JUPITER, Fla. — Triplegic injured warrior Adam Keys completed his bucket-list by trekking the 19,341-foot-high peak of Tanzania’s Mt. Kilimanjaro this year thanks in part to donations from Fresh-Aire UV and its Patriot IAQ program to veterans charity Warrior Events, Annapolis, Maryland.

Patriot IAQ is an IAQ equipment dealer program created by Fresh-Aire UV, where a portion of each sale’s proceeds are donated to veterans charities.

Fresh-Aire UV presented a check Dec. 15 to Warrior Events, which helps partially fund veterans events, such as Keys’ five-day mountain-climb and the incurred costs for Tanzanian trail guides, an EMT, supplies, and travel. The 26-year-old Keys was the sole survivor when a truck transporting U.S. Army paratroopers was blown up by an Afghanistan roadside bomb in 2010. More than 100 surgeries later, Keys offered his inspirational soaring achievement as a tribute to his fallen comrades that was featured on CBS This Morning’s “Pushing the Limits” Series and Fox and Friends television shows.

The climbing effort propagated other veteran funding successes, such as Keys’ “adamkeys1stepforward” Facebook fundraising page that now gives 33-percent of its donations to Warrior Events.

Patriot IAQ dealers promote Fresh-Aire UV’s Blue Tube UV, APCO, and other HVAC IAQ products under the Patriot IAQ brand. The branded program, which includes dealers such as service contractor B&B Air Conditioning & Heating Service Co. Inc., Rockville, Maryland., exists solely for the purposes of donating a percent of profits to military veteran charities.

“We became a dealer last year, because we wanted to help veterans, and the air purification products were better technology than what we previously sold,” said Bill Williams, executive vice president, B&B Air Conditioning & Heating Service, which markets IAQ heavily online and trains service techs to promote the Patriot IAQ’s profit sharing theme to homeowners.

“Our passion is to make sure everyone at our events feels special and that it feels like a ‘bucket list’ event,“ said John O’Leary, chairman, Warrior Events, which funded 60-percent of Keys’ climb and co-hosted 55 other events in 2018 that brought injured veterans together with each other, friends and family.

“Patriot IAQ only donates to veteran charities that have little or no administrative costs, so that all the money gets to the people who need it,” said Ron Saunders, vice president, Fresh-Aire UV, which also sponsors other organizations such as the veteran hub, Ma Deuce Deuce (Ma22). Ma22 is a non-profit, veteran advocacy group that raises awareness of the '22 daily veteran suicides' epidemic.

Publication date: 12/24/2018

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