Volunteers raise house for Iraq war vet

As an army of carpenters raised the walls on his new Woodbury house, Sgt. Marcus Kuboy stood on his crutches, peering into what eventually will be his living room.

 "I'm very honored to be the recipient of so much kindness," Kuboy, 30, said Friday of the 210 volunteers framing the house at 3539 Windmill Curve from foundation to roof in just three days.

 The "Build Brigade" blitz, arranged by the nonprofit Homes For Our Troops organization, will produce a finished house by September for Kuboy, a Minnesota National Guard medic who was severely injured in a bomb blast in Iraq in March 2007. He'll be handed keys and deed free of charge, compliments of volunteers who rallied to help him.

Kuboy was riding in the back seat of a Humvee on the outskirts of Fallujah when the vehicle ran over an explosive device. He spent nearly a year in Walter Reed Army Hospital in Washington and the Minneapolis Veterans Medical Center with injuries to his feet, legs, back, left arm and jaw.

"I'd rather have not been hurt, but we always knew that was the risk we were taking," said Kuboy, who is recovering from surgery on his right foot that was done this spring. "The bombs weren't going off to welcome us there."

Kuboy has served with the National Guard for three years. He's preparing to retire this summer and will begin studies at Minneapolis Community and Technical College for a nursing career this fall.

"He's the ultimate volunteer," Kirt Rebello, the chief projects officer for Homes For Our Troops, said of Kuboy. "What we have here today is volunteers helping volunteers."

One of those helping volunteers was Bryan Hanrahan, 23, a carpenter from Oakdale. "I thought I'd jump right in," said Hanrahan, who works for McGough Construction in Roseville but donated his time to help raise the house. "I think it's a good cause. He's a really nice guy. He put his life on the line for his country."

Kuboy's three-bedroom house in Woodbury's Stonemill Farms neighborhood is one of 25 houses currently being built nationwide under the program and one of only a handful with the special "Build Brigade" approach that involves so many workers, Rebello said.

Many of the electricians are war veterans and some members are serving in Iraq, he said. "It's not a problem at all to get volunteers," he said. "We have to turn them away."

Another union, the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 49, dug the basement for Kuboy's house and poured the foundation on June 16. "We feel it's the least we can do for people who have served," said Gary Lindblad, the local's director of training. He was volunteering at the site Friday.

More than $200,000 has been raised for the Kuboy house and another being built in Denver, said Joann Sordellini, political communications manager for Credit Union National Association. She said that $300,000 is needed and that local credit unions collected money for the cause.

The houses are being built in connection with the Republican and Democratic national conventions to draw attention to the plight of injured veterans, Rebello said. St. Paul hosts the Republicans in September. Denver hosts the Democrats in August.

"It really takes a community to build these homes," he said.

Kevin Giles • 651-298-1554