Helping a Hero organization builds a home for a North Texas veteran and his family
By OLIVIA LEACH
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NORTH TEXAS, Texas (KTVT) — The Helping a Hero organization goes around the country awarding specially adapted and accessible homes to veterans who’ve been injured while serving our country. Now, that organization is building a home for a veteran right here in North Texas.
Retired Army Staff Sergeant Travis Strong knows what it’s like to face insurmountable obstacles – he lost both of his legs when a bomb hit his vehicle in Iraq while he was deployed in 2006. Now, he trains other veterans with traumatic injuries in adaptive sports and helps them see that there’s life after their injury.
“To give back kind of a sense of purpose for some of these guys that have lost purpose they’ve been told so many times that they can’t do this,” said Strong.
Strong, his fiance and their son rent a home but he says it can be a challenge to get around in his wheelchair.
“It’s hard, it’s not easy,” said Strong. “There’s a lot of doorways that I can’t get into, a lot of areas that I can’t get into in my chair because it’s built for normal people.”
That’s why the Helping a Hero organization, Bass Pro Shops and Lennar Homes are building Strong and his family a home of their own, in Haslet.
“It’s all about Americans coming together and saying thank you in a tangible way,” said Meredith Iler, the founder of the Helping a Hero home program.
It was an emotional day for his family as they broke ground at the site where their new home will be in just a few months.
“I don’t know how I can thank them enough for this blessing,” said Strong.
The home will have lower countertops, wider doorways and other adaptive features specially made for Strong.
“To be able to have a home that’s fully adaptive where you can get into every single area doorway in your chair is just huge,” he said. “It’s such a relief.”
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