It was in the summer when now-81-year-old Deborah Dunlap’s roof of her mobile home near Linden started to leak.

Water was seeping in, causing mold formation and deterioration of the structure.

“This was getting bad,” Dunlap said.

“I tried everywhere to get help,” she said.

Every call she made, she said, was passed on to another person, without any help promised.

Dunlap is