Homes for Our Troops Building 32 Houses for Disabled Veterans

[babylonsister]

Homes for Our Troops Building 32 Houses for Disabled Veterans

Sunday 14 March 2010

by: Mary Susan Littlepage, t r u t h o u t | Report


After losing his right leg and severely injuring his left leg while serving in Iraq, veteran Frank Pierson moved in with his wife at her mother's home in Cicero, Illinois. Although it's home, it has some inconveniences.

Navigating from ground level to the basement bedroom is a challenge, for instance. Soon, though, Pierson and his wife, Arielle Carroll-Pierson, will get to move into a new home in Plainfield, a suburb of Chicago, that is designed especially to help Pierson get around the home with ease. That's thanks to Homes for Our Troops, a Taunton, Massachusetts, nonprofit that builds homes for severely wounded service members who are returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.

Pierson, who served in the Army, got deployed two days after Thanksgiving 2007 to Iraq.

"Then we were just driving from one base to another base when we got ambushed," Pierson said. "We didn't know what was going on or what had happened. Then when I went to try to stop the vehicle, I realized that I couldn't stop it, so I looked down to see what had happened, and that's when I noticed the injuries to my legs. And as soon as the vehicle did stop, I immediately started first aid on myself until the man who we had with us came and finished first aid and transported us to the nearest hospital."

Pierson underwent 19 months of rehab at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, DC, and underwent more than 25 surgeries. He retired this past October.

Since Homes for Our Troops was founded in 2004, the organization has built 54 homes for disabled veterans, and 32 homes currently are in various stages of construction around the country, said Vicki Thomas, a spokesperson with Homes for Our Troops. Thomas said that the average cost per home is about $330,000. Service members do not pay anything to get a home, and most services, such as construction, electrical and plumbing work, are donated by volunteers. Materials also tend to come from donations. Also, the group gets funding from corporate sponsorships and private donations.

Talking about what he is looking forward to about the house, Pierson said, "The most important thing would be that it's all going to be one level and I'll be able to get to every room without an obstacle and moving something out of my way. And that way, I can actually be in the house by myself and I won't have to worry about someone helping getting me something out of a room because my wheelchair won't fit in there. Just the overall independence of being able to be left in the house and do everything I need to do on my own."

Contractor John Gonsalves started Homes for Our Troops after he watched a news report of a severely injured service member who had returned from Iraq. He thought to himself, "What now? What happens to this person now?" Then, he searched for an organization that he assumed was already in place where he could donate his building expertise for a few weeks. When he found out that none existed, he quit his contractor job and started Homes for Our Troops.

more...

http://www.truthout.org/homes-our-troops-building-32-homes-disabled-veterans57635

[proteus_lives]

1. These people are doing great work.

:thumbsup:

Forwarding this story to my disabled Vet dad.