Letter from the CEO, Claire Twomey
While walking through the ReStore recently my path crossed with Sunil Persaud and his wife and small son. As we talked he told me he recently had purchased some land in rural Kathleen area with a mobile home in great disrepair. His hope was to restore it and have a forever home for his family.
I became aware of Persaud’s needs after he began making regular trips to ReStore, our retail outlet, which sells building supplies at discounted prices. Upon learning that Persaud was undertaking the renovation of his home by himself over the last 3 years and still had so much to do, I encouraged him to apply for a Lakeland Habitat program that provides assistance to veterans through the Lowe’s retail chain grant.
Persaud described the assistance from Habitat for Humanity as coming “out of the blue.” Twomey said Persaud qualified for a $20,000 assistance grant from Lowe’s, and Habitat volunteers have joined in the renovation project. However, what makes this renovation different is it is rare we do a full restoration. Lowe’s assistance will not cover the whole project. We still need help from the community to make this veteran’s dream come true. Please consider a donation of any size. Most veterans have a hard time asking for help. They are use to giving it.
Persaud, 35, qualified as a former member of the U.S. Army Judge Advocate General’s Corps. In that role, he said, he worked as a paralegal, handling such matters as court martials, legal briefs investigations. The military gave Persaud a medical retirement in 2014. He said he is rated as 90% disabled, though he doesn’t want the details publicly known.
“It was almost like a sign from God that he was giving me the answer, like, ‘You’re searching and here it is. This is how we get to the next step. This is how we move forward, ” Persaud said.
We have been blessed with volunteers from Publix who donated $2,500 toward materials and VISTE. This has become an incredible community effort. We have started receiving donations from companies such as Fussell Well Drilling and Averett Septic Tank Co. who have donated their material and services. We thank all of them for being so generous. We will keep you posted on opportunities for your organization to have a work day.