Latest news with #PolacekVeteranHomeInitiative
Yahoo
3 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
EXCLUSIVE: Cambria County Veteran will receive brand-new home for free
JOHNSTOWN, Pa. (WTAJ) — After interviewing five candidates on Saturday at the War Memorial Arena, a panel of representatives selected the veteran who would receive a new home, free of charge. WTAJ received an exclusive interview with the candidate on Sunday. Darren Hill served in the U.S. Navy from 1987 to 1994 after graduating from high school. In 2006, he moved back to Johnstown, where he started to get involved in the community and his local church. Hill was selected as the recipient of a brand-new free house through the Polacek Veteran Home Initiative, Vision Together 2025 and Hosanna Industries. He will live in the home with his family. 'I wasn't confident that someone like me would win something like this,' Hill said. The home will be constructed on Somerset Street in Johnstown and gifted by the Polacek Veteran Home Initiative, led by JWF Industries President William Polacek. 'Truly deserving veteran, who was in need of a home. And we're happy to be able to provide him with one. So it's been great from beginning to this point. And, it's gone so well that the plan is to continue to do this. This is going to be the first of hopefully many, many veteran homes in the Johnstown community. So it's been great,' The newly constructed home will be built with the latest in sustainable and accessible design to provide comfort and security for the future. 'I feel blessed, I feel like a long time coming because I really need a home that's going to be brand new, and I don't have to worry about all the maintenance and having to fix something up. So I feel really blessed,' Hill said. It will be a 864-square-foot, three-bedroom ranch house built by Hosanna Industries. 'Building new opportunities in Johnstown, not only for Mr. Hill and his daughter and his aunt, but the community at large, is very, very rewarding. Johnstown is such a special town, and we were starting to see a lot of really great energy come to the town,' Brian Hetzer, Construction Services Supervisor for Hosanna Industries, said. Volunteers will begin construction for the new home in July, and it is estimated to take four days. Hetzer said the blitz build is a four-day process of organized chaos. On the first day, there are between 50 and 100 volunteers. The foundation will already be in the ground with the walls waiting to be erected. By the end of the first day, there's a complete structure with siding on it, windows and doors installed. The roof is on, and all of the electrical, plumbing, and heating systems are completely done and inspected. The second day, insulation, drywall and mudding are also completed. By the evening of the second day, the house is painted on the inside. On the third day, volunteers start installing the flooring, doors and trim, as well as the cabinetry and work on the outside decks. On the last day, all of the furnishings are moved in, and the house is dedicated. If you would like to volunteer your time or services, visit the Hosanna Industries website, or call the office at (724)-770-0262 and ask to speak with the Volunteer Coordinator. Hetzer said volunteers of all types are needed, including plumbers, electricians, carpenters and masons. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
3 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
'It's such a blessing': Johnstown Navy veteran selected to receive free new home through community initiative
JOHNSTOWN, Pa. – A veteran has been selected to receive a brand-new free house through a collaborative project of the Polacek Veteran Home Initiative, Vision Together 2025 and Hosanna Industries. Darren Hill, who served in the Navy from 1987 to 1994, was picked after a panel of representatives from local veterans' organizations privately interviewed five finalists Saturday. He currently lives in the Elks Flood City Lodge 371 building in Johnstown. 'It's such a blessing for me and my daughter to be able to move into a place that comfortable in the stage of her life right now,' Hill said, "because she's getting ready to start high school and she can just focus on school instead of where I stay at now, because I stay on top of a lodge where they play the music downstairs and all that, so it's kind of noisy." The application process was open to honorably discharged veterans from Cambria and Somerset counties with dependents, who met other criteria regarding military service, community involvement and personal finances. Hill volunteers with the Elks Lodge and St. James Missionary Baptist Church. 'All those countless hours of helping people and doing good work is paying off for me,' Hill said. 'I'm happy. I'm so happy.' The home, which will be constructed on Somerset Street in Johnstown, will be gifted by the Polacek Veteran Home Initiative, led by JWF Industries CEO and Chairman Bill Polacek. 'Bill has a very respectful understanding of veterans and service members because a good portion of his business is involved in that,' said retired Army Col. Jeff Pounding, who helped organize the application and selection process. 'And he has a very good sense of honor.' The entire process is expected to move quickly. Vision is currently going through the legal steps of acquiring the property and getting it prepared for construction. Allegheny County-based Hosanna Industries is expected to do a "blitz build" from July 14-17. A foundation will be put into place before that time. Then, over four days, volunteers plan to construct an entirely new home that will be ready to move into – with flowers on the table and towels in the bathroom – on July 17. 'I'll literally be in a new home by the end of the month of July,' Hill said. 