From the San Diego Union-Tribune:
A nonprofit that helps veterans has just received what could be called a very special home delivery in Vista.
A cottage built by San Marcos High School students was delivered in two sections to Wounded Warrior Homes on Wednesday and Thursday nights, with the pieces lifted up and carefully slid atop a foundation Friday morning. After some finishing touches over the next few months, the cottage will provide temporary lodging to veterans graduating from the nonprofit’s program.
“We just went from 13 bedrooms to 14, and the housing happened quickly,” Wounded Warrior Homes co-founder Steve Roseberry said as he watched the crew install the first section.
The cottage was created through a partnership with the nonprofit and the Warrior Village Project, founded in 2018 by Fallbrook resident Mark Pilcher as a way of creating more affordable housing while also teaching the next generation of construction workers.
Pilcher said San Marcos High was a natural choice because of its large woodworking program. In the fall of 2019, the school became the first in the county to enroll in the Building Industry Technology Academy, a four-year construction trades program with a curriculum offered by the California Homebuilding Foundation and Building Industry Association.
The class is taught by Chris Geldert, the cabinet and furniture instructor at San Marcos High. When Pilcher approached the school, Geldert saw a great opportunity to give his students real-world skills.
“I always wanted to get more involved in construction trade programs, but they’ve got to be tangible and meaningful in the end,” Geldert said. “I didn’t want them to just build something and knock it down.”
About 25 students worked on the project over a couple of semesters, and Pilcher said the goal was to have it complete and ready to move by the end of the spring 2020 semester.
But then the pandemic struck, and the campus was closed. Pilcher and Geldert stepped in to help finish the project along with Michael McSweeney from the Building Industry Association of San Diego County and contractors from JAAM Electric and R.M Plumbing.
Volunteers from the Navy Seabees also helped create the foundation for the house.
With rain making the site a bit muddy Friday morning, the house-moving crew used everything from a massive fork lift to a hand-held crow bar to lift, slide and nudge the segments in place, in the end moving the structure just a few inches at a time to get the alignment just right.
The cottage is behind a Wounded Warrior Homes house in Vista. Roseberry, who co-founded the nonprofit with his wife, Mia, said it will be used to help veterans transition out of the nonprofit’s two-year program.
Clients graduating from the program at times have had some anxiety living on their own, and Roseberry said the cottage will be a way for them to take a first step toward independence while still being very close to their support system. Veterans can stay 30 to 90 days in the cottage, which will be available for clients in the nonprofit’s Vista house or at its other homes in Escondido and Oceanside.
While the cottage is mostly complete, it will continue to be a learning tool. Pilcher said students from Montecito High School in Ramona will put siding on the exterior over the next few months.
The Warrior Village Project also is continuing at San Marcos High. Pilcher said a second cottage is under construction on campus, and he is looking for another group that helps veterans to take possession of it when complete.
Mia Roseberry said Wounded Warrior Homes does not have the land for another cottage just yet, but the nonprofit’s ultimate goal is to create villages of similar cottages to house and support veterans.