For the past 17 years, one Texas firefighter has dedicated his life to saving lives and helping others. But when he was injured in a freak accident while on the job, his fellow firefighters and the rest of his community stepped up to return the favor.
This past May, firefighter Garth Goodwin was working on a billboard and was electrocuted when his tools touched an exposed wire. The shock threw him 12-13 feet off the platform and left him paralyzed from the chest down. When the rest of the fire department heard about the freak accident, they immediately got to work figuring out how they could help the situation.
The firemen knew Goodwin’s home wasn’t wheelchair accessible, so they decided they would build him one that was. “Out of nowhere, they called me and said ‘hey, we’re gonna build you a house,’” said Garth. The firemen reached out to a local contractor, Wes Waller of UBI Products, and asked if he’d be willing to help. “The firemen called me and they said, ‘Hey, we’re firemen and we don’t know how to build a house…Can you help us?'” Waller explained. “I said ‘absolutely.'” Waller took to Facebook and asked people to donate time, money, and materials. “Within a week, 80 percent of the house was donated,” Waller said.
The only major thing left that was needed to start building the home was $20,000 worth of lumber, which local HGTV stars Chip and Joanna Gaines generously decided to donate. “I [decided] I’m just going to ask [the Gaineses] for it and 30 minutes later, they said yes,” Waller said.
“I know Chip and Joanna, they’re huge, and they did connect the last dot, but none of these dots would be connected without the great people from Central Texas,” Waller said. “If anything, this would not be happening if the firefighters wouldn’t have called and asked, ‘What can we do to build a house?'”
Goodwin recently returned home after devoting all his time to physical therapy, and can’t express how thankful he, his wife, and their 19-year-old son who was born missing a part of his brain, are for everyone who has contributed to building their new home, which is scheduled to be complete by Thanksgiving.
“To have all of this…it is true…what you give to the community and what you do for others, in turn, when something like this happens, they’re gonna do for you, and we’re seeing that, it’s just been so positive, so uplifting. It’s kept us going, it’s kept his attitude as positive as can be,” said wife Lisa. “There’s still a lot of good in this world, and especially in this community, and we’re just getting it, we’re getting the tip of it, and it’s awesome, I mean you can’t explain that,” Goodwin said.“God’s got his hands all over us.”
Watch the entire video below to see the special moment this firefighter finally came home from the hospital.
Can you believe what this community did for a firefighter after he was paralyzed on the job? Let us know what you think in the comments below and please SHARE this with friends on Facebook.
[Featured image: Facebook/Rissa Shaw]
HGTV Stars Build Paralyzed Firefighter A New Home is an article from: LifeDaily