New home for a veteran in Syracuse
/ photo by Brandon Roth
SYRACUSE -- Several organizations and dozens of volunteers gathered Thursday to help two disabled veterans and their families.
After serving two tours of duty in the Middle East, Felica Plunkett got out of the military and soon found herself with three kids and no place to live. "I didn't know if we were going to have food to eat. I didn't know if we were going to get an apartment," she says. Today, thanks to Syracuse Habitat for Humanity, Plunkett and her kids have a brand new home on Fitch Street in Syracuse.
Habitat for Humanity, with the help of sponsors like National Grid and Carrier, started building two homes on Fitch Street back in 2010. The homes, built through the Veterans Build Program, are the first of their kind in New York State and two of only a dozen in the entire country.
Kristin Earle, of Syracuse Habitat for Humanity, says interest in the veteran build program is growing. "We're serving as a model for the Northeast and hopefully pretty soon the entire nation will catch on," she says.
To help pay for their new homes, veterans in the program receive no interest loans. Plunkett, who is now a fulltime student, says she hopes to one day give back to a community and country that have given her so much. "I know its an old cliche but its not what my country can do for me, it's what I can do for my country," she says.
