JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – In a wheelchair, unable to walk or speak, the family of a local teen with disabilities was hoping to build him a backyard oasis around a pool as part of his therapy. Ten months after paying for the unfinished job, the community helped make their dreams come true.
Robbin Brydges, Dalton’s mother knew that the I-TEAM was coming to her house but she didn’t know about the surprise in store for her family.
The owner and manager of Tempool Inc. – a worldwide pool builder based in Jacksonville – and the husband and wife duo behind The Screen Guys have promised not just to do what the previous contractor didn’t, but to go above and beyond.
Brydges family with The Screen Guys and Tempool Inc. contractors.
“We’re taking care of each of you. Don’t worry about the costs,” Jon Temple, owner of Tempool Inc. said. “This is how Jacksonville really works. We all know each other and when something needs to be done, that’s what we’re going to do.”
Cliff Carter, owner of The Screen Guys, said they we’re going to cover all costs too.
“It’s going to be done, that’s going to be awesome. You’re gonna get full use of everything,” Carter said.
Robbin and Dalton were grateful and blown away by the news.
“Dalton is the greatest gift I was ever given,” his mother said.
Brydges adopted him eight years ago. Dalton was born with cerebral palsy and is quadriplegic living in foster care with his brother Dawson.
With such special needs, it was hard to find someone who would care for Dalton and keep him together with his brother until Robbin and Steven Brydges came along. The rest is history a happy history.
“He is my purpose. Everything that I do, I always give me back my mind like, how’s it gonna work for him?” Robbin said.
She said they chose the Mandarin home where they now live because it had an inground swimming pool. But since the contractor disaster, she’s had to take him to a rehab center for exercise.
“He loves being in the swimming pool, and being able to take the pressure off his legs and his arms and all of that stuff. So like the pool is like huge for him,” Robbin said.
“I made a promise to him eight years ago that I would protect him with everything in me. And I would do right by him. And I would make sure that he never knew another day of sadness or hurt and I would protect him and this is for him,” she said.
Brydges and other upset customers have filed police reports with their local agencies and they’ve reported this to the State Attorney General’s office. News4JAX has called Ardolino nearly a dozen times and we’ve had some lengthy conversations. He promises to make everything right but we’ve given him weeks of warnings before this story aired and we haven’t seen any progress.
“We see a lot of this happen where these guys come in, and they just make our industry look bad. So we want to make sure that we can come in and help get everything put together usable the way it’s supposed to be,” Carter said.
Temple said he was there to make a difference for the family.
“What we’re doing doesn’t even matter compared to what she does by taking care of that young man,” Temple said.
With the summer approaching, Dalton will be back in the water in no time.
“I’m completely speechless,” Robbin said. “I don’t even know what to say except thank you and Dalton is happy.”
Dalton excitedly yelled “wow, wow, wow!”.
On March 28, he said he was having issues with weather, staffing, and supplies. He acknowledged he did not meet the deadlines. He said he hopes to fix issues next week. The I-TEAM will let you know if he completes the jobs with the customers.
The contractors from Tempool and The Screen Guys said they’re reaching out to the other families who hired A1 Patio to see what needs to be done. They want people to know that the majority of small businesses in Jacksonville are doing the right thing, and they don’t want a few horror stories to ruin it for everyone else.