Memorial Day is a time when the country and community recognize U.S. Armed Forces members who died during service. But recognizing and supporting veterans after they finish their time in the military is equally important — especially when it comes to stable and safe housing.
With housing prices and property taxes on the rise alongside the overall cost of living, aging in place can be harder than ever for some veterans. That’s where two initiatives in Chatham County step up to handle repairs: the county government, through its Helping Homebound Heroes participation, and the Skyline Exterior Group, through its 100 Roof Pledge.
Skyline Exterior Group is a company started in late 2025 and run by Brian Rice, who himself is a veteran after serving in the Air Force for more than a decade. The Pittsboro-based business handles roofing, gutters, siding and storm damage repairs — and in the earliest days of operations, it made a pledge that for every 100 roofs sold to customers, Skyline’s team would donate and install a new roof to a North Carolina veteran.
“Lots of veterans, and lots of first responders, carry the same weight,” Rice says in the company’s materials describing the initiative. “They have too much pride to ask for help. Part of what we have to do at Skyline is help them see that it is OK to ask. Everyone needs a hand sometimes. The first step is a conversation.
“We must always remember that freedom isn’t free,” he adds. “A disabled veteran may not look broken from the outside, but you don’t know the battles they have fought, the things they have seen, and the sacrifices they have made — on both mind and body — to uphold our fundamental right to freedom.”
As Skyline continues to get traction in Chatham County, it also already has its first roof for a veteran in the books. In February, the company announced it had selected Greensboro resident and U.S. Army veteran Grady Bendel to be its first recipient. Bendel served for four years and was discharged after losing his leg from an IED explosion in Afghanistan, making roof repairs on his house physically challenging – let alone financially challenging. Rice and Skyline got connected to Bendel through the nonprofit Veterans Bridge Home and was compelled to help out.
Grady Bendel (left) and Skyline Exterior Group’s General Manager Brian Rice stand outside Bendel’s Greensboro home after the roof replacement was completed on March 28. 2026. (Photo via Skyline Exterior Group.)
According to Rice, though, Skyline was so new that it did not have profits to pull from and cover the cost of donating a roof to Grady. So, the Air Force veteran decided to use some of his own disability claim funds — which he filed in 2025 — to make it happen as the first edition of the 100 Roof Pledge.
“When the back pay came through,” Rice says, “I directed a portion of it toward Grady’s roof out of my own pocket. I did that because I believe in giving back to a worthy cause, and because I needed this company to be built on that principle from day one, not as something we’d get to once the books looked good.”
Skyline Exterior replaced the entire roof of Bendel’s home on March 28, finishing the project over the course of one day and installing materials that have a 25-year warranty to help provide safety and peace of mind to the veteran’s family.
Meanwhile, Helping Homebound Heroes aims to do the same for other veterans across the country. The national effort led by the Home Depot and Meals on Wheels, who partnered to make home modifications and repairs for veterans in 2015. Chatham County and its Aging Services department signed on to take part in 2019 and has received annual grant funding from Meals on Wheels to help cover the cost of local projects ever since.
The county government takes applications and partners with the Triangle-based nonprofit Preserving Home to conduct the repairs. Jimmy Lewis, the grants and communications specialist for Aging Services, says veterans and residents with questions can contact anyone in his department or the veterans services officer Stephanie Briggs to learn more. Lewis says the goal is to never turn anyone with needs or questions away, following the “no closed doors” model established by former Aging Services executive director Dennis Streets — who led the charge for Chatham County to join the Helping Homebound Heroes program.
“When it comes to local veterans — and older adults in general — I think the number one thing they want is the ability to feels safe in their homes,” says Lewis. “That’s really what Chatham county aging services goes back to: our primary mission is to keep older adults in Chatham county in their homes and living independent lifestyles for as long as possible. We want to avoid long-term, costly institutionalization if we can — or delay it in the worst cases — and through our array of programs and services, which includes Homebound Heroes, I’m very proud of the work we do in that regard.”
With property values rising across the county and more interest in Chatham County than ever before, keeping up with home repairs can be costly. Lewis says participating in Helping Homebound Heroes is a way for his department to “expand our own suite of services” to residents, going beyond its volunteer Minor Home Repair program which completes projects that don’t require permits. The county contracts Preserving Home to handle roof, wall, floor and exterior repairs that don’t qualify as imminent safety needs for veterans.
And the needs are great, Lewis says, with requests coming from all corners of the county. He says about 200 to 250 veterans are registered to participate in programming at Chatham County’s Centers for Active Living in Pittsboro and Siler City. Between that and the county’s work with Helping Homebound Heroes, Lewis says he feels like the local government makes a material differences in local veterans’ lives.
“It’s putting words into action, basically,” he concludes. “You can sit at a desk and talk ‘policy, policy, policy’ – but until you see it in action, see you in the community…see nails go into the wall, see dirt being turned, seeing repairs being done, it really gives you a great feeling of what can be accomplished.”
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