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Commitment to carpeting veterans' 'smart homes' brings unique award

New Hampshire Union Leader - 4/16/2017

April 16--You can't miss the sculpture in Howard Brodsky's office. Almost as tall as he is, it's topped by a 3-foot high piece of steel, warped and bent from heat and pressure.

Before Sept. 11, 2001, that steel was part of the framework of the World Trade Center. Now it's part of an award that commemorates a firefighter who lost his life trying to save people trying to flee the Twin Towers after terrorists crashed two planes into the buildings.

The award was presented to Brodsky, Carpet One Floor and Home, and CCA Global Partners by the Stephen Siller Tunnel to Towers Foundation, established by Frank Siller to honor the hero.

Carpet One has been working with the foundation to help build smart homes for veterans who lost limbs in combat. The homes feature cabinets and appliances that can move up or down through controls on an iPad, making it easier for veterans in wheelchairs and those with prosthetic limbs to operate.

"We provide the flooring and installation free for every home that is being built in America," Brodsky said last week at his office.

Brodsky will travel to New York on Wednesday to formally receive the foundation's Follow the Footsteps Award at a gala fundraiser atop One World Trade Center. Peter Dunn, president of CBS Television Stations, and Jeff Lorberbaum, chairman and CEO of Mohawk Industries, also will be honored.

Carpet One was the first company to commit to working on every home, Frank Siller said by phone last week.

"Howard was a game changer for our foundation," Siller said. "I can't tell you how much more work we've been able to do because of that one commitment. He's not just committed himself. He went out and got a flooring company for us, Mohawk, who supplies the materials. He's using all his lifelong business relationships. He also made sure we got kitchen cabinets in every one of these houses from a company called MasterBrand and Hunter Douglas for all the window blinds and shades."

The foundation has 56 homes that were built, delivered or are under construction scattered all over the United States.

"A lot of them are on the East Coast because (the veterans) want to be near Walter Reed (National Military Medical Center) in Bethesda," Siller said. "So we do a lot in the Virginia-Maryland-Washington area."

The homes allow the veterans to take care of themselves.

"Because we put state-of-the-art technology in there, they don't have to ask somebody to help," Siller said. "These are the most independent people in the world. They don't want to ask somebody to help them to go to the bathroom."

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(c)2017 The New Hampshire Union Leader (Manchester, N.H.)

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