Ex-POW Vietnam veteran gets teams of angels

He has 2 Purple Hearts but couldn't afford home repairs. Then help arrived - for free.
Idaho Statesman
Michael Katz
June 9, 2018

Sitting in a chair in his family room, cane in one hand and his other arm crossed over his midsection, Charlie Moore is an unassuming hero. He can share a war story or two, but he can just as easily talk about growing up on a farm in Wisconsin.

On a humid June evening, Moore, 75, is wearing an Army hat and American flag-clad T-shirt. For more than 40 years, he has been a disabled veteran, after an accident in Vietnam left him unable to work. He wears his Army garb proudly.
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Home Depot Foundation Built Home For Amputee in 7 Days Then Didn't Rest

FROM FOUNDATION TO FINISHING TOUCHES: TEAM DEPOT BUILDS CUSTOM HOME FOR VETERAN IN 7 DAYS
Home Depot Foundation
October 14, 2016

When you ask Cody Evans why he wanted to join the military, his answer is simple: to help others and serve his country.

He enlisted in the U.S. Marines in 2009 and deployed to Afghanistan in 2011. While on patrol a few weeks before Christmas, Cody encountered a bomb blast and lost both of his legs.

It took nearly a year of recovery before he was ready to return to his Tennessee home. However, his home was no longer suited to fit his needs. Major modifications were needed just for Cody to get through the front door.

That’s when Cody’s community, nonprofit organization A Soldier’s Journey Home and Team Depot stepped in to help, building Cody a brand new, specially-adapted home in just one week.
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Five Star Veterans Center Gets Makeover From Home Depot

Veterans Center gets makeover thanks to Home Depot help
Florida Times Union Jacksonville.com
By Saphara Harrell
Mar 24, 2016

Volunteers and veterans were hard at work Thursday painting, digging and mulching at the Five Star Veterans Center.

Photos by Will.Dickey

Wesley Johnson, an employee with Home Depot, paints a room Thursday at the Five Star Veterans Center in Jacksonville.

The one-story, white cinderblock building, which serves as a transitional facility for homeless veterans, is getting small renovations thanks to a Home Depot group called Team Depot which supplied materials and labor for the project.

Two rooms are being painted and fitted with new sinks, while the side of the building is getting plants, mulch and a basketball hoop.

Joshua Peterson didn’t know about the basketball hoop, but was excited when he heard.

He’s been living at the Five Star Veterans Center for about a month, one of 29 veterans currently residing there. The 24-year-old recently got out of the Army and is trying to save up while he attends Everest University. He plans to be out of the center by June.

Peterson said all the veterans pitch in at the center, using their diverse talents to help out.

Five Star’s CEO, Col. Len Loving, echoed that statement, saying the facility wouldn’t be able to operate without the help of the veterans who clean, landscape, wash dishes, and do whatever else needs to be done.

He said the facility serves in-need veterans, but they don’t always fit into the homeless stereotype. “They’re not pushing carts down the street,” Loving said. “Many have cars and have lived in their cars.”

Iraq Veteran Discovers What Good Charities Do

Help is on its way for local veteran 
ABC Nerws 13 WHAM
October 22 2015

Home Depot and Patriot Guard Riders, along with several other organizations, will be helping make repairs to the home.

Chili, N.Y. - Efforts are underway to help a local Iraq War veteran who recently had a stroke. As a result of the stroke, Andrew Hand now has trouble speaking, leaving him unable to work.

"It's a day to day lifelong recovery," said his wife Erica, who picked up another job to help support the family and make ends meet. "I think we're adjusting pretty well given the circumstances." With the single income, however, home repairs have had to go on the backburner.
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Iraq Veteran Sues Home Depot

Local Veteran Suing Home Depot After Being Fired For Missing Work To Deal With Injuries
WCHS News 8
Christopher A. Williams, Jarrod Clay
October 14, 2015

Scalf was in the Army for five years and spent 15 months in Iraq starting in 2006. While there, Scalf was in several gun fights and was hit with a roadside bomb 12 times. He suffered a traumatic brain injury, has PTSD, and now gets headaches that are sometimes to severe he can’t open his eyes.

