts. Always an active player in enhancing the quality of people's lives, Neal Harris Service Experts is committed to supporting those in need in the Kansas City area. "This community is very important to us," explained Steve Burbridge, president of Neal Harris Service Experts. "We couldn't have been successful for 50 years without the support of the people here. SWAT is just one of the ways we can show our appreciation."

On September 14, 2000, Neal Harris Service Experts donated a day of heating system maintenance to help nonprofit organizations in Kansas City prepare for winter. These organizations have limited funding and can ill afford a costly repair on their heating systems. Since about two-thirds of heating and cooling equipment repairs can be prevented by regular system maintenance, having furnaces checked and filters cleaned or changed before the cold sets in will help these organizations and the people they serve to get through the winter.

Working with local gas service providers, Neal Harris Service Experts contacted nearly 40 nonprofit organizations in the Kansas City area to ensure that their heating system maintenance needs were being met. The following six nonprofit organizations received comprehensive tune-ups in September from Neal Harris' SWAT: City Union Mission in downtown Kansas City; Rose Brooks Center for Domestic Violence Intervention in midtown; the Bridge Group Home for Boys and Girls in midtown; Friends of Yates in Kansas City, Kansas; Safehome in Johnson County; and the homes of some Bishop Sullivan Center clients in eastern Kansas City.

On that one day in September, Neal Harris' SWAT serviced nearly 50 furnaces and clocked 80 labor hours. Technicians cleaned and checked the systems, changed the filters, performed system tune-ups and repairs. Some of the repairs included replacing thermocouples, thermostats, condensate hoses, a limit switch and a blower motor as well as installing multiple carbon monoxide detectors. And even a potentially dangerous situation was discovered and corrected - a clothes dryer had been vented into the same chimney as the furnace.

"The technicians spent many hours here cleaning all of our furnaces," said Lorraine Minor, Director of Family Center (City Union Mission). "They also helped with some air conditioning problems we'd been having. Our maintenance director, Dennis Brehm, was beside himself with excitement. It is such a comfort to know that our systems are now clean and safe."

The SWAT Day effort involved nearly everyone in the company to some degree. Trained, professional technicians performed the actual service work while others (including department heads) assisted these technicians, coordinated the process, or worked to ensure that other service calls were still addressed in the company's usual timely manner.

This winter, when the weather hits extreme low temperatures, the SWAT could mobilize again in case any of these nonprofit organizations are faced with a no-heat situation. "An activity like this is good for everyone," said Burbridge. "The technicians get to help people who really need it, the company gets to give back to the community, and the people we service can rest a little easier."