A Winnipeg company recently showed appreciation to thousands of healthcare workers in the form of free oil changes.

From April 3 until 10 the Super Lube Auto Centres in Winnipeg gave every healthcare person coming through a free oil change. 

Jonnie Hendrickson is the president of Super Lube in Winnipeg. It is a family-owned and operated company and has been for 30 years. 

"It started last March when we first closed down when COVID came here. We closed for a short time to make some changes and keep our staff and customers safe. We wanted to do something big when we came back and opened up," says Hendrickson. 

That is precisely what the oil change company did last May when they gave away roughly 4,000 free oil changes. This year with all the staff working again, they were able to give away over 5,000 to healthcare workers. 

"A lot of our staff have been with us for a long time, they reached out and said they wanted to do something as well, a lot of companies are giving back to healthcare workers and it's so great. The staff wanted to help us make that happen."

Hendrickson accredits the good idea fully to her staff. 

"We felt like, now more than ever, it was needed again to show them [healthcare] our appreciation."

Super Lube has five locations across Winnipeg.

"We didn't want to leave anyone out. With healthcare workers, there are so many branches of that. We said if you work in a retirement home if you're an office staff in a hospital, we tried to include everyone in that promotion."

The company received a lot of positive feedback from happy clients. 

"I cannot say enough how amazing this staff is, how appreciated this gesture is and how it affected me emotionally. It’s the little things that make such a difference. It really gave me hope in humanity today, which can be hard to find in these tough times of Covid. Thank you, you guys are truly amazing," says one of the healthcare workers in an email to Super Lube.

The company had a lot more customers during this time, which meant a longer wait for regular customers, yet they didn't seem to mind because of the effort to bless those in healthcare. 

"Everyone was just so grateful. We had tons of hospital staff come in and give our whole staff lunch at every location, it was just amazing," Hendrickson says in what was a win/win situation.

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