Volunteers with the Home Depot Foundation spent Friday working with an Army veteran who lives in Lancaster. Jose Machado served in the U.S. Army from 2002 to 2005 and was honorably discharged after he was injured in combat.
"You just become a different person. It just happens. It takes a while to adjust. I've been out almost 20 years, and I'm still trying to get back to how I used to be," he says.
Volunteers who work at Home Depot stores in North Texas helped Machado with projects he struggled to complete himself because of his injuries. They helped build a shed and fence, and they made improvements to garden beds, driveway and fire pit.
"We just want to give back to the veterans. We appreciate all the service they do," says Home Depot Store Manager Justin Cattermole. "We want to show what we can do, so we're doing a few projects around the house."
Machado lives there with his wife and four kids.
"You don't realize how many people and how big this is until everybody shows up," he says. "I think it's amazing."
The Home Depot Foundation also made Machado's mortgage payment for December.
"This means a lot to me because sometimes you do feel like you're forgotten, and something like this just shows you you're not," Machado says.
Home Depot worked with the non-profit Semper Fi & America's Fund, which runs programs for wounded veterans and their families. The Home Depot Foundation says volunteers have helped renovate more than 50,000 veterans' homes since 2011.
"This is not about Home Depot. This is about giving back to the veterans what they fully deserve," Home Depot's Cattermole says. "This is just a small way. I just hope we've made friends, and hopefully we'll continue to be friends. He's a good man."
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