PNC gives Purple Heart recipient a Veterans Day gift a day early
It would have taken Army combat veteran Joshua Marino and his wife, Becky, more than 10 years to save up enough for their first home.
PNC Bank stepped in and not only gave the Marinos a house from its foreclosure list as a Veterans Day gift, but also had it fully renovated.
“This is just something I never expected to come about, and I'm so very thankful to everybody,” Joshua Marino, 37, a Purple Heart recipient, said Thursday after he and his wife stepped into their new home in Pittsburgh's Brookline neighborhood for the first time. Becky Marino, 35, is expecting their first child, a girl they plan to name Penelope. The couple had been renting a place in Morningside.
“We probably weren't going to buy a house for 15 more years,” she said.
PNC worked with the Military Warriors Support Foundation, a nonprofit based in Texas, to locate a local veteran and donate the house, according to Sy Holzer, the bank's regional president. PNC funded the project, and employees helped with renovations. Home Depot supervised contractors.
Last year, the bank donated a house to a veteran in Chicago.
“PNC got involved in this after we witnessed other organizations partnering in this program, and we saw what an impact it was having on these families,” said Cathy Grover, PNC's customer experience director.
Andrea Dellinger, vice president of Military Warriors, said the organization seeks houses for veterans wounded in combat and spouses of veterans killed in action. Since 2010, it's found homes for more than 750 veterans and spouses.
Recipients must pass a rigorous screening process and a committee selection.
“They have a very strong family support system in this community, and they're interested in supporting veterans in this community,” Dellinger said of the Marinos. “They were a perfect fit.”
About 70 people gathered at the house to welcome the couple.
Josh and Becky have known each other since both attended Woodland Hills High School. They kept in touch through Facebook while he served in the Army. He finally asked her for a date around 2009.
“We liked each other in high school, but he was too chicken to ask me out,” Becky Marino said.
Josh Marino suffered a brain injury in 2007 during a mortar attack while serving in Iraq.
“I was just walking past a concrete wall when a series of mortars exploded directly on the other side of that wall,” he said. “I was hit and taken out by a concussion wave. It's saying something when you can think to yourself that you've had a 10-year-long headache.”
He now works with disabled people, including veterans, as education and outreach coordinator for Human Engineering Research Laboratories, a joint research program between the Department of Veterans Affairs, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center and the University of Pittsburgh. She is doing post-doctoral research at Pitt.
“PNC hopes that this home will be the start of a long and blessed life for you and your family,” Holzer said.
Bob Bauder is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach him at 412-765-2312 or bbauder@tribweb.com.
