Disabled veteran displaced by fire, renewed by caring strangers

Veteran, family to move into donated home this week
February 04, 2012 8:05 PM
JANNETTE PIPPIN - DAILY NEWS STAFF
RICHLANDS — A Richlands family celebrated more than a new house Saturday as friends, family and partners on the Purple Heart Homes project gathered to welcome them home.

Purple Heart Homes Co-founder Dale Beatty, left, speaks during the Mission Completion ceremony marking the close of the organization's project helping Richlands family Jim Davis, seated, and his wife, Jodie, and daughter, Julianna.
Jannette Pippin/The Daily News

The Mission Completion Ceremony marks the closing of the project, with Jim and Jodie Davis and their daughter Julianna planning to move into their new home this week. It was also an opportunity to recognize the partnerships and community support that have made the new home possible.

The Davis lost their home and belongings last year after their house was vandalized and destroyed in a fire but the new home doesn’t just replace a structure.

The new home is handicap accessible to meet the needs of Davis, a service connected disabled veteran who served the country during Desert Storm.

Davis thanked everyone who stepped up to help during the project, from friends and family to volunteers he had never met.

“When you look out the window and you watch the people working on your home and there are people you’ve never seen before in your life working together to build you a house so you can get around without being restricted to certain areas and don’t have to wait on your wife to get home to go to the bathroom or do all the little things in our daily activities, it’s pretty amazing,” he said.
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