They build homes for heroes

Standing on the putting green at the Hempstead Country Club on Monday, Army Ranger William Castillo, 29, couldn’t believe the turn his life had taken since he returned from his third tour of duty in the Middle East in 2007.

Two years ago, Castillo was struggling, to say the least. He had lost the lower half of his left leg when his platoon struck a roadside bomb while patrolling Fallujah, Iraq. A firefight with insurgents ensued, and Castillo was shot five times, twice in the head.

He spent nearly two years recovering at Walter Reed Hospital in Washington, D.C., and was having a hard time financially. He didn’t know where to turn, he recalled, so he reached out to Building Homes for Heroes, an organization that helps severely wounded and disabled veterans rebuild their lives. He was just looking for some help, but what happened next took Castillo completely by surprise.

The East Rockaway-based organization hosted its 5th annual golf outing/fundraiser at the Hempstead Country Club on Aug. 31, and used the proceeds to buy the mortgage of a foreclosed home in Orlando, Fla., for Castillo, his wife and their four children. The home will be renovated and made handicapped-accessible. Each year, the money raised at the annual outing benefits another disabled veteran.

“It’s an incredible feeling,” Castillo said. “As a man, all you want to do is provide for your family. I mean, a mortgage-free home? There’s nothing I can say. It’s simply amazing.”

More than 160 golfers participated in the fundraiser, each donating $450. The event raised more than $75,000. The founder of Building Home for Heroes, Andy Pujol, said he had been planning the event for four months, and it attracted the biggest turnout he has seen in the five years the organization has hosted the tournament.

“William is a walking miracle,” Pujol said. “He got shot five times, survived an explosion ... and he needed our help.”

Pujol said that Castillo’s will be the fifth house that the organization has either built or renovated for a disabled veteran — one each in New York, Texas and Tennessee, and two in Florida. Building Homes has raised more than $800,000 for disabled veterans since its inception in 2005. “We can turn a small portion of a disaster into a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for these families,” he said.

Army Staff Sgt. Josh Forbess, 32, an Iraq war veteran and an inspirational speaker, was badly burned in the war, and now speaks at Building Homes for Heroes functions to spread awareness and help soldiers who have been wounded. “While I was recovering in the hospital, a soldier came to visit me and I started to see the other side,” Forbess said. “So I started helping, and it’s been something very close to my heart. I saw soldiers that were in worse situations than mine. I started volunteering ... and to see the elation in a soldier’s face when we present them a home, nothing tops that.”

Other special guests at the fundraiser included newly married Iraq war veterans Mary Herrera and Matt Lammers. Herrera, 28, was hit in the arm with two rounds from an AK-47 during an ambush in Iraq in 2003, and Lammers, 27, had both his legs and left arm amputated after an explosion ripped through his Humvee during a patrol in Baghdad in 2007.

The two met at an injured soldiers conference last December and soon fell in love. They said they plan to have a larger marriage ceremony with family and friends in November, and they are expecting their first child this winter.

Lammers and Herrera said they were there to support Pujol and his philanthropic mission. “We’re just doing whatever we can to support Andy,” Lammers said. “I’m here to spread awareness.”

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