Janice Morrison will no longer need to tarp her roof to keep the rain out.
Last Friday, the 64-year-old Silver Creek resident got a brand new roof worth about $6,000, thanks to Josh Bickle, owner of Integrity Roofing.
For the fourth consecutive year, Bickle invited members of the community to nominate someone in need of a new roof.
He received 25 letters on Morrison’s behalf, describing her contributions to the community, how the company she worked for had closed shop last year leaving her unemployed and the dire state of her roof.
Morrison, who fell off her roof last year in one of her attempts to fix her tarps, was finding it harder and harder to cope. As she got to the edge of her roof, the ladder fell back and Morrison’s legs got caught between the rungs.
“There must have been some arms of angels there,” she says of her rapid descent to the concrete below, “I am scared of heights and I had to go back up there to finish it off.”
Those days are now over.
“I am just ecstatic. The day before I got the phone call I was going, what am I going to do?” she said. “If you don’t have a roof, after a while you don’t have a house.”
Morrison is grateful to Bickle, the other companies who contributed to the project and the people who took the time to write letters on her behalf.
“It’s a wonderful thing to do for people that really need help,” she said. “It’s so nice to see people out in the world who care about people who need it – it’s a point for humanity.”
At Morrison’s home on Friday morning, Bickle said, hands down, hers is the worst roof he’s seen.
As well as new shingles, all the plywood beneath was rotted out and had to be replaced.
“It’s a little bigger than what we normally do, but she was definitely in the most need.”
This year, Bickle partnered with Salmon Arm Home Building Centre and shingles manufacturer GAF Steep Slope Roofing Materials, who contributed half the shingles. Integrity took care of everything else.
Also getting a helping hand is a Tappen Beach Road resident who has health challenges and a leak above the stove that heats her house.
Bickle says it’s an easy fix that Integrity will address.