Decades after serving in Vietnam and earning a Purple Heart, a Louisville Marine never imagined that everyday tasks at home would become a battle of their own. A recent fall and surgery left him struggling with basic routines most people don’t think twice about: stepping into the shower, standing long enough to bathe, and even moving safely across the floor. What once felt routine had become an exhausting obstacle course.
Eddie Harrell and his wife, Elaine Harrell, met with Scott Welch, president of Welch Builders in Louisville, to discuss renovating the primary bathroom in their Louisville patio home. But on a limited income, the cost was simply out of reach. Welch, a former U.S. Army paratrooper, felt an unspoken bond with the veteran and was determined to make the renovation happen.
Welch turned to the Building Industry Charitable Foundation, the nonprofit charitable arm of the Building Industry Association of Greater Louisville. The foundation had a history of stepping in where help is needed, from renovating homes for families with special-needs children to restoring apartments at The Healing Place recovery center. With that track record in mind, Welch wondered if the BICF could once again step up, this time for a Vietnam veteran who had already given so much to his country…