Locals 916, 174, and pre-apprentices help mom

who lost son in Iraq

Chicago Carpenters and Illinois Veterans Foundation Support the Lori Fraher Project.

The Chicago Regional Council of Carpenters, the Will Grundy Building Trades, and the Illinois Veterans Foundation have all joined together with the Helmets-to-Hardhats program on the Lori Fraher Project in Dwight, Illinois.

Lori Fraher is a gold star mother who lost her only son, Lance Corporal Ray Holzhauer, in Iraq on March 15, 2007.

While attending Lance Corporal Holzhauer’s funeral, Lt. Governor Pat Quinn was asked to assist Lori with some construction problems at her 100 year old home. Quinn talked to the building trades and the project took off.  A visit to the home by the carpenters found many major structural problems which rendered the house unsafe and beyond reasonable repair, so a plan to remove and entirely rebuild the house was put in place.

Quinn talked to the building trades and the project took off.

Now Local 916 & 174 carpenters, led by Business Agents Ken Ballenger, John Scheidt, and Joliet Training Center pre-apprentices, led by John Drozdek, Vince Sticca and Stan Cooper, are pitching in to help build Lori and her daughter a new home.

Instructors at the site are Fred Vasquez and Jennie Cooper.

Two Iraqi veterans, Donald Brooks and Fredrick Edmund (photo group above,) are among the pre-apprentices helping to build the home.

The house is scheduled to be completed this summer.

Many of the volunteers working on the Lori Fraher project are participants in the Helmets-to-Hardhats program, which provides gainful career opportunities in the construction field to returning veterans.