Minnesota Veteran Receives Gift Of New Roof

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- After seven years serving our country, a Minnesota veteran received a gift Friday from the community.

The Roof Deployment Project builds new roofs for veterans who cannot afford it. Friday, it was Steve Ripp's turn.

"I'm getting my new roof and I'm very, very happy with it," Ripp said. "It was in bad shape."

Ripp is a Navy veteran who spent seven years serving our country.

"I like to build stuff, and so we had a number of fairly large building projects they'd send us out on and I just liked it," he said.

But back here in Minnesota, Ripp had a roof he could not fix.

"Being, you know, retired now and on a fixed income, all these places were quoting stuff I didn't think I could work with," he said.

So Legacy Restoration stepped in to help.

"Today we are putting on a roof for a Roof Deployment Project, so it's for a veteran that doesn't have the means to pay for a roof for themselves," said Scott Mullins of Legacy Restoration.

The Roof Deployment Project spends tens of thousands of dollars each year building roofs like this for veterans like Ripp.

The project is a group effort by the Twin Cities Habitat For Humanity, Owens Corning and Legacy Restorations.

"Veterans and their families have contributed so significantly to our quality of life," Mullins said. "I think that what we're doing here is pretty insignificant compared to what they've done."

But Ripp feels they nailed it.

"Thank you, thank you a thousand times, but that's not even good enough," Ripp said. "I'm very, very grateful, very grateful that somebody's able to help me out with this."