Two wounded U.S. Army veterans are preparing to begin a new chapter after being selected to receive mortgage-free homes in Riverview through PulteGroup’s Built to Honor program in partnership with Building Homes for Heroes.
Army Spc. Ryan Heard and Army Sgt. Carson Shaw were honored during a groundbreaking ceremony on June 24 for their future homes at Spencer Glen, where both houses are expected to be completed by November. The project marks the first time PulteGroup’s West Florida Division has awarded two Built to Honor homes at the same time.
According to PulteGroup, company leaders chose to honor both veterans after hearing their stories of military service and sacrifice.
Heard enlisted in the Army in 2007 and served two tours in Iraq and one in Afghanistan. In 2013, he suffered a traumatic brain injury when an improvised explosive device detonated during a counter-IED mission in Afghanistan’s Logar province. He was later awarded the Purple Heart.
Ryan and his partner, Danielle, are currently living with family as they search for a permanent home where they can raise their children.
“The fact that we’re going to go from a single bedroom to our own home means so much to me,” Heard told Spectrum News.
Shaw joined the Army in 2019 and achieved his longtime goal of becoming an Army ranger. During six years with the 1st Ranger Battalion, he deployed to Iraq, Syria and Africa before a line-of-duty vehicle accident in October 2024 left him paralyzed from the waist down.
His new home will be specially designed to meet his accessibility needs while allowing him and his partner, Annalisa, to begin the next chapter of their lives together. Shaw is also studying finance and economics and plans to establish a nonprofit organization that provides water-based recreational opportunities for people with disabilities.
When Shaw learned he had been selected, he expressed his gratitude, saying, “Thank you so much. ‘Thank you’ does not even begin to cover what this means to me and my family.”
Built to Honor was launched in 2013 to provide mortgage-free homes to injured veterans and their families. PulteGroup has donated more than 100 homes nationwide, with the Riverview project representing the West Florida Division’s seventh and eighth Built to Honor homes.
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