Small Acts, Big Impact – The Wencel Family

On a chilly fall evening, one of our team members, Jake Simon, was at gymnastics with his daughter. By a stroke of luck, there was a man seated behind him that asked if he worked for Victors due to the logo on Jake’s jacket. The man was hoping Jake could give him advice about a flat roofing project he wanted to undertake. During that short conversation, Jake suddenly remembered that he had met this man before. In a previous job, Jake had worked on putting shingles on the man’s roof. The man in question is Tom Wencel.

Tom and his wife Debbie’s daughter, Jaime, passed away unexpectedly after giving birth to her fifth child in 2017. This left Tom and Debbie with the responsibility of raising all five children, which they took on with open arms. The children, Cara, Paige, Jenna, Cayden, and Nina, all added expenses to the already retired Tom and Debbie’s life. This is where Jaime’s 5 Kids, an organization created to help these children, was born.

The goal of the organization is to raise funds to provide the children with an environment that secures their health, well-being, education, religious values, family values, and sense of community. 

After working on the project for over 7 years, the Wencels can see the light at the end of the tunnel. They added a second-floor addition to their home to allow for additional space to house the children. All five children are in school, and they sustain the family of seven on an income of $40,000 per year from pension and social security. With just a little more help, such as work completed on their roof and gutters, along with some interior work, they will reach the end of their journey.

When Jake heard this story from Tom, he felt compelled to act. He nominated the Wencel family to have their roof and gutters  taken care of through Victors’ Give Back program, which has become a pillar of our organization’s operations. For every 100 roofs that we replace, we give one away for free to a family in need.

After our team went to the Wencels’ and inspected the property, it was found that they did indeed need the flat roofing work that Tom had initially inquired about with Jake, but also some additional work for the roof and a full gutter replacement. From there, our team scheduled an appointment with Tom and completed the work all in one day.

We are truly honored to have been a part of the Wencel family’s journey – a family who has given so much back to their own community through community service and volunteer work.

If you’d like more information and the opportunity to hear their story from Tom himself, click here.