A Sanctuary For Veterans: Made With Helping Hands

Imagine moving a three-story Victorian house with a widow's walk, across the street with logs and oxen.  An interesting fact . . . and we’ll probably never learn the mystery of why this house at 516 Essex Street, Lynn was moved to lot 518, but for the last 24 years this beautiful old house has been a comfortable, safe home to 100 percent psychologically, service connected disabled veterans.

The story begins with Susan Campbell and Bernadette Forti, two social workers who over the years saw things going on in their world of work that they knew were just not right.  After years of observation, these enterprising young women got together and knew they could make things happen in a much better way for veterans in need.  For example, many families found themselves with extra room when their children left the nest, so they took in a veteran or two as boarders.  As well meaning as these families were, the veterans really didn’t fit into these home environments.  These veterans needed special care and they never really felt part of the family. The families couldn’t provide the necessary attention these disabled veterans required.

Susan and Bernadette knew if these veterans were living in an environment together, supervised so they were sure to have proper meds when needed and they had the company of their own kind, they would thrive and be so much better off.   So they set off to find a house where they could put their ideas to work.  These gals put not only their heads together, but their money, effort and ingenuity in order to eventually buy the Victorian house on 516 Essex Street.  This was the first property Habitat PLUS Inc. acquired for the Veterans Program. 

When I learned about this program and wrote the piece for the Swampscott Patch last September, I mistakenly said this was the second property they purchased, 516 was actually the first property to belong to the program.  I just want to correct my error here and apologize for my carelessness.  520 and 516 are now both HP properties serving the disabled veterans.

These young ladies struggled for eight years on their own to keep this program going before seeking any aid.  It was important for them to prove they could do what they set out to do before looking for help.  Not only did they take care of the veterans, but they hammered, painted and were the general contractors for the old building almost entirely by themselves.  Eventually, they did receive a grant, which helps to keep this worthy program alive.

A marvelous happenstance occurred about three years ago when Patrick Burke of Swampscott was out jogging on his lunch break.  Patrick heads the GE Veterans Council; he learned about this veteran’s home and was determined to help.  Pat is a senior sergeant in the US Air Force Reserves.  Dave Reece, a USAF veteran, also a Lynn GE Veteran’s Council Officer, and Pat, got together and between the two of them assembled a great group of GE employees who give of their time, talent and effort to help maintain the properties belonging to HP.  They give up a weekend or more each year to measure, hammer, saw, rip out old, put in new.  Build new stairs, put in insulation, paint, climb ladders, you name it, they do whatever it takes to keep the repairs going; they’ve all pitched in . . . for the last three years.  No one complains; smiles and happy faces abound.

This year, Pat was deployed somewhere in the Middle East so was unable to actually participate in the work GE folks took part in on June 14 and 15, but he did help coordinate things before he left.  We pray for his safe return.  Dave Reece was in charge of this great group; only a guess, but I might have been the only one outside of GE in the volunteer program.

Unfortunately, Friday was rainy, which kept some folks away and necessitated indoor projects.  So many of the volunteers are very young men and women who willingly and cheerfully gave up a beautiful Saturday to pitch in and give Dave their all for this project.  Many of these nice folks have been coming back to help since Pat and Dave first became involved in HP.  This month they put in some new windows at the 520 Essex Street house and after having put up some insulation they replaced the sideboard on part of this large building.  A part of the building was scraped and painted; perhaps more replacement will take place another year.  They lugged bags of mulch, dug holes for some plants, stained the fence, helped to dig out old rotted timbers for wall replacement and carted old crumbling concrete off to the dumpster. 

In particular, I want to thank Shawn Malden for digging the two holes in front of 516 for new blue hydrangeas.  He dug and cut roots in order to get these beautiful bushes into a very difficult spot . . . smiling all the while.  That area was in need of special help and when we were finished, it looked great! 

As usual, come lunch time there was a lot of pizza, chicken wings and cold drinks to fortify us for the afternoon.  Thankfully Saturday turned out to be a spectacular day for the hard work that was needed in order to finish.

McLaughlin Masonry replaced the wall outside 520, which is the same company that made sidewalk and wall repairs last September, as well as other small repairs in the foundation to prevent animals from entering the building.  Building that wall required lots and lots of concrete mixing, and cinderblocks to be lugged and placed in exact positions.  When done, it was a nice smooth wall where walkers can rest their weary bottoms as they climb the Essex Street hill, thanks to a lot of generous hard working folks.

Last September, Richard Banks donated a huge flag pole for the front yard and whenever it is learned of an American casualty, the flag on that pole flies at half staff to honor our fallen soldier.

Unfortunately, the home has seen its funding cut in recent times, which has resulted in three staff members losing their job.  

The ‘Powers That Be’ don’t understand or perhaps can’t see the ‘Forest For The Trees’ because . . . and here is a quote from Bernadette the director and one of the founders of HP.

“Aside from the obvious social and humanitarian solutions our program offers, we also save the government substantial tax dollars.  For example, we have a veteran who we will call John Doe.    John had been in our program for some ten years.  We obtained his medical records for the ten years prior to his placement at HP. 

In those ten years John had a total of 517 in-patient hospital days.  At the time according to VA Cost Recovery Agents, it cost $385 a day for in-patient care. That means prior to placement here John cost the government $199,045 on hospitalizations.  In the ten years since placement here John has had only 77 hospital days at a cost of $29,645. This translates into a savings to the taxpayers of $169,400.  (Note:  This man ended up living here for a total of 20 years.  Unfortunately, he passed away in 2011 and was never re-hospitalized other than what is identified above. Therefore, he had only 77 hospital days in his 20 years at HP.)

This represents one veteran.  Therefore, we think it is safe to say that in our 24 years of operation we have saved the taxpayers millions of dollars.  Clearly, our program has helped break the cycle of re-hospitalizations and homelessness of these often forgotten but deserving patriots.”

Isn’t it sad that these folks have to struggle daily for money to keep such a worthy program alive?  As I mentioned in my story last September, I stumbled on this by accident when I saw Pat’s plea for volunteer’s on the internet. 

I see my role as not just someone to help with the gardening or maybe cleaning up some place.  I feel my role here is to highlight the GE volunteer’s, which may generate more volunteer’s and to write a story that will help bring in donations. MONEY to keep this program going.   

After all we owe our veterans more than we can ever repay.  The least we can give is a life of dignity and a comfortable, safe home for those unable to properly care for themselves. 

If you would like to learn about the September 2012 events of the veteran’s story, log onto Swampscott Patch and enter my name Amy Lockerbie Smith.  Look for CARING FOR OUR VETERAN’S or click here.