David Parkin and his wife, Georgette, spent Veterans Day watching strangers tear the old roof off the Portage Township home they have lived in for more than 50 years and replace it for free. By the end of the day, the house had new oriented strand board, repaired ventilation and fresh shingles — all paid for by someone else.
David Parkin and his wife, Georgette, received a new roof this week on their Portage Township home, according to the Altoona Mirror. The newspaper reported that the local Combat Veterans Motorcycle Association selected Parkin as this year's recipient, according to Roof Works USA employee Don Booth. Roof Works USA, based in Duncansville, provided the labor at no cost, while Owens Corning donated the roofing materials, per the same report — though a separate account from WTAJ described the materials donor as the Owens Corning Foundation rather than Owens Corning itself.
Crews put in a full resheet of new oriented strand board over the entire roof, fixed the ventilation and laid down Owens Corning shingles, the Mirror reported. Roof Works USA owner Paul Balzano and his son, Bowen, a sixth grader at Penn Cambria Middle School, oversaw the work. Joe Myers of Roof Works USA, who served 24 years in the Army National Guard, said installing a new roof on an average home runs about $15,000, and noted the Parkins' job required extra work and materials because of the roof's condition, per the same account.
A Marriage That Survived a Draft Notice
Parkin was drafted into the Army at about 18 years old and ended up serving 16 months in Korea, the Mirror reported. He said he and Georgette had been dating before he left and got back together once he returned from service, later marrying and raising two daughters. The couple now has six grandchildren and one great-granddaughter, along with their new roof, according to the newspaper's report.
Parkin told the Mirror he was surprised to be chosen as this year's recipient and called the donation a nice Veterans Day gesture. Georgette Parkin said she was very grateful and that the finished work exceeded her expectations, per the same report. A separate WTAJ account listed the couple's names and years together slightly differently, reporting Parkin's wife as Georgia and stating the two had lived in their home for 52 years and been married for 58.
Part Of A Larger Nationwide Effort
The project behind the Parkins' roof traces back to Owens Corning, which launched its nationwide Roof Deployment initiative in 2016 to provide free roof replacements to U.S. military veterans and their families. The company says the program works by pairing volunteer contractors with veterans in need while Owens Corning supplies the materials, according to Owens Corning, which reports more than 850 veterans have benefited from the effort so far. In a February 2026 release, the company said more than 750 veterans and their families had received new roofs since 2016 and that it was tracking toward an 800-roof milestone this year.
Similar replacements have played out elsewhere around the same Veterans Day stretch. In Sharonville, Ohio, a 96-year-old Navy veteran named Sherril Abel received a new roof on Veterans Day, with the Owens Corning Foundation donating materials and Bone Dry Roofing donating labor, according to Local 12, which also reported the program had provided roofs to more than 875 military members since 2016. In Saline, Michigan, an Army veteran and Purple Heart recipient named Matt Nollora got a free roof installation from Neighborhood Roofing Co. the day before Veterans Day, as reported by MLive, whose co-owner Tom Meadows estimated a comparable job would normally cost around $20,000 depending on the home's size.
In Loveland, Colorado, Army veteran Bill Jaap received a free full roof replacement earlier this fall through the same Owens Corning program, with Owens Corning, Purple Heart Homes and Bone Dry Roofing teaming up on the job, according to the Reporter-Herald. For the Parkins' project specifically, a report carried by Yahoo News attributed the Veterans Day gift to a partnership between Roof Works USA and Purple Hearts Homes, while WTAJ noted this marked the second year Roof Works USA has taken on the project, an idea credited to the company's Joe Myers, a veteran himself looking to give back to a fellow local veteran.
