Site 1 was a multi-generational, multi-family home in the Upper 9th Ward of New Orleans; badly damaged by Hurricane Ida in 2021, it had lacked functional air conditioning and needed a new roof, gutters and paint. Site 2 was a house belonging to a 78-year-old disabled Vietnam War combat veteran and caregiver for his wife, also disabled; surrounded by empty lots and vacant slabs where homes stood until the floods that followed Hurricane Katrina demolished much of the Lower 9th Ward in 2005, this replacement home of theirs had fallen into disrepair before Ida hit and did more damage.

The American Legion Family and Rebuilding Together New Orleans joined forces once again Friday to help restore both structures and stabilize the lives of veterans and their families. Hot, humid conditions could not slow down the volunteer groups. One was dropped off before 8 a.m. at Site 1 to build a fence around a new air conditioner, put in benches and do some painting. The Site 2 team crossed the bridge into the area most devasted in 2005 and put a coat of new paint on the newly reroofed home of the Vietnam War veteran.

“I’d have been living in a shack,” U.S. Marine Corps veteran Harry O’Neal Ellis said, if not for Rebuilding Together New Orleans, which accepted his application for help with the roof and other repairs, capped off with a sky-blue paint job, trimmed in yellow, applied by his fellow veterans.

“I’m a disabled veteran,” he explained. “My wife is disabled. So, this is a blessing. We couldn’t have done this without the help of volunteers – The American Legion and Rebuilding Together.”

The American Legion Family and Rebuilding Together have been collaborating on community-service projects annually on the first Friday leading into national conventions since 2013, when Legionnaires, American Legion Auxiliary members and Sons of The American Legion spent a day renovating a 100-year-old homeless veterans shelter in Houston.

The relationship among the organizations is a “natural fit,” says retired U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. Lee Shaffer, a member of American Legion Post 31 in Houma, La., and Rebuilding Together associate director for the nearby Bayou region.

“It starts off with service,” he explained after a safety briefing in the driveway of Site 1. “Most of us joined the military because they had a desire to serve others, and to serve our nation. When I left, I also had a desire to return to service in some way. But I really wanted to do it on the local level … I was living here with my family. I’d grown up here. So I started looking for places where I could volunteer and help. Rebuilding Together seemed like a natural fit.”

As an American Legion member, he was delighted to learn of the longtime connection between the veterans organization and Rebuilding Together, which has 140 affiliates nationwide and has completed more than 2,000 projects since its founding in 1988. Rebuilding Together works to obtain funds through donations, grants or government budget allocations; identifies projects; secures tools; and organizes a largely volunteer labor force (Americorps volunteers helped lead the Site 1 project on Friday) to make big differences in the lives of people.

“It’s easy for a volunteer to come and immediately have an impact on a home whenever you have an organization like Rebuilding Together that puts it all together for you,” he said. “They find the homeowner. They find the project. They get the supplies. They work with the big-box stores to get all the supplies and donations that can be brought to bear on a home, and then immediately, volunteers can get to work and make a bigger impact.”

That is just what the two teams of American Legion Family members did Friday. “The most enjoyable thing I do at a convention is the community-service project,” American Legion Past National Commander Mike Helm said after a morning of staining, fence building and painting at Site 1. He is not the only annual participant, and those who do it each year have built a bond. “It’s super to run into each other again, that closeness that we have. Most of these people have done it before.”

Among the approximately 50 Legion Family members who worked Friday was another regular, current American Legion Auxiliary National President, Lisa Williamson. “To me, this is something I would do every day of every convention,” she said, paint brush and bucket in hand at Site 2. “I know we have important business that we need to attend to … resolutions, elections and stuff. But this, to me – the community service – is what The American Legion Family is about … It changes lives, and it saves lives.”

“Whenever you can fix that roof or fix the rotted frame structure of a house, that makes a big impact on a family,” Shaffer said. “That’s what we want to do. That’s what Rebuilding Together wants to do, make the larger impact.”

In some cases, after terrible hurricane damage, families can lose their homes altogether. “We’re trying to save a culture by allowing people to stay in their homes and remain in their homes as long as they can,” Shaffer explained. “The whole family would be displaced (without help) and have to go to different locations. If we spend $20,000 to keep them in their home, what better use of money and resources?”

“This means the world to us – to me, my family,” says Wanda Berniard, whose husband Noel is the disabled veteran at Site 1, where three generations share the same residence. “They’re doing things that we cannot do, cannot afford to do. For somebody to take their time out to come help somebody else, that’s a blessing. That’s really a blessing. I feel really grateful for guys like you all in The American Legion. We couldn’t do this without you all. I’m glad there are people like you all who do things like that for people who can’t do it themselves.”

It also means a lot to Rebuilding Together Site 2 supervisor Cleofe “Cleo” Tirado, who says, even though, “I am not a veteran … I do like helping people who have served our country. This gentleman (O’Neal Ellis) actually served in Vietnam, which to me, has great significance in terms of what he experienced in life and the knowledge that he has. As the years go by, we’re going to start losing the individuals who can tell the stories, the truthful stories.”

“You’re helping a fellow veteran, and we’re making him be able to live in a house that he can be proud of,” Knightstown, Ind., Post 152 member Laurie Bowman said at Site 2. “We all work together, and we stick together, and we take care of each other. We want all of our veterans to be taken care of.”

Community service projects like the annual collaboration with Rebuilding Together, says New York Legionnaire Janice Gravely, “is the foundation of what we do to support our pillars. It’s about the community.”

Her fellow New Yorker, immediate Past Department Commander Tim Collmer, added that there is one more element that can’t be left out. “I just enjoy helping people out. It was a lot of fun seeing old friends, meeting new friends and working, doing good, and getting our hands dirty. It’s a lot of fun. And we were busy … really busy today.”