Co-founders corner

   Dale Beatty -Purple Heart Homes Co-founder

As we build Purple Heart Homes I am always moved by the kindness and appreciation everyone has for our service and sacrifice to our country. As our Purple Heart Homes Network grows let me share some highlights of invitations we have received and participated in this year:

You may not know this but I played the drums in a band before I deployed for Iraq. When I returned home I needed to return to living and am playing drums again in my band called Southern Fried. We were honored to be invited to play in Sturgis this year with Jeff Bridges, Stevie Nicks and John Fogarty. Our band closed the performance and rocked the place. We also played on the Mall in Washington DC during Rolling Thunder

I had the privilege to be invited by former President Bush to golf in Irvine, TX for the Warrior Open. I took my 7 year-old son Dustin to be my caddy. I hope when he grows up – he will fondly remember that experience with his dad.

Both John and I had the honor to be selected by Joe Klein to be featured in the August 29 cover story of TME with three other amazing Veterans that served in Iraq and Afghanistan. Joe Klein called us “The New Greatest Generation.” I am awe struck by that title and can’t help but say it is because of those labeled members from the Greatest Generation that we dedicate our efforts for what we do at Purple Heart Homes to help Service Connected Disabled Veterans.

We also had the honor to be invited guests at the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans Association (IAVA) Fifth Annual Heroes Gala in New York City. Our wives had the chance to join us for this event. NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams was the Master of Ceremonies and Stephen Colbert made everyone laugh. Paul Reickhoff, IAVA founder and executive director along with his staff does an amazing job to help returning veterans by not only advocating for us in Congress, but also finding jobs and standing with us for emotional support.

But the best invitations are those that come from schools enabling me to talk to students about why we choose to serve our country and what we learned from our experience. I love how uninhibited children are when they ask me questions about my nice shiny titanium legs.

We accept invitations and speaking engagements to help build interest and awareness for Purple Heart Homes. As we continue to build our network and tell our story it is enabling us to fulfill our mission to provide personalized housing solutions for Service Connected Disabled Veterans that served in all conflicts.

So as you read this – help us tell our story. Become a part of our growing network and in turn you will help us improve the quality of life for a disabled veteran.

CO-FOUNDERS CORNER

My journey with Purple Heart Homes this year has not been quite as star ridden as my Battle Buddy Dale. I had the pleasure to take our story to corporate America to generate interest to help us provide more adapted homes to Service Connected Disabled Veterans. I am happy to say that those efforts resulted in the creation of a new program we are calling our Veterans Homes Owners Program. Thanks to Bank of America, Citibank and Wells Fargo we receive gifted foreclosed homes that we are able to adapt for approved and vetted Service Connected Disabled Veterans that returned from Iraq and Afghanistan.

As a result of this new program we are enabling many returning Disabled veterans to become first time homeowners. This is not a hand out, but a hand up to enable them to build a future, become involved in their community and help us with our Aging in Place Program for older veterans that own their home.

I also had the honor of working side by side with our sponsor NewDay Financial on a number of projects you will be reading about in another section of this newsletter and in future issues of our newsletters.

I had the opportunity to see how a town council operates as we worked closely with the town of Glastonbury, CT to have a parcel of land conveyed to Purple Heart Homes for the sale of $1.00 so we can build a home for injured Marine Manny Jimenez.

Both Dale and I also had the pleasure of getting to know and welcome an amazing group of experienced professionals that have become Purple Heart Homes Executive team. Each one brings a special talent and set of skills that we value. They helped us create our brand, tell our story, get us organized, conduct all our real estate due diligence, develop our events, manage our office, Vet our Veterans, keep us in line with the law and help us become the leaders Joe Klein talked about in TIME.