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Community partners come together to support Veterans Home

Wyoming Tribune-Eagle - 6/8/2022

Jun. 8—CHEYENNE — Members of the Rotary Club of Cheyenne and Habitat for Humanity of Laramie County are working together this week to rebuild the deck around the John J. Edmunds Veterans Home.

Eric Walsh, the Community Action of Laramie County program director for kinship support services, self-sufficiency and veteran housing services, said the deck along the outside of the Veterans Home was more than 11 years old. It was starting to become a safety hazard at the home, which is run by CALC.

"We've been doing our best to try to keep it sanded, weathered, painted, trying to make it look good, but it came to a point where we were seeing holes in there," Walsh said. "We were seeing it warping on the banister where it was becoming more of a safety issue than anything else, and it looked pretty ugly."

The house, located at 518 O'Neil Ave., has individual units for vets living there. The deck is necessary because it is wheelchair accessible and allows access to units on the second floor.

When CALC first looked into replacing the deck last year, Walsh said it received a quote from a contractor of about $16,000.

CALC receives funding from the U.S. Department for Veterans Affairs. Walsh said this is "enough to maintain the house itself, the veterans staying in it and the employees that are involved with it," but it doesn't cover larger costs like rebuilding a deck.

Traci Lacock, president elect of the Rotary Club, said the club heard about the need through their service projects committee and provided CALC with a donation to replace the deck.

Lacock said the funding came from a business sponsorship program the Rotary Club does every year. Lacock said firms donated approximately $35,000 last year.

However, due to timing and other logistics, Walsh said CALC was not able to start the project immediately. When the group looked into replacing the deck again, the cost nearly tripled due to inflation, supply chain issues, and the rising cost of lumber and labor.

Extra help

Walsh said CALC met with Dan Dorsch, the special projects coordinator at Habitat for Humanity of Laramie County. That's when Habitat stepped in and provided support with construction materials, a subcontractor and volunteers.

"I think the biggest thing to note is that had Habitat not stepped up to provide the project management in terms of actually building, I'm not sure this would have happened," said Traci's husband, Tom Lacock. He is a Rotary Club member who volunteered to help rebuild the deck.

Habitat for Humanity of Laramie County Executive Director Kate Wright said her group has a partnership with the Lowe's store in Cheyenne, which extended "deep discounts" to Habitat. This made it possible for Habitat to buy materials within the original budget of $16,000.

The Veterans Home is one of the self-sufficiency programs offered by CALC. The program works with veterans who are or will soon be homeless and provides them with housing, food assistance and a case manager who helps them attain permanent housing. Walsh said the goal is to find permanent housing for each veteran within 90 days. CALC housed 43 veterans last year, Walsh said.

"We shouldn't be having homeless veterans," Walsh said. "They deserve to be in a house. This program puts them in a place where ... they're not worrying about where they're going to sleep at night, where their next meal is going to be."

Volunteers working on the deck Tuesday said this project showed how the community can come together for a good cause.

Wright said Habitat for Humanity of Laramie County is a Veterans Build affiliate, meaning it works to support local vets by building homes for them, hiring them or participating in events with them.

Habitat became a Veterans Build affiliate in January 2020, and Wright said it is closing on its first house for a Navy veteran in the next month. With that project wrapping up, it worked out for Habitat to shift to helping with the deck.

Wright said Habitat's subcontractor, Ossiel Luna, was the recipient of a Habitat home in 2017.

The success of the project was thanks to multiple community partnerships, Walsh said. CALC also worked with Travelodge and Veterans' Rock to temporarily house and feed the former military members living in the home while the deck is replaced.

"It takes a community," Traci Lacock said. "Rotary is excited to help."

Serena Bettis is a senior journalism major at Colorado State University who is interning this summer at the Wyoming Tribune Eagle. She can be reached by email at sbettis@wyomingnews.com. Follow her on Twitter at @serenaroseb.

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