45 volunteers roll to repair vet's house

FULLERTON – It was all hands on deck.

Forty-five volunteers, sporting orange Team Depot T-shirts, descended Thursday on the home of Jacob and Jessica Snowden to help redo the landscaping as part of a national service project sponsored by The Home Depot Foundation.

"It feels wonderful to know my (2-year-old) daughter is going to have a place to play here, and she isn't going to have to have to wait until she's out of the seventh grade to do it," said Jacob Snowden, a U.S. Navy veteran who did three overseas tours on an aircraft carrier and is now an electrician.

Snowden was one of five veterans identified by Habitat for Humanity Orange County, which acted as The Home Depot's local partner; other nonprofit groups, including Wilshire Avenue Community Church in Fullerton and the office of Rep. Loretta Sanchez, D-Santa Ana, helped find the veterans, too.

The other veterans included one from World War II who lives with his wife of 70 years in Placentia; an Army veteran who served from 1970 through 1973; and a former soldier from Anaheim who served in Vietnam.

The Snowdens' home was one of 100 veteran homes around the country being repaired Thursday by Team Depot volunteers. Home Depot plans to complete work on 300 by Veterans Day. All of the volunteers are employees in the chain's stores.

Alex Osborne, a neighborhood revitalization manager for Habitat for Humanity, said that in exchange for the donated supplies and labor, the homeowners are asked to participate in the repairs and contribute 10 percent to 20 percent of the cost.

"We saw that (the Snowdens) were in a financial state that they weren't going to get their property in a state they would like it to be in," Osborne said.

Volunteers began work at the Snowdens' home a week ago. Among the improvements: replacing a cracked and sloped concrete patio, a new fence around the property, and a new sprinkler for their front yard.

For Gemit Williams, a paint department supervisor for Home Depot, helping out a veteran was a no-brainer. His father was a Korean War veteran and his brothers served in the Army.

"Bottom line, without soldiers, we wouldn't be a free nation," Williams said. "It's just an honor when you can just serve veterans. This is worth me sacrificing a few hours. It's nothing compared to what they do."

Jessica Snowden, who is due to deliver her second child in two weeks, was thankful.

"It's not something that's done every day," she said. "The generosity is just amazing."