Two Army veterans who nearly lost their lives in service walked through their brand-new, mortgage-free homes in Riverview last month, greeted by walls covered in handwritten messages of gratitude from the very people who built them. Army Spc. Ryan Heard arrived at the Spencer Glen community at 2:30 p.m. on August 27, followed an hour later by Army Sgt. Carson Shaw, marking the first time PulteGroup's West Florida Division has honored two veteran recipients at once.
The event, known as a Notes of Love ceremony, is part of PulteGroup's Built to Honor program, which partners with the nonprofit Building Homes for Heroes to identify and support severely injured veterans, according to Osprey Observer. Employees, trade partners, family members and neighbors were all invited to write messages of love and gratitude directly onto the studs, slab and walls of both homes before construction closed them in for good. Those notes will stay sealed behind the finished walls and flooring for the life of the homes.
Tony Campano, vice president of procurement for PulteGroup's West Florida Division, said walking veterans through homes filled with those handwritten notes is incredibly powerful. Building Homes for Heroes founder and CEO Andy Pujol said the Notes of Love tradition reminds people that building a home also builds a community around a national hero.
Two Combat Injuries, One Shared Groundbreaking
Heard enlisted in the Army in 2007 and served more than six years in the Cavalry, completing two tours in Iraq and one in Afghanistan. On July 7, 2013, he survived a pressure-plate IED explosion in Logar Province that left him with a severe traumatic brain injury; despite his injuries, he treated wounded comrades and helped coordinate their medical evacuation before losing consciousness, earning the Purple Heart, according to a statement from Building Homes for Heroes.
Shaw enlisted in 2019 and served six years with the 1st Ranger Battalion, deploying to Iraq, Syria and Africa, per The Laker/Lutz News. A line-of-duty vehicle accident on October 7, 2024, left him paralyzed from the waist down. The same outlet reports that PulteGroup's West Florida Division broke ground on the Spencer Glen homesites on June 24, 2026, marking the first time in the division's history that leadership chose two veterans for home donations in the same year, because both men's sacrifices were too compelling to choose just one.
Before receiving the gift, Heard, his partner Danielle and their two young children had been sharing a single bedroom inside a family member's home in the Tampa area while searching for permanent accessible housing, Osprey Observer reports. Heard said the community's contributions to build his home were overwhelming and unbelievable. Shaw said the ceremony was one of the most special days of his family's lives.
Move-In Set For Thanksgiving
The homes sit at 13716 Sunlight Meadow Dr. in Riverview and are expected to be move-in ready by Thanksgiving. PulteGroup's West Florida Division has now built seven mortgage-free homes for veterans in the Tampa Bay area through Built to Honor, and the division opened both future veteran homes to the Riverview community as part of the celebration.
Nationally, Built to Honor has built and donated more than 100 homes across the country since its founding in 2013, gifting more than $40 million in value. The program recognizes returning military personnel injured during their term of service and works with nonprofit partners to identify veteran candidates.
A Regional Pattern Of Giving In Florida's Veteran Capital
The Riverview gift lands in Hillsborough County, home to nearly 98,000 military veterans and the largest total veteran population of any county in Florida, according to Fox 13 Tampa Bay. Building Homes for Heroes has gifted more than 200 homes to wounded veterans across the state, making Florida the single state with the highest number of home donations in the organization's history, per a statement from Loyal Source.
The nonprofit was founded in 2006 by Andy Pujol following his volunteer work in Ground Zero search-and-rescue efforts after 9/11. It operates under a charter in which neither the CEO nor board members draw compensation, allowing 96% of 2025 program funds to go directly to veteran assistance, according to Charity Navigator. This year, the organization launched its “50+500+5,000” initiative to mark its 20th anniversary, aiming to build and gift 50 homes in 2026, reach its 500th cumulative home giveaway, and support 5,000 veterans and first responders annually.
Federal support exists alongside these private donations. For fiscal year 2026, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs offers up to $126,526 through its Specially Adapted Housing grant program to help severely disabled service members purchase, build or modify adaptive residences. Programs like Built to Honor and Building Homes for Heroes go further, delivering fully built, mortgage-free homes rather than modification funds alone.
The Riverview ceremony follows other recent Tampa Bay-area veteran housing gifts, including two Army corporals becoming neighbors in Pasco County through Homes For Our Troops, and a mortgage-free smart home presented to a paralyzed Marine veteran in Pinellas Park by the Tunnel to Towers Foundation. Building Homes for Heroes previously marked its 400th home giveaway with a celebration supported by Argyle police and the local community.
