Korean War veteran 'overwhelmed' by volunteers fixing his home

Len Butler struggled to put what he saw into words.

It was easy to be overwhelmed by all the strangers who arrived early in the day and started working to fix up his tired Lisle home.

So Butler stood quietly in his front yard Tuesday, struck by even the little changes.

"Look at it, they're putting flowers all around," the 82-year-old Korean War veteran said.

"Nobody's ever done anything like this for me before."

This is not just a run-of-the-mill home improvement project. This is a story about veterans called to help one of their own.

"We stick together," said Lt. Col. Michael "Goose" Bogmenko, commander of Lisle VFW Post 5696.

Butler's home got what one volunteer called a "whole new exterior makeover," funded by a $20,000 Home Depot grant. Before the new paint, doors, lighting and landscaping arrived Tuesday, the project began with a fellow veteran and a village employee joining forces on a covert mission.

Stacey Crockatt came to know the house on Black Partridge Lane for its code violations. The front door and garage were "falling apart." The paint was chipped and the wood was rotted.

"People don't really love when I knock on their doors," said Crockatt, a Lisle building inspector and code enforcement officer.

But Crockatt always considered Butler, an Army vet who served in Korea from 1953 to 1955, a friendly face.

"He's just a super guy," she said. "It just kind of got away from him, and it's hard to take care of a home on your own."

So she called Don Smith, a trustee for the Lisle VFW and a Vietnam War vet. Smith surveyed the home, taking measurements, compiling quotes and completing an 87-page application for a Home Depot grant - all without Butler knowing.

"I visited this house probably 15 times without getting caught or the police calling," Smith said with a smile.

He wanted to keep the idea a surprise, but he also didn't want to get Butler's hopes up in case the grant didn't come through.

"We didn't want to make a false promise to a guy that's 82 years old," Smith said.

When the Home Depot Foundation approved the grant, Smith and Crockatt finally revealed their plan in February at a surprise gathering at the VFW Post.

Butler, again, was "overwhelmed," and his son, Adam, was in tears.

Adam Butler still lives in Lisle and tried to keep up with repairs at his childhood home, where roughly 80 volunteers worked at a feverish pace Tuesday, only stopping to eat breakfast and lunch donated by 20 restaurants.

The volunteers - mostly employees from Home Depot stores in Downers Grove and Woodridge - began the work early and immediately split into teams to divvy up jobs.

"Everybody is jumping and moving," Butler said. "Holy mackerel!"

By 10 a.m., the deteriorating cedar shingles already had been removed from the facade, a fence was being installed and new coats of brown paint covered most of the exterior.

"They have done a wonderful job. It's just nice to see people pull together for a good cause," said neighbor Susy Schaper, who lives across the street.

Kevin Lind, manager of a Carol Stream Home Depot, helps coordinate the application process for grants that fund as many as four projects a year to improve the homes of area veterans.

"We always have to have a nonprofit partner, and in this case it was the Lisle VFW," Lind said.

Smith, who worked at Home Depot for 16 years, leaves his time in Vietnam in the 68th Assault Helicopter Company squarely in the past.

"I don't even talk to my family about what I did and what I saw and what happened over there," he said.

He also doesn't like to talk about his role in transforming Butler's home or six others. He only hints at two more on the "back burner" that could be refurbished through Home Depot grants.

"It's my way of giving back," Smith said.

A private first class at 19, Butler returned from Korea with "a different attitude about life."

"You don't take so many things for granted," he said.

He went on to college and a career in newspaper advertising. He moved into the Lisle home in 1967.

"This was all prairie when I came out here," he said, gesturing around the neighborhood.

He raised his two daughters and son here. He buried two wives.

Butler never imagined he would wake up Tuesday, and by the end of the day his house would look "so much different."

He sat on new stairs leading up to a new blue front door Wednesday afternoon, before crews arrived to put down a fresh seal coat on his driveway and make the finishing touches.

"It's still hard to believe it's all put together," he said.