Thirty-eight years ago, Gulf Refrigeration, acquired by Ferguson HVAC in 2006, had a scrawny little Christmas tree on the counter of their Anderson Road location in Tampa with no lights and few decorations. A customer declared it the saddest tree he had ever seen and asked a counter salesman, Fred Parrulli, for a paper clip. The customer pinned a dollar to the tree. As Christmas approached, more and more money covered the tree. On Christmas Eve, the money was delivered to the Hope Children’s Home in Tampa and a tradition was born. This year a record $10,962 was raised for the Home.

Ferguson HVAC celebrated their 38th Annual Christmas party benefiting Hope Children’s Home on December 13, 2018 at their new facility located at 10639 Crossroads Commerce Boulevard, Tampa, FL 33610. Over 150 customers, friends and vendors turned out, dwarfed in the cavernous 75,000 square foot building which is scheduled to open in March of this year. The facility will replace the Kelsey Lane branch, features a warehouse with 20 loading docks and will include offices, a showroom and state-of-the-art training room fully equipped with Ruud equipment.
Representatives of Ruud Manufacturing and the Ruud Road Show expandable 53-foot mobile learning and training center were on hand, previewing Ferguson HVAC’s upcoming transition to distributing the Ruud brand of equipment in Florida. Johnson’s BBQ of Plant City, FL catered a delicious BBQ lunch with all the sides, refreshments and holiday desserts.

The Hope Children’s Home Choir sang Christmas carols to entertain the crowd and helped distribute the raffle prizes drawn at the conclusion of the event. There was face painting, balloon sculptures and a bean-toss game on hand for the benefit of the children and young-at-heart adults.

“Thank you to our customers for supporting this event every year, the vendors for their time, resources and donations to the raffle and our employees for enthusiastically volunteering to make this event possible,” stated Ferguson HVAC Florida General Manager Hunter Shepard. “It’s been heartwarming watching the children and young adults of Hope Children’s Home grow up through the years. We thank them once again for being a part of our celebration.”

Hope Children’s Home is a faith-based non-profit organization that cares for children that have been discarded, abused, unwanted, orphaned or simply in situations where a parent just needed help. Founded in 1968, the charity has rescued nearly 5,000 children between the ages of infant to 18 years old.

Visit www.hopechildrenshome.org to learn more about the organization.

Contact the Ferguson HVAC team by calling 813-626-5111. Visit www.FergusonHVAC.com and click on the EastWest Air tab for more information on Ferguson HVAC and to locate your nearest branch.

Additional photos are available here.