Ranee Gigrich recalls the people who have received free heating oil through the efforts of her family’s nonprofit.
Before the assistance, there were clients who stayed warm during the chilly, wet winter months by huddling around an oven burner. One family, she said, crammed into a tiny bedroom and gathered around a space heater.
“We’ve never shown up to a site where it wasn’t obvious they needed heat,” Gigrich said. “Sometimes it was colder inside their homes.”
Since the late 1990s, the nonprofit Home Energy Assistance Team (HEAT) program has helped keep people out of the cold with free heating oil. And while they help families year-round, winter is naturally the busiest and often most heartbreaking time of year.
Ranee Gigrich’s parents, Dallas and Randi Gigrich, founded Tanks by Dallas, an oil tank-removal business in their hometown of Lake Forest Park. Clients call to have tanks removed because they are moving or they switched from oil to gas heat. Others call to have only the oil removed to avoid a leak. The family business also includes her brother Brelan Gigrich and one field worker.
While removing underground tanks, Dallas Gigrich realized many of the decommissioned and abandoned tanks were filled with usable oil. The average tank carries 300 gallons of oil. Dallas Gigrich hatched the HEAT program, in which he removes oil from the tanks and donates it to financially strapped clients. One visit means clients will have heat for two to three months. Clients span from Olympia to Bellingham. Dallas Gigrich has donated oil to more than 250 families in need.
“We’ve never turned anyone away,” Ranee Gigrich said. “My dad taught us to be good business people and Good Samaritans at the same time.”
The nonprofit runs on donations, which have been dwindling with the sour economy. Oil isn’t exactly cheap either; Ranee Gigrich pointed out heating oil is nearing $3 per gallon and with the average tank holding 300 gallons, it’s hard for families to keep up to stay warm.
“How can we not keep going?” she said. “All the homes we service are low-income or senior citizens. They truly need it.”
Ranee Gigrich said by mid-December of last year, her family had already supplied free heating oil to 50 families. And while the list of clients in need increases, the funding to help isn’t keeping up.
“Times are so tight people aren’t so willing to donate oil,” she said.
During the snowfall last month, Ranee Gigrich said the phone was ringing nonstop with people asking for heat.
“It’s heartbreaking to tell them ‘we can’t help you right now’ or ‘we don’t know when we can come out,’” she said.
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