Veterans United Celebrates Veterans Day By Giving 11 Homes To 11 Deserving Service Members

Veterans United Home Loans, a mortgage lender based in Missouri that is also the nation’s largest Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) loans provider, announced today that it is celebrating Veterans Day by donating 11 homes to 11 deserving U.S. veterans.

Veterans United Surprises Veterans With Homes

Fox News reported that Veterans United joined forces with Marine veteran and comedian Rob Riggle to choose 10 veterans making a difference in their communities for 10 home giveaways. You might recognize Riggle from his years on SNL or “Modern Family”.

The organization is also donating one more home to any veteran who enters for a chance to win at ThanksToVeterans.com.

Pam Swan, a military spouse who is also the vice president of military relations for Veterans United Home Loans, decided that she wanted to help service members after getting married in 1987 and realizing what “military families are lacking.” She went on to join Veterans United in 2011.

“We as a company work on improving the lives of service members, their families and their communities, and that is the core of every decision we make,” Swan said. “…Last year, we made a big statement in trying to say thank you on Veterans Day in a more spectacular way.”

Swan went on to say that her organization decided to donate these homes to veterans who “give back to their communities” on Veterans Day to say thank you to those who have served as part of its #ThanksToVeterans campaign.

Each of the veterans were in the process of applying for home loans and were just recently approved, and they were all surprised by the donated homes.

Related: Gary Sinise Receives Major Award For His Military Work

Army Veteran Receives Home

One of the homes was given to Army veteran Jonathon Brown, who served in Iraq and Afghanistan.

After applying for a home loan, Brown was chosen to take part in a series of interviews for what he was told would be a documentary series chronicling veterans giving back to their communities. He had no idea at the time that he would be given a free house.

“I thought, ‘That’s cool,'” he said of the documentary series. “…During the process of that, they surprised us while we were having breakfast with this bombshell announcement and it just blew us away. I could not believe it. It was a huge surprise — like, I did not see this coming at all.”

The other Veterans United home giveaway recipients were “eight-year U.S. Navy veteran and single dad Andre H. from North Carolina; Vietnam Army vet Jim L. from New Mexico, who needed a wheelchair-accessible home; U.S. Army veteran and father of three Daniel G. from New York; U.S. Navy veteran, widow and mother of three Regina L. from Georgia; and Marine Corps veteran Iraq vet Samuel T. from California, who teaches local self-defense classes.”

Related: Patricia Heaton Gets Why Gary Sinise’s Dedication To Our Military Is So Important

Praise For America’s Veterans

Swan said that the “thing that stood out most” about these veterans was “their service back to their communities.”

“We had them from every stage of picking up issues ranging from food scarcity to economic mobility to involvement with athletes…in their respective communities,” she explained. “…If you look at statistics, there are a lot of veterans who…want to give back and want to have that teamwork involvement, so we looked for those aspects. We look for people that did know what they wanted in a home loan or a home purchase.”

What an incredible way to honor America’s veterans. Big kudos to Veterans United, Rob Riggle, and everyone who made this possible.

We would like to wish veterans everywhere a very happy Veterans Day. God bless you all!