At a tiny house in St. Cloud, something big was going on Wednesday morning.
- Volunteers in St. Cloud helped widow spruce up property
- Osceola Council on Aging, Home Depot helped
A team of volunteers from The Home Depot and the Osceola Council on Aging were on a mission of giving back to veterans and their families.
Helen Turner is a feisty 84-year-old. She is the widow of an Army veteran who died in 1977, and while she tries to do everything around her house on her own, she is finding that she could use a little help.
So the volunteers descended on her home Wednesday morning with one mission: to make life a little easier for Helen.
They split up, with a group working on her flower beds, planting easy to care for rose bushes and other hearty plants. Other volunteers worked on her back fence that was in disrepair, making it easier for Helen to get in and out with her lawn mower.
"Sometimes it's hard," volunteer Joanna Edwards said. "You do something for your country and when you are done, people just seem to forget. And this way we are going back and we're saying, 'we just want to make sure you understand we thank you for what you sacrificed.'"
The handful of volunteers giving a couple of hours of work had a big impact on the widow. Helen says it changed her outlook -- making her feel she was going to be able to maintain her independence.