ROOM TO MOVE

NEW TUNNEL TO TOWERS HOME OPENS UP VETERAN’S SURROUNDINGS

Despite an injury in a military free fall that paralyzed him, Master Sergeant Logan Brokaw has maintained a very active lifestyle — coaching his son’s baseball team and enjoying a variety of shooting sports, hand-cycling and sit skiing.

But his two-story home in Williamsburg, Va. — where he lived with his wife, Nicole, and their son and daughter — was proving to be an impediment to his day-to-day activities. “There were stair lifts to get me to the second floor or to the garage, but it was often difficult to move around and time-consuming as well,” Brokaw recalls.

His sister recommended the Tunnel to Towers Foundation, which, for more than 20 years, has been assisting military personnel and first responders in a variety of impactful ways, including building mortgage-free Smart Homes for catastrophically injured veterans. GMC has worked closely with the foundation for a decade and a half.

Brokaw filled out an application, was accepted, and spent two years scouting out a location for his new home. “It’s not easy to find several acres of flat, wooded land in Virginia, but Tunnel to Towers refused to let me settle for less than what I was looking for,” he says.

Once determining a location in Toano, just 10 minutes from Williamsburg, Brokaw chose one of the three layout designs available to him and worked closely with developers on various features of the house. “I was taken by how organized, efficient and accommodating the whole process was,” he says.

SENSE OF FREEDOM

The grand reveal of the home last June brought together city officials (including the chief of the fire department), Tunnel to Towers officials and members of the Brokaw family. What struck him about the 2,400-square-foot, single-level home — and what he has appreciated in the first months of living there — is its accessibility.

“There is a sidewalk that wraps around the whole house, so I can leave the main bedroom and easily reach the garage or the back deck, which I could never enjoy at my old house because of the work it took to get there,” Brokaw says.

He enjoys the various Smart Home features, which he wasn’t that aware of before moving in, including the ability to use his phone to turn the lights on and off and control music that plays throughout the house and through outdoor speakers. He also makes use of push buttons that automatically open the front and garage doors.

“I think what strikes me the most is a true sense of gratitude I have for the foundation and what they do,” Brokaw says. “There are so many people who helped us along the way, and I will never forget their efforts.”

For more information and to learn how to donate, visit t2t.org/GMC.