POSTED: Thursday, June 28, 2012 - 12:01pm
UPDATED: Thursday, June 28, 2012 - 12:14pm
Longview, TX — The family of Tewonda Culpepper got some welcome relief from the summer heat Wednesday when volunteers from the Hiway 80 Rescue Mission installed a free air conditioner in their home as part of the Beat the Heat program.
The program is administered by the Greater Longview United Way and uses volunteers from several nonprofit agencies to provide window unit air conditioners to qualifying local families.
Culpepper lives in south Longview with her adult daughter, Kendra Martin, and Martin’s three children.
“This is just wonderful,” said Martin. “We had one old window unit air conditioner, but it quit working; so we’d been using fans and taking cold showers to try to cool off.”
Culpepper, Martin and one of the children have asthma, which is aggravated by the heat, she said. Her mother also has a heart condition.
“Sometimes my son can’t even breathe because he’s so hot,” Martin said. “I’m very thankful that this program is available and that people are willing to help us out this way.”
Read more from the Longview News-Journal here [1].