Stone Lake veteran gets gift of new windows and doors

Veterans Day, Wednesday, Nov. 11, was a day to honor U.S. Veterans, but for one Army veteran, Robert Gundry of Stone Lake, the national day of honoring was followed by another special event for him three days later.

On Saturday, Nov. 14, scurrying around Gundry's simple, blue house off First Street, east of Highway 70, were a small crew of volunteers running up ladders, crawling over the porch, using angle bars to remove single-pane windows and replacing them with double-pane thermal windows and adding insulated doors.

Gundry received $1,500 worth of windows and doors and hundreds of dollars of effort ? all for free.

Gundry, a 1964-65 Army veteran who also served in the Wisconsin National Guard, watched all the workers and was asked what kind of impact the new windows and doors will make on his home, which he heats with wood only.

"It will be real nice," he said. "What can I say, it will be awful nice."

The money for the windows and doors came a grant from the Realtors Association of Northwest Wisconsin Foundation (RANWW) Foundation, representing 840 licensed professionals.

Mary Jo Bowe, a broker associate of Re/Max of Eau Claire and board member of RANWW, helped to replace windows on Nov. 13. Bowe said RANWW grants home-repair grants awards twice a year, spring and fall, for home repair.

"Generally our limit is $1,000 but in instances like this one we awarded a bit more so we could do all of his windows," she said.

Bowe had told Paul Manka, co-owner of the Stone Lake Lumber Company about the RANWW Foundation grant.

"I sent the application to Paul at Stone Lake Lumber and within 24 hours he had the application filled out, and within 24 hours, we awarded a $1,500 grant that would cover the windows, and everyone here is volunteering their time," she said.

She adds, "I asked Paul if he knew of anyone needing home repairs and Bob came to mind. Bob is a veteran and he heats his house primarily with wood. Obviously, the home was in need of new windows. He is a citizen known in this area as being a great person."

With the grant dollars, Stone Lake Lumber Company purchased the windows from Weathershield at cost, no profit to the company.

"Being a veteran myself, I like to support our veterans," Manka said. "What we did was we went out and found a local veteran who needed windows. It allowed me to find Bob and we put in for the grant and within 24 hours we had the thing signed and ready to go and a check in the mail. We needed volunteers so we got some volunteers from Pecha Construction and from Stone Lake Lumber and from the real estate association to come out here and put the windows in today.

He added, "Myself, I'm a disabled American veteran and I always believe that we need to help out the people who gave us our freedom. These men and women who have sacrificed, and some have sacrificed more to help out, just need help and we're willing to do it. I'm still willing to help out and as long as I can financially and physically, I'm going to help out as much as I can. I hope more people follow."

Later Manka said, "This is a great week with Veterans Day. Hopefully everyone will realize every day should be Veterans Day."

Dennis Pecha is the owner of Dennis Pecha Construction. He and his brother, Dave, were volunteering installing windows.

"He's a vet and he needs windows and he can't afford it," Pecha said of Gundry. "Just helping people out. I heard about this through Paul. I do a lot of business through Stone Lake Lumber. He asked if I'd come and help and I said I could come down for a couple of hours. I have a lot of stuff going on. I have people pouring concrete today and other crew members going someplace else, but we decided we could give a hand for a couple of hours, and help with the project."

Stone Lake Lumber Foundation

Last year the new owners of Stone Lake Lumber Company started out by donating $18,000 of caulk to the ReStore of Hayward. Within the last year, the lumber company also was involved in $1,000 donation of material to a man with terminal cancer, along with other small donations.

Manka said the lumber company will continue its charitable tradition and is in the process of setting up a foundation.

"We are going to have a Stone Lake Lumber Foundation," he said, "and in that we are going to putting money and donations from our vendors and other places, and some of the kickbacks we get from vendors we are going to put toward that and donate money to help out other people.

"We can only do so much and keep the doors open. We are not there to get rich, but we're there to help out and have a great life. This is such a wonderful community. We want to see this community grow with us," Manka said.

RANWW home repair grants

The RANWW Foundation is always taking applications for those in need of home repairs who might be eligible for one of its two yearly grants, typically $1,000. The foundation is also always taking donations.

Contact Bowe by email at maryjo@wissotagreenteam.com.