If family wins this, it'll be cool

They need a new air conditioning system, and they're hoping for the votes to win it.

By LISA BUIE, Times Staff Writer
Published November 5, 2007

ADVERTISEMENT [Stephen J. Coddington | Times] Clare and Grace Hernandez pose behind the 25-year-old air conditioner they hope to replace by winning the contest. Cheryl Hernandez is in the background with her other children.

DADE CITY - For the Hernandez family, that day in May will always be remembered as the day the air conditioner conked out.

It was hot. It was humid. It was two days before Cheryl Hernandez's parents were due in from California.

"Keeping the windows open was not going to go over well with my parents," Hernandez said. Desperate, they called a friend in the air conditioning business. He came the next morning. It was the second time in about a year that he had patched up the rusted, 25-year-old unit.

Don't expect it to last another summer, he warned.

For a family with eight homeschooled kids, that's not good news. New air conditioners typically cost thousands of dollars.

Shortly after that, Cheryl saw a newspaper ad. American Standard Heating and Air Conditioning would give a new $15,000 system, complete with air filtration system, to the winner of its My Comfy Home contest.

Contestants were asked to submit essays and artwork explaining why they should receive a new system.

So Clare, 9, and her sister, Grace, 12, got to work.

The Hernandezes recently learned they are one of eight finalists, who were chosen from among 34 entries.

The essays and art are posted on the company's Web site, www.americanstandardair.com/comfy. Visitors can vote on who they think should receive the prize. Whoever gets the most votes wins. Voting ends Nov. 27, and the winner will be announced in December.

"We've sent e-mails to all our friends and family telling them to vote," Cheryl said.

Grace, who wrote the essay, is no stranger to winning contests. This year she took first place in the Kiefer Village Jewels "Why My Mom Is Like A Diamond" Mother's Day essay contest. The win earned Cheryl some free jewelry. She also has won several other local contests.

She also loves to read. Her current favorite books are the teen fantasy novels in the Artemis Fowl series. She also just got the Anne of Green Gables series.

"With eight kids and two adults, our house is a constant whirlwind of activity." Grace wrote. "Because we live out in the country, surrounded by grass and oak trees, the pollen coming into our home aggravates my mom's and sister's bad allergies. Our numerous pets also add to the problem."

Clare is the artist in the family and likes to draw and make paper dolls.

She colored a picture of the family at home in the living room. All the kids - Rachel, 16, Ava, 14, Grace, 12, Kevin, 11, Clare, 9, Maria, 7, and Agnes, 4, are there, with 3-year-old Helen peeking out from behind a chair.

Cheryl, a homemaker, said a new air conditioning system would lift a sizeable financial burden from the family, which rarely eats out, doesn't go to Walt Disney World and shops at consignment stores. Her husband, Kevin, works as a claims representative for the Social Security Administration in Tampa.

Cheryl said if the family wins, she'll put the money they would have had to spend on an air conditioner in the kids' college funds.

"They are the ones who won," she said.

Lisa Buie can be reached at buie@sptimes.com or 813 909-4604.

To vote

To vote online for the winner of the American Standard air conditioning system, visit www.americanstandardair.com/comfy.

[Last modified November 5, 2007, 06:37:30]