Wounded Marine now has a new home

GRANBY, Mass. (WWLP) - It's a heartwarming story that 22News has been following for months. Nearly nine months after the first walls went up, wounded warrior Sgt. Joshua Bouchard received keys to his new house on Saturday.

The western Massachusetts native lost his left leg during combat in Afghanistan.

But thanks to hundreds of volunteers, friends and family members, Sgt. Bouchard now has a new custom-built home.

He told 22News “It's beautiful to see that the community actually cares.”

When the construction began back in April, the site of 48 Chicopee St. was nothing but a pile of dirt. Now, nearly nine months later, it's a place that Sgt. Bouchard can call his home.

Sgt. Bouchard said “It reminded me of working with the Marines and other units when we were deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan. You have competing companies and competing businesses, and they just came together to build this house.”

His friend Aaron Bishop told 22News “It's been an emotional journey. Shed a lot of tears, but things are better now.”

Home For Our Troops volunteers said seeing the entire community come together to support a veteran is what bring them back to work on the next project.

Catherine Salisbury who has worked with Home For Our Troops since 2009 talked about the first time she was involved in a home-building mission in Worthington.

She said “Everyday Pete would come out, and he would be so grateful. He was so thankful. He was like "Thanks, I appreciate this, you guys are doing a great job." And he was just so out there, like he was so real. It made it reality that this is something I need to get back in to.”

Steve Lempke volunteered his time and built the walls.

He said “There are a lot of builders that I met here on the job. They were fantastic, and they did the same thing. Because it was for a soldier's home and the Home Builders Association, they just said "We want to be part of it."