Sanders History

Growing up in South Jersey will always be cherished by Pete Sanders (owner). As a young boy, Pete recalls pulling his wagon through the streets of his neighborhood, collecting sticks, branches and any pieces of wood small enough to fit in his wagon. Pete's collection of wood was great kindling to help Mom start the fire in the coal furnace. The old octopus furnace only had ductwork on the first floor. The second and third floors and fourth floor attic were unheated. The old freestanding copper tank water heater didn't work. Mom would heat pots of water on the kitchen stove and cart them up to fill the claw foot tub in the second floor bathroom. It was a routine practice.

Although these conditions might not have seemed unusual during the Great Depression, this was the mid-60's and was normal for Pete and his fifteen brothers and sisters. Pete did say he was a little envious when he went to his friend's house to play and they had this thing on the wall that would make their heater come on. It was a thermostat. They even had hot water come out of their spigot. They didn't even have to heat water on the stove to fill their bathtub. Plus, they had a showerhead. Pete promised himself that when he grew up he was going to have one of those thermostats and he was even going to have a shower that had warm water come right out of the pipes.

As you can imagine with 16 children in the family, a college education was not in the budget. Pete's older brothers and sisters all had to forgo a high school education to help their family make ends meet. During his sophomore year in high school, Pete became a father himself. Determined to be the first in his family to graduate high school, Pete worked full-time from 5:30 pm until 2:00 am during his junior and senior years of high school, while maintaining his own apartment for his young family. Not yet old enough to drive, he would walk to school and hitchhike to work (not unusual in 1973).

Pete was proud to be the first in his family to graduate high school in 1975. A month after graduation, Pete was off to pursue his career as a Plumbing Technician with the U.S. Air Force. His second daughter only a month old, Senior Airman 1st Class Plumbing Specialist Peter R. Sanders decided it was time to move his young family back to South Jersey. He purchased his first home at 21 years old and moved his family to Magnolia, while lining up a plumbing job with a Cherry Hill firm. He moved back into the barracks to complete his last few months of duty in the Air Force.

While working full time as a Plumbing Service Technician in the late 70's, Pete took evening courses at Camden County Vocational School to learn the heating trade. Pete received a Silver Certification in Oil Burner Technology. Pete worked for a great company and had a wonderful boss, but something was missing. Pete wanted to be a licensed Master Plumber and have his own business.

The oil embargo was in full swing when Pete and his family moved into their next home, a three bedroom. With a new mortgage and his third daughter due in 6 weeks, Pete decided to quit his job and pursue his dream of starting his own business. That third daughter, who was born seven days after the start of Pete's new business, was a graduate of Rowan University in 2004. Now in her 12th year with the company, Angela oversees the financial and human resources side of the company. Pete hopes that his two young sons will join their sister in the family business.

Pete contributes the success of the business to his co-workers and insists that he is blessed and fortunate to be surrounded by people who truly care and are passionate about the quality of their work and how their customers feel. We will continue to earn our customers' business every day, by providing true, honest value with impeccable quality and service. We won't settle for anything less. Good enough will never be good enough. We'll continue to raise the bar and reach for higher goals.

Just like that little kid from Gloucester City with 15 brothers and sisters, Pete Sanders has seen his dreams come true. He has a thermostat to turn the heater on and hot water comes out of the shower faucet. Pete Sanders will never take his customers for granted. You will never get to where you want to go if you ever forget where you came from.