Volunteers help improve home for Army veteran

PENDER COUNTY, NC (WWAY) — Dozens of volunteers came out to help improve the home of a local Army veteran on Thursday. It’s all part of a nationwide effort to give back, and now it’s going local.

Tristan Brown joined the military in 2006. In 2008, while deployed in Afghanistan, Brown was injured when his humvee ran over an IED. He suffered a traumatic brain injury and PTSD and was honorably discharged.

“That sent me home from deployment and that’s what I’ve been trying to kind of figure out, how to adjust to those injuries and those things over the past few years,” Brown said.

Brown, his wife and three kids recently became homeowners through a program that remodels foreclosed homes for veteran families.

On Thursday, Team Depot volunteers from The Home Depot helped revitalize the home’s backyard so the family can use it regularly.

“Today we’re working on fencing,” Brain Webber, The Home Depot Wilmington Store Manager and District Community Captain, said. “We’re working on cleaning up the backyard. We’re working on giving a swing set to the kids to play too.”

Webber said 40 volunteers from The Home Depot came out to help on their days off.

“I can see what great people look like that come out and help others, and you know, for no reason for themselves,” Brown said. “They’re here to help others and to serve the community and serve people and if nothing else, that example for my kids means everything.”

Thursday’s effort in Hampstead is a part of The Home Depot’s ongoing efforts to improve the homes and lives of U.S. military veterans and their families.

Since 2011, Team Depot, the company’s associate-led volunteer force, has transformed more than 26,700 homes for veterans across the country.