GENTRY — Local Korean War veteran Bart Nelson, 80, suffering from multiple sclerosis and leukemia, was without veteran’s benefits and without his veteran’s pension and unable to buy medicines, food and keep up his home, but thanks to another veteran, good neighbors and Choice Hotels, Nelson is receiving the care he needs and his home is being renovated to make it safe and livable for him.

Nelson served as a field wireman during the Korean Conflict, which meant he ran and maintained communication wires between scout posts and military units and was a constant target for enemy fire. In fact, Nelson was shot in the arm a couple of times during his tour of duty in 1951-1952. But he received no purple heart and was not even relieved of his duties.Instead, he was bandaged up and sent back into the field to continue his dangerous work.

“I learned to take cover in a tire track,” Nelson said of his attempts to avoid being hit by enemy fire while doing his job.

Not only did Nelson have to worry about being shot, he had to work in extreme heat and extreme cold. While temperatures climbed to well over 100 degrees in the summer months, winter temperatures dipped down to a negative 35, causing manytroops to suffer frostbite and lose limbs to the cold.

But now, being in his senior years and without enough income to pay for food and needed medicines and to heat and maintain his rural Gentry home, Nelson again was struggling to stay alive.

Floors had given out due to rot and termite damage. Mold was growing under the floors. Heating ducts had fallen out and a gas pipe leaked under his bedroom. Nelson couldn’t afford to heat his home in the winter and when he tried, most of the heat simply escaped.

“When I met him, he was starving and wheelchair bound,” said Roger McGovern,another military veteran who learned of Nelson’s situation and came to the rescue. McGovern succeeded in a few months to do for Nelson what Nelson had tried to do for several years, obtain a veteran’s pension and medical benefits.

“Roger came and worked hard and got me my pension which I had been trying to get for three years,” said Nelson.

With the help of McGovern and neighbors Jeff and Bettie Duram, Nelson received meals and the medical attention he so needed. He still needs his wheel chair but can get out of it now and walk around again, too.

But his house was literally falling down around him and was in bad need of major repairs. The north side of the house had rotted and settled off the foundation, McGovern said. Things had gotten so bad that raccoons came up through the floor of Nelson’s home into his bedroom at night and Nelson had to shoo them out, McGovern said.

That’s where Rebuilding Together and Choice Hotels entered the life of Nelson. McGovern had submitted Nelson’s name to Rebuilding Together hoping to get him some much-needed help with his home. Nelson was on a waiting list for some time,but he was finally selected and volunteer workers from around the region and country showed up and have spent several weekends working on Nelson’s home, rebuilding floors, building wheel chair ramps, putting on new siding, repairing electrical wiring, painting and repairing the interior - making his home safe, warm and dry - and just in time for the upcoming winter months.

“This is something I couldn’t have even dreamed of,” Nelson said of the workers volunteering their time, and of all the repairs and renovation being made to his home.

Rebuilding Together is the nation’s leading nonprofit working to preserve affordable home ownership and revitalize communities. The organization’s network of more than 200 affiliates provides free rehabilitation and critical repairs to the homes of low-income Americans.

Rebuilding Together believes in a safe and healthy home for every person, the group’s Web site states. The group seeks to help disabled and aging homeowners to remain in their homes for as long as possible, to help homeowners displaced by natural disasters get back into safe housing with help from the community, and to help the nation’s veterans with disabilities to have safe and accessible homes.

“Rebuilding Together believes we can preserve affordable home ownership and revitalize communities by providing free home modifications and repairs, making homes safer, more accessible, and more energy efficient,” theorganization’s Web site states.

“As the economic pressure on low-income families grows, more and more families are placed in the position of choosing between vital necessities and essential home repairs and modifications,” the organization’s Web site states.

Rebuilding Together has been in northwest Arkansas since 2002, according to its executive director, Jan Skopecek.

“We rehabilitate homes of the elderly, disabled and low-income families with children to make them warm, safe and dry,” Skopecek said.

In 2009, Choice Hotels launched the Room to Rebuild program, in partnership with Rebuilding Together. Choice associates and franchises participate in rebuilding projects across the United States, providing muchneeded repairs to homes and offering homeowners a renewed sense of pride in their homes and communities.

Since the launch of Room to Rebuild, hundreds of Choice associates and franchises have participated in projects around the region and country, creating lasting impact in many communities, the hotel chain’s Web site states.

And executives and employees of the hotels were in Gentry on Saturday, true to their mission, not only financing the project at Nelson’s home but helping with the work.

News, Pages 1 on 11/10/2010