Sears recently launched the second flight of our HEROES AT HOME video series. This time, the focus was on Sears employees who have served in the military.
Sears has a long history of supporting the military. Our previous HEROES AT HOME mini-docs were profiling the work SEARS has done for veterans who needed home repairs, and SEARS worked with REBUILDING TOGETHER to make address their needs.
This second follow-up series was designed to help in recruiting and PR efforts.
————————————————————-
Lt. Col. Rick Coates leads the military veterans for SEARS HOLDINGS at the President of the Associate Military Network. Sears makes up the difference between what he makes in the military and what he would have made at Sears. “If your family is hurting when you’re gone you can’t focus on your mission.”
———————————————————————————————-
Rosa Solano is one of 7,000 Reservists and Guard members who work for Sears Holdings. She joined the army when she was 17 and was sent to Iraq the following year. “People are not aware of the support that Sears gives to the military.”
———————————————————————————————-
Joe Rudy is one of more than 35,000 veterans who works for Sears holdings. Meet Joe and his family. “We believe in talented people”.
———————————————————————————————-
The SEARS’ Heroes at Home program ensures Capt. Hannah Lunfren full salary and health benefits if she is ever called back for active duty. “Sears has really gone out of it’s way to say ‘the military family IS our family.”
———————————————————————————————-
Phil Dana recruits military veterans and diverse candidates to work for SEARS HOLDINGS, ensuring a job and full salary should they be called back to active duty. He was a naval air crewman on the USS Independent. “Recruiting from the military for corporate American just makes sense”.
If you would like to see more SEARS HEROES AT HOME videos from our employee recruiting series, check them out at Vimeo.
A bunch of us at AboutFace have been hard at work over the last couple of months doing a series of videos for the Sears HEROES AT HOME program.
Sears has been a sponsor of Rebuilding Together, an organization that helps veterans and their families fix up their homes when they are facing hardship.
Here are a few of our favorites of the more than twenty webisodes that we did.
They are equal parts heartbreaking and moving. Thanks to Sears for the opportunity for all of us to meet these amazing people.
———————————————-
83-year old Kenneth ‘Hoppy’ Hopkins takes American flags down every Friday to place in the center square in Lynchburg VA, to honor of the eight area soldiers who died in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Hoppy is a veteran of WWII. In fact he was at D-Day on Omaha beach with the US Navy. The Sears’ Heroes at Home program helped Hoppy renovate, restore, and update the home he and his wife have lived in since 1948. “This is a great thing that they’ve done for me.”
Note that we did a brief profile of the shooting of the ‘Hoppy Hopkins’ piece in a previous post>>
———————————————————————————————–
“God sent these people.” Howard Burke fought in WWII with Company A. He now lives with his wife in a small home in Lacey’s Spring AL. “We were in a predicament” his wife explains. Howard has trouble walking… he is paralyzed on one side. So Heroes at Home remodeled portions of his their home to make it handicap accessible. As Mrs. Burkes says… “These are our heroes.”
center;”>———————————————————————————————–
“I don’t know how I got that name ‘hero’.” Wayne Johnson lives with his wife of Houston Texas in the house they had built in October of ’52. A half of a decade later the house was falling apart. They still didn’t even have a shower… just a tub. But then Sears and Heroes at Home helped by renovating, restoring, and repairing his home.
———————————————————————————————-
Harold Hatton, a Navy veteran who lives in Tampa Bay Florida, plays cards with his fellow veterans at his local VFW Post. He comes from a military family — he is the oldest member of his local Post and his grandson is the youngest. But as we meet his wife Isabella we find out that she is partially handicapped. She has rheumatoid arthritis. Heroes at Home helps them both by making their house handicap accessible.
———————————————————————————————-
Ruth Perry is a Gold Star mother for Chapter Four of “Rolling Thunder” in Lynchburg, VA. Her son Stanley was killed in Vietnam in 1969… she got word on Christmas Eve. The Sears’ Heroes at Home program helped with remolding her Lynchburg home.
———————————————————————————————-
“They gave me a very good Christmas present that I will never forget” says Veora Collins. Sears and Heroes at Home traveled to the south side of Chicago to help renovate and make handicap accessible Veora’s home. She lives there with her son… US Army veteran Roosevelt Collins, who is partially paralyzed from a stroke. “When this came along it was god sent”.
———————————————————————————————-
Blake Vanderwert lives in New Prague Minnesota. Her husband, Jonathan, has spent fifteen years in the service, but they never thought he’d be called into active duty. The Sears Heroes at Home / Rebuilding Together program helped the Vanderwerts renovate their home while Blake’s husband was deployed. There was a lot to do… nothing had been done to the house since 1950. “They wanted the do it because they actually cared.”
———————————————————————————————-
Army veteran Christopher Joseph and is wife Barbara are having a neighborhood cook out at their home in Central Islip NY. Christopher walks with a cane and still doesn’t talk much about what happened in Iraq. His wife tells us about the critical renovations to their home they got from Heroes at Home. She is grateful for the help that her husband has well earned. After all… he paid a heavy price in the military… “protecting home away from home.”
“Filmmaker Manny Marquez shoots video of participants for the Sears Holdings program called ‘Heros at Home’ at the support the troops rally at Monument Terrace in Lynchburg on Friday.
Sears Holdings gave the Lynchburg Rebuilding Together grants to fix veteran’s homes.”
Sears recently launched the second flight of our HEROES AT HOME video series. This time, the focus was on Sears employees who have served in the military.
