Disabled Vets Dale Beatty and John Galina Find Passion and Purpose Helping Other Purple Hearts

In Don't Seek Success – Be Happi of write of many individuals who have found a new passion and purpose in life as a result of a personal tragic event in their lives. Veterans Dale Beatty and John Gallina are a perfect example of this.

In 2004, North Carolina National Guardsmen Beatty and Gallina's Humvee was blown up by a homemade bomb in Iraq. Beatty lost both his legs and Gallina suffered traumatic brain and severe back injuries. Upon their return home, among the many issues they had to deal with (Gallina also suffers from PTSD) were homes that did make dealing with their injuries and disabilities any easier.

Beatty tells Yahoo News, “Before I had a house that was accessible, I crawled around on the floor, or my knuckles scraped on the door every time as the wheelchair was going through.”

Beatty was fortunate to have a community that cared and built an accessible home for him and his family. “After all the build and project was done, John [Galina] and I sat back and kind of looked and said, 'Is every veteran receiving this best-case scenario?”

The answer was of course no. Thousands of disabled veterans return to their communities and homes that make their lives even more difficult in transitioning back into society. Dale Beaty and John Galina thought they should do something about that. The result is , Purple Heart Homes, a non-profit formed in 2008 to either build or make homes accessible for disabled Purple Heart veterans from all eras.

“Since its start in 2008, Purple Heart Homes has become much more than a foundation that modifies or provides homes for disabled veterans. It also helps bridge them together with their community. Beatty says, 'The community is the key. They are the key hinge point between Purple Heart Homes and the veteran because when Purple Heart Homes is done with this project and we go on to the to the next one, this person’s neighbors are the ones who become their support system.'” Galina added, “A major part of reintegration is not just simply from the veteran's perspective,” Gallina. “It’s also from the community showing that they accept him back.” (Source: Yahoo News.)

Galina also tells Yahoo News that co-founding with Beatty has been therapeutic. “Having post-traumatic stress, traumatic brain injury, it really became a focal point that enabled me to find my own healing. To be able to grow myself and come out of my shell, to not be sitting in the house three or four weeks at a time, and I can have a purpose that was greater than myself."

Watch a video on Purple Heart Homes from Yahoo News below;



To date, the organization has built or modified accessible homes for Purple Heart disabled veterans with 6 more to be completed soon. One of those projects to be completed this summer is on behalf of Staff Sergeant Sandra Lee

Sandra was deployed to Iraq for almost a year surviving four separate roadside bomb attacks. She suffered a concussion and a Traumatic Brain Injury in the first attack, and with each subsequent attack her TBI symptoms increased. Sergeant Lee now has memory problems, constant headaches, and balance issues. She also was sexually assaulted by a fellow soldier.

In her own words on the Purple Heart Homes website, Sergeant Lee says; “From the fire fights, seeing what I saw and had to deal with during combat and from the Military Sexual Trauma, I suffer from severe PTSD. I have night terrors, debilitating nightmares where I wake up in a panic and cold sweat, I'm affected by being in a crowded place, don't handle stress very well, depression, suffer from panic attacks, severe muscle strain from constantly being vigilant and more. At one point, I was on 14 different medications on a daily basis. When I finally was able to get help from the VA and other organizations like the DAV, I was able to start recovering.”

Her new home built by Purple Heart Homes volunteers from her community in Manchester, CT, Staff Sergeant Sandra Lee's recovery and transition to civilian life will be greatly enhanced.

As I wrote in Dont' Seek Success – Be Happi and previous posts, there are two choices when personal tragedy strikes somebody or a member of their family. One choice is to crawl in a hole and become bitter and angry. The other is to use your personal experience as a result of the tragedy by turning it into a positive and doing something to make a difference in the lives of others. Indeed, as John Galina said, finding new passion and purpose by way or a tragic event in your life can be therapeutic and healing.

A question we often here is why does a benevolent God or higher power allow these things to happen. I do not claim to have the elusive answer to that question, but I do believe that we are all here on earth for a specific purpose and it is our job to discover what that purpose is. Maybe, just maybe, a personal tragic event in your life is a clue as to what direction you should look to find the purpose you were born to complete.

Should tragedy ever strike, rather than displaying a why me attitude resulting in bitterness and anger, use your imagination to bring about something good and positive to help others who may be going through what you experienced.

For more on finding passion and purpose in your life, see Dont' Seek Success – Be Happi.

Be Great!

MB.