Pulte heads partnership to provide Lakewood Ranch home to veteran

Retired Army Sgt. Lucio Gaytan said his physical condition left him feeling like “I was gone” after 22 years of military service.

“I lost my identity,” said Gaytan, who retired from the Army in 2018 due to severe spinal injuries. “It was hard to move on medically.”

Due to the PulteGroup’s Built to Honor program, which included a partnership with Building Homes for Heroes and Schroeder-Manatee Ranch, Gaytan will be able to move on.

Or better said, move in.

On Feb. 3 at Sapphire Point of Lakewood Ranch, Gaytan and his family were welcomed to their future mortgage-free home with a parade and ceremony. More than 300 people were in attendance to line the parade route and welcome Gaytan, who had been living in Ruskin, to his new community.

The ceremony ended with a groundbreaking, but Gaytan said he hasn't been given a move-in date yet.

Gaytan lived in Imperial Beach, California, when he joined the military in 1996. In 2005, he was injured during a parachute jump while training for deployment to Afghanistan. He still went on his deployment and served the rest of his Army career despite herniated discs, a degenerative disc disease, a lumbar sacral injury and spinal stenosis.

Medical procedures have not stopped his chronic pain from his back or from other injuries suffered in the parachute jump. He has been able to participate in adapted sports, such as wheelchair basketball and football.

Those in Sapphire Point will be getting a new neighbor who has earned a Bronze Star, Afghanistan Campaign Medal, Defense Meritorious Service Medal, and several other medals.

“You can rest assured that you are moving to a community that will embrace you and support you,” said Laura Cole, a senior vice president of SMR. “We will be there for you.”

Cole said he can be assured that Lakewood Ranch will be honored to be referred to as Gaytan's home.

Rep. Tommy Gregory, District 73, told Gaytan, “You have shown the world there are things worth fighting for.”

Gregory looked around at the huge crowd which surrounded the home site.

"We have come to pay tribute to the sacrifices that you and your family have made," said Gregory, a 20-year U.S. Air Force veteran who retired as a Lieutenant Colonel.

Manatee County Commissioner Vanessa Baugh said Gaytan gives the people of America, and Manatee County, a great example of what it means to be a good American.

“You truly have done that,” Baugh said. “You give us hope. We can't thank you enough for what you have done ... No way."

Retired U.S. Marines Sgt. Geoffrey Heath, who received a mortgage-free home in 2016 from Operation Finally Home, said such a home is a major game-changer.

Heath, who was hit by enemy ricochet fire in the legs and helmet in Ramadi, Iraq in 2005 and struck by an improvised explosive device in Marjah, Afghanistan in 2008, said transitioning back to civilian life has been hard for him.

"By the Grace of God organizations like this exist," he said of the Built to Honor and Operation Finally Home programs. "Though the war is over, it's not over for us.

"I had been out of the Marines 10 years, and I didn't think things would get better."

But he was there to tell Gaytan that things would get better in his new home.

"I hope you will have as much love, and as many laughs, as we have had in our home," he said Gaytan.

Gaytan is looking forward to his new home with his wife Ivette, and their two children 1-year-old Lyanna and 5-year-old Lucious. He called his wife of 10 years his hero.

Ivette Gaytan expects their everyday life will get a major boost from the mortgage-free home.

“I believe this will take a lot of the stress off,” Ivette Gaytan said of her family’s new home. "It gives us a peace of mind."

Gaytan said neurosurgeons have been working to ease his constant pain, but haven't come up with any new suggestions.

"We're in limbo right now," he said.

On Feb. 3, though, he was all smiles as he watched Lyanna and Lucious playing in the dirt of his future home site.

PulteGroup’s Built to Honor Program, launched in 2013, has built more than 75 mortgage-free homes throughout the U.S.

Josh Graeve, the Pulte Southwest Florida Division president, said approximately 300 Pulte employees attended the ceremony and he said donations by Pulte's contractors and tradesmen have made the effort a reality.

Although Built to Honor had many applicants for the new home, Graeve said Gaytan was an obvious choice for the home.

"There was no way we could turn away from this," Graeve said. "A mortgage-free home changes the trajectory of the Gaytan family."