TEAYS VALLEY, W.Va. – A U.S. Army veteran is suing Home Depot after he said the store fired him for missing work to deal with injuries he got while deployed in Iraq.

A quick search on Home Depot’s website can yield a page where veterans can go to apply for a job.

That’s exactly what Christopher Scalf did after his time in the Army was over, but Scalf said the company didn’t hold up to their end of the deal.

Scalf, a veteran of the U.S. Army, worked at Home Depot in Teays Valley for about three years until he was fired by the company. He and his attorney said Home Depot fired him for taking time off work to deal with injuries he got while in Iraq.

“While he is at would he would get headaches, and instead of providing some reasonable accommodations, Home Depot simply terminated his employment,” lawyer Mark Plants said.
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Home Depot Foundation Renovates Vietnam Vet's Home and Heart

Saying thanks: Home Depot renovates home of Vietnam War veteran
WBNG News
By Julianne Peixoto
December 5, 2014

Town of Maine, NY (WBNG NY) One local Vietnam War veteran is finally getting the 'thank you' that has eluded him since his service days.

"My fear stayed overseas," said veteran Paul Klugh, of the town of Maine. "I was scared everyday over there, every day."

Klugh vividly remembers his time in combat during the Vietnam War.

"That first time you kill a person it turns your stomach," said Klugh. "You get sick to your stomach. It's like having the flu a hundred times over because you took a life. But it's either yours or his."

Klugh received a Bronze Star for bravery in action. But after his tour of duty, he didn't come home alone. Vietnam returned with him.

"I had PTSD, I didn't know it existed," said Klugh. "I knew there was something wrong."

He came home to a thankless country, carrying a shameful feeling about his service.

"People didn't accept you," said Klugh. "They said, 'You were a baby killer, you had to kill civilians. You guys did this, you did that.' Well, we had to. We couldn't help it sometimes."

Klugh said he was never thanked for his service.
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Community Makes Home Better for Wounded Afghanistan Veteran

Community rallies to help soldier wounded in Afghanistan
Northwest Georgia News
October 26, 2014

ADAIRSVILLE — A community has rallied to ready a home for Army Spc. Eugene Perry Young, who was paralyzed last year by a suicide bomber a little more than four months into a nine-month deployment in Afghanistan. Young has been in a Veterans Administration hospital in Tampa for more than a year.

He and his family had planned to build a home there until June, when Young returned to the Adairsville-Calhoun area for the first time since the bombing.

“I actually never thought I was going to come back home. It’s a small town and kids want to get away, do something on their own,” Young said. “But when I got injured and I came back here, I just felt drawn to this place like this is where I should be.”

Young and his wife, Samantha, found a home in Adairsville, but the VA said it was not equipped to handle his needs.

Bartow County Emergency Management Agency Director Paul Cuprowski knew Young would need a ramp. He needs a wheelchair after a roadside bomb injured his spinal cord.
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Combat Medic-Afghanistan Veteran Gets Care from Home Depot Volunteers

Watch: Hundreds of volunteers renovate wounded veteran's damaged home
NJ.Com
By Justin Zaremba
September 12, 2014

HAMBURG — For George Alakpa, Sept. 11s have served as bookends to a harsh chapter in his life.

It was the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001 that inspired him, a Nigerian immigrant, to join the U.S. Army. It was while serving as a medic in Afghanistan that he was severely injured and suffered a traumatic spinal cord injury when a roadside bomb exploded.

After returning from Afghanistan nearly two years ago, Alakpa, who also suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder, hit a new low when he nearly lost his home in Hamburg. The sum of these events — including his isolation at the time — caused him to contemplate suicide, he said.
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Home Depot Effort to Ensure Every Veteran Has a Safe Place to Call Home

The Home Depot Foundation Improves More Than 10,000 Units of Veterans' Housing in Effort to Ensure Every Veteran Has a Safe Place to Call Home
Foundation Announces Nearly $4 Million in Additional Grants for Veterans' Housing, Part of Five-Year, $80 Million Commitment
ATLANTA, March 26, 2014
PRNewswire

Today, The Home Depot® Foundation announced an additional $3.9 million in grants to organizations across the country that address veterans' housing needs. The recent round of grants brings the Foundation's financial contributions to the issue to $65.7 million since launching its mission in the spring of 2011 of ensuring every veteran has a safe place to call home. To date, donations made by The Home Depot Foundation have impacted more than 10,200 units of veterans' housing.

In the most recent round of grants, The Home Depot Foundation is providing project funding that includes:

"We know that too many veterans struggle with issues related to housing: nearly 60,000 U.S. veterans are homeless on any given night, and women veterans, many of whom have children, are the fastest-growing segment of this homeless population, while several million others live with a service-connected disability," said Kelly Caffarelli, president of The Home Depot Foundation. "As we work toward our mission of ensuring every veteran has a safe place to call home, we are committed to funding nonprofit organizations that address veterans' needs at every point on the housing continuum."
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Veterans are not public property

Veterans are not public property
Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
December 26, 2013

VA hospital refuses to accept 'Merry Christmas' cards was the headline of a piece written by Todd Stames about Dallas VA hospital refusing to take Christmas cards from school children.

According to Stames, the VA said,'That's great. We're thrilled to have them, except the only thing is, we can't accept anything that says ‘Merry Christmas' or ‘God bless you' or any scriptural references because of all the red tape.'" And that is true but he should have told Stames that the Chaplain could deliver them because he would know the "patient" well enough to be able to judge if the card would be helpful or not.

Any religious item, not matter how innocently it was sent, is not welcomed by everyone equally.

This is a huge issue for our veterans in the hospital. People want to let them know they care and that is a wonderful thing but assuming what they want to give is right is actually wrong. How many times have you wanted to do something for someone only to discover it was not what they needed from you? Just think of yesterday when you gave someone a gift and they took it back to the store today.

If you really want to do something for them, write letters to members of Congress to make sure they are taken care of. Donated to great charities like Fisher House so they can take care of family members near where their loved one is recovering. In 2012 they cared for 19,000 families. They operate 62 houses near hospitals. Since 1990 they have saved families $200 million dollars they would have spent on lodging. The list goes on.

You can donate to the Home Depot Foundation or help to repair a home for a veteran in need. Or give your money and time to Homes For Our Troops to make sure that disabled veterans have a home that is adapted/built for their wounds to make their lives better.

You can volunteer at a VA hospital to spend time with them. You can also do what is advised. If you want to send cards or letters, do it in a generic way so that they know you care about them.

These men and women are not our property and they are individuals. What we may want to do for them may not be what they need or want. It isn't up to us to decide for them.

I would love to take Veterans Bibles to all of them but all of them will not receive them the same way. It isn't up to me to decide who should or should not get one and I take no offense when I am told what I can and cannot do. It is much better to ask first.

Home Depot Employees Help Rebuild Home for Homeless Veterans

Home Depot Employees Help Rebuild Home for Veterans
WGGB News
December 18th, 2013

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (WGGB) — More than four dozen volunteers from The Home Depot helped rebuild a home on Pine Street in Springfield.

The home will become a permanent housing facility for eight homeless veterans, run by the Puerto Rican Veterans Association of Massachusetts.
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Home Depot began by putting in all new windows and doors.

Vietnam Veteran gets home makeover from Home Depot and army of volunteers

Gloversville vet gets life-changing addition to home
WNYT News
Subrina Dhammi
Posted at: 11/21/2013

GLOVERSVILLE - There's something going on in Gloversville Thursday that is changing the life of a veteran who lives there.

A lot of kind people are building something that will allow Charles Hart to leave his home on his home for the first time, in a very long time.

Some pieces of wood, saws and nails outside, and a veteran, moved to tears inside.

“I can't describe it, I'm getting my freedom back,” says this Vietnam Veteran.

Charles Hart is getting something today that will change his life.

Volunteers from Home Depot are building a ramp on the outside of his Gloversville home that will allow the double amputee to leave his home for the first time, on his own, in a very long time.

“It's hard to keep from crying about it, you have no idea what it's like to be stuck here,” says Hart.

