A family facing big costs to renovate their home in order to make it wheelchair accessible for their daughter, is getting some help in the form of a new furnace from a London company.
Larry and Yvonne Kalybaba will have to make changes to their home as two-year-old Natalia, who suffers from cerebral palsy and is legally blind, grows up.
They also have a four-year-old son at home and manage on one income.
Yvonne says “It feels good that there’s that many people that have it in their heart to help out.”
Larry says “I thought she was joking around at first and she kept telling me no, no, no that’s what it is and I was very grateful and happy.”
When the Service Experts, a heating and air conditioning service firm in London, learned about the situation, they decided to try to figure out how to donate $7,000 in equipment, including a new furnace to the family.
The Kalybaba family had called the company in to provide a quote on a new furnace, but when the sales consultant learned about their daughter, she thought there might be something they could do.
Peter Inch, area operations manager for Service Experts, asked Lennox to donate the unit as part of the ‘Hugs’ program with the company taking care of the installation.
Inch says “They said yes and we talked to all of our installers to see if they would donate their time and every one of them said yes and they’re all here today helping out.”
On Friday the new furnace, as well as a humidifier provided by Service Experts, were installed at the Kalybaba home.
And a partner company, Northern Interiors, is removing asbestos from the home at no charge.
Future renovations for the home will have to include decks, ramps and wider doorways for when Natalia starts using a wheelchair.
But for now the family says finding out there are people happy to help, is the best gift they could have received.
“That’s probably one of the best things that’s happened since Natalia’s been born,” Yvonne says.
