thedrifter
03-26-09, 07:15 AM
FALLBROOK: Injured soldier to receive new home in Fallbrook
By TOM PFINGSTEN - Staff Writer
FALLBROOK ---- Inside a conference room at Embassy Suites in Temecula on Wednesday night, Jacque and Vanessa Keeslar began planning their new life while scenes of a pain-filled past flicked by on a projector screen.
Injured by a roadside bomb while on patrol in Iraq during 2006, Jacque Keeslar lost both his legs and woke up in Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C.
A pair of videos shown during a planning session Wednesday for the couple's new home depicted Keeslar in the hospital and subsequent rehabilitation, learning how to adjust to life with prosthetic legs.
Current Washington, D.C., residents, the Keeslars are visiting Fallbrook this week to pick out a site for their new house, which will be built and paid for by a nonprofit organization called "Homes For Our Troops."
"There have been a lot of challenges," an emotional Keeslar told a group of about 20 local real estate agents and building industry officials at the conference. "They don't stop coming. When I got blown up, I didn't know anything ---- what I wanted to do, or how I was going to get there."
He now works in the Army's "Warrior Care and Transition" office and will be transferring to San Diego this year.
"I have a pretty good perspective on what they've gone through, because I've been down that road myself," Keeslar, 39, said of his new role with the Army.
Larry Gill, who was also wounded in combat and now works for the nonprofit group as a veteran liaison, said during Wednesday's presentation that the Keeslars are looking at various pieces of property in Fallbrook, their community of choice.
Once a parcel has been identified, Homes For Our Troops will buy it and secure building permits, then start planning the construction.
"In Alabama, we call it an old-fashioned barn-raising," Gill said in a thick Southern accent.
He said it takes about four months from groundbreaking to completion, when organizers will host a "key ceremony" to unveil the new house.
Gill said the organization has built 41 homes, with 19 more in progress, in a volunteer effort spanning 28 states.
With disabilities ranging from quadriplegia to amputation, the soldiers and Marines who receive houses from the nonprofit group bring diverse physical needs when planning out their homes, Gill said.
"I assumed it was a wheelchair ramp and some grab bars in the restroom," he said. "It's way more than that."
Options that have been incorporated into past projects include sinks that are wheelchair compatible, wide halls and doorways, and customized showers and restrooms.
Keeslar said he is looking forward to living in a house specifically planned for his physical needs, with more room to maneuver the wheelchair he uses at night after removing his prosthetic legs.
Gill said Homes For Our Troops is seeking hundreds of volunteers, corporate sponsorships and donations as organizers prepare to build the Keeslars' home later this year.
For more information, visit www.HomesForOurTroops.org.
Contact staff writer Tom Pfingsten at (760) 740-3516 or tpfingsten@nctimes.com.
Ellie
By TOM PFINGSTEN - Staff Writer
FALLBROOK ---- Inside a conference room at Embassy Suites in Temecula on Wednesday night, Jacque and Vanessa Keeslar began planning their new life while scenes of a pain-filled past flicked by on a projector screen.
Injured by a roadside bomb while on patrol in Iraq during 2006, Jacque Keeslar lost both his legs and woke up in Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C.
A pair of videos shown during a planning session Wednesday for the couple's new home depicted Keeslar in the hospital and subsequent rehabilitation, learning how to adjust to life with prosthetic legs.
Current Washington, D.C., residents, the Keeslars are visiting Fallbrook this week to pick out a site for their new house, which will be built and paid for by a nonprofit organization called "Homes For Our Troops."
"There have been a lot of challenges," an emotional Keeslar told a group of about 20 local real estate agents and building industry officials at the conference. "They don't stop coming. When I got blown up, I didn't know anything ---- what I wanted to do, or how I was going to get there."
He now works in the Army's "Warrior Care and Transition" office and will be transferring to San Diego this year.
"I have a pretty good perspective on what they've gone through, because I've been down that road myself," Keeslar, 39, said of his new role with the Army.
Larry Gill, who was also wounded in combat and now works for the nonprofit group as a veteran liaison, said during Wednesday's presentation that the Keeslars are looking at various pieces of property in Fallbrook, their community of choice.
Once a parcel has been identified, Homes For Our Troops will buy it and secure building permits, then start planning the construction.
"In Alabama, we call it an old-fashioned barn-raising," Gill said in a thick Southern accent.
He said it takes about four months from groundbreaking to completion, when organizers will host a "key ceremony" to unveil the new house.
Gill said the organization has built 41 homes, with 19 more in progress, in a volunteer effort spanning 28 states.
With disabilities ranging from quadriplegia to amputation, the soldiers and Marines who receive houses from the nonprofit group bring diverse physical needs when planning out their homes, Gill said.
"I assumed it was a wheelchair ramp and some grab bars in the restroom," he said. "It's way more than that."
Options that have been incorporated into past projects include sinks that are wheelchair compatible, wide halls and doorways, and customized showers and restrooms.
Keeslar said he is looking forward to living in a house specifically planned for his physical needs, with more room to maneuver the wheelchair he uses at night after removing his prosthetic legs.
Gill said Homes For Our Troops is seeking hundreds of volunteers, corporate sponsorships and donations as organizers prepare to build the Keeslars' home later this year.
For more information, visit www.HomesForOurTroops.org.
Contact staff writer Tom Pfingsten at (760) 740-3516 or tpfingsten@nctimes.com.
Ellie