Scott Lutz, a heating and cooling contractor in Pennsylvania, recently lost a friend after a long illness. The friend's family needed a new furnace which Lutz purchased at cost from a local supplier and installed for free. The family still needs help repaying the enormous medical bills and the higher fuel bills this winter.

To help out, Alan Mercurio, creator of Oil Tech Talk (www.oiltechtalk.com) has listed a link for donations at his discussion board on the Web site. Donors are asked to visit the thread "Fuel for a Friend" and click on the link to donate money to a PayPal account.

On November 26, Lutz posted the following message in the thread: "You'll never know how much this means to this family. The oilman made his first delivery last week and I'm hoping to give her some money for food and a couple of Christmas presents. I will keep you all informed of the progress we made on this family."

Publication date: 12/19/2005