Author: Jason Bush
I received confirmation from both Starfire and Rosboro that between the two of them, they have donated all of the lumber for the trusses and the typical framing lumber. Another critical component of the Truss Company being more likely to be in a position to fabricate the trusses for little or nothing is that Michael Querry, of MiTek-Residential North America division has donated the mending plates needed to fabricate the engineered trusses. This was almost $1,200. Thank you, Michael, and MiTek!
John Steinbaugh of Forward Assist, Luke Morley of Lakeside Lumber, and Jeff Fish, of Jeff Fish Construction have been internally discussing how they could help the Southmayds and recently contacted me by email. They have all worked together in the past helping our veterans, and are doing all they can to help us get the word out there. Luke has put me in contact with Brett Rekamp of KXL and Alpha Broadcasting, the home of Lars Larson. They have all been sending out feelers to gain support. Thank you all!
We have confirmed that JBE Engineering’s Robert Johnson has been in contact with the Southmayds lawyer, and it appears that they will be able to help us out with a detailed report of the actual structural conditions of the “repaired home”, barring any unforeseen conflicts. Randy Van Camp of Van Camp Construction, is the other gentlemen that has agreed to help with a report for the lawyer in regards to what it would cost to repair the existing home, so we have made some strides there.
Misty & Jayson, Jack Applegate, CEO and President of Northwest Code Professionals, and myself were all interviewed by Nick Reiher, a journalist that works for the International Code Council. He must have spent 5 to 6 hours total amongst the four of us. I also sent him most of the documents previously prepared. We anxiously await to view the article in their Building Safety Journal.
I had a Zoom conference call this afternoon with Cindy McGrew, Founder and CEO of Operation Second Chance (OSC), and Board Members, Andrew Lourake and Tim Sanders. It was a very enlightening meeting, as one of the drawbacks of a Go Fund e account is the fact that whoever set it up will be responsible for the income on their taxes. We are working on a simple resolution to that thanks to OSC. It sounds like they will create a web-site that tells our story in their unique way. It will be accessed from their web-site, and could be up within a week. You can view an example on their website: www.operationsecondchance.org. At the top right click on the tab “AAFWH, and you’ll see it’s a pretty amazing story.” They are also in the process of creating a financial account on our behalf that will issue a tax credit receipt for all donations to include materials and labor.
Andrew Lourake is also on the board of directors for “Combat Wounded Veterans Challenge” (CWVC). Based in Florida, their web-site can be found at www.combatwounded.org and, their web-site is well worth the visit, and again, their board of directors is impressive to say the least.