A Colorado veteran was presented with the gift of a lifetime over the weekend, all thanks to a national non-profit.

Meet Joel Booth

Meet former Navy Hospital Corpsman, Joel Booth.

Joel Booth/hfotusa.org
Joel Booth/hfotusa.org
loading...

Booth, who resides in Morrison, CO, joined the military wanting to be a part of something bigger than himself.

According to his official veteran profile on the Homes For Our Troops website, Booth became a Hospital Corpsman because it posed both as a stand-out specialty and one that he felt he could really make a difference in becoming a part of; he loved the brotherhood he developed with his fellow comrades and enjoyed trying to prove himself while serving out in the field.

Get our free mobile app

However, the job he grew to love so much came to a drastic, tragic halt in 2011; on July 21, 2011, during Booth's first deployment, while on a morning patrol supporting the 1st Battalion, 5th Marines, Booth stepped on an improvised explosive device (IED) in Helmand Province, Afghanistan.

The blast reportedly caused the destruction of multiple bones in his right foot; as a result, Booth had no choice but to have his right leg amputated below the knee, following the explosion.

After medically retiring, Joel worked as a government contractor in Afghanistan in 2015.

Building A New Home For A Better Life

Over the weekend, in the midst of telling KDVR about his story, Booth said he often uses a wheelchair to relieve stress on his prosthetic leg, a task that’s not so easy to perform in his 1,000 square foot Jefferson County home.

“Being in a wheelchair is great, but if you can’t move around your home, what good does it do?” Booth told KDVR on Saturday (Apr. 2).

Homes for our Troops to the rescue: Home for our Troops, a national non-profit whose mission is to build and donate specially adapted custom homes nationwide for severely injured veterans in an effort to enable them to rebuild their lives caught wind of Booth's story, and came to Colorado to step in to help.

 

Along with help from the local community, the non-profit officially kicked off the build of the retired veteran and his family's brand new specially adapted custom home in Morrison last summer - and the job was finally completed on Saturday (Apr. 4, 2022).

According to KDVR, dozens of people gathered at the Booth's new home for a ceremonial ribbon cutting on Saturday.

“We don’t see what we do as charity,” Homes for our Troops CEO Tom Landwermeyer told KDVR.

“We see it as a moral obligation as citizens of our country to repay a small portion of debt that can never completely be repaid.”

Booth says the home will allow him to better care for his daughter and focus on his job without worrying about getting around the house.

“Being afforded a home like this is more than I ever thought,” said Booth.

Watch as the Booth family enters their brand new home for the very first time over the weekend below:

Source: KDVR 

You Can Buy an Entire Colorado Mountain Town for $6.6 Million

The small mountain town of Colona, Colorado is for sale and you could own it for $6.6 million.

11 Reasons Why Fort Collins Is A Great Place To Live

Fort Collins is consistently voted one of the best places to live and there's plenty of good reasons for that...let's go over 11 of them.

 

 

More From Retro 102.5