Elizabeth Township veteran receives gift of warmth from JED Heating and Cooling

By Christine Haines
chaines@yourmvi.com

Christmas got both warmer and brighter for an Elizabeth Township couple Wednesday.
JED Heating and Cooling of Donora installed a new high-efficiency furnace in the home of Kathleen and Austin Large at no cost to the couple. The Larges have been JED Heating and Cooling customers for years and had called the company to fix their broken furnace, which started having problems about a week and a half ago.
“My husband could start it manually, so he would stay up all night to restart it when it shut off, then he slept all day,” Kathleen Large said. “It was hard, but we had to do it.”
James DeLattre, president of JED Heating and Cooling, said the repair costs were higher than it was worth to do. The Larges applied for assistance through the weatherization program, but fell short of the requirements, DeLattre said. Through the application process, they learned Austin Large is a veteran. DeLattre said he felt moved to help them out.
“They’ve given to our country and we want to be able to give back to them,” DeLattre said.
Austin Large served in the U.S. Army and Army Reserve from Nov. 2, 1961 until Nov. 2, 1967.
“I was a ground to air missile mechanic in the Hawk missile system,” Austin Large said. “I spent two years in Europe. The other years I was in active and inactive Reserves until 1967.”
DeLattre said he reached out to Trane and in partnership with Trane Corporation, which provided the furnace, JED Heating and Cooling was able to provide the labor and fabrication work needed for the installation. All of the work was completed Wednesday by noon, with the old furnace kept in place and manually running until it was time to put the new furnace into place.
“It will be a good Christmas because of JED,” Kathleen Large said. “I have six grandkids and now I can go out and get them something for Christmas.”
Austin Large said he’s always had good service from JED Heating and Cooling, but the generosity of the company took him aback.
“I never had anything like that happen to me or for me,” Austin Large said.
DeLattre said he was glad to help out, especially with all that has happened this year.
“They were very excited and grateful,” DeLattre said.
DeLattre said JED Heating and Cooling has been family-owned and family-run for 42 years, with his son Rick as the company vice president.
“We have 20 people working for us. We go all through the Mon Valley,” DeLattre said.