Donations pour in for troops - 2004
Tuesday, August 31, 2004
By: Jennifer Kovalich South of Boston

The Enterprise

By Jennifer Kovalich, Enterprise staff writer

Three weeks after starting a fund drive to build homes for soldiers who have been wounded in Iraq and elsewhere, Homes For Our Troops, a charity founded by a Wareham man, has received more than $30,000 in donations.

"I don't even know how to describe it. It's just awesome," said John Gonsalves, 38, president of the organization.

Last year after the U.S. began the war in Iraq, citizens rallied behind the troops. American flags in vivid red, white and blue blanketed towns, flying from flagpoles and porches. They emblazoned T-shirts and car windows.

Patriotism formed a bond among strangers. Now the desire to help soldiers whose lives have been altered by the war is attracting people from all walks of life to Homes For Our Troops.

Each day when Gonsalves opens his mail or reads his e-mail, he finds a breathtaking amount of support and donations.

"The cards, the letters I get, the e-mails, people are really opening their arms to this organization," he said.

Two young boys who run a lemonade stand in the summer have pledged to donate to Homes For Our Troops this year.

A 9-year-old boy whose birthday party is at the end of April has asked for no presents. Just donate to Homes For Our Troops please is his wish.

A Bridgewater widow whose late husband was a war veteran, sent Gonsalves a Hallmark card and enclosed two $1 bills with a note saying she wished she could do more.

Gonsalves has received letters and pledges from all over the state and beyond.

Cub Scouts in Ashburnham will hold a car wash for them.

Children at the Massachusetts Hospital School in Canton, on their own, held an indoor yard sale. They sent the $100 they raised.

A Vietnam veteran in Maine is posting flyers in his town while another woman there is decorating cans to leave in stores to collect change.

Gonsalves is aiming to build the first house for Sgt. Peter Damon, 31, of Brockton. An Army National Guardsman assigned to the 126th Aviation Battalion based at Camp Edwards in Bourne, Damon lost both forearms while changing a tire on a Black Hawk helicopter in Balad, Iraq, about 40 miles north of Baghdad. The October tire explosion accident killed 19-year-old Pfc. Paul Bueche of Alabama.

Damon, a married father of two who is recuperating at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., has been working with Gonsalves. Together they have been hitting the media airwaves to drum up support for the cause.

Last week, the National Guard 86th Medical Company Air Ambulance, based in Bosnia, called Gonsalves. Some of the members are acquainted with Damon and though overseas, heard about the effort. They are sending out mass e-mails to recruit help and are passing the hat.

Then there was the call from Valerie Brennan, of Leominster.

Sixty miles away from Damon's hometown of Brockton, she, too, heard about Homes For Our Troops and just wanted to help.

"I don't know John Gonsalves from a hole in the wall," Brennan said Friday.

She read about the charity online and then checked out its Web site at www.homesforourtroops.org, which contains several photographs of Gonsalves and Damon, as well as other injured soldiers.

"I saw the looks on these people's faces and that was enough for me to want to do something to help," said Brennan, 33.

In less than a week she and her best friend Christine Adey, 34, also of Leominster, recruited more than 50 volunteers from Leominster, Fitchburg and Gardner. They got the Sheraton Four Points on Erdman Way off Route 2 in Leominster to donate its grand ballroom and on April 30 will be throwing a benefit for Homes For Our Troops.

The evening will include a silent auction, art show, choral performances of patriotic medleys, dancing and array of hot and cold hors d'oeuvres. The food will be prepared by a chef who is donating his time. Students at Leominster High School Center for Technical Education will also lend a hand. They are planning for at least 1,500 people to attend. Proceeds will go to the cause. The hotel is even putting the couple up for the night gratis.

"We certainly would like to encourage Peter's friends from Brockton to attend this event. We certainly open our doors to them and welcome them to be here," Brennan said.

The planning for the benefit has included Leominster's mayor and city councilors and representatives from the Marine Corps and U.S. Army, she said.

The kindness of strangers is something Jennifer Damon, Peter's wife, is learning to take in stride. She works at a pharmacy in Brockton and is busy caring for the couple's children, Allura, 6, and Daniel, 1, while waiting for her husband to come home.

"There is not a day that goes by that someone doesn't come into my work and ask how he's doing," she said. "It's incredible. It's nice to see there's so many people out there willing to help."

When asked why she is willing to make such an effort for people she has never met, Brennan had a quick answer.

"Why wouldn't anybody want to help this cause? These are U.S. soldiers. These are people who put their lives on the line for us every single day," Brennan said.

Closer to home Gonsalves has also received a variety of donations that will help get the Damon's home built with special amenities for Peter's handicap.

In-kind donations include kitchen cabinets, donated labor for framing the home, roofing, sheetrocking, plastering and painting, Gonsalves said.

A developer from Easton who is a former Marine has also stepped forward to offer a house lot, he said. The charity is looking at the legalities surrounding the offer to see if it will work for the home.

While the first effort is for the Damons, Gonsalves and Brennan have stressed the charity's mission is not for the Damons alone.

"We're not here just to help one person," Brennan said. "We're here to try and help as many people as we can."

Gonsalves has seen the need for himself. He has twice traveled to Walter Reed Army Medical Center. The first time was to meet Peter Damon. The next was to spend the first anniversary of the war with the wounded soldiers.

Every Friday night, Fran O'Brien's Stadium Steak House, located at 16th and L streets in Washington, D.C., puts on a free dinner for the wounded soldiers who are at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. Gonsalves and Jennifer Damon joined them for dinner March 19.

"It was truly an honor," Gonsalves said. "I met some really great people."

Gonsalves, who is a licensed contracting supervisor, spent a year working on a business plan to develop Homes For Our Troops. He believes that effort is paying off.

Securing a house lot is one of the biggest steps he needs to accomplish his first mission.

"If I can secure a house lot I have enough in place to start building," he said.

He believes his goal of establishing Homes For Our Troops as a national charity will become a reality, with thanks in large part to citizens who are again rallying around the troops, doing what they feel is their patriotic duty.

"At this point I'm not sure how many soldiers we're going to be able to help but we're going to help as many as we can," Gonsalves said. "We've got a long way to go. So do these soldiers."