In September, a Lynchburg veteran killed his girlfriend and another man before dying by suicide and leaving two 6-year-old children as orphans.
The children, now living with an aunt in Hot Springs, are receiving aid from Purple Heart Homes, a nonprofit which works to enable veterans to “age in place” in their homes through renovations.
Purple Heart Homes‘ original fundraising goal for the Hot Springs project was to raise $15,000 and, through matching funding from Mental Illness and Kindness Endowment (MIKE), the project has nearly reached its goal. However, the nonprofit has increased its total fundraising goal to $60,000 to make other renovations to the home.
“We’re doing well. Our fundraising effort has kicked off well,” said Rex Brust, president of the Community Organization Veteran group in Lynchburg, a chapter of Purple Heart Homes. Brust served in the U.S. Army from 1973 to 1986.
But, the fundraising campaign, called Virginia Hearts of Healing, needs monetary donations, city permits, supplies and volunteers. Contractors in the area have donated lumber, windows and plumbing.
Purple Heart Homes is working with the Lynchburg Area Veterans Council to make the project possible.
“I had several friends from those days [of military service] take their lives,” said Mike Lennon, Purple Heart Homes board member. Lennon served in the U.S. Marine Corps from 1978 to 1998.
Lennon said he believes that more than 22 veterans per day, the American statistical average, die by suicide.
The lives of the two children of the Lynchburg veteran have been changed.
“We’re reaching out to the community and saying ‘how will you help?” Lennon said of the fundraising campaign. “We want to show [the two children] that the community loves them and there is hope and love in the world.”
According to Brust, the additional renovations would include living space, a bathroom and more bedrooms onto the Hot Springs home. The children’s aunt homeschools them and Purple Heart Homes would like to create space for homeschooling in the home.
Purple Heart Homes was founded in 2008 by two combat buddies, John Gallina and Dale Beatty. While stationed in Iraq in 2005, the two men were injured during a route clearance near Fallujah. Gallina served in the U.S. Army from 1996 until 2005.
Gallina came home with a traumatic brain injury, PTSD and back injury. Beatty came home both legs amputated below the knees.
“I’m a general contractor by trade. I’ve been building houses pretty much my whole life,” Gallina said of the nonprofit choice and mission after combat.
Purple Heart Homes is headquartered in Statesville, North Carolina, outside Charlotte. Gallina travels now for the nonprofit. Beatty died in 2018.
“We saw a generation of veterans getting left behind,” Gallina said of the nonprofit’s mission to help Vietnam War veterans age in place. “We just wanted to go help some Vietnam veterans and let them know they’re not forgotten.”
Since 2008, Gallina said the nonprofit has helped 3,541 veterans and has turned out better than the vision he and Beatty had.
“I think it’s become better than what Dale and I could have done on our own,” Gallina said.
The relationships made through the nonprofit between volunteers and veterans are what the two combat friends had hoped for with Purple Heart Homes.
“The house is just the vehicle [to relationships],” Gallina said.
Relationships with other organizations are also important to fulfill the mission of helping veterans. Gallina said that Purple Heart Homes has worked with MIKE on funding other projects. MIKE was founded by Josiah Ziler, whose brother died by suicide.
Gallina said that Purple Heart Homes is proud to collaborate with the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Lynchburg Area Veterans Council.
“We’re all about helping where we can,” he said.
Helping veterans is important to Purple Heart Homes‘ mission, but so is helping the whole family.
“I know the need is significant,” Gallina said of the Hot Springs home project.
Often community members and media hear about the death of a veteran by suicide, but never hear details about the family that veteran leaves behind.
“I think it’s another thing when the kids are the only survivors. They really become the victims,” Gallina said.
Virginia Hearts of Healing is an opportunity for the Valley community to let the two children know the community cares and change the course of their young lives.
Purple Heart Homes will continue to fulfill its mission and ensure that a generation of veterans is never overlooked.
“Veterans fought for the American dream and they deserve to have that,” Gallina said.
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Rebecca Barnabi
