Printer Friendly Page
MASSACHUSETTS-BASED NONPROFIT BUILDS HOMES FOR
WOUNDED SOLDIERS -- While wounded Marine Sgt.
Greg
Edwards struggles to walk on artificial legs,
he won't have to
worry much longer about where his family will
live.
For more about Homes for Our Troops, use
the VA Watchdog search engine...click here...
http://www.yourvabenefits.org/
sessearch.php?q=homes
+for+our+troops&op=ph
Story here...
http://www.boston.com/
news/local/massachusetts/articles/2
007/09/15/mass_based_nonprofit_bu
ilds_homes_for_wounded_soldiers/
Story below:
-------------------------
Mass.-based nonprofit builds homes for wounded
soldiers
By Garry Mitchell
Associated Press Writer
MOBILE, Ala. --While wounded Marine Sgt. Greg Edwards struggles to walk
on artificial legs -- a reality in a life rebuilt after Iraq -- he won't
have to worry much longer about where his family will live.
The Taunton, Mass.-based Homes for Our Troops will build its first
specially adapted house in Alabama for Edwards, his wife, Christina, and
their two young daughters, said Kirt Rebello, a spokesman for the
nonprofit organization.
Once a general contractor is found, Rebello hopes the house can be built
in six months. Property in Mobile County is being purchased this month
for the Edwards' three-bedroom, two-bath home.
In a telephone interview Thursday from his temporary home in Weaton,
Md., near his doctors, Edwards, who lost both legs in an Iraq explosion
last fall, said he's looking forward to the new home. But he admits
being "real nervous" about settling down after almost eight years on the
move with the Marines Corps.
Edwards, who enlisted at 17 and turns 25 on Sept. 20, said he hopes to
enroll at the University of South Alabama here and study business or
criminal justice.
Rebello said Homes for Our Troops has 20 homes under way, including the
Edwards home. He said 15 other homes have been completed for wounded
veterans nationwide.
Rebello said the organization continues to grow, but unfortunately
cannot help all the thousands of wounded soldiers returning from war in
Iraq.
The Department of Veterans Affairs has a grant program and loan
guarantees that help wounded veterans with a home. The veteran could be
reimbursed up to $50,000 to renovate a home to accommodate a veteran's
injuries.
Besides structural changes to a home, putting in ramps and wider doors,
for example, the VA provides adaptive equipment for vehicles to veterans
with service-connected disabilities.
Tom Wilborn, a spokesman for the Disabled American Veterans in
Washington, D.C., said he doesn't know of another nonprofit group that
builds specially adapted homes for wounded veterans. He said some
smaller scale projects may be undertaken in individual communities.
DAV joined with TV's Extreme Makeover Home Edition to help one soldier
in Tennessee, he said.
"We don't fix them up in a house. We make sure all their rights and
benefits are taken care of," Wilborn said of the DAV.
In rebuilding his life, Edwards has endured 38 surgeries. The Marine was
conducting house searches in Ramadi, Iraq, when a hidden explosive
detonated Oct. 21. Besides the loss of both legs, the blast shattered
his left hand.
Edwards doesn't consider himself a war hero.
"A few people tell me that. I was just a guy doing a job and things went
bad one day," he said.
It was his third tour in Iraq. Edwards participated in the initial
invasion and saw the statue of Saddam Hussein fall. On his second tour,
he was nearly electrocuted and spent time at Walter Reed Army Medical
Center recovering.
Edwards was back in Mobile for an Aug. 3 fundraiser baseball game,
throwing out the first ball at Hank Aaron Stadium.
But he recently developed an infection that forced his return to Walter
Reed in Washington, D.C., said Larry Gill of Semmes, who also was
seriously injured in Iraq and now leads the campaign to raise money for
the Edwards home project.
Contributions for Edwards have reached $50,000, with more fundraising
events planned.
Don Ford of Mobile, a spokesman for the Blue Knights, a motorcycle group
that usually raises money for the sheriff's Boys Ranch, said the riders
have joined the Edwards homebuilding drive.
"We've raised flooring, roofing, furniture. We have commitments for
heavy equipment to clear his land," Ford said.
Donations provide 50-60 percent of the construction cost on the Edwards
home, and Homes for Our Troops, which has corporate sponsors and
individual donors, helps supply the remainder.
Rebello said Homes for Our Troops was started in February 2004 by
longtime contractor John Gonsalves. He was inspired to act by a news
report of an attack in Iraq. A bomb blast survivor was talking about
pulling a friend out of a vehicle who had lost his legs in the blast.
Gonsalves assumed there must be a group somewhere building specially
adapted homes for wounded veterans. When he found none, he launched
Homes for Our Troops.
On the Net:
http://www.homesforourtroops.org
To contact Larry Gill:
lgill40@hotmail.com
-------------------------
Larry Scott --
