Warrior House has received a $5,000 donation from the USG Foundation through the employees of the USG plant in Oakfield.
Each year, the Foundation provides funds to USG units throughout the country for employees to donate to a local charity. The employees at the Oakfield plant, through a survey by management, selected the Warrior House.
"The Warrior House is a great organization," said Plant Manager Dwayne Van Duuren. "We have a lot of veterans who work at our location so this means a lot to us. We want to be part of the community, be a good neighbor where we can."
Ed Spencer accepted the check on behalf of Warrior House.
Spencer said he got involved with helping veterans after going through his own struggles adjusting to post-military life. In 2016 Pete Zeliff provided the funds to start Warrior House, providing a farmhouse on 360 acres in Orleans County.
"Pete’s a great guy," Spencer said. "I’ll call him up and say I’ve got a vet, he’s got a problem, I need $1,000. Pete will say, OK, no problem, let’s do it. Pete is a caring guy. He gives a lot. He cares a lot. His dream is an awesome thing for this community."
Currently there are 12 disabled veterans living at Warrior House, making it a full house, so recently when a local resident found a homeless vet walking down the road, rather than turn him away from Warrior House, the organization got him a hotel room where he stay for a week, until they found a bed for him in the home of another disabled vet.
Those two veterans are now helping each other heal, Spencer said.
"There’s a lot of different things we do," Spencer said. "It’s nonstop. Whenever the phone rings, we’ll do our best to take care of the problem. It doesn’t matter who calls where, when, what, why, we’ll find an answer for it one way or another."
He said the staff at Warrior House hold in their hearts a special place for disabled vets.
“They don’t ask for a lot and they’re often surprised how much is given back to them," Spencer said.
