HAZEL GREEN, Ala. — One Hazel Green veteran gets a surprise of a lifetime and it's thanks to The Home Depot Foundation who teamed up with a local nonprofit called 'BeArded Warriors' to make it all happen.
Paul D'Agostin is the Hazel Green Army Veteran we're referring to. He was was nominated for a home upgrade by his neighbor. "My friend down the street, our neighbor, she talked us into this. You know, she put us up for this. I didn't know it. I got an email or a phone call from a from T.J. telling me what's going on. I'm not used to to being taken care of like this, and it's just a testament to the people in the world."
D'Agostin was a staff sergeant in the army for seventeen years and sustained several injuries with long-term effects while serving his country. "We've been trying to do like a little homestead since we've been here, and we've been here since 2020. With my health, we've only been able to get so far."
But thanks to this partnership with The Home Depot Foundation and a local nonprofit called BeArded Warriors. The Home Depot District Manager Dawn Watson explained that now, it's a different story. "We have several projects that are going on today. We've got a huge raised garden bed. We have a shed going up, a fence, going up, a playset, lots of yard work. Anything that this family needs. We do projects in almost every city across the united states, any city that our stores are in. And the projects range from very small projects to very, very large projects in our communities. For our district, we do projects in Georgia, we do projects in Tennessee, and we do projects here in Alabama."
All in all, D'Agostin expressed that he couldn't be more grateful for this opportunity. "I'm in overwhelmed mode. I've been like I said, I've been up in my in my prayer closet crying my eyes out and giving thanks to God and and you know where a lot of this stuff is a surprise even to me. Like they told my wife not to tell me these things and some of this stuff we're saying, and it's like, I'm a little kid again."