Kevin Trull of Gloucester was chosen as the winner of Peninsula Heating & Air’s Project Comfort and Joy for 2021. Each year, PHA selects one deserving community member to receive a brand-new Trane HVAC system installed in their home.

PHA Sales Coordinator Faye Gibson said the contest is the business’s way of giving back to the community that supports them. Trane provides the equipment and PHA performs the installation. Each year PHA begins seeking nominees for the contest in November. She said people either nominate themselves or others who fit PHA’s criteria.

The nominee must be the owner of the home and the home must have an existing duct system in reasonable condition, said Gibson. She said the contest isn’t needs based, but the spirit of it is for the winner to be a hard-working individual that may be falling on hard times. Nominees also need refences to solidify why they deserve a chance to win.

After the entry window closes, five finalists are chosen. The five nominees have their names put in a hat to be drawn live on Xtra 99.1 WXGM. When the winning name is pulled, radio host Neal Steele makes the phone call to inform the lucky winner. On Dec. 10, 2021, the call went out to Trull.

Trull was nominated by his wife Jacque in 2020 and again in 2021, said Gibson. In her nomination, Mrs. Trull wrote, “My husband has always taken care of all our property issues. A couple years ago he ended up with a heart attack and open-heart surgery.”

Following complications with his recovering Trull said her husband has been disabled ever since.

“My husband has been trying very hard to repair things around the house but can’t do the things he used to do,” said Trull, “we haven’t had air conditioning since Hurricane Michael came through.”

Gibson said the installment of Trull’s Trane system was finished just in time for Christmas. For two of the finalists that did not win, she said an anonymous member of the community provided them Visa gift cards to help with Christmas expenses.

To find out more about the work Peninsula Heating & Air does visit peninsulaheatingandair.com or call 804-642-6163.