The thwack-thwack-thwack of hammers filled the air on St. John’s Place in Riverhead this morning, where a crew of Habitat for Humanity volunteers worked to raise the exterior walls of a new home for a Vietnam veteran and his brother who has Down syndrome.
The volunteers at the Riverhead construction site today were CEOs and executives from Long Island businesses who swapped their corporate attire and laptops for hardhats and hammers to make one veteran’s dream a reality.
When the two-story, three-bedroom home is completed in about 8 to 10 months, David Stanley, 70, of Wading River will own his own home for the first time in his life.
“I’m getting goosebumps,” he confessed, his voice filling with emotion as Habitat for Humanity of Long Island CEO and Executive Director Jimmy Jack addressed the group assembled for the CEO/Veteran Build event.
“It’s such a joy and a blessing to come together like this in unity to build a home. The testimonies I hear from young people in high school to CEOs, what a joy it is to do this,” Jack said. He thanked the volunteers and the companies.
“It’s not only a Habitat home build, but it’s a vet build,” he said, relating how his father, a World War II veteran, was a POW shot down over Germany. “So this is very special to me,” Jack said.
“What a privilege it is to all of us here just to be part of this, to come here and build a home for you. A home represents so many things. It represents sustainability. It represents security. It represents a home of love. And today you’re gonna use your hands and your hearts to build a home of love for Dave and his brother,” Jack said.
“I’m very grateful. Thank you to all of you,” Stanley told the volunteers.
The future homeowner took his place in the line of men and women wearing hard hats who lifted the exterior wall framing into place and nailed the vertical studs into the sill, or bottom plate, that was already attached to the cement slab foundation.
The volunteers were executives at area banks, insurance firms and companies in the construction and housing industries. Among them was Jeff Brett of King Quality Construction, a roofing and siding company based in Bohemia that donates the installation of roofs for Habitat Homes.
A Brooklyn native who grew up in Baldwin, he’s the eldest of eight children. His youngest sibling, Russell, known as Rock, is 15 years his junior and was born with Down syndrome, a genetic disorder that causes mild to moderate cognitive impairment. Rock presently lives with another brother in Connecticut.
“This home will allow us to keep Rock with family and out of a group home,” Stanley said in an interview.
Stanley served four years in the U.S. Air Force and was deployed to Vietnam in the 10 months before the fall of Saigon. “We evacuated from Thailand in April 1975,” he said. He was a photo processing specialist, working in the base photo lab, processing and printing reconnaissance photos.
Since his discharge from the Air Force, Stanley says he “mostly kicked around the country,” working various jobs in different industries, in factories and construction, at an oil refinery in New Jersey and at a sewage treatment plant. His employment always seemed to be interrupted by one market upheaval or another — and a few crashes that led to long-term unemployment or chronic under-employment. He learned how to live in poverty, he said.
“My experience in being poor has taught me that In some ways, it can be fun— as long as you are making the rent and the cable bill,” Stanley said.
“I was more or less a loose dog running around the country,” he said. He settled in Wading River and lives in a studio apartment. He wouldn’t be able to own a home were it not for Habitat for Humanity, Stanley said. The Habitat home is affordable — a rarity for a newly built home on Long Island nowadays. Stanley said his mortgage payment will be one-third of his monthly income.
“I’m looking forward to owning my own home,” he said, “and being able to provide a home for Rock.”
Surveying the small plot of land where his future home was taking shape today, Stanley was already planning where he’ll place his barbecue grill.
“This is going to be a nice home. Rock and I will love it here,” Stanley said.
RiverheadLOCAL photos by Denise Civiletti
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