LANCASTER, Calif. — When Jerral Hancock came home from the Iraq war missing one arm, with another that barely worked and a paralyzed body that was burned all over, he was a hero to this Mojave Desert town that wears its military pride on its sleeve.
Soon he was being called upon to use his one remaining hand to cut ribbons and wave to people during parades. Then, everyone would go home, and he would be forgotten by all but his two young children, who live with him, and his parents, who live across the street.
Then the students in Jamie Goodreau’s U.S. history classes learned that Hancock had once gotten stuck in his modest mobile home for half a year when his handicapped-accessible van broke down, and that the hallways of his house were so narrow he couldn’t get his wheelchair through most of them. They would fix that, Goodreau’s students decided, by building him a new home.
It’s six months later and the students have closed escrow on a $264,000 property. Blueprints have been drawn up, and the students plan to break ground next month.
“We had no doubt that it could be done,” Lancaster High School senior Joseph Mallyon says.
After Goodreau’s students shocked Lancaster and neighboring Palmdale by raising $80,000 in four months, the whole community began to get involved.
Big-box stores are offering discounts on building supplies. A construction contractor has volunteered to pitch in when the building begins. An architectural firm provided the blueprints. Even the inmates at the local prison held a sale of their artwork and donated the proceeds.
