GALT, CA (MPG) - A concrete pumper from Galt won $10,000 for helping to build schools, hospitals and other structures that improve the lives for the rest of us. 

Rommel Saldivar, 49, has been pumping concrete for nearly 25 years and won The Day Savers nationwide contest by SupplyHouse, a distributor of plumbing, electrical and heating, ventilation and air-conditioning supplies. 

His wife Lesley entered him in the contest. Saldivar was one of 10 winners and the only one from California, according to Supply House. 

“I never thought we’d win anything,” Saldivar told The Galt Herald. 

He plans to use the money to pay off some bills and to give his family a surprise, he said. 

“The idea behind The Day Savers is simple: Tradesmen arrive when something is broken and often leave as soon as it’s fixed,” said Kaylin Staub, chief marketing officer at SupplyHouse. “Too often, they never get to see what their work made possible or the impact they had on the people they helped.”

The Day Savers changes that “by giving customers, families, coworkers and communities a way to tell those stories and recognize the tradesmen who are there when they need them most,” Staub added. 

Saldivar’s job can be challenging, he said. Sometimes he is away from his family for more than a day, spending nights in a hotel because he must travel far from home and be on the job early the next day.

His job has taken him as far south as Bakersfield, he said, and north to the Oregon border. He’s worked in Nevada, too, he added. 

Opportunities for advancement are there, but “money is not everything,” Saldivar said.

“I love my job,” he said. “I love pumping concrete, but I want to see my family.”

He has a 7-year-old daughter, Savannah, and another daughter who is a sophomore at Galt High School. 

“This man is a hero who wears a hard hat,” Lesley Saldivar said. 

“The hospital bed you stayed in till you were well enough to go home, the school (where) your daughter learned how to read, the cancer treatment center (that) treated your grandmother, that bridge, levee, (or) spillway that was repaired after flooding and wear and tear, those four walls you call home, and that museum you visited as a family: all of those were built by concrete he poured,” she said in the nomination of her husband. 

“This man never gets a thank you and he is the most deserving man I know! she said.