‘He’d be very happy’: Widow of Prince Albert teacher receives free air-conditioning

Representatives from Thorpe Brothers and Lennox with Violet Thunderchild

Prince Albert -

A Prince Albert resident has received free air-conditioning from the Feel the Love program.

This program is a collaboration between Lennox International and Thorpe Brothers Ltd. Lennox provides the equipment and Thorpe Brothers install it free of charge for the winner.

The winner is chosen from a pool of candidates nominated by the community. The winning person or family is considered a community hero, volunteer or someone who needs it most.

Winner Violet Thunderchild runs a daycare in her home and says she’s thankful about being chosen.

“It was really, really hot summers and I don’t have much of an airflow going through the house even with the windows open. So I have a daycare in my home and the kids complain that it’s hot,” said Thunderchild.

“I’m so grateful and I know we’re going to be comfortable in the summer now with the air-conditioning.”

Thunderchild is the widow of Victor Thunderchild, an educator who was recognized posthumously as an outstanding Indigenous educator by the Canadian Teachers’ Federation.

Victor succumbed to COVID-19 in 2021.

Violet says the air-conditioning will be a great help to her in the days ahead.

“Moving forward that’s a big one because my husband passed. I know he’s probably smiling down and saying thank you, too, but it really helps because I did look into getting air-conditioning and I just couldn’t afford it.”

Thorpe Brothers has been doing the program in with Lennox since last year and this will be the second installation that they have done.

“Today we are doing a free installation of an air-conditioner for Violet Thunderchild who currently runs a daycare in her house and has been giving in the community volunteer work, working with lots of youths over the years. And it feels really good to acknowledge the work that she and her late husband, Victor, have been doing and do something for them,” said Colin Thorpe, Manager with Thorpe Brothers.

Thorpe says he hopes to do one installation every year for as long as the program continues to run.

Lennox, on the other hand, has been doing the project with other partners in Saskatchewan for six years.

“This is just a special program to help people in need, volunteers, first responders, people that help out in the community, that’s really who we want to help,” said Cam Yelenik, Territory Manager with Lennox.

“(Violet) has been a wonderful candidate for this Feel the Love program and we want to continue doing this to help out the community.”