CENTER TWP — A new start for hundreds of veterans in the county begins in a warehouse off Route 8.

That’s where Mary and Damian Hambley store donated furniture and food for their Veterans in Need program.

The Boyers couple, both in their 80s, have been running the charity for seven years and estimate they’ve helped nearly 1,000 veterans make the transition to independent living by providing them with furniture, as well as nonperishable food and paper products.

Mary Hambley said veterans may get vouchers for apartments, but they have no furniture or food.

Damian Hambley said he and his wife were volunteers at the VA Butler Healthcare, 325 New Castle Road, since 1994.

“Pat approached us,” said Mary Hambley, referring to Patricia Nealon, former director at VA Butler Healthcare.

“We were putting them up in apartments, but we needed someplace were where we could store furniture,” Mary Hambley said.

Mary Hambley, who’s an American Legion Auxiliary Volunteer Service representative, said. “This became one of my projects. I decided this is a community thing.”

Up until April 2013, Vets in Need stored its furniture on the VA Butler Healthcare campus but moved to its present location in the former McDonald’s Furniture warehouse in 2013 when the building it was in was torn down.

She said VA Butler Healthcare, the Butler County American Legion Riders and volunteers who donate furniture or moving services make the charity work.

Damian Hambley, commander of Slippery Rock American Legion Post 393 and Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 6231, said furniture comes from a variety of sources.

For example, he said the warehouse was filled with tables and nightstands last summer after Robert Morris University took over a Holiday Inn near its campus.

“The guy in charge had a VA connection,” he said. “We still have lamps from the Holiday Inn.”

Another source of furniture is home sales where the sellers don’t want to empty the house of furniture themselves.

“Word-of-mouth is the way we’ve been getting around. We get some nice furniture,” Damian Hambley said.

“We won’t take anything that isn’t good. We’d rather do without,” he said.

He said Legion Riders members pick up the furniture and bring it to the warehouse.

When veterans moving into an apartment need furniture, they call the Vets in Need number on their apartment voucher and set up a time with the Hambleys to pick up the furniture. The veterans have to provide the trucks and the manpower to move the furniture out of the warehouse.

Mary Hambley said, “Someday we hope to have it (the charity) in a place with heat, so we don’t have to wear snowmobile suits in the winter.”

Damian Hambley said, “We get a lot of help from the vets that went through the program. They want to help pay back.”

“I’d like to thank everybody that’s helped. I couldn’t have done this without help,” he said.

The Hambleys share space with David Parrish, with Help Hospitalized Veterans.

“It’s a group that started during the Vietnam War,” Parrish said. “Ernest Borgnine and Bob Hope noticed hospitalized veterans didn’t have anything to do. So they got donations from other actors to buy and pass out craft kits, model kits, woodworking sets and paint sets.”

Parrish said he takes craft kits during weekly rounds to hospitals, state hospitals, local nursing homes and wherever veterans are throughout the county.

“They look forward to it, to building things for family members,” Parrish said.

He’s helped by Amber DeRemigi of Butler, who said, “I like to see looks on people’s faces when they get something they like to do.”

Paula McCarl, coordinator of the voluntary services department of the VA Butler Healthcare, said the Hambleys are a valuable resource.

“They are a resource in the community like Catholic Services and the Salvation Army,” said McCarl. “When social workers refer vets to outside sources, they could chose to go with them.”

“They have such big hearts. They are very dedicated to serving our vets. They are just wonderful,” McCarl said.

Mary Hambley said people interested in helping Vets in Need should call 724-421-5542 or 724-421-5499.