Charles served in Vietnam back in the early 1970's.
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Volunteers pour in to build retired veteran a new home

Volunteers pour in to build retired veteran a new home
Home Depot Foundation helps family get new house
KXAN News
By Ignacio Garcia
Updated: Thursday, October 24, 2013

BERTRAM, Texas (KXAN) - Shirley Wright has been living in a small shed in Bertram, Texas since she lost her second mobile home to a tornado in 2009.

"It's not very comfortable," said Shirley Wright, retired Army sergeant. "With three of us or four of us in there it takes up the maximum space."

Life will soon change for the retired Army veteran, who spent 18 years in the service and now grows vegetables for the local food bank and takes in rescue animals.

Wright will move from her 288 square-foot cabin to a four-bedroom, two-bath, 1,500 square-foot home in less than three weeks, just in time for Veterans Day.

About 350 volunteers have been working around the clock for two and a half weeks to bring Wright her dream home.

"My son is in the service, my brother is a vet, my father," said Michael Reichert. "It's just great to give back.

Veterans are twice as likely as the average American to be homeless, making up 16 percent of the homeless population.

Nearly 1.5 million veterans live in poverty and 14 percent have a service-connected disability.

If you know a veteran with a home that needs help, or no home at, click here to view the Home Depot Foundation's grant request form.
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Volunteers of America and Home Depot Team up for Homeless Veterans

New vets home a country retreat
In foothills of Alpine, 20 beds now available for homeless vets
UT San Diego
By Jeanette Steele
JUNE 5, 2013

A new 20-bed center for homeless veterans has quietly opened in the Alpine foothills.

With a new basketball court, horseshoe pits, outdoor grills and a “victory” vegetable garden, organizers hope the sprawling property will offer a retreat-like experience to young former fighters wrestling with combat stress.

Volunteers of America, a national religious nonprofit group, opened the facility in February in a run-down cluster of buildings that had housed various recovery programs over the years.

In other words, it didn’t look so swanky back then. Gophers had free run of the place, sometimes popping their heads out of the ground within spitting distance of residents.

Enter the Home Depot Foundation, a charitable arm of the home improvement megastore chain.
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WWII veteran's suicide leads to help for others

Local group wins $250,000 to build military retreat for veterans with PTSD
WDRB News
Posted: Jun 01, 2013

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- A local non-profit organization has beat out other groups across the nation in the fight to win $250,000 for military families.

With a final push from veterans for votes in Home Depot's 'Aprons in Action' competition, the organization took home the grand prize.

For Troy Yocum, this moment, has been a long time in the making.

It started in 1981, when his grandfather, a World War II veteran suffering from PTSD, committed suicide.

"As a kid I didn't' understand it, until I went to Iraq myself and realized a lot of my friends and comrades were going through a lot of similar things," says Troy Yocum.

Yocum came home and set out on a mission across the country.

In 2011, we caught up with him as he was walking across the country to raise money for veterans in need.

From that came the non-profit Active Heroes, which has helped military families needing financial assistance, and home repairs.

But Yocum still dreamed of a place to help veterans like his grandfather, suffering from PTSD.

"My grandfather's suicide definitely touched me as a kid. I'm now 34 years old, and that dream of building a retreat has always been there," says Troy Yocum.

That dream, will now become a reality.
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Vegas loves veterans

Veterans Village announces Vegas Loves Veterans campaign!
Posted on February 7, 2013
by veteransvillagel
The amount of support that Veterans Village has received since its launch last year is truly amazing. One of the partners that has been integrally involved in ensuring our success to help our veterans in need is The Home Depot Foundation (THDF).

THDF has already done a lot, but the foundation has decided to increase its financial support to benefit the completion of a comprehension renovation for Veterans Village. We are very excited to announce that Fred Wacker, COO of THDF, will join us for a special event on Feb. 14 to award of a significant grant to Veterans Village during a brief ceremony. The event will also include associate volunteers from The Home Depot.
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Iraq veteran and wounded CHP officer gets help to heal

Volunteers step up to help disabled East Bay veteran
Laura Anthony
ABC News Team
January 24, 3013

PITTSBURG, Calif. (KGO) -- An East Bay veteran is getting a complete makeover of his backyard, thanks to a team of volunteers from Home Depot.

