News Photo by Michael Gonzalez
Bobby Body embraces his friend, Alex Karalexis, who is also the executive director of Homes for Wounded Warriors at Body’s new house in Harrisville on Thursday.
HARRISVILLE — Thursday was an emotional rollercoaster for U.S. Army Veteran Bobby Body as more than 60 people greeted him at the driveway of his family’s new Harrisville home.
It was especially emotional since it was built just for his family and given to him by Jared Allen’s Homes for Wounded Warriors organization and the various companies that donated time, resources, and work into the home.
The important word of this event – as Tom Lutz, executive secretary treasurer of the Michigan Regional Council of Carpenters, said – is ‘home’.
“It’s where you’re able to find your comfort,” Lutz said at the podium in front of the Body’s new home. “That’s why it matters so much that this house was designed and built to be fully accessible. So it can fulfill the promise to be (Bobby’s) home so he can continue to do his work and his new purpose, continuing to serve others.”
Lutz said the house needed to be fully accessible because Body is a disabled veteran. In 2006, a bomb struck his vehicle in Iraq and severely injured his left leg. After many attempts to heal the wounded limb, it was ultimately amputated above the knee.
News Photo by Michael Gonzalez
Bobby Body and his son, Jayden Body, both cut the red ribbon to the family’s new home alongside Bobby’s wife, Erin Body, and the leaders of the house project in Harrisville on Thursday.
Now, Body is a Paralympic powerlifter and peer support specialist for other veterans and amputees. Last week, he set a world record at the Veracruz 2023 World Cup for men in up to 107 kg in the Legends age group by bench pressing 479 pounds.
Body received the opportunity to receive his new house after a fateful meeting with Alex Karalexis, the executive director of Allen’s organization during a guided tour of the UFC center in Las Vegas.
After hearing his story from peers, Karalexis had a feeling Body would be a great candidate for his national non-profit organization.
Homes for Wounded Warriors’ mission, as stated on the organization’s website, “is to raise money to build and remodel injury-specific, accessible, and mortgage-free homes for our critically injured United States Military Veterans returning home from Iraq and Afghanistan.”
Karalexis met with Body and asked him what his living situation was. To Body, he was confused and told Karalexis everything. After hearing that the organization would build them a house, Body and his wife, Erin, thought this was a practical joke.
News Photo by Michael Gonzalez
The Body family is greeted by Homes for Wounded Warriors Chairman, Jared Allen on Facetime via Director of Operations Amanda Rahtz’s phone in the Bodys’ new home in Harrisville on Thursday.
“He emailed me and said, ‘Hey, can we set up a Zoom call?’,” Body explained. “(I’m thinking) I’m not going to be disabled enough for them to build the house for free, you know? But then Jared (Allen) was on the call, and they’re like, ‘No, we’re gonna build your house’. And then (Erin) started crying, like, ‘Oh my God, we’re gonna really get a house.’”
Body and his family lived in Waterford in a less than 1,200-square-foot house. During his time there, Body was in a wheelchair that made tasks as small as going to the bathroom difficult.
The building of Body’s new home started in 2019 and, after many delays, the house was officially finished in 2023.
After many speeches, moments of gratitude toward the many contributors to the donated house, and a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Thursday, the Body family finally came into their new home and was given time before others could come in to fully take in their living arrangement.
The three-hour ceremony was filled with friends, family, and contributors cheering and observing the fine design of the household. Jayden, the Bodys’ youngest child, went into his room, planning how his new room would look. Erin went around to all the friends and family to talk about the work that was put into the project, making it clear that this truly was everything for their family.
Bobby was mostly found in his new gym, completely geared with UFC equipment. The house was filled with his hearty laughs throughout the entire event.
“(Accessibility) is why the work of Jared Allen’s Homes for Wounded Warriors is so important and why we were eager and proud to contribute,” Lutz said. “Brother Body, on behalf of my brothers and sisters and this community across our state: Welcome home.”
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News Photo by Michael Gonzalez
Bobby Body embraces his friend, Alex Karalexis, who is also the executive director of Homes for Wounded Warriors at Body’s new house in Harrisville on Thursday.
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News Photo by Michael Gonzalez
Bobby Body and his son, Jayden Body, both cut the red ribbon to the family’s new home alongside Bobby’s wife, Erin Body, and the leaders of the house project in Harrisville on Thursday.
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News Photo by Michael Gonzalez
The Body family is greeted by Homes for Wounded Warriors Chairman, Jared Allen on Facetime via Director of Operations Amanda Rahtz’s phone in the Bodys’ new home in Harrisville on Thursday.
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LANSING, Mich. (WILX) – The city of Lansing is taking empty buildings and creating new opportunities in downtown Lansing and other areas of the city. The COVID-19 pandemic forced more people to work from home, leaving a lot of buildings unoccupied.
Background: Lack of foot traffic in downtown Lansing is impacting businesses
Now, developers are working with sponsors, city officials, and investors to fill vacant buildings and bring foot traffic back downtown.
“We need more housing, look at the homeless,” said Kenneth Pruitt who lives in Lansing and sees all of the vacant buildings downtown. It’s an issue that Lansing’s Mayor Andy Schor wants to turn into an opportunity.
“Lansing was rated the number one place to remote work. So we’re seeing a lot of people who want to live here. When you live here and you remote work, after work you want to get out of the house.” Schor said the city is working with developers like Jeff Deehan to bring more businesses, nightlife, and housing to the area.
“We sought to re-purpose some of these old buildings into something that would bring vibrancy to the city and we identified that there was actually something like 2,000 housing units that needed to be constructed,” said Deehan. He worked with his partners to turn the old Lake Trust Credit Union office building into City View apartments.
A move that Pruitt said helps a lot of families and young people. “From what I could see from the outside, they’re nice.” He said the city needs more housing. “It’s a building, I think, down there and a few right here – closed, all boarded up…for what?”
April Clobes at the MSU Federal Credit Union said they are working with developers, too, and providing financial help where it’s needed. “So you may see some apartments and some other, I would say, entertainment venue space down here that we’ve worked with from our commercial lending standpoint.”
On Wednesday, a new live music and performance venue broke ground in downtown Lansing. The Lansing Ovation Center will hold about 2,100 people bringing more foot traffic and business to the area.
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SANIBEL, Fla. — On Tuesday, a company from out of state will be on Sanibel Island to raise up an entire house to put on stilts.
The company doing these lifts is called Davie Shoring. They’re located out of Louisiana and are licensed to do this kind of work across the Southeast United States.
A simple check of their YouTube Page shows the company’s focus specializes in coming into areas after serious storms and literally digging homes out of the ground they’re sinking into.
Davie’s work ties into new FEMA rules saying a home has to be at least 1 foot above sea level, especially if they’re in a flood zone. Most of Sanibel Island falls into that category.
Their system is like a giant forklift but it slips under a home’s foundation and props it up so crews can install new footing and stilts. A representative from Davie Shoring told Fox 4’s Shari Armstrong that Tuesday’s lift could be a strange sight for us, but for them — this is a run-of-the-mill job.
“We’ve done literally thousands and thousands of houses in Louisiana following Hurricane Katrina. And similar houses in New Jersey and York following Sandy and of course in Galveston Texas.”
Crews have already made their way near Matlacha, installing these stilts and lifting homes after Hurricane Ian. Davie Shoring says they charge about a third of other companies to lift homes and put them on stilts.
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