ST. GABRIEL, La. (WAFB) — A power outage is an inconvenience for most families. For the Judd family, it can put their two-year-old son’s health at risk.Briggs has a lung condition. His medical equipment needs electricity. His medicine needs refrigeration. His lungs need controlled temperatures and air quality.His father, Jeremy, said the repeated outages even made them question their future in their home.“The question did come up, are we going to have to sell our home? And we love it out here,” Je...
ST. GABRIEL, La. (WAFB) — A power outage is an inconvenience for most families. For the Judd family, it can put their two-year-old son’s health at risk.
Briggs has a lung condition. His medical equipment needs electricity. His medicine needs refrigeration. His lungs need controlled temperatures and air quality.
His father, Jeremy, said the repeated outages even made them question their future in their home.
“The question did come up, are we going to have to sell our home? And we love it out here,” Jeremy Theis said.
Company steps in to help
Andrew Porche saw WAFB’s story about the family in early July and decided his company could help.
“We’re like, hey, this is an opportunity to empower someone’s life with the circumstances they’re dealing with, medicine that needs to be taken care of, humidity that needs to be controlled, temperatures,” Porche said.
Porche runs Optimize Generator People. He convinced Generac to donate a whole-home generator, while Optimize covered the labor, materials, taxes and permits.
Generator will activate automatically
Now, when the power goes out, the generator will turn itself on. Briggs’ equipment will keep running. His medicine will stay cold, and their food won’t spoil.
“That hope is starting to come back that we can actually move forward and start making this the home that we envision it to be,” Jeremy Theis said.
The outages aren’t over, but now the next one won’t leave their son at risk.
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