AURORA, Colo. As housing prices continue to rise across Colorado, a nonprofit is providing homes for veterans who were wounded in combat.
Jared Allen's Homes for Wounded Warriors (JAH4WW) gifted Aurora army veteran Dan Rose a fully furnished, wheelchair-accessible home.
Rose was a U.S. Army engineer, tasked with clearing explosives from roads. In 2010, he began a voluntary deployment to Afghanistan.
On April 27, 2011, Rose was wounded while clearing a new route of IEDs. His truck went over an IED, which detonated and sent the truck flying.
Rose was flown to Germany and then to Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C. for spinal fusion surgery. The injuries left him paralyzed from the chest down.
In the decade since, Rose has become a para-athlete, husband and father.
"I realized that I could still play sports, I could still travel the world, I could still do everything that I wanted to do," said Rose.
Wednesday afternoon, Rose added "homeowner" to his list of accomplishments.
KB Home partnered with JAH4WW to build the Rose family a brand new home in just six months. The new home is located in KB Homes Painted Prairie community in Aurora.
Rose said his previous home didn't have an accessible shower and the front steps made it difficult to move around. His new house has wide openings for a wheelchair, a shower without a lip and kitchen counters at wheelchair height.
JAH4WW has built homes for 29 veterans nationwide, and it hopes to raise that number to 35 by the end of 2024.
Allen is a former NFL defensive end and founded the nonprofit in 2009 after visiting several U.S. bases in Iraq during a USO tour. He emphasized the importance of producing tangible results from donations.
"Theres a lot of great organizations and a lot of great work being done," said Allen. "But we try to be more than just giving a dollar.
Learn more about the nonprofit through this link.
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