The city of North Richland Hills (NRH) has been doing a Neighborhood Initiative Program for many years that helped the elderly and single mothers with repairs on their homes. In the last year they have expanded the program to include veteran-owned properties.

When Post 655 (Haltom City, Texas) learned NRH had a property that was a single mother with two small children at home and her oldest son deployed in the Army overseas, they jumped in to help.

On Saturday, Oct. 16, volunteers from Post 655 along with the NRH Fire Department made the backyard safe for the young children. Besides removing the debris left by the departed husband, 300' of the fence was removed and a new fence built, all in one day.

When several of the neighbors got curious and came out to see what was going on, connections were made. Many of the neighbors were veterans themselves and were happy to help.

The end result was a yard made safe for the children, an active-duty son has one less homefront issue to worry about, and the connection between neighbors and veterans was strengthened.

Because of the success of this project, Post 655 has partnered with the city of North Richland Hills for future veterans home-related projects in 2022.