Iraq Vet's Fresh Start for the New Year

Dec. 31, 2008 — -- For Brian Synan, a Burlington Coat Factory store manager, saying thank you to some of the country's brave veterans was not enough this holiday season.

"We wanted to do something extra this year," Synan said. "It's been a hard year for everybody and we realized that and the store wants to step up and go above and beyond."

Synan and his employees at the Gurnee, Ill., store packed up a caravan of 10 cars with more than 300 donated coats, 200 dozen cookies, hundreds of gifts and two therapy dogs and headed to the North Chicago Veterans Affairs Medical Center.

Several of the veterans there said the gifts meant a lot.

"It's always nice to get a coat. It means there are giving people," said David Evans, who served in the Air Force from 1982 to 1986. "I am in a phase of my life where I don't have much. To be given something is nice."

For injured Iraq veteran George Lord, his five children and his fiancee, times have been very tough.

"For the last two years I have been fighting homelessness," Lord said. "I tried fighting it with another job but the hours were just too demanding for the low pay so we ended up into a shelter."

Coats and gifts weren't the only blessings in store for Lord and his family. They just moved into a new home, thanks to a veterans assistant program.

His family has a fresh start for the new year, and Lord said a huge weight has been lifted off him.

"I can finally stop moving the kids around, which is my biggest issue. Going from school to school and having a place to stay, having some roots, some stability."