GASTONIA, N.C. (FOX 46 CHARLOTTE) – Volunteers from Purple Heart Homes, FOX Sports, and NASCAR Race Hub were hard at work Tuesday to build a new ramp and deck for a retired Marine Veteran in Gastonia.

The non-profit’s mission is to help disabled and aging veterans with home improvements that’ll make their lives easier.

“It may be a bathroom remodel, it might be siding, it might be gutters, it might be an HVAC system,” explained Matt Stevenson, Program Services Director for Purple Heart Homes, “Those types of construction needs that affect their health and mental well-being as well as the financial stressors.”

Jason Thompson served in the U.S. Marine Corps for 13 years, from 1986 – 1999. He started as a cook, eventually working his way up to becoming a water safety survival and hand-to-hand combat instructor.

During his service, Thompson served during the Gulf War and Operation Enduring Freedom.

Thompson said that the new ramp and deck addition to his home will not only help him get around easier but also his mother-in-law who lives with him and his wife Ashlyn.

“My wife is very independent, and she’s been taking care of her mother since day one,” Thompson said.

Veterans are humble by nature and Thompson is no different, thinking about how much easier things will be for his family.

He said, “The steps that we have are pretty steep and lifting and carrying, and lifting and carrying; it took a toll on her, plus it also limited the amount of things that we can do with her mom. This ramp is a Godsend.”

Purple Heart Homes also brought in some high-profile volunteers to get the project done, including Shannon Spake from FOX Sports, Todd Bodine from the NASCAR Race Hub, and others.

“My dad was a Marine, my mom was in the Navy, my grandfathers were both in the Army,” Spake said, “So any opportunity I get to give back to the military and veterans, who obviously have given everything for us, I’m all in.”

Bodine said, “A lot of our veterans have been left behind and for them to know what this means for them to be able to get down this ramp, get out to their cars, and be able to go to the hospital and do things, it’s very important.”

Thompson knows the feeling of being left behind, telling FOX 46 that adjusting back into civilian life was a challenge.

“It put me on a long, long road to getting back to being able to be, I would say completely confident back in myself and daily day-to-day life,” he said.

This Veteran’s Day and every day, Ashlyn Thompson hopes that you’ll say “thank you” to people like her husband.

She said, “It’s important that you understand and have compassion for what they go through, and what they do, because they gave us this freedom, for us to be able to stand here and do what we do today.”