By Sarah L. Lindsey
Northeast News
June 15, 2016

KANSAS CITY, Missouri – This year, as always, Bishop Sullivan Center is making the hot summer months a little cooler for the city’s elderly population.

The Bishop Sullivan Center’s annual effort to provide free air conditioners to Kansas City’s low-income seniors is back. Project ElderCool was started in 2000, in response to 21 heat-related deaths in Kansas City during the previous summer. 2016 marks the 17th summer of Project ElderCool; more than 5,400 units have been installed since the program has started.

Anyone in the metro area who is 65 and older, meets the poverty guidelines, and has no air conditioner in their home can qualify for an air conditioning unit. The installation begins with a screening, and the next day the unit is installed in 30 minutes to an hour. Bishop Sullivan Center also uses donations to put $100 into every recipient’s electrical account to assist with the cost of maintaining the unit, and provides miscellaneous assistance as needed.

Angela Fencl, Office Manager at Bishop Sullivan Center, said that over the years Project ElderCool has spread around the area as more local agencies have called on behalf of elderly people in need. One woman wrote a thank you note last summer.

“About four hours after you installed my air-conditioner, I was watching Channel 5 news,” the woman wrote. “They said, ‘A woman has passed away. It is thought she died of heat.’ I thought to myself, ‘Thank God for this window unit that you just put into my home.’”

Please check on your elderly neighbors who may qualify, and make sure they have air conditioning. If they don’t, have them contact Bishop Sullivan Center at 816.231.0984 to see if they qualify for Project ElderCool. To donate towards an air conditioner or a recipient’s utility account, go to www.bishopsullivan.org/project-elder-cool.