Cpl. Christopher Levi’s new house will be built in Melville, but Mineola is helping to raise the walls.
Tony Lubrano, the Mineola Chamber of Commerce president, and his philanthropy group, Warriors for a Cause, have rallied their connections in the construction industry to help the Stephen Siller Tunnel to Towers Foundation build a “smart home” for Levi, who lost both his legs serving with the Army in Iraq.
By the end of an event last Wednesday at Piccola Bussola, Lubrano’s Mineola restaurant, at least seven companies had committed to donate services and supplies to build the home in Melville, Lubrano said.
Some of them have Mineola roots — Harry Katz Carpet One Floor & Home on Jericho Turnpike is providing all floor coverings; and Jeff Clark, the Mineola Fire Department chief, works for a firm that’s offering a security camera system that can be monitored on an iPad.
“We feel that we’re having a great impact in changing somebody’s life,” Lubrano said.
Levi, a Holbrook resident, joined the Army in 2004 and served a tour of duty in Afghanistan in 2006 and 2007.
A Humvee he was in hit a roadside bomb in Iraq in March 2008, five months after he started his second tour of duty. He lost both his legs and suffered significant damage to his right hand and arm, but he can now walk using prosthetics.
Levi’s Melville home will be the 57th across the nation — but the first on Long Island — built by the Staten Island-based Stephen Siller Foundation through its Building for America’s Bravest program, said John Hodge, the foundation’s CEO.
Each house, built for severely wounded veterans that have mobility issues, is set up to be easy for the resident to navigate by controlling the doors, lights and other things remotely using a device like an iPad, Hodge said.
Each one costs an average of $500,000 to build, he said. But the Melville property came at a higher cost than other lots the foundation has purchased, Levi said.
The foundation hopes to have Levi’s home ready within a year. When companies like those from Mineola donate services and supplies, the foundation can spend more money on the technology that makes veterans’ lives easier, Hodge said.
“They are able to move on with their lives,” he said. “Their hopes and dreams are slowly getting fulfilled despite everything that’s happened to them.”
Lubrano has led a group from Mineola to the foundation’s annual Tunnel to Towers 5K run honoring its namesake, Stephen Siller, a New York City firefighter who died on the scene of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
Lubrano and Warriors for a Cause first got involved with the foundation through the annual run — they brought a group of more than 300 people in September.
David Mammina, an architect with the Melville-based firm H2M, has participated in those runs and said he was moved by the Stephen Siller Foundation’s home-building program.
Lubrano convinced Mammina to help with the Melville house, and H2M is now providing all design and construction planning services for the house, Mammina said. The firm’s architects held a design contest to offer several possibilities for the home’s layout, he said.
“For me personally, my dad as a Second World War veteran, probably the thing he was proudest of was his service to the country and I’ve always had a lot of respect for veterans and the things they do for us,” said Mammina, who is also the Town of North Hempstead Board of Zoning Appeals chairman.
Levi said he previously worked with another organization that builds homes for veterans. Sometimes it’s “bewildering” to think about the fact that so many people are working to build him a new house of his own, he said.
“I focus on the gratitude that I feel for that, because it’s just so amazing that it’s even hard to comprehend sometimes,” Levi said.