The volunteers worked from about 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. Thursday. The veteran who owns the home served two years in Iraq in a combat zone before he returned to the Bay Area and joined the CHP. He was left permanently disabled after responding to a robbery call in Oakland. The team of volunteers came out to his house to help make his life a little smoother, going forward.

After all the service Shawn Navel has given to his country and his community, he's grateful for what's being given back to him now, "I'm extremely happy and I'm also happy to see all these supporters," Shawn said.

An Army veteran, Shawn served two tours in Iraq before returning to the Bay Area as a California Highway Patrol officer. It wasn't just a career, but something he considered a calling.
But that was all shattered three years ago when Shawn and several other CHP officers responded to a robbery in progress at an Oakland Walgreens. When the robber came out shooting, Shawn was hit eight times.

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Home Depot Foundation helps PTSD service dogs group

Area veterans thrown a bone
Sep. 21, 2012
Written by
Jim Totten
DAILY PRESS and ARGUS

Terran Frye didn't need to think long about what would have happened to him if he hadn't received his psychiatric service dog, Hershey.

"I'd probably be dead," said Frye, a U.S. Marine Corps veteran who suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder.

"It's a demon for a lot of veterans," Frye explained of the condition.

Hershey has helped Frye with anxiety and pulled him through crowds when he's feeling uneasy. The rescue dog, trained at the Howell Township-based nonprofit Stiggy's Dogs, has allowed him to get out more often and resume a normal life.

On Thursday, Frye was glad to see more than 150 Home Depot employees gather at Stiggy's Dogs and spend the day constructing a handicap-accessible bedroom, bathroom and kitchen for veterans participating in the program. Employees, who were volunteering on their day off, extended a porch and added a ramp, completed landscaping and cleaned up the large wooded property.
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Home Depot Foundation Pledges Additional $50 Million To Veterans

The Home Depot Foundation Pledges Additional $50 Million To Veterans' Housing Initiatives
Commitment kicks off second annual Celebration of Service volunteer movement
By The Home Depot Foundation
Published: Thursday, Sep. 6, 2012
ATLANTA
PRNewswire

Today, The Home Depot® Foundation announced that it has surpassed the three-year $30 million pledge it made in 2011 to veterans' housing initiatives more than a year ahead of schedule. As part of its second annual Celebration of Service campaign, the Foundation is now committing an additional $50 million to veterans' nonprofits over the next three years in an effort to ensure every veteran has a safe place to call home.

In addition to its funding commitment, The Home Depot Foundation's Celebration of Service campaign kicks off today with Team Depot associate volunteers repairing and renovating 100 veterans' homes in 13 cities. Over the next two months, through Veterans Day, thousands of Home Depot associates across the country will complete more than 300 service projects to benefit veterans and their families.
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I love Home Depot! They came out to the Orlando DAV Chapter 16 to fix up our old building. Once they found out what the DAV does they have been right there to help us because we're helping veterans all as volunteers.

My husband and I are life members of the DAV and the Auxiliary. This is the Home Depot group from our area and I filmed this when they came out to finish the makeover of our building.

Volunteers lend hand at injured Marine's home

Volunteers lend hand at injured Marine's home
August 30, 2012
ANIESA HOLMES
DAILY NEWS STAFF

BEAULAVILLE — Volunteers from the Semper Fi Fund and Home Depot spent many hours sawing, planting and building to make life more comfortable for a local injured Marine.

About 60 volunteers from Home Depot’s “Team Depot” and Semper Fi Fund spent three days provide landscaping and exterior modifications to Sgt. Maj. Raymond Mackey’s Beulaville home.

In 2009, Mackey was injured by an IED explosion during an ambush while serving in Afghanistan, leaving him with bilateral amputations of both legs above the knees and extensive nerve damage to his arms. Along with the use of prosthetic legs and a wheelchair, Mackey said the renovation project helps to add major steps to his recovery process.

“It really means a lot because there’s a lot of stuff that I can’t do now,” said Mackey, who has been in the Marine Corps for more than 29 years. “Everything that they have done is making my life a lot easier and attractive to come home to.”
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