Mortgage Lending Company Donates 11 Homes to 11 Deserving Veterans

Veterans United Home Loans, a Missouri-based mortgage lender and the country’s largest Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) loans provider, announced Wednesday that it is donating 11 homes to 11 deserving U.S. veterans.

Veterans United partnered with Marine veteran and comedian Rob Riggle to choose 10 veterans who are making a difference in their communities to receive the gifts. The 11th home is going to any veteran who enters for a chance to win at Thanks.ToVeterans.com.

“We as a company work on improving the lives of service members, their families and their communities, and that is the core of every decision we make,” said Pam Swan, vice president of military relations for Veterans United. “…Last year, we made a big statement in trying to say thank you on Veterans Day in a more spectacular way.”

She said Veterans United decided to donate 11 homes to 11 veterans who “give back to their communities” on Veterans Day, which falls on 11/11, to say thank you to those who have served as part of its #ThanksToVeterans campaign.

Those who were selected to receive the donation were completely surprised, and were all recently approved for home loans.

Army veteran Jonathon Brown served in Iraq and Afghanistan, and is now a law enforcement officer in his small town in Wisconsin. He was previously living in a three-bedroom rental with seven children and his wife.

While applying for a home loan, Brown was asked to participate in a series of interviews for a “documentary series” about veterans who give back to their communities. Instead, he was surprised with the donation of home.

“I thought, ‘That’s cool,'” he said of the documentary series. “…During the process of that, they surprised us while we were having breakfast with this bombshell announcement and it just blew us away. I could not believe it.”

Other recipients include eight-year U.S. Navy veteran and single dad Andre H. from North Carolina; Vietnam Army vet Jim L. from New Mexico, who needed a wheelchair-accessible home; U.S. Army veteran and father of three Daniel G. from New York; U.S. Navy veteran, widow and mother of three Regina L. from Georgia; and Marine Corps veteran Iraq vet Samuel T. from California, who teaches local self-defense classes.

Image source: Veterans United Home Loans