BRONX, NY – January 4, 2017 – The Oil Heat Cares Foundation, an initiative of the National Association of Oil & Energy Service Professionals (OESP), is bringing much more than New Year’s well-wishes to an appreciative family in the Bronx. It all happens Thursday, January 5, with the installation of a much-needed boiler.
When homeowner Milagros Orizal was told by her service provider last month that her boiler was leaking, she realized the problem had the potential to not only to ruin her holidays, but to render her home uninhabitable. Orizal and her mother, of Parkchester in the Bronx, both live on fixed-income disability pensions. Installing a new boiler – an expense of $9,000 – was simply out of their budget.
Faced with the prospect of living without heat or hot water for months on end, and feeling she had no where else to turn, Orizal contacted Pete Gonzalez, owner and CEO of Pete Gonzalez Heating Co. in Morris Park and a full-time vocational instructor at Bronx Design and Construction Academy High School.
Gonzalez, a member of the New York City chapter of OESP who had patched up the family’s old boiler in the past to give it as much life as possible, encouraged Orizal to apply for a grant through “Oil Heat Cares,” the OESP’s national charity.
“As soon as I read the Orizal family’s grant application, I knew it was another perfect opportunity for Oil Heat Cares to step in,” Gonzalez said. “This is an opportunity to literally give a family their home back at the beginning of winter.”
Orizal’s application was quickly approved, and within days, she learned she would become the proud owner of a new boiler and related equipment. Students at Bronx Design and Construction Academy High School, supervised by Gonzalez and other industry professionals, will donate their time to install the new heating system on Thursday, January 5.
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