They’ve got him covered.
A 72-year-old Ranchero resident has a new roof, thanks to the thoughtfulness and generosity of several local businesses.
Following last fall’s home show, Integrity Roofing contractor Josh Bickle visited Dale Hanson’s home to give him a quote on a new roof.
Bickle saw that the shingles were so worn, the underlying plywood was clearly visible. He left a quote and a month later, when he hadn’t heard from the Ranchero resident, he drove by to see if the work had gone to another company. Three more drive-bys during the winter and Bickle took his wife’s advice to ask Hanson why he hadn’t had his roof repaired.
Hanson, whose only source of income is his old age pension, told him simply that he could not afford the $4,300 needed to do the job properly.
That bothered Bickle who shared his concerns with Joel De Boer, contract sales manager for Rona Salmon Arm, and told him he was going to do the roof for the senior without charge.
“I told Josh I would help him in any way I could,” says De Boer, who previously worked for Rona in Kelowna where the company is very involved in community. “That’s what I would like for this store, and general manager Gary Hoult backed me up all the way.”
De Boer called GAF, his roofing supplier, who willingly came onboard with a promise to donate half the needed materials.
“So between GAF and myself, I told Josh we would supply the roofing material so there would be no cost to him,” says De Boer.
But the generosity didn’t stop there.
De Boer passed the word along to Tybro Construction owner Ken Christensen, who supplied the plywood for the new roof and turned up Monday with his son TJ to help.
“This is the way a roof should be built,” said a thrilled Hanson, watching the crew installing new shingles. “This is awesome; I haven’t had anything like this happen to me before.”
