Oil Heat Cares

Judy Garber

The Oil Heat Cares project is off to a great start. What prompted me to write this message is that I am in the process of opening the mail and found a nice note and a check for $1,000.00 from one of our 30 chapters. The Central MA Chapter contributed $1000.00 to the Oil Heat Cares Fund. A couple of weeks ago the NH/VT Chapter donated $1000.00 and I learned recently that OMA (Oil Heat Manufacturers) is also making a nice contribution. When this industry project started, the goal was and is to get our chapters to identify and work together to install oil heating equipment in the homes of people that temporarily need that helping hand. Well, our chapters are going beyond that - they are doing the work but also contributing money.

Every week I hear about another job either being started or in the "idea" stage. The manufacturers have been great to. The point of raising funds is to purchase the needed equipment at reduced pricing from manufacturers. But we are finding that many of them are very happy to simply donate the equipment.

How can you get involved? Attend a benefit seminar - our next 2-day event benefit seminar will be held June 14-15th at the New England Institute of Technology, Warwick RI.

Stay tuned to the unveiling of the oilheatcares.com website - anyday now. The site will include photos of jobs and recognition to the many folks that have contributed time and money to fund raising.

Thanks to everybody for their help and support.

matt scott

I would like to hear more about the program. More specifically, the nature of the seminars. As well as the exact time and dates of them. I'm curious wether the work is primarily in New England. If so I may donate some time. And also attend the seminars.

Judy Garber

Seminars

Matt, 1st of all, the Oilheat Cares project involves the entire oilheating industry. This project started in May 2005. We started raising funds and challenging our chapters to get involved in their neighborhoods. The recipients are identified by folks in our industry, churches, etc. They are folks that just need a temporary helping hand. So far, many vendors have donated equipment and we try to get additional equipment at a reduced rate (this the need for funds)and the work is done by volunteers. We don't expect manufacturers to continually donate projects but honestly, they always seem to be willing.

As far as the seminars - we get 8 speakers to donate their time. Each seminar is about 2 hours. These are all recognized speakers that do excellent training. They might be independent consultants or manufacturers. So far for the one in Rhode Island, we've got Dan, Alan Mercurio, George Lanthier, Bob Hedden, John Levey and a rep from Field Controls and we'll have 2 additional topics/speakers. In Baltimore, the format worked out very well.

Hopefully this answered your question Matt, if not, feel free to post a response or call me at 888-552-0900. Thanks for your interest.