Halo Project Comes to Overwhelmed Senior Couples Rescue

By Cass Jacoby. 

William and Janet Vandenberg are selected recipients for the Halo Project after a year of obstacles trying to fix their roof. 

The Vandenberg family has lived in their Maple Valley home for 18 years, but fell on hard times which made repairing their cracked roof and leaking skylights simply unaffordable. The couple placed a tarp on their roof and covered their indoor furniture in plastic to protect it from heavy rains that were getting into their house.  

“The leaks are concerning, but due to circumstances we cannot control, the cost of the roof/skylight repair is becoming more difficult for us to accomplish on our own,” Janet tells Guardian Roofing. 

As seniors on fixed income, they had received bids and were brainstorming how to get the work done when more obstacles to fixing the roof came their way. Janet caught pneumonia and couldn’t work for four months and William was diagnosed with vascular dementia, hospitalized for COVID-19 and took a fall where he broke his hip and femur. To make matters worse, a road construction crew destroyed the drain field for their septic system adding a new financial cost of  $30,000 – $35,000. 

Clearly facing many obstacles, they were selected as the family most in need this year for the by-nomination contest to help provide a local family with a new roof or roof repair. The Guardian Halo Project was founded in 2018 when the Guardian Roofing family brainstormed ways to best give back to the community in a way that's unique to the company. 

“It’s an awesome program for people who are definitely in need. I just didn’t know how I was going to get over all these hurdles,” says Janet in a press release. “I’m so glad that Guardian is going to be a part of our story...When I received an email from Guardian Roofing explaining the Halo Project, I got a glimpse of hope.” 

Do you know of someone in the industry who is ‘doing good deeds’ in their community? Help us catch them at it. Send news and information to info@rooferscoffeeshop.com. 

About Cass  

Cass works as a reporter/writer for RoofersCoffeeShop, AskARoofer and MetalCoffeeShop. When she isn’t writing about roofs, she is putting her Master degree to work writing about movies and dancing with her plants.