Wells Fargo to donate $30 million worth of property to veterans and their families

Veteran receives mortgage-free home in Harford
Joppatowne condo donated by Wells Fargo to Operation Homefront organization
Baltimore Sun
BY DAVID ANDERSON
July 3, 2014

John Laursen, an Army veteran of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and his wife Casey have spent about a year handling his recovery after being medically evacuated from Afghanistan, but they are able to begin moving forward, with the first steps being across the threshold of their new home in Harford County Wednesday.

The Laursens and their dog, a Labrador mix named Bailey, will live in a mortgage-free condominium in Joppatowne, which they obtained through the nonprofit organization Operation Homefront.

Wells Fargo owns the property, and the San Francisco-based banking firm, one of the largest in the nation, donated it to Operation Homefront.

The property donation is part of a commitment by Wells Fargo to donate $30 million worth of property to veterans and their families; the financial institution committed $35 million over three years to assist veterans beginning in 2012.

The Laursens moved into the condominium, in the 500 block of Cider Press Court, Wednesday morning.

As part of the "key ceremony," they received a surprise greeting from representatives of Operation Homefront, as well as family members they have not seen in a year, including Casey's older sister, Stephanie Young, her mother Cindy Young and grandmother Kathy Hallsworth, all of Watertown, N.Y.

The couple had been living in an apartment in Woodbridge, Va., since July 2013 as John recovered at Ft. Belvoir Community Hospital from injuries sustained in Afghanistan that year.
read more here