WOODWAY, Texas (KXXV) — Operation Finally Home is a nonprofit serving veterans across the country. In Central Texas, the nonprofit is building one military family a mortgage-free place to call home.
- Operation Finally Home started in 2005 with a single house — now, the nonprofit is at nearly 500 homes since it started
- The organization recently held a “Notes of Love” event, where neighbors were invited to write encouragement on the framing of the Spraggins’ home
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
"In 2017 I was actually living in the back of a garage, just due to a bunch of uncertainties and the VA actually cutting my rates there for a bit,” veteran Jakob Spraggins said.
“Then we got blessed with this."
Operation Finally Home is a nonprofit serving veterans across the country. In Central Texas, the nonprofit is building one military family a mortgage-free place to call home.
Jakob Spraggins was born and raised in Waco. He joined the U.S. Army after graduating from Robinson High School in 2010.
“Deployed to Afghanistan in 2012 and then came back,” Spraggins said.
"Then after that, I went to Germany, and ended up getting injured there and medically retired in 2015,”
Jakob and his family found out they’d be moving to the Woodway home in December 2024 — an opportunity he told 25 News he never thought he’d have.
“I’ve been renting here in Waco for the past six years,” Spraggins said.
“It's been great, but it was time to finally, build or buy a home, and every time I tried, I just hit another step back, and it got really defeating there for a bit."
“Each one's different because it's designed to meet the needs of that one individual that we're serving in that family,” said Operation Finally Home vice president, Lee Kirgan.
"The size of the family has a determination, the injuries that the veteran has sustained in combat-- that has a determination on how the house is designed and built."
Operation Finally Home started in 2005 with a single house — now, the nonprofit is at nearly 500 homes since it started.
“We depend on the community as a whole to come together, because we have to have funding, we have to have materials, we have to have labor and we want everyone to be a part of what's going on,” Kirgan said.
The organization recently held a “Notes of Love” event, where neighbors were invited to write encouragement on the framing of the Spraggins’ home.
"Here we are, six years later, and now they have a whole house with a backyard and a great community that is here in this neighborhood,” Spraggins said.
Click here to visit the Operation Finally Home website, and here to visit the Operation Finally Home Facebook page.
