COMMUNITY NEWS

Community support sustains a veteran, his family and friends

Groundbreaking on free house for Cpl. Kevin Vaughan

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Kevin Vaughan, a Marine corporal who was wounded in Afghanistan and received a hero’s welcome when he returned home to North Merrick in 2012, will now receive a free house, courtesy of Building Homes for Heroes.

Vaughan, his family and friends, local veterans, North Merrick firefighters, elected officials, student musicians, neighbors, supporters, and members of the media were among the 150 or so people on hand for a groundbreaking ceremony on Tuesday marking the start of construction on a two-story house on Little Whaleneck Road. Building Homes for Heroes, a Valley Stream nonprofit organization that built 17 houses for veterans last year and aims to complete 28 more this year, will give the house to Vaughan, according to Andrew Pujol, the charity’s founder and president, and elected officials.

Hempstead Town Supervisor Kate Murray said the town was waiving building permit fees. She also said it would repave Little Whaleneck Road, which has its share of potholes.

A roadside bomb wounded Vaughan and four other Marines on Sept. 28, 2011, in Afghanistan. He underwent numerous surgeries, including the amputation of his left leg and the reconstruction of his right leg with screws and rods. He spent 15 months at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., before returning home to a parade in his honor, which hundreds of people attended.

The scene Tuesday morning on Little Whaleneck Road was reminiscent of March 9, 2012, the day Vaughan came home. The North Merrick Fire Department hoisted a giant American flag with two ladder trucks, Merrick American Legion Post 1282 members formed a color guard, Mepham High School musicians accompanied the ceremony, a priest gave an invocation, and local and state officials spoke, as did Vaughan and Pujol.

Vaughan said he had “never been so low, mentally and physically,” as he was in the first weeks and months after he was wounded. But the surprise outpouring of community support that greeted him in North Merrick, he said, helped him begin a new chapter in his life. That day Vaughan had tears in his eyes, but Tuesday he was all smiles as he thanked those who rallied around him, particularly Building Homes for Heroes.

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