CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Friday, the City of Corpus Christi honored the sacrifices of veterans across the nation, and especially those who live in our backyard.
A fencing company asked the public to nominate a vet so they could come out and provide their services at no cost. In under four hours, this entire backyard was transformed.
Ismael Torres is the owner of Built Strong Fencing Company. He said that in his younger years he "wasn't lucky enough to serve." So in order to make a difference, he asked the public to nominate a vet to receive service free of charge.
"We want to be part of this," he said. "I want to help out with that. If it's a fence, it's a ramp and we want to do this every year for somebody."
One of the nominations came in for Corpus Christi resident Robert Canales.
"It's great! I mean, so strong, it's unbelievable," he said.
Robert's son said he understands the gravity that gestures like this one can have not only on the veteran, but the community.
"It caught me off-guard, made me very teary-eyed, just really excited. He may not express his feelings, to show it, but he was teary-eyed yesterday," he said.
The project began last year, and according to Javier Avila with Built Strong Fencing, the reward will steadily increase with each passing year.
"It started out as 60 feet of fencing, now we're bumping it up to 80 ft so we're incrementally bumping it up every year," he said.
Until then, Canales said he couldn't be happier with the improvements made to his backyard. 3NEWS asked him if he has ever been honored with a grand gesture, he responded with:
"No! Really haven't, so this is really really new to me. It's just great," he said.
If you would like to support Built Strong CC's efforts, follow them on Facebook, here.
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