North Fort Myers air conditioning company Ellsworth’s Heating and Cooling transformed their 17th annual Christmas in July promotion into a COVID-19 Air Conditioning Relief Giveaway in response to the pandemic. “We wanted to help people who may have lost a job because of COVID or got sick and got behind,” said William Barnes, president of Ellsworth’s Heating & Cooling. “We made a little change this year to help people out.”

Ellsworth’s has given away air conditioning systems with installation for the past 16 years and changed the name for this year only, receiving a record number of nominations from people throughout their service area.

People were able to enter the contest via the North Fort Myers Civic Association, the North Fort Myers Chamber of Commerce and the Rotary. However, their involvement was limited this year because of the pandemic. Also, the winners’ luncheon was cancelled.
This year’s recipients were Pamela Mix of Cape Coral and Linda Price and Zara Haines of North Fort Myers. Lennox, Daikin and Trane each year donate an air conditioning system for the giveaway.

Pamela Mix has helped countless people struggling with addiction, even taking them into her home to give them support and a place to stay while they recover. When the central air unit in her Cape Coral home died, many of those people whom she had helped over the years came to her aid, nominating her for Ellsworth’s promotion. Pamela received a Lennox system for her home.

“A lot of people wrote in, especially for Pamela. She had around two dozen people write in to nominate her. How she takes people in and what she does for the community is really special and she deserves it,” William Barnes stated.

Linda Price was awarded a Daikin system and said she wasn’t aware of it and was blown away when she learned she had won.

“My sister nominated me. I had COVID-19 in June and I was sick for seven or eight weeks,” said Price. “This is big for me. I’m a widowed single mom so this is a huge plus for my kids.”

Zara Haines won a Trane system after not being able to pay for the fixes on her old unit and having to stay with relatives when it became too hot.

“For a couple weeks I was able to get by with a portable unit given to us by dear friends, but when we had that heat wave it was unbearable,” Haines said. “This is a real gift and an answer to a prayer.”

“I thank the fine folks at Trane, Lennox and Daikin for stepping up and making this event possible,” Barnes said. “Our friends at Tropic Supply also deserve credit for participating by providing the many supplies needed to complete the installations. I hope we can return to the Christmas in July theme again next year.”

For more information about Ellsworth’s Heating and Cooling visit their website at www.ellsworthair.com.

Thank you to Chuck Ballard of the North Fort Myers Neighbor newspaper for contributing content to this article.