Breaking ground on a hero's home
News
Posted By LINDSAY JOLIVET, FOR THE SUDBURY STAR
Posted 1 month ago
The Sudbury community has come together in support of a local hero.
Construction on a Home for a Hero began Monday, after over a year and a half of fundraising and preparation.
The project is for Cpl. Bill Kerr, who lost both legs and an arm in Afghanistan, when a roadside bomb detonated next to him on Oct. 15, 2008. He and his wife, Tracy, and their two daughters, Zoe and Abigail, should have a fully accessible house built by October of this year, according to Phil Arnold, vice-president of Dalron Construction.
The local construction company has been on board with the project since the beginning. Donating time and resources was a way to show how much Dalron appreciates what soldiers in Afghanistan are doing for us, said Arnold.
However, Dalron is not alone in support of Kerr and his family.
"We've been getting huge support from the community," said Arnold. The company and its contractors have donated time, money, labour and material to the cause.
Kelly Lake Building Supplies donated $25,000 worth of supplies to the house last year. General manager Steve Choquette said the supply company was proud to be a part of such a good cause and anxious to see the project go well.
Initiation of Home for a Hero began shortly after Kerr was injured. Derik McArthur, president of the Northern Joint Council, Retail Wholesale Department Store Union/United Food Commercial Workers and Kerr's fellow reservist with the 2nd Battalion Irish Regiment of Canada, said he decided to take on the cause because he realized Kerr would face many challenges once he returned home.
"It just seemed like the appropriate thing to do," he said modestly of the $300,000 project.
So far, the committee has raised approximately $260,000 and will be able to build at cost thanks to contributions.
Specialized features will include wheelchair ramps, lifts, wide doorways and non-slip flooring. The house will not only accommodate a wheelchair, but also the prosthetic legs Kerr sometimes uses.
"It's a great day for Bill Kerr and a it's a great day for Sudbury rallying behind this," said McArthur. "We did two major events with a number of small ones throughout the community and this is a real milestone for our community banning together around one of our soldiers who came back wounded from the war. It's a good thing for everybody."
Fundraisers included Hike for a Hero on Oct. 4, 2009, and Operation Yellow Ribbon put on by the Rotary Club of Sudbury.
Kerr was on his way to Ottawa for physiotherapy, and was unavailable to comment, but he told The Sudbury Star how grateful and humbled he felt in October at Hike for a Hero.
The committee is still accepting donations at www.homeforahero.caor the RWDSU Union Centre, 230 Regent Street, Sudbury, P3C 4C5.
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