MONROE — Navy veteran Molly Murphy watched from her front lawn as workers stripped her roof of shingles on Wednesday, June 17. They were from Freedom Roof Windows Siding, a veteran-owned company in Ann Arbor, and they were giving her a free roof that she desperately needed.
“And it was going to be very financially challenging for me to figure out how to do that,” she said. “It kind of came up unexpectedly in the spring of this year after all the water we had during the winter. And it’s just, it’s a privilege to be able to be a recipient from them.”
Murphy was a fire controlman aegis with the U.S. Navy from 2014 to 2020. Since then, she’s been in school and is a candidate for John Hopkins University’s space systems engineering master’s program.
“I credit that to Miss Frizzle in the Magic School Bus,” she said, smiling. “I’ve always been fascinated by the stars, interested in any type of satellite data, lasers, telescopes, interplanetary information, and I would really like to know what else is out there.”
The company’s Freedom Roofing Project gives nominated veterans a free roof replacement as a way of saying thank you to those who have served.
“Also, I’m a firm believer that when you’re in the position to do the right thing, you do it, whether it be big or small,” said Freedom Roof’s sales manager, Justin Meyer.
Normally there’s a nomination process for the Freedom Roofing Project, which can be done at https://freedomrws.com/community/freedom-roofing-project/.
“In this particular case, with Molly, though, I happened to meet her before the application opened and based off the conversation I had with her, I knew right away that she’d have been a strong candidate,” Meyer said.
The company does other initiatives throughout the year, including Operation Christmas, where they adopt families for the holidays so they can afford Christmas.
— Contact reporter Connor Veenstra at CVeenstra@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on The Monroe News: Monroe veteran gifted new roof from a veteran-owned company in Ann Arbor
Reporting by Connor Veenstra, The Monroe News / The Monroe News
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By Connor Veenstra, The Monroe News | USA TODAY Network
