Batavia business owner gives back with new furnace for struggling family

When you're living in crisis, every bump in the road is a crater.

So when Susan Weiss' 20-year-old furnace began clunking a few months ago, she sensed disaster.

Who could blame her?

To Weiss, the last five years seemed to bring only increasing amounts of heartache. And, sadly, she was getting used to it.

She and her husband, Michael, had struggled to get their daughter Amanda back on her feet. Amanda developed chronic fatigue syndrome in 2003 and it left her unable to work or go to school for two years. Susan Weiss also had cared for her father when he was dying of cancer, then saw him buried.

And in 2006, the couple's now 19-year-old son Zachary fell ill suddenly and was diagnosed with a rare, life-threatening disease that has no known cure.

As if that's not enough, the medical bills are beyond ridiculous, and there remains a healthy son, 16-year-old Christopher, who like any teen requires attention and nurturing. Meanwhile, Michael Weiss works two jobs. Susan Weiss runs a home sewing business and battles asthma.

Then the furnace goes.

"No one really knows what we go through in this house," Susan Weiss says, on the verge of tears. "You live moment to moment, not knowing what's going to happen next."

Elsewhere in Batavia, on the other side of the Fox River, small-business owner Tom Wangler was thanking his stars at the helm of Confident Aire Inc.

In recent years, he'd seen the heating and cooling business his family started in 1992 really take off, surprising even Wangler with growth of 35 to 40 percent in the last year.

"And it's a downed economy," he says.

He also couldn't help but notice he was working alongside one of the best crews of his career, and had landed some of his firm's best jobs ever.

One day, Wangler was musing over the success, he said, when it occurred to him it could only be a result of the strong bonds he'd built in the community by supporting local sports, Scouts, schools and countless nonprofits and charities. Wangler also had been recognized as a local hero when he pulled to safety a pair of capsized canoeists from the Fox River last October. He'd become a face folks knew, one they could trust to roll up his sleeves when needed.

"The fact is, the community reciprocates," Wangler says. "So it's important we continue to say thank you."

Feeling compelled again to express some sort of gratitude, Wangler came up with a unique giveaway -- the Free Ultimate Energy Transformation, he called it -- for one deserving family each year.

The idea was to transform their homes -- and the quality of their lives -- with a state-of-the-art heating and air filtration system at no charge. Wangler wanted to get started right away, but he first needed a family.

The matchmaker

Dennis O'Connell would play matchmaker.

He and Wangler knew each other because Wangler installed O'Connell's household furnace 12 years ago and had maintained it ever since.

On one occasion, O'Connell convinced Wangler to come to a fundraiser for the Society of St. Vincent de Paul Holy Cross in Batavia, where O'Connell was in charge of raising money for community service efforts. At the fundraiser, the two chatted about why and how people help others, and about the society's projects.

"About a month later, Tom gave me a call and said, 'I was both moved by what your message was and what you're doing for the community, and I'd like to do something about it,'" O'Connell recalled.

After hearing Wangler's plan, O'Connell put out feelers to his organization's field volunteers, who provide in-home services to families that have fallen on hard times financially or are coping with personal tragedies. Out of 400 to 500 potential candidates, they quickly settled on the Weiss family, who were parishioners at the church and seemed a perfect fit.

Their story touched Wangler.

Ten years ago, the Weisses were the ones filling the local food pantry with canned goods, selling Girl Scout cookies and raising money for charity. They certainly weren't needy.

Also, Zachary hadn't yet begun to change, neither physically nor emotionally, as he did drastically when he began steroid treatment to combat Behcet's disease, an auto-immune disorder that leaves him deflated and unable to work much or drive.

Back then, the family had savings and Michael Weiss, a computer programmer by trade, didn't need an additional part-time job at Home Depot. Amanda was on track to finish high school with her classmates.

When Wangler heard of their current situation, O'Connell said, he quickly began "working his magic." "It was kind of a match made in heaven," O'Connell said.

The makeover

Wangler and his crew arrived at the Weiss home on Maves Drive one Saturday morning in early May.

A team of six spent the day replacing Weiss' 20-year-old clunking furnace, did scientific air-quality tests and sealed hidden leaks in the house, garage and in spaces around thermostat registers, all of which should help cut back utility bills, keep the indoor air free of dust and toxins, and generally improve the family's health, Wangler said. In all, the job would have cost about $10,000.

Even weeks after the big day, Susan Weiss struggles to express the depth of her family's gratitude. "What Tom has done is such -- there are no words," she said. "This gift is just huge."

Spirits rose even higher when Wangler's crew announced it wouldn't accept pay for the job from their boss. Two office staffers who were physically unable to help with the giveaway offered to donate some time off the clock as well.

The same day, before Wangler left the Weiss house, he quickly inspected the family's air conditioner, which was found to be working but had a leaking indoor coil that needed to be replaced. Wangler said it just so happened that the part he needed looked similar to an odd off-the-market piece he'd had lying around the office for three years and that was No. 1 on his "Things To Get Out of Here" list.

Wangler trekked back to the office, grabbed the part and returned to the Weiss house, hoping he was correct. Turns out, "it was a perfect fit," Wangler said.

"It was exactly what they needed."