'I can't ask for nothing better than that, I'll tell you. God is so good.' It will be a 1,000-square-foot, three-bedroom ranch house. 'We've done this several hundred times, but it's always a leap of faith,' said Johnstown-area native Rev. Donn Ed, founder of Hosanna Industries. 'We always hope and pray that it's all going to work well, and it always has. "I don't want to minimize the effort. It's a monumental effort on the part of hundreds of people to make all those pieces fit together properly in the right sequence at the right time. This blitz-building procedure that Hosanna has kind of invented, it's extremely time-critical. 'From day one until the very end, every moment is accounted for. There can't be any slop in the gears because there's not enough allowance of time to permit it. Everything's got to be right on.' About 150 volunteers are needed. Even people without construction skills can help in other ways, such as cooking or donating landscaping materials. Anybody interested in participating can contact Hosanna Industries at 724- 770-0262. 'People who know nothing about home construction are welcome to volunteer, because their energies will be properly channeled into productive results by the Hosanna team,' Ed said. 'Skilled volunteers are also needed: block layers, carpenters, electricians, plumbers, drywall mechanics. All of these are very much needed and invited to join in this unique community building venture.' This is the first home in Vision's plan to construct 21 new houses throughout Johnstown, using revolving funds provided by community organizations through the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development's Neighborhood Partnership Program tax credit initiative. The other houses will be sold to people, unlike the first home that is free to the selected veteran. 'The ones going forward are for anybody,' Vision Together 2025 Executive Director Robert Forcey said. 'In fact, that's kind of a misconstrued assumption that a lot of people have been making that these are only for low-income families. "We made them affordable enough for somebody that they should be able to afford it on low- to middle-income. But for these houses, we've had applicants all the way from a first-year graduate from UPJ (the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown) all the way to a couple that's been renting for 30 years and they want to move into their first house for the first time.' Forcey said one of the goals of the first free house is to 'show everybody that it's a viable project and it's going to move forward.'
Yahoo
02-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
First house in Polacek Veteran Home Initiative to be built on Somerset Street in Johnstown
JOHNSTOWN, Pa. – A hand-picked local military veteran will soon own a brand-new, free, 1,000-square-foot, three-bedroom house with a deck overlooking the Stonycreek River on Somerset Street in Johnstown. It will be gifted to the person through the Polacek Veteran Home Initiative, a Vision Together 2025 capture team. Details about the program were provided during a press conference Tuesday at 1st Summit Arena @ Cambria County War Memorial in Johnstown. 'This is much more than just a house to a deserving veteran,' JWF Industries CEO and Chairman Bill Polacek said. 'It will give them hope. And it's also revitalizing our community. This is the beginning of what could be a wave of things to help our community build itself.' Polacek said the goal is to give 'a hand up, not a handout' to the veteran and family. The plan calls for starting with one home, but Polacek hopes that as many as eight or so could be built in the area as part of a 'veterans row.' 'My hope and prayer is that we are guided by our faith and come together to help not just build one of these, but, as I said, many of them,' Polacek said. Details about the application and selection processes are available at The ideal recipient will be an honorably discharged veteran with high achievements who has sacrificed and who may hold a Department of Veterans Affairs rating. Applicants with dependents, a proven record of serving the community, a history of good credit but unable to purchase a home because of a poor income-to-debt ratio, and a willingness to give back are also preferred. Veterans living in Cambria and Somerset counties are eligible. A DD214 certificate of discharge must be provided. Applications can be submitted until May 11. Evaluations and interviews will take place. A veteran community panel will make the final selection. The recipient will be notified May 24. 'The most important aspect of this is to find the right veteran and their family because we have thousands in the two counties that we'll be looking at,' said retired U.S. Army Col. Jeff Pounding, who is involved in the process. 'The idea is to assist a veteran and their family with financial stability and quality of life. We want these people to move into this new home – custom-designed for them – and allow them to grow as long as they want and to help shape their kids through this home and this quality of life.' A home build is expected to take place in July. The project is being supported by the Polacek family, Vision Together 2025 and several veterans groups. Organizers are looking for volunteers to help with the construction. The veteran, if physically able, and family members will assist in the work, too. 'If this does happen the way we expect it to happen and these folks will be involved, it's going to get done because there will be people like all of you (here at this press conference) that will show up to help,' said Norman Ed, a local volunteer builder. 'Just keep your ears open to that. That's really why I'm here. I'm just one of the volunteers.'
