Randolphe Lewis got the first surprise when his Caroline County neighbors contacted a company to put a new roof on his house.
But the Vietnam veteran was in for an even bigger shock when workers with the Owens Corning Roof Deployment Project announced they weren’t going to stop with new shingles and tar paper. Led by Tyler Griffin, a managing partner at American Home Contractors, crews also replaced the siding, installed new gutters and guards and rebuilt the porch roof, which Lewis said was terribly rotted.
“I was just floored at the efficiency and the care,” Lewis said. “I’ve never had to ask for anything in my life, I’m always the one helping people. To get people to do this for me, it was hard to believe it was happening.”
Lewis, 65, is a disabled veteran. He served in the Navy for 23 years, from the tail-end of the Vietnam War until 1999. He’s lived in the Woodford area of Caroline since 2006.
Another company had signed up to do the roof work, then dropped out, and Lewis saw it as divine intervention. When crews showed up at 7 a.m. Monday to start working, Lewis said there were 15 or more people, “like a bunch of ants, moving and cutting.”
The team worked throughout the day and long past sunset, determined to get the roof in place before Tuesday’s rain. There’s still some other work that has to be done on the house, Lewis said.
The veteran was selected as the roof recipient through Owen Corning’s partnership with Purple Heart Homes. The company’s deployment project has provided more than 500 new roofs for military members since 2016 in a “nationwide effort to show gratitude and honor the veterans who served our country and the families who support them,” according to a news release.
American Home Contractors is considered a “platinum roof contractor” by Owens Corning. The construction company donated the labor, and Owens Corning Foundation provided the materials.
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