Nonprofit’s program honors service
On Thursday, we learned that the Nonprofit Development Corporation is working with veterans in the Butler VA Health Care System’s compensated work therapy program.
The program pays the veterans while they learn construction and life skills building micro homes that will be put up for sale.
The veterans build two homes, measuring 250 to 260 square feet at a time, and started the first one Monday at the corporation’s Community Builders Group site on Grant Avenue, said Christopher Lunn, NDC executive director.
“They’re great guys to work with. They’re very task oriented,” said Bryan Kaufman, the corporation’s project and facilities manger, about the veterans. “They don’t stop. They have a very good work ethic. That’s the stuff you can’t teach.”
We constantly put emphasis on how important it is to honor our veterans, and this program is an extension of that respect.
Affording the opportunity to learn new skills and earn money while doing it doesn’t even touch the debt society owes them.
Before the current group of veterans began building the homes, they received some training and guidance from Butler County Community College, including two weeks of federal Occupation Safety and Health Administration training, six weeks of employment training and took a six-week course on personal empowerment.
Some, like Brendon Walker, are even studying other subjects online while working.
It’s our job to help these men and women in every way we can after they risked their lives for us. We should be bending over backward to make it happen, so we commend everyone involved in their efforts.
We hope many more can benefit from programs like this in the future.
— CM
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