Patriots, Pride and Pigeons

POLKTON — Hyatt Farms Shooting Complex located on Burnsville Church Road welcomed the Patriot Clay Challenge, hosted jointly by Purple Heart Homes and Patriot Military Family Foundation, on Wednesday, September 13. The event had teams of four shooting a fourteen- station course, totaling a hundred clays.

“We do events like the Patriot Clay Challenge in order to raise funds and awareness for our veterans in need,” explained John Gallina, co-founder and CEO of Purple Heart Homes. Though headquartered in Statesville, PHH’s reach is nation-wide. Gallina co-founded PHH with his fellow veteran and friend, the late Dale Beatty.

John Gallina served ten years with the Army National Guard, saying, “Ultimately I felt a call to serve my community, grateful for what we have, and felt like every generation has to maintain that and I wanted to do my part.”

Gallina and Beatty, both from Statesville, served together in Iraq from 2004 to 2005.

“While serving in Iraq in 2004, our vehicle hit two anti-tank land mines while doing a route clearance. In the process my buddy Dale Beatty, lost both his legs below the knees,” says Gallina of the reason he and Beatty founded Purple Heart Homes.

“I had a civilian career as a general contractor so when we returned home, the community and a lot of other volunteers, came together to build Dale a house. We saw the value that brought for Dale and his family, we realized the greater need in the community, and so we decided to start Purple Heart Homes,” added Gallina.

Realizing that veterans of all generations come home to altered lives, Gallina and Beatty decided to help.

The pair went from talking about issues to officially establishing their non-profit organization, Purple Heart Homes in 2008. Since then the organization has seen immense success, such as their first home project completed in 2010, their hundredth home project completed in 2016, and their one thousandth home project completed in 2022, the same year Purple Heart Homes received certification from North Carolina to manufacture tiny homes.

“We have now served over 2,000 veterans and their families across the country. We identify veterans in need and then renovate bathrooms, provide wheelchair ramps, new roofs, heating and cooling systems,” says Gallina, listing just some of the assistance PHH is able to provide our service men and women.

Starting this fall, Purple Heart Homes will be bringing their mission to create safe housing for our service connected disabled veterans to prime time. PHH is the official partner of Military Makeover with Montel, airing on Lifetime. The first episode will air this November 11.

“We will be on for the next four seasons,” informs Gallina. “By and large we believe the community has a responsibility to reintegrate and care for their veterans that served,” added Gallina.

Mike Lennon, a PHH board member, had the opportunity to meet Dale Beatty at a golf tournament where they became fast friends. After this kismet meeting, Beatty introduced Lennon to John Gallina.

“They told me about the support they offer to veterans of all generations which really touched my heart. Nobody ever did anything for my dad except my mom and it really makes we wish that he was still alive to know that younger people cared about and valued his service and that of his peers,” shared Lennon, explaining why he became involved with and a board member of Purple Heart Homes.

Lennon’s father was a Marine Core Cobra pilot who was wounded five times in combat, earned three purple hearts, and is now at rest in Arlington Cemetery.

“I enlisted because I wanted to make my dad proud,” remarks Lennon on the simple reason he chose to follow in the footsteps of his hero.

“At PHH if we get notified of a veteran that served in Vietnam or Korea, they get prioritized to the front of our list because we know they are not going to be with us forever. We want them to know their country loves them and cares about their service,” states Lennon.

“We are at the point now that we are doing a project almost every day of the week somewhere in the country, whether it is putting in wheelchair ramps or remodeling bathrooms so our veterans don’t have to crawl to get to a toilet,” added Lennon with pride.

Headquartered in Mooresville, the Patriot Military Family Foundation was established in January 2016, though their military philanthropic work began much earlier.

PMFF formed from the conjoining of two parent charitable organizations, Military Family LifeStyle Charitable Foundation (MFLCF) and Patriot Charities (PC), established in 2006 and 2005.

Given the success of the two organizations, not much changed when the foundations merged. The Board of Directors from the former Military LifeStyle Charitable Foundation, all veterans, retained their positions. Patriot Charities Board of Directors morphed into the Board of Trustees, an advisory panel for the newly minted non-profit, Patriot Military Family Foundation. PMFF’s current president is retired Major General Chuck Swannack Jr., former commander of the 82^nd airborne.

Now pooling their resources, PMFF has been integral in supporting veterans and their families. Patriot Military Family Foundation was the first in the Carolinas to honor service-disabled veterans, and has since expanded to other locations across the United States.

“There are a lot of ways to serve, you just got to find your niche,” advises PMFF Chairman, Rick Cantwell.

Cantwell’s father served in the military and he grew up a true army brat.

“I moved seventeen times before I made it to West Point,” he recalled fondly.

When Cantwell was in fifth grade his father was stationed at Fort Hood in Texas, where they held a reading competition. The coveted prize, a brand new shiny red bicycle, would be awarded to the reader of the most books and Cantwell was game for the challenge.

Having five siblings with only two bikes between them fueled Cantwell’s desire for the prize. Page by page, he read biographies, learning about all the great leaders of the past. Cantwell not only won the competition, and the bike, he gained something even more valuable.

“I learned I wanted to go to West Point, to go international, like a lot of the great leaders that I read about, and I wanted to be an engineer. I got to do all those things and I’ve been to 87 countries,” boasts Cantwell of his military career.

As non-profit organizations, both foundations rely on donations and volunteers, offering a multitude of ways for communities or individuals to get involved. If you wish to get involved, Purple Heart Homes can be reached at (704) 838-4044 or through their website www.purplehearthomesusa.org, and the Patriot Military Family Foundation can be reached at (704) 401-2066 or through their website www.patriotmilitaryfamilyfoundation.org for additional information about their services.

Proceeds from the Patriot Clay Challenge go towards building a new home for a veteran in need.