If Army veteran Paulnhu Nguyen was nervous, you couldn’t tell.
He dabbed green paint on his nose and playfully smudged it on others. He draped his arm around his mother and introduced her as his great-great-great-grandmother. And he told people he was his identical twin brother when they came looking for him.
“Humor is one of those tools to bring morale up,” he said.
But on Sunday, Aug. 6, Nguyen fessed up to being “slightly anxious” as 17 volunteers — including three Medal of Honor recipients — worked to paint the Anaheim home he shares with his mother.
The volunteers, from nonprofit organizations Heroes Linked and Habitat for Humanity Orange County, worked together to transform the one-story home from a shy salmon color to an outgoing juniper-ash green. Nguyen, 41, grew up in the home and remembers being in junior high the last time it was renovated.
“They’re here picking up paint brushes and providing sweat equity,” said Heroes Linked volunteer Chairman Bob Jerome, who traveled from Florida to pitch in on the home, which is owned by Nguyen’s mother. Heroes Linked was founded in 2014 to help veterans and their families. Together with Habitat for Humanity, it selected Nguyen for Habitat’s Home Repair program, which is partially funded through Anaheim’s Community Development Block Grant, for low-income seniors and veterans.
Selecting Nguyen from a large pool of deserving people, was “a no-brainer,” Jerome said. “He defended our country, and his house was falling into disrepair. He doesn’t take what we are doing for granted.”
Monique Davis, president and CEO of Habitat for Humanity Orange County, has been at the job for just over a year. She’s hoping to expand the Repair Program from 40 to 60 homes annually.
“Home ownership is self-sustaining and provides generational wealth,” Davis said. “The challenge is there is so much need. It can be overwhelming.”
Nguyen served two combat tours — Operation Iraqi…
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