LAND O’ LAKES, Fla. (WFLA) — The Land O’ Lakes community came together Saturday to capture the moment as the ribbon was cut for the latest completed home in the “Let Us Do Good Village.”
It’s a new mortgage-free community for the families of fallen first responders and catastrophically wounded veterans.
The home is being gifted to US Army Sergeant First Class Sualauvi Tuimaleali’ifano. He, his wife and his children took their first look at the inside of their new home Saturday morning.
“I just want to do the best I can to give back and making sure this was not given in vein,” he said.
In July of 2007, just a month before the end of his third deployment, Sergeant First Class Tuimaleali’ifano was wounded and left paralyzed with no sensation or function from his chest down.
His new home is the first mortgage-free smart home in the “Let Us Do Good Village.”
The entire home was custom made to be wheelchair accessible from the shower to the kitchen and even the front door.
“I hated that I had to get help,” Sergeant First Class Tuimaleali’ifano said. “I hate that someone else has to do for me.”
“I was always the one to do for others,” he continued. “I’m happy; I’m stoked about it.”
It was made possible by many generous donors and the Tunnel to Towers Foundation, a non-profit organization that helps “America’s heroes by providing mortgage-free homes to Gold Star and fallen first responder families with young children and by building custom-designed smart homes for catastrophically injured veterans and first responders. We are also committed to eradicating veteran homelessness and aiding the victims of major U.S. disasters.”