“The reason that I chose the HVAC field is that I started doing HVAC/R when I was 15 years old. My stepdad got me a summer job with the Heating & Cooling company he worked for. The very next summer my stepdad started his own company. I, unfortunately, dropped out of school and started to work for him full-time doing installations. I did go back and get my GED. I stayed with HVAC/R because I seemed to have a knack for it, or so I was told. The more I got into the trade the more I fell in love with it. When his business went under three years later, I decided to move from North Carolina to Iowa where my father was living. I immediately got a job with an HVAC company once again doing installations,” Christopher says.
“I was there for a year and a half when I was diagnosed with Epididymitis. After 8 months, the pain was so bad my family physician decided to send me to a specialist. There, it was found that I was originally misdiagnosed, I had cancer. After 8 months of this going undetected, it had spread throughout me like a wildfire. There were multiple tumors in my abdomen, one which was said to be the size of a Christmas sausage, twenty-one tumors in my right lung and twenty-nine in my left lung. Luckily it did not make it to my brain. I was put on medical leave. So, at the age of twenty I was diagnosed with stage four cancer. After surgery I started chemotherapy five days a week for five weeks. Being away from work for so long and seeing them throughout the hospital, I would find myself looking at all of the duct work and different registers and studying them. I also found that I missed my work. That is when I realized I had a passion for HVAC/R and knew that is what I would end up having as a permanent career,” Christopher adds.
“After chemo, I was sent to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN for multiple surgeries and during that time I shared a room with a man that was a HVAC Technician. So, we had a lot in common, although I was HVAC installer and had never done service before and service was his specialty. His stories of on-the-job experiences were much more interesting than mine. He talked about how he would sometimes go into multiple houses in a day, troubleshooting furnaces and air conditioners. I finally went back to work, doing installations on and off for different companies until in 2006 the cancer came back. This time the only treatment was three surgeries on the lungs. The final one beat me pretty bad. So, I got out of HVAC installation because of the physical demand, doing various jobs, not making nearly the money I had in HVAC,” Christopher explains.
“Back in 2018, I moved to Colorado to live with an old girlfriend and started working for People Ready doing specialty trades work, which sometimes included duct work. While in Colorado on an annual oncology appointment there was a rare tumor found inside my heart called Cardiac Myxoma. The only treatment would be surgery. This was a bummer because I found running duct work to be physically easy. My dad offered to let me stay with him during and after surgery. I recovered amazingly fast. I was ready and cleared to go back to work only months later and during that time my dad’s furnace went out. I offered to put in a new furnace for him. And just like that, I installed a new furnace, gas line, and duct work, like I had never stopped. I believe that HVAC/R is my calling trade and what I’m good at and will always do. I am looking forward to advancing in the service side of HVAC/R and to one day mastering it,” Christopher says.
“Christopher completed his HVAC/R training on June 22, 2023, with a GPA of 3.71. He was offered a job, a union job, for a Heating and Cooling company and with assistance he was able to get an apartment. He began employment in HVAC/R on June 25, 2023, earning $25.00 per hour. I have spoken with him a few times since then and, as always, he expresses his gratitude for the WIOA assistance. He is so happy and is doing great. People like Christopher make my job so very rewarding and I too am grateful to be a part of these success stories,” Teresa says.