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"He needed a place to go" | Community volunteers building new home for veteran

East Tennessee veteran Gary 'Chops' Polk has always put his community and country first. Now, his community is stepping up to help him.

LA FOLLETTE, Tenn. — For the past year, Gary "Chops" Polk has been living in a small, rundown trailer in La Follette.

Members of the community said he has always put his country and his community first. He took sacrifice to another level and put his own needs aside so that others in his community don't go hungry.

Figuring it was time to put Polk first, a group of volunteers stepped up to build a brand new home for the veteran.

"Now that he is not serving, he's still giving himself up," said Jeff Vincent, one of the volunteers who stepped up to build the house.

About a year ago, landowner Tonia Byrd gave Chops a piece of land with space to live on.

"He needed a place to go and I'm like he can stay here as long as he needs to," Byrd said. "He's always got a place here."

Byrd described Chops as someone who put his needs before others.

"He's just the happiest, most jolly human," Byrd said.

From a camper to a real home, volunteers from the American Red Nation have stepped in to give the veteran a sustainable place to live.

"He can go work on his farmland and come home to a kitchen table, come home to a recliner, go to bed in a warm bed with a big fluffy blanket and some pillows," Vincent said.

He also said when Chops found out this effort was taking place, he was completely overjoyed.

"It did my heart good to know the joy and love that he was feeling," Vincent said.

The volunteers are ready to share the love by giving him a home he has always deserved.

"Hopefully we will be able to get him a home that he can walk through the front door and take a deep breath and kind of relax a little bit," Vincent said.

Vincent said he hopes to have the home completed by next weekend.

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