Building Homes for Heroes
Honoring our nation’s veterans, one home at a time. By Michele Grosze
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nspired by his love of country and by his own father’s service, Master Sergeant (MSG) George Vera joined the Army in the 1990s. Twenty years later, in August 2015, Vera was attached to the Combined Joint Special Operations Task ForceAfghanistan during his fifth deployment to Afghanistan. “During that time, insurgents hit the front gate of the base with a vehicle-borne IED which killed all eight of the guards and left a large gap,” explained Vera. “After they did that, they started sending in assaulters with suicide vests on, attempting to detonate and kill as many people as possible.” MSG Vera and his best friend, First Sergeant Andrew McKenna, led two small groups, bravely repelling the attack and killing the assaulters. McKenna was tragically killed, and approximately an hour and a half into the battle, Vera was shot four times, twice in his leg and twice in his back, with the bullets clipping his spine. These injuries left him paralyzed from the waist down, changing his life forever. These stories of heroism are all around us. The sacrifice of the brave women and men who serve our country, the price they pay for our freedom, often with their lives, is tragically common. When they return home, they continue to pay that price for the rest of their lives. There are programs, nonprofits and veterans’ services that work tirelessly to thank these brave servicewomen and men by offering sup-
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Central Florida Lifestyle | November 2023
port. Building Homes for Heroes is one such program, determined and devoted to bringing renewed hope to our nation’s injured veterans. The organization builds or modifies homes and gifts them, mortgage-free, to injured veterans and their families while providing support services to enable them to build better and brighter lives and reach new heights. “A hero is someone who understands the responsibility that comes with his freedom.” Bob Dylan
“Each of us holds September 11, 2001, close to our hearts, kind of like Pearl Harbor,” explained Andy Pujol, founder of Building Homes for Heroes. The story began after the tragedy of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks when Pujol volunteered in the search and rescue side-by-side
with our heroic first responders. “I sat there in the rubble one night, and as I looked around me. I saw fires burning everywhere and smoke everywhere,” said Pujol. “I said a prayer, and in the middle of the prayer, I looked around me and saw all the firefighters, police officers, EMT workers, and I realized for the first time in my life I was seeing true heroes at work.” Pujol made a pledge that day to serve the country he loved and to help the brave men and women who fought to defend our freedom in the aftermath of those attacks to the present day. “I was amazed by them. They were so resilient and so determined and never stopped. They had soot all over them from head to toe, and I knew at that point I did, too. I broke down in tears, and I said a prayer and asked God for forgiveness and to stay with me and give me the opportunity
