April Ware and her 18-month-old son Vaughn received a new furnace in their home in February thanks to funds from the Esther Pfleiderer Charitable Trust Foundation.
Ware, 32, inherited the home at 1112 N. Park Ave., Warsaw, in 2005 from her father, Louis Ware, who died in 2005.
Ware said the furnace was old and stopped working Feb. 6. A new furnace was installed in the basement Feb. 25.
"It is great to have a new furnace that will lower my heating bill because I would not have been able to pay for a furnace myself," Ware said.
A trust fund was established by Pfleiderer in 2001 to assist charitable organizations in Kosciusko County in improving the quality of life in the county. The trust is overseen by 1st Source Bank.
Pfleiderer, a lifetime Kosciusko County resident, died in 2001 at age 93. She was a math teacher at Warsaw High School from 1934-73. She was active in the community and served many organizations. She was named Warsaw's Woman of the Year in 1982.
The trust granted $5,000 to the Kosciusko County Emergency Home Repair Program in January. The emergency home repair program was established by Housing Opportunities of Warsaw.
"The program serves those who have economic or health issues to have a resource to repair or replace components of their home essential to safeness and habitability," said HOW Executive Director Pam Kennedy.
Items such as furnaces, water heaters, wells and sewage disposal systems are replaced through the program.
The program is a Kosciusko County United Way-funded program, and is funded by local funding and paybacks from families participating in the program. Most of the families served by the program are low to moderate income.
"Statistics show that a large percent of families pay more than 30 percent of their income for house payments, insurance and taxes, leaving nothing left to put away for repairs," Kennedy said.
