MAKANDA (WSIL) -- An organization working to raise money for a new facility to help veterans transition back to civilian life is seeing that dream come true.
Veteran and Paducah resident Brian Gibson founded Project Diehard, an organization dedicated to bringing awareness to, and preventing, veteran suicide.
Now, the organization has its first facility aimed at fulfilling that goal.
"For four years, they've been praying on what to do with this property, right? And your story, on WSIL, they saw a little snippet, and everything fell together," says Gibson.
Richard Bittle and the board of Haven of Love Daycare in Makanda had been looking for something to do with their property after closing the facility several years ago.
"So I pondered that for a few days, and contacted Brian and asked him if there would be an interest in what we had here."
"I come up. He goes, 'Hey, could you use this?' I almost fainted," says Gibson.
He already has a vision for the 3,000 square-foot building and the 20 acres it sits on.
"Eight single veterans, and two veteran familes, that's the veterans with their families, will be able to come here and spend that year they need to get back on their feet."
The grounds will be named Forward Operating Base Rush.
"This is in memory of Staff Sergeant Courtney Rush from the United States Air Force," says Gibson.
"Because I'm very, I guess, proactive and very vocal about veteran suicide, and so they contacted us, and we're very honored to be here, you know, and to have this named after Courtney," says Courtney's mother, Gail Rush.
Gibson says he's grateful for the facility, but he's going to need help getting it off the ground.
"Project Diehard 22 is our Facebook page. One of our groups is Project Diehard Volunteers. Join it."
Gibson says he still has plenty of work to do before Forward Operating Base Rush is operational. He adds that for the work that needs to be done, he's relying heavily on volunteers and donations.
To visit the group's Facebook page, .
