Our Commitment to Helmets to Hardhats

Comments from members of the IUEC and their experiences working with the Helmets to Hardhats program.

The Boy on the Beach – Omaha Beach 2014

 

 

Local 5’s A Lift For A Vet Elevates the Quality of Life for Our American Heroes

 

This month we honor the heroes of our two nations through Veterans Day. We take this day to remember all that these brave men and women, and their families, sacrificed so that we may live in freedom. Our servicemen and women represent the very best of our two nations, exemplifying patriotism, selflessness and dedication. Not only do we honor those living among us, we remember those who made the ultimate sacrifice, sacrificing their life for their love of country.

When you consider what our Armed Forces do and have done for us, it would seem impossible to ever repay them for their service. Local 5, Philadelphia, PA, however, is certainly trying.

We have all heard stories of what our service members have experienced on the battlefield, from World War I and II to present day in Iraq and Afghanistan, but what few people ever hear about are the daily struggles these same service members endure every day here at home as they try to live their life independently despite the wheelchair they are bound to from their war injuries or their aging bodies that can no longer the climb stairs in their own home.

You see, even when our injured soldiers return home or when our veterans begin to age, these men and women are still fighting battles each and every day. We just don’t hear about these kinds of battles and sadly there are few resources available to help these veterans with the services they so desperately need—and justly deserve—to live their life in dignity and independence.

This is what makes Local 5’s A Lift for Vet program not only remarkable, but in such high demand. When a young Marine leaves his family and his multilevel home for his tour of duty and returns missing a leg or paralyzed from war injuries the life he left is no longer the same life he can live. The home he once felt comfortable in is now a home he can no longer access. This is where A Lift For A Vet comes in.

The program was created by Local 5 member Mike Walsh who found his calling of helping veterans by rolling up his sleeves on projects for Homes For Our Troops. Homes For Our Troops builds and retrofits homes for injured service members. Mike found this volunteer work very rewarding as it gave him an opportunity to give back to our American heroes by using his skills as an elevator constructor. When Homes for Our Troops decided to build only one-story homes and stopped installing elevators in their projects, Mike knew he still wanted to use his elevator skills to help our troops, so with the support of Local 5, Mike created A Lift For A Vet to help retrofit existing homes to make them accessible for aging and injured veterans. That was five years ago.

Today, A Lift For A Vet is still installing stairlifts and elevators for veterans in need. What started as one to two projects a year has grown into many requests each month and as Local 5 Business Manager Ed Loomis is proud to point out, “the program has yet to turn any request down.”

Funding for the program comes primarily from the local’s golf outing, held every year on the first Saturday in May. The golf tournament has raised more and more money every year, last year raising $36,000. Every single dollar raised goes directly to A Lift For A Vet. Other funding has come from individuals who just send in contributions to the local union and people have even requested that donations be made to A Lift For A Vet in lieu of flowers to a funeral. Contributions have come in a variety of ways and certainly a variety of sizes but every dollar received makes a difference to the program and, most importantly, to those the program serves.

Although A Lift For A Vet started in Philadelphia, projects now take place all across the country thanks to help from IUEC local unions all around the U.S. A Lift For A Vet does no advertising; veterans, or more commonly their family members and friends, typically learn about the program by surfing the Internet for veterans’ assistance programs. When a call comes in for help outside of Local 5’s jurisdiction, Brother Loomis puts out a call for help to his fellow business managers, seeking IUEC volunteers to install a stairlift or elevator. Needless to say, Brother Loomis has never been turned down. Local 5 takes care of securing the equipment needed—stairlift or elevator. Most often, the equipment is new, purchased with the help of Federal Elevator, a Local 5 signatory company and the company for which Brother Mike Walsh works. Owner Rich Bilancia has been instrumental in helping A Lift For A Vet purchase the equipment needed and ensure that it is shipped to the install location. On occasion, the program will refurbish older stairlift units that have been donated but most of the time the equipment installed is brand new.

A typical residential elevator costs between $14,000- $17,000 and a stairlift costs about $2100. Whenever possible, A Lift For A Vet will try to install a stairlift instead of an elevator in order to conserve financial resources so they may serve even more people. However, when an elevator is the right piece of equipment to install, that is exactly what A Lift For A Vet does.

A Lift For A Vet has literally helped veterans of all ages from coast to coast. This summer Brother Walsh went to Boston to install a stairlift for a highly decorated 92-year-old World War II veteran, Walter Gilbert, who served in Normandy and the Battle of the Bulge but could no long move between the two levels of his home. During his service, Walter received two Purple Hearts, a Bronze Star with an oak leaf cluster which denotes that he was wounded twice, and a Silver Star, and is only one of a few Americans to ever receive the French Legion of Honor Medal from the President of France in 2012. Walter found A Lift For A Vet through the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Last year, A Lift For A Vet partnered with Local 18 to install an elevator in the home of a young Special Ops Marine who was shot down, and subsequently paralyzed, in Afghanistan. Captain Derek Herrera received the Bronze Star for valor and today works with the business and medical communities to develop medical devices to improve the quality of life for paralysis patients. The elevator in his home has allowed him to move freely between floors and live the independent and full life he has made his personal mission.

The program has even installed lifts in non-residential structures, so long as those lifts serve veterans. A Lift For A Vet installed a wheelchair lift in a boathouse in Philadelphia that services the Wounded Warriors Special Olympic Crew Team. That install was completed entirely by retirees, who oftentimes are an important part of the volunteer manpower.

A Lift for A Vet has also completed projects in Virginia, Kentucky, Texas and Florida to name only a few. However, Brother Loomis is quick to point out that the success of the program, particularly as it has spread beyond Local 5’s jurisdiction, is due in large part to the cooperation and generosity he has received from other IUEC local unions around the country.

As for the future of A Lift For A Vet, well, the program has no plans of slowing down. In fact, Brother Loomis would love to see the program be adopted by the entire IUEC. “I would like to see it be a program of the International. We are the only ones who can do this work,” he says. “These guys are national heroes. They shouldn’t have to leave their house to live in freedom.”

As we salute our men and women of the Armed Forces this month, we also salute all of our IUEC troops, especially those in Local 5, who are giving back, with their heart and their hands, to those who have given so much.