and also as we do ask for people to contribute and help build your fund, we saw what you were doing for one vietnam vet, building that handicapped ramp so he can get in and out ever his house ease lynn ant get around his house easily, but tell us what this money will go towards and why you need more support, dale. well, we need more support because we re just i believe we just really scratched the surface with what the project you saw with kevin smith. we have eight more candidates and not all of them are meteding our criteria for us to help them. so really if people want to contribute to us in general they can go to our website and make a donation. that would be great or e-mail us if they re local and tell us how they want to support be it through their business that they have or just volunteer labor. that s really what we need, and also really i want for people what i need from people is to really think about how much the private sector can do for these veterans who are still o
some, it s overwhelming. now dale beatty joins us live from charlotte, north carolina. good to see you. god to see you, kyra. let s talk a little about your connection to these korean vets, these vietnam vets because when we first met, you talked more about them, and then you talked a lot about the guys in iraq and the guys coming back from afghanistan. what is it about the connection you have with these guys? what brings you and these guys together from because you re from totally different wars, totally different generations. well, first of all, it s really a strong relationship with the military and my family. i have korean, vietnam, world war ii veterans in my family, and even some from world war i
from every war, from building awareness to building ramps. cnn photo journalist jay mcmichaels shows us how dale is making his mark. i m a staff sergeant dale beatty retired from north carolina. playing drums in my band today, southern fried. hopefully we re going to rock these other bands off the stage. a big part of getting back to living is doing therapy. i had to start playing drums again because i had done that before. purple heart homes is a public charity founded by john and
august 7th, 1782, george washington established the purple heart, a badge of military merit declaring, quote, let it be known that he who wears the military order of the purple heart has given of his blood in the defense of his homeland and shall forever be revered by his fellow countryman. i d like to introduce you to one such man who not only wear that is purple heart badge of honor, but sergeant dale beatty lives it. in 2004 at the age of 26 dale s vehicle hit a land mine in northern iraq and at that moment dale s life was about to change forever. i met dale when we were partnered together in the fisher house golf tournament. fisher house provides free lodging for military families receiving treatment for war injuries. and it was then that dale told me about his charity, purple heart homes, vets helping vets
i believe in the mission of purple heart homes, and i just wanted to be a part of it. i m hoping purple heart homes can gain a foothold and spring good to the wounded veterans. this is probably about i d say 60 hours of volunteer labor to get us to this point. why don t i make it rough on you, give you that one. this will be done today or tomorrow and hopefully we can move inside mr. smith s house where he has even greater need for accessibility with his bathroom. this is my office right here. steve jobs would like that, wouldn t he? most of our calls are really not veterans looking for something to be done for them but veteran that is want to say, hey, i want to contribute my time or effort or my business specialty to what you guys are doing. dale beatty is a true hero, and to see the sacrifices that he s made for our country and then turn around and say thank you and to help other people that are not as fortunate as