- April 24, 2024
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Flagler County Iraq War veteran Bryan Denker, his wife Kate and their 4-year-old son Freddy set foot inside their new, mortgage-free home in Palm Coast May 22 in a ceremony attended by about 50 people.
“It’s perfect. It’s absolutely perfect,” Bryan Denker said after exploring his new home. “It’s perfect for my dogs, it’s perfect for my son — this whole town, this whole area — it’s just perfect. … The town’s clean, and everybody’s friendly here.”
The house, a neatly landscaped, manila-colored home in Palm Coast’s E-section with a backyard swing set and a pool, was provided through Building Homes for Heroes, a nonprofit formed in 2006 that gives homes to injured Afghanistan and Iraq War veterans.
A “welcome home” banner flew above the house’s entrance as community figures like Mayor Jon Netts and Sheriff James Manfre greeted Denker and his family.
“You’re going to start a new chapter in your life here,” Netts said. “May you thrive. May you have health and happiness here.”
Bryan Denker, who left the Air Force as a staff sergeant in December, was injured by an improvised explosive device in Iraq in 2010.
He went through 12 surgeries on his leg and suffers from combat-related post-traumatic stress disorder, according to a profile on the Building Homes for Heroes website.
But he said he still felt undeserving of the nonprofit’s generosity. “There are how many thousands of others that gave everything,” he said. “I just got an injury to the leg and a couple surgeries. There are families without fathers now.”
Building Homes for Heroes only donates mortgage-free homes to veterans listed by the VA as 90% disabled, Building Homes for Heroes representative Kim Valdyke said.
“To alleviate even one bit of the stress in their life makes it all worthwhile,” she said.
JP Morgan Chase Bank donates homes, Valdyke said, and Building Homes for Heroes only places veterans in locations they want to live in. Bryan Denker doesn’t have a regular income, so the mortgage-free home will give the family some stability.
“Just having that stability, for them to give us that, is amazing,” Kate Denker said. “It’s nice that somebody notices the sacrifice,” she said. “It’s what you want to see as a wife. You want somebody to know the work that they’re doing.”
