Manchester Welcomes Sandra Lee to Her New Home

The Manchester community turned out in droves Saturday, July 27, 2013, to welcome wounded war veteran Sandra Lee to her new Manchester home in style. 

Many in the community have been working diligently with Purple Heart Homes, a nonprofit organization founded by a pair of wounded veterans that builds homes for other wounded veterans across the country, for the better part of the past year to help renovate Lee's new home at 14 Cornell St.

Saturday, the organization formally presented Lee with the keys to her new home in an elaborate ceremony that including a parade, Lee being driving to her new home via a Corvette, and a number of moving speeches and tributes, including Lee's singing the Star Spangled Banner while a serviceman hoisted an American flag above her new home. 

"This day is one of the proudest in my life," said U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal in his remarks. "I felt my heart in my throat when I saw that flag rise over this home and you singing that national anthem." 

Lee thanked the volunteers who worked on her home over the past year, noting the countless hours spent by members of the Manchester police and fire departments, and said she was looking forward to becoming a part of the Manchester community and doing her part to help. 

"I want to truly become involved in this community and helping out," she told the crowd. "…As long as they'll have me, I would love to be involved in any project." 

Lee volunteered for the Army shortly after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and was deployed to Iraq in December of 2003, where she served as a liaison to help rebuild schools in Western Baghdad. She was involved in four roadside bomb incidents that hit vehicles she was riding in, resulting in a series of concussions that grew more serious. Lee also took fire from insurgents numerous times and had to return fire without knee pads, which resulted in damage to her right knee and right shoulder. She was also raped by a fellow soldier. Today, Lee suffers from severe PTSD that include memory problems, constant headaches and vertigo, debilitating nightmares, depression, panic attacks, muscle strain and is now considered 80 percent disabled. 

Purple Heart Homes is a nonprofit based in Statesville, North Carolina, founded in 2008 by two combat injured veterans, Dale Beatty and John Gallina. Both were injured Nov. 15, 2004 when the vehicle they were riding in hit an anti tank mine that resulted in the loss of Beatty's legs below the knees and Gallina suffers from PTS and severs back injuries as a result of the explosion.  The mission of Purple Heart Homes is to provide for the unmet housing needs of Service Connected Disabled Veterans that served in all eras.

"Purple Heart Homes was started to bring communities together," Galling said. "To show each veteran that they can have the best case integration experience." 

Vicki Thomas, a spokesperson for Purple Heart Homes, said the organization received about $75,000 worth of donations for Lee's Manchester home, and put an estimated $160,000 worth of work into the home. 

Lee will be given a "hand up - not a hand out," according to Thomas, and pay a mortgage of 50 percent of the home's market value.