Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign.
[00:00:09] Speaker B: Welcome to the Clear Impact Podcast, brought to you by Mitre Brands University. Thanks for joining us today. My name is Sheri Conner and I am your host.
[00:00:19] Speaker A: When I walk them through, we're always describing the adaptations that are into the home. More than 40 major special adaptations. And we tell them why we've got these different things. And I always get the comment, wow, I never thought about that. Wow, I never thought about that. And the first time I went through, after I got done with a tour that somebody gave me, I said at least 90% of these things I would have never thought of. And that goes back into your comment about we take so many things for granted that we're not thinking that way. Yeah, but that's just the way it is. We build the homes for the veteran.
[00:00:48] Speaker B: Right.
[00:00:49] Speaker A: But as you can tell by the stories that are out there, they affect not only the veteran, affect the family, spouse, the caregiver, the kids and the communities.
[00:00:59] Speaker B: Good morning. We are here on the Clear Impact Podcast and today I have the great privilege of speaking with Brigadier General Tom Landermeyer and he is with Holmes for our Troops and is a retired U.S. army general. So thank you for joining us today.
[00:01:17] Speaker A: Oh, thanks for having me, Sherry. Really appreciate it being on the podcast and appreciate Matter Brands for having us and being one of our great partners too.
[00:01:25] Speaker B: Yeah, no, it's an amazing part of what we get to do here and we count it a privilege and a responsibility to give back. And very excited to get a chance to talk with you a little bit today. So can you tell our listeners a little just background of your organization, maybe a little bit of the history and the mission of Homes for Our Troops?
[00:01:48] Speaker A: Sure, be glad to. So Homes for Our Troops is a national nonprofit, was founded in 2004 and we're located our headquarters is located in a small town called Taunton, Massachusetts, about 35 miles south of Boston. Our mission is to build specially adapted custom homes across the country and then we donate them to the Most severely injured post 911 veterans to enable them to rebuild their lives. When we're talking about severely injured veterans, we're really talking about those deployed down to Iraq and Afghanistan theaters of war and their injuries include loss or loss of use of one or more limbs, different levels of paralysis, blindness, severe burns and traumatic brain injury and sadly. But it's one of those things. Most of them have a combination of some of those injuries and they're the ones that we support. A couple of unique things about us, we build where our veterans want to live so we don't Go out and build a home and then try and find somebody that wants it. We go find the veterans that qualify for our program and then we build where they want to live. They tell us where they want to live. We search for the land. When we think we've found it and we can build on the property, then we'll bounce it off of them. Once they approve it, we'll buy the land, then go out and find a custom home builder in the area and build them a home from the ground up. Since 2004, we built and donated 441 homes across 46 states.
Wow. We've got 69 projects currently underway and 100 veterans in the application process of our program. We have been averaging 20 to 25 homes on the ground a year.
[00:03:29] Speaker B: Wow.
[00:03:30] Speaker A: And so we need all the help we can get. All of our donations come from great American public. We receive no federal or state funding. So everything comes from patriotic Americans. And companies just like Miter Brands have supported us for years and, and enabled us to accomplish this wonderful mission.
[00:03:50] Speaker B: Wow. That is truly amazing. I love all of that.
And so, I mean, obviously you're a veteran, you've served. How did you become acquainted with homes for our troops?
[00:04:02] Speaker A: Well, when I retired, I wanted to get into the nonprofit sector. I just didn't have a desire to stay in the defense industry related thing where a lot of my peers went. And so it took me a couple years, but I finally landed with another nonprofit, was with them for about five years and then the previous president of this organization contacted me when he was departing and told me a little bit about it. He was a friend of mine, so I knew a little bit about the organization, but not a lot. And he said, well, if you want to compete for the position, let me know. So I did all the normal due diligence that you would do as you're moving from one position to another. And I looked at the leadership and the executive director here. My number two is a good military buddy of mine that I've known for now almost 50 years and served together with multiple times.
I knew the former president was also a peer of mine in the Army. We worked together for a while and knew his family, he knew my family. I knew the leadership of the organization was good and if they were in charge of it, it was solid. I checked out the financials, all great. And then I went to the website and I started looking. There's a place on our website where you can see all the veterans that we built for and all the ones that we're Currently have projects underway and I started clicking on the names and it takes you to the veterans page.
And one of the things on it has a little bit of their bio, but it also has a video just before the last step, bringing them into our family. And we tell them we're going to build a home for them. We do a video with them where they share a little bit of their story, a little bit of challenges of where they live now and then what they're looking forward to in an H5 home. And I started watching these videos and I was just writing down off to the side words that they were using for challenges and words that they were using things they were looking forward to. And I was at home doing this. My wife kept walking back and forth and she finally stopped because there's a company that has been doing this for us now for a little over 10 years.
So the look and feel of these videos are very familiar. They look a lot the same and if you just happened to glance at them, you'd see the same lighting, the same red chairs, one or two people sitting in there. And my wife finally stopped and said, do you just keep looking at the same thing over and over again? I said, oh, no, no. And I chuckled. A buzz, hey, sit down and watch one of these. And I got the normal pushback. No, no, no, no, I don't. I said, look, it take you like four and a half minutes. Just see what you think. And so she sat down and I just hit replay on the one video I just watched. And she started off with her arms crossed and then a little bit into it, she uncrossed her arms and then tilted her head. Then she leaned forward and then she put her head on her hands. And when I got done, she looked at me and she said, play another one.
Exactly. And she said, you can always count on spouses for transparency. She said, if you don't apply for this position, you're an idiot.
Wow. And so I did. And a few months later I had a position after talking to the board some and got lucky enough and came into this position in January 2017 and haven't looked back. Love doing this mission. One of the things about our mission though, I will tell you, is even though we're a 501C3A card carrying charity, but 501 is just a tax code, right? We don't see what we do as charity. We really see it as the duty, the moral obligation of our country to take care of these veterans and their families. Every one of them volunteered. We haven't had a draft since 1973. So all these post 911 veterans volunteered to serve even knowing what was going on.
And they deployed with their units. In a blink of an eye, their lives and their families lives changed forever. And, and it's our country's responsibility to take care of them. But sadly our government can't get out of its own way these days and it falls to a lot of nonprofits to provide the care that these veterans and their families really need. And we just happen to be one of those lucky enough that the patriotic American public can support. And we promise we'll get it done.
[00:07:59] Speaker B: Wow. Well, thank you for that and what an amazing mission and vision. And it's such a beautiful thing. And I agree, these are people that absolutely deserve to be supported and cared for.
Thankful that the veterans support is one of the arms of the MITRE foundation along with cancer support and you know, anybody dealing with kids and you know, then veterans and local heroes is the other leg as well as local communities. And so I'm curious how, and this is before your history or mine, so I don't know if you know, but how did Homes for our troops connect with Mitre?
[00:08:39] Speaker A: Yeah, it really is an interesting story because Mitre's been with us since 2015. We're well over 11 years in a partnership right now that goes through 28. And unless they see something different with us, I'm sure it will continue. So they're one of our longest running partners. And back in 2015 there was actually in my Windows and Doors employee that reached out to us and got into our corporate partnership team and asked us if we'd come down to the headquarters and meet up with the leadership and talk about ways we could partner. And so we sent team down to do that and met with Matt DeSoto and Mike and also Tony Matter was the crowd that they met with and they sort of walked through our needs and requirements and the windows we put in the home slide left and right instead of going up and down.
So that was one of the requirements. And another one was a locking mechanism that's really lower. It's not necessarily centered up or at the top or anything like that.
It's really kind of lower to help our veterans be able to unlock it. Because we design a lot of, a lot of adaptations that go into our home or with veterans in mind that are either in a wheelchair or could be in the future.
And those couple of things with the windows sliding left and right and locking mechanism down lower are two of those adaptations. And it Just allows the veteran to be more independent and do things themselves. Plus that locking mechanism different also helps with egress. They provides them another way to egress a different room if they have to get out quickly.
So it's one of those things that really helped and found that we could do that and start talking the logistics and then got the folks on both teams that do all this stuff for a living and figure out how to make it happen.
And we were off and running. And since that time, we even discovered that we had some corporate partners of ours that also work with Mitre and with ABC Supply Company Uncertainty.
So good companies tend to run with good companies. And like I say, we were off and running and it's been going the same ever since.
[00:10:40] Speaker B: That's amazing. I love that so much.
So how does that, like, really impact the overall mission by that partnership? I mean, obviously you're not charging the veterans for these houses. Right. You're building them completely with no mortgage afterwards.
[00:10:56] Speaker A: Right.
[00:10:57] Speaker B: They're responsible for taxes, upkeep, insurance, things like that. And I did see that you do offer some financial counseling for a number of years afterwards so that they can know how to manage and budget and be prepared for, you know, when things do need to be repaired or replaced. But what does the window donation, how does that help your mission?
[00:11:19] Speaker A: Well, it's interesting. It's a great question. And it's interesting because it's really much more than just the donation of the windows. The donation of windows is certainly impactful from the standpoint of building the home because we're not having to pay for them. So it's a financial help to us and the product. But the partnership with Mitre goes so much further than that. Over the years, Miter Brands has invited us and our veterans to different events that you've had. The annual golf outing.
We tend to attend the International Builder show every year and we always make it a point to stop by and say hello to you guys and see what's going on. And again, it's just another way for us to steward wonderful partners and say thank you for all that's been done. And we also get invited. And when I say we get invited, it's not just some of our staff and stuff that work with you day to day, but it's also our veterans and families. They get to go to concerts, golf tournaments, receptions, different things that Miter Brand has put on over the years. And we're very thankful for that. And then one of the biggest things is all three events. We have a community kickoff which is when we start a build. It's about the slab pouring time and we want the community to come out and participate. We have a volunteer day. It's about six weeks before they get their keys and that's a landscaping day where we have to have a lot of volunteers come out. And then the key ceremony is about six weeks later where they get their keys and they're off and running in their brand new home. But all those have volunteer opportunities.
And over the years, we've had the great fortune to be able to have lots of Miter brand employees come out to all those different events across the country. It's not just in one area, it's all over the place. And we run up against folks from Miter Brands and all these different, different events. So it's, it's really, of course the product really helps because the accessible locking mechanism really helped the veteran and then the sliding left and right and everything really helps for, like I said, the egress. But all the other things that go into the partnership and us being able to provide opportunities for your employees to come out and support and get some sweat equity and also put their eyeballs on what we're actually doing so they can see where all their efforts are going. And that's what really makes a partnership.
We build the homes, but what's important to us is what comes after they get in the homes. And that's the rebuilding lives aspect and that's where it takes the entire community. They can't do it by themselves. Got to have the community come out. And the fact that we've got some of the Miter brand employees coming out to those different events across the country just speaks to the community support aspect.
[00:14:05] Speaker B: We are sharing our expertise around all topics relating to the window and door industry. Whether you are a customer selling our products or a homeowner doing research, the Clear Impact podcast provides helpful content that makes an impact. Subscribe today wherever you listen to podcasts.
Yeah, and that's beautiful and I love that. And especially now that Mitre Brands is more national in scope. I'm with the PGT brand, which is based in Florida, but we also have a brand in Phoenix and another brand in California and all of those were acquired a couple of years ago.
And then we have Milgard out West and MI of course is everywhere and then Sunrise as well. So we really do have a national footprint and can partner with the right products for the right region, depending on where your veterans are choosing.
[00:14:54] Speaker A: And we have built in all those locations you mentioned and continue to build in those locations. We've got projects going right now, Southern California one just about to kick off just outside of Phoenix and Florence, Arizona. We're building all over the place in Florida.
You name it, we're out there.
[00:15:12] Speaker B: I'm going to look on your website and see what's close by because our employees, so everybody throughout the whole MITRE organization, and I think we're over 9,000 employees all told, we each get 40 hours a year of paid time off. And so, I mean, unless your department is really struggling, you know, there's not a reason that we can't go out and serve and not have to sacrifice our paycheck because we'll be reimbursed for that time. We get that time off as a pay to volunteer for whatever organization we want. And so, you know, going and throwing down some mulch someday, you know, that doesn't sound too bad. I mean, unless it's like July in Florida and then nobody wants to do that.
Nobody wants to do that. But you know, we all have to do our own anyway. And so that, that's amazing. And so I'm sure there are thousands of stories that you could recount, but is there one that maybe really sticks out to you, a story of impact that you could share with us?
[00:16:11] Speaker A: Gosh, I think I've really got three for you, but they're really short. Okay, I'm sorry.
[00:16:16] Speaker B: No, that's okay.
[00:16:17] Speaker A: And these impact the veterans in all the ways you can imagine. It really does restore the freedmen independence that they sacrifice for us and they're able to do things for themselves.
But the stories I like to relay are from the other side, from the family perspective because a lot of people are just thinking the veteran. But it really does impact the family as well. We've got a family that we gave our 300th home away to just outside of St. Louis in Missouri back in September 2020. And since it was our 300, one of our corporate partners, Wayfair, furnished the entire home.
[00:16:50] Speaker B: Wow.
[00:16:50] Speaker A: And at the key ceremony, one of my teammates was sitting on the bed of the five year old daughter's room.
Nice four poster bed, painted pink all over the place, just beautiful decorated room. And she was sitting there with this little girl and looking around saying, so what are you looking forward to most in your home? And you're thinking you're going to get something like this bed or that, play chess or that over there.
And she said, I'm looking forward to my daddy being able to come into my room and read me the story at Night.
Oh. Because he couldn't access the bedrooms of the kids in their other home.
And that's what happens to a lot of these guys. The second one from the spouse side, there's actually a couple there in Orlando, Florida that we built for back in early 2020. They got their home in January 2020, and she continued to work. He was the stay at home dad. And they had two little kids. One of them was a brand new baby. And Jenna used to tell me that every day she walked out for work as soon as she closed the front door, she had a wor that kicked in and she was constantly calling home, are you okay? Is everything all right? Because they had stairs in their home. He was missing one leg all the way up to the hip. And he used crutches and did some hopping around, which we don't encourage at all.
[00:18:08] Speaker B: Right.
[00:18:09] Speaker A: But that's how he was making do, trying to take care of these two kids.
And she said it was hard for her to concentrate and then gave them their home in January 2020. A few months later, I ran into him and said, hey, Jenna, how's that word mechanism? And she said, it's non existent.
She said, I closed the door, I can go to work. He can take care of everything. He can take care of himself, he can take care of the kids, the baby. I don't worry about anything. I can focus on work until I come home.
[00:18:34] Speaker B: Wow.
[00:18:35] Speaker A: So that's an impact. And then the last one I'd tell you real quickly, we just recently gave a home away in the San Antonio, Texas area.
[00:18:42] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:18:42] Speaker A: And during the spouse's comments at their key ceremony, she spoke about how in their previous home, she would always have to help her veteran husband into the shower ball shower and had a shower chair that didn't really fit, so water was going all over the floor. But he didn't want her to stay in the shower while he was taking a shower. So she would come outside the bathroom, close the door, and she would stand at the door waiting for noise, waiting for something to happen so she could run back in there and help him out real quick.
And she said what she was looking forward to most in the home was the roll in huge shower where he can roll right into it in his chair, transfer over to a bench, take a shower by himself, dry himself off, get back in his chair and come back out. She said, I don't ever have to worry about it and I don't have to stand at any more bathroom doors waiting for an accident to happen.
[00:19:34] Speaker B: Wow. You know, the perspective that that gives me and gives probably everybody who hears stories like that. Like, there are so many things that we take for granted every day.
[00:19:45] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:19:45] Speaker B: And wow, that's just so powerful.
[00:19:48] Speaker A: I give tours of our homes. All of our leadership does can give tours of our home before every key ceremony. And as I'm taking, whether it's donors, partners, neighbors, whatever it is that come out to get this tour, when I walk them through, we're always describing the adaptations that are into the home. More than 40 major special adaptations. And we tell them why we've got these different things. And I always get to comment, wow, I never thought about that. Wow, I never thought about that. And the first time I went through, after I got done with a tour that somebody gave me, I said at least 90% of these things I would have never thought of. And that goes back into your comment about, we take so many things for granted that we're not thinking that way.
[00:20:27] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:20:27] Speaker A: But that's just the way it is. We build the homes for the veteran.
[00:20:30] Speaker B: Right.
[00:20:31] Speaker A: But as you can tell by the stories that are out there, they affect not only the veteran, affect the family, spouse, the caregiver, the kids, and the communities. Before moving into our homes, only about 25% of our veterans are able to volunteer in their local communities. After moving into our homes, that shoots up to 85%.
[00:20:49] Speaker B: Wow.
[00:20:50] Speaker A: So community is definitely getting a family, you know, valued members of their community. When these guys move in.
[00:20:57] Speaker B: Wow. Well, and you know, just one of the videos I saw where like, somebody invested in me. Somebody is valuing me enough to give me a house and to make it livable. And so when you have a other people that pour into you like that, you can't help but give it back out. I mean, that's so powerful.
