Thank You, Manchester!!!

The following is a letter from Purple Heart Homes Media Relations Coordinator Vicki Thomas: 

What an amazing day we had in Manchester on Saturday. I hope you were as proud of Manchester on Saturdayas we are Purple Heart Homes. The weather was wonderful. The ceremony thoughtful -- maybe a tad too long -- but so much was done and so many professional trades and volunteers worked their hearts out on the home for Staff Sergeant Sandra Lee.
 
This will be a quick note of thanks and appreciation to everyone that in some way worked on Sandra's house. To get to Saturday took planning, commitment, sweat and one heck of a lot of work.

Truly thank you is not enough. 

Manchester is a very special town with such a commitment to help one another in the community, to volunteer, to raise funds, to plan events -- no matter what the project or program it seems you make great things happen and we were so fortunate to have so many great volunteers ready to roll up their sleeves, pitch in to say -- how can I help? What can I do?

Sandra spent her week-end at her home orienting herself to how things work.  She bought groceries.  She tried to turn things on -- like her cook top. Because of everyone coming through the house -- the electricians turned off the circuit breaker to appliances in the kitchen for safety reasons -- Sandra figured it out and is now cooking meals at home. Her dogs are free in the back yard and life seems to be developing into an organized rhythm for her.

There is always a let down after working so intensely on a project. We are not leaving Manchester. We will remain connected to your community and we hope you will remain connected to us. The George to the Rescue show will air in late September. I talked with Eileen Faust about having popcorn night at the Senior Center one early October evening -- to watch the show. See our video footage.  Review some of the news clips and have a photo slide show of great pics shot during the process of our journey together. Just another opportunity for us to stay connected to one another. It is too soon to set a date, but will will do that in September.

We also do not leave our veterans once we move onto the next project. Sandra will have a person that will assist her with home management and maintenance.  Like how do you change the filters in your furnace? How do you make arrangements to have the driveway plowed?  

In addition,  Sandra has been provided with a mentor that we are very excited about. Retired U.S. Army Lt. Colonel Christine Harvey will help Sandra address issues of importance to Sandra. Christine Harvey has 25 years experience in combat. She was the Director of Military Science at UConn. She was selected from over 500 highly qualified officers to lead the Army's Military Science Program at U Conn.  She spent the last five years directing Army ROTC, training future military leaders. Christine currently works at Sikorsky Aircraft as Project Manager with Sikorsky Military Systems. They will meet at least twice a month. 

Christine's mentor role will primarily be a sounding board for Sandra.
We hope to hear continued good reports about Sandra and we hope the community stands very proud knowing the role you all played to help make this home a realty.  

Our next project will take us to Canton -- where we will be building an addition and renovating an existing home for a Vietnam Veteran that has Parkinson's.  We should get underway in about three weeks.

Again, we can't thank you enough for all your help, support and interest.