HOWELL – Army Maj. Darlene “Dolly” Harris cut the ribbon on her new home during a house unveiling event held by Homes For Our Troops.
Harris suffered intense injuries during her time serving our country in Iraq and was having trouble navigating life in her previous home because of it. Harris needs a wheelchair to get around due to her injuries, and her previous house in Point Pleasant was not set up to accommodate her situation.
The house was donated to her by Homes For Our Troops, a publicly funded national nonprofit dedicated to building and donating specially adapted custom homes for severely injured post-9/11 veterans.
This will give her a greater amount of independence in her own life. The house itself comes specially equipped with more than 40 different accessibility modifications. These modifications include widened doorways, an open floor plan, roll-under countertops and sinks, a roll-in shower, automatic door openers, pull-down shelving, and backup power generators.
Harris, who was born in Jackson, was allowed to choose from several different plots of land on which to build her new house, and she decided to establish her primary residence on a plot of land in Howell.
During the event, Harris was given the keys to her new house, and she will now be able to start living in it full-time. Before entering the house, an American flag was raised in the front yard, and a ceremonial ribbon was cut to mark that the project was complete. Once she entered the house, she was given a tour and explored all of the house’s new features.
The event featured several guest speakers and presentations. One of these guest speakers was Howell Mayor John Leggio, who welcomed Harris to her new town.
She enlisted in the New Jersey Army National Guard in 1988.
“In 2005 I was exposed to environmental toxins,” she said in a previous interview. This happened during her combat deployment in Iraq when she was serving with the 42nd Division as a logistics officer. She was exposed to burn pits and damaged vehicles.
Homes For Our Troops hosted a volunteer day back on October 25, as volunteers from around the local area showed up to help landscape Harris’s new house in preparation for her move-in day. They did such things as laying down sod, planting flowers, and spreading mulch around the yard. Around 80 volunteers in total showed up at the event to help out.
This housewarming event is the satisfying payoff for the time and effort that Homes For Our Troops puts into making sure that each house is tailored towards the recipient’s needs. This is a culmination of a process that started over two years ago when Harris initially applied for her custom accessible home.
Homes For Our Troops has one goal, which is stated on their website. That goal is to enable every severely injured post 9/11 veteran and their family to rebuild their lives. According to the website, nearly 90 cents out of every dollar spent has gone directly to program services for veterans. Homes For Our Troops builds these homes where the veteran chooses to live, and continues its relationship with the veterans after home delivery to assist them and their family in rebuilding their lives.
“We don’t believe that our mission is charity. That is not how we look at it, we really look at it as the moral obligation of the citizens of our country to care for these veterans and their families who voluntarily served….it is our country’s responsibility to take care of them because they voluntarily served and have sacrificed greatly so that we can continue to enjoy the freedoms we have today,” said Homes For Our Troops President/CEO Brig. Gen. (Ret) Tom Landwermeyer.
With the prep work and ceremony completed, Harris is set to start living in her new home full-time.
For additional information about the organization, visit hfotusa.org
