BONITA, Calif. — A brand new home is under construction in Bonita for a special marine veteran and his family, and it will be mortgage-free thanks to the Gary Sinise Foundation.
“What I like is that the house is big and wide, and the roof is high,” said 9-year-old Dean Armenta at the podium speaking to a room full of family and friends. “Everything changes a lot in life and that’s what’s going to happen to us.”
Marine Corps veteran, Jose Armenta, and his family were given a firsthand look Thursday at their new 2,900-square-foot home under construction.
“Just two months ago, this was a dirt lot, that’s amazing,” said retired Corporal Armenta.
His 6-year-old daughter, Bella, wrote a special message on her wall.
“I write, ‘I love my room,’ because my room is going to look so pretty,” said little Bella.
It was all part of the “Walls of Honor” event where family and friends were given an opportunity to write messages of hope and encouragement on the studs and wall panels before installation of the drywall.
“Bella, you shine so bright,” said Bella while reading one of the messages written on a wooden stud in her room.
Jose Armenta joined the Marine Corps in 2007 and became a canine handler working with bomb-sniffing dogs. While serving in Afghanistan 4 years later on a security patrol, he stepped on a pressure plate full of homemade explosives. Armenta woke up 5 days later, having lost both his legs above the knees.
“I didn’t plan on getting injured in the military, right, but life doesn’t care about your plans, so you make the best of what life throws at you,” said Armenta. Now, the Gary Sinise Foundation is building Armento and his family a specially adapted SMART home around his specific needs as a double amputee.
“It’s an opportunity to be able to give him hallways that are extra-large, big kitchen, lowered so with his prosthetics, he can move around quickly if he needs to,” said Gib Bosworth with the Gary Sinise Foundation. “The bathroom is very large, he’s got a bench in the shower.”
Since 2011, the Gary Sinise Foundation has been building homes across the country for veterans and first responders. Gary, who played Lt. Dan in Forrest Gump, even left his own message for the Armentas that reads, “Your sacrifice will never be forgotten.”
When the home is finished in November, it’ll be the 89th one built by the Foundation, and Bella can’t wait to move in.
“I can look at my room and I can look in the bathroom and see everything in the house and that is the part that I really, really, really love,” said Bella.
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