A Vietnam veteran from Ashville has received some much-needed help from the St. Clair County Extension Office and two Pell City businesses – The Home Depot and Pell City Heating & Cooling.

According to Curtis Pippin, St. Clair County Extension Veterans Outreach Coordinator, Edward Lambert contacted him looking for help with some VA benefits. Lambert served in the U.S. Army and was a truck driver for the 377th Transportation Unit.

“I sat down with him and conducted a needs analysis,” Pippin said. “During our conversation, he told me he needed this help because he was struggling to keep his house together.”

Pippin went to Lambert’s house to see if there was in fact anything they could do for him.

“Once I got there, I realized he did not have any central heat and air,” Pippin said. “He lives in some rough conditions and I knew immediately that we needed to work with the community to try and get that fixed, especially with it being winter and so cold.”

Pippin said over the past several weeks, he formed a partnership with The Home Depot and Pell City Heating & Cooling.

Pippin also noted that Tim Hendrix with The Brook Besor in Pell City is the person who got Kevin Flournoy with Pell City Heating and Cooling involved in the project.

“This was definitely a community effort that allowed us to provide Mr. Lambert with a two-and-a-half-ton HVAC unit and a new 40-gallon water heater,” Pippin said. “Everything was installed by Pell City Heating & Air free of charge. The Home Depot donated the water heater. It’s just a great feeling. Mr. Lambert served with the 377th Transportation Company. He is not in the best of health and lives there with his wife. It’s just great to see the community come together and help a Veteran who was in need.”

Kevin Flournoy is an employee with Pell City Heating & Cooling. After finding out that Mr. Lambert needed his heating and cooling unit replaced, Flournoy and others at the Pell City business wasted little time in getting help to him.

“We replaced his hot water heater and his central heating and cooling unit,” Flournoy said. “It was all free of charge to Mr. Lambert. It feels great being able to give back to the community. The community has done so much for us and this is our way to give back to those in need out in the community.”

St. Clair County Commission Chairman Paul Manning said Pippin is doing an outstanding job helping veterans throughout the county.

“Curtis is a great guy and a great guy for this job helping our veterans,” Manning said. “We are so proud to have this Extension Veteran’s Outreach Program here in St. Clair County. We are only one of two counties in Alabama that offer a program like this. The Home Depot and Pell City Heating & Cooling are doing great things for the citizens of St. Clair County.”