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Volunteers building for veterans

Posted at 5:45 PM, Sep 22, 2016
and last updated 2016-09-22 18:12:26-04

GRAND RAPIDS -- Nearly 400 volunteers gave their time Thursday to help those who served.

Home Depot's sixth annual Celebration of Service saw volunteers from The Home Depot, Habitat for Humanity, and Team Rubicon help upgrade and repair nine veterans' homes in the Grand Rapids area.

One family is getting an entirely new home.

Jonathan Droski served in Iraq, and is watching his first home being built from the ground up. He and his wife Lindsay say their children will benefit from the home the most. "We're parents," Lindsay says. "We have two children, and with the economy the way it is, we have a hard time trying to survive."

Celebration of Service began on Sept. 1 and goes through Veterans Day, which is Nov. 11 each year.

"I'm ever grateful for the freedoms that they've given me," said Josh Paauwe, a volunteer with Home Depot. "And so for me to be able to come out here and give back and spend the time to see the Jonathan's and the Lindsay's and know that their kids are going to have a better place to call home, that's as gratifying as you can get."