What amazing work you get to do.
[00:21:19] Speaker A: It is. And every one of these veterans has told us they don't deserve this.
Every single one of them will tell you they don't deserve a home like this. And we say, yes, you do. It's our country's responsibility. Our country owes it to you. That's why we're doing it.
[00:21:34] Speaker B: Yeah. Wow, that's amazing. Well, I'm glad I get to help share this message out with our folks and our audience. And so as we wrap wrap up, how can people find and support your organization?
[00:21:47] Speaker A: So the best thing to do is go to our website and it's hfotusa.org
[00:21:52] Speaker B: okay, so homes for our troops H F o t USA.org okay?
[00:21:58] Speaker A: And they go there. The first thing they can do is find our build map. It's got a map of the United States on there with color coded homes as the ones we've already done completed and the ones that are in progress. They can also click on a state and see what's going on in their state.
[00:22:13] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:22:13] Speaker A: There are just tons of ways to find out whether you want to volunteer or you want to donate. All sorts of different ways to donate. Another way is awareness. Almost 90 cents of every dollar goes to our program. So we don't do a lot of advertising. We really depend on word of mouth awareness, grassroots awareness, what we call it. And so everybody at visit, we're always asking, hey, tell somebody else, tell a few people about the organization. You just looked at what we do, most importantly, who we do it for.
[00:22:44] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:22:45] Speaker A: And that would help us. And then the other thing, on visiting the site, if some folks find out, hey, you're building in my area, well, again, the veteran and family chose to live there. So they chose to live with you in that community.
And if there's a build going on in your community, you should get out and wrap your arms around that veteran, their family and welcome them to their new community, to your community. Again, they chose it because it's going to take that entire community to help them rebuild their lives.
[00:23:14] Speaker B: Right.
[00:23:15] Speaker A: That's the most important thing that can be done. But we've got so many ways that folks can find out how to partner with us. Can also look at all the other wonderful partners we have, like minor brands that's out there helping us put these homes on the ground and rebuild their lives.
[00:23:31] Speaker B: Wow, that's amazing work. Well, I'll be sure to link your website in the bottom of our show notes and I look forward to connecting with you possibly at a foundation event. I know there's one in D.C. this year in October and I plan to be there. So hopefully I get to meet you in person. I appreciate your time over the phone today.
Anything else that we need to talk about or. I think we covered it, right?
[00:23:55] Speaker A: Yeah, I think so. I would just like to tell everybody that's listening to the podcast that over those years that the minor brands has supported us. Of our 441 homes that we put on the ground, y' all have helped with 209. So almost half the homes have been put on the ground has miter brand products in them and we certainly appreciate that. That's almost a million and a half dollars of product that's been provided to us over the years and donations over the years. So we can't thank you enough for that and for everybody that listens. We try to make all of our BUILD events on Saturdays, and we do that because it's important for us to get the community to come out. And we found that. Saturday morning, though, at some point in life, everybody gets busy with kids and their sports and things like that, and activities tends to happen on Saturday, there's still a good part of the population that can free themselves up on a Saturday morning to come out for an hour or two and do something important in their community. So we've done that. We are doing three volunteer days in different places across the country on the 25th anniversary of 9 11, coming this September, Friday the 11th.
[00:25:02] Speaker B: Right.
[00:25:02] Speaker A: So we'll be doing that, but. And then we kick off and volunteer days as we go. But I'm sure that our corporate partnership team will keep you all informed as to all of our BUILD events across the country. So wherever, wherever you got people that can come out and help us.
[00:25:16] Speaker B: That's amazing. I love that.
Well, Tom, I really appreciate your time today. Thank you so much for sharing the mission and the vision and the connection and just the amazing work that you get to do to support our veterans. And I wish you the best for the rest of your day. Thank you.
[00:25:33] Speaker A: Well, thank you. Thanks to the Mitre Foundation, Mitre Brands, for the partnership, long standing, always looking out for us, unwavering support of our mission.
And please let the entire team know that regardless of how much or little they're participating in this, they're making a meaningful difference in the lives of these severely injured veterans and their families every single day. And we really appreciate it. Thank you so much.
[00:25:59] Speaker B: Thank you, Tom. Have an amazing day.
[00:26:01] Speaker A: Okay, Take care.
[00:26:02] Speaker B: All right, take care. You too.
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