nonprofit spotlight
Legna Aponte, center, wearing a black mask, and her two sons celebrate during the Operation: Coming Home ceremony Nov. 11, 2020, in Wendell. Volunteers from USVC built the family a home after her husband, Sgt. 1st Class Elis Barreto Ortiz, was killed in action.
United States Veteran Corps WRITTEN BY MANDY HOWARD | PHOTOS COURTESY OF ANDREW LADNER
WHEN LEGNA APONTE’S HUSBAND, paratrooper Elis Barreto Ortiz, was killed in action in Afghanistan in 2019, she felt alone. The burden of grief was amplified by worry about how she would care for her two young sons, then 11 and 4. “I didn’t have any family in North Carolina. We were starting from zero,” she said. That is when she called Andrew Ladner, founder and president of the United States Veteran Corps (USVC), a Cary nonprofit with a mission to help veterans and their families. “When I first reached out, I just wanted to know about the program. I was a new widow, I didn’t trust anyone,” she said. Within months of that call, Aponte learned her family would receive a new home compliments of “Operation: Coming Home,” the USVC mission to provide custom-built houses for troops injured in combat and Gold Star families. “I was in shock,” Aponte said. “It’s one of the great experiences of my life.” While it’s hard to imagine something Andrew Ladner 92
OCTOBER 2021
greater than a mortgage-free home, Aponte says the true gift of the USVC is much bigger. “They keep showing up. They know what happened with my husband, and they want to show up for him.” It is a sentiment often echoed about the USVC; they keep showing up. When many community agencies shut down due to COVID-19, the USVC stepped in. For 64 weeks, they took their regular veteran food delivery program, “Feed a Hero Friday,” and transformed it to “Food Run Friday.” Without warning or preparation, in addition to their normal service, they committed their trailers, their trucks and their volunteers to coordinate the donations and deliver thousands of pounds of food when no one else could. Overcoming improbable odds is nothing new to the USVC. With a smile on his face, Ladner shares the David and Goliath story about the first time his group won “Best Community Spirit in the Nation” from the National Association of Home Builders in 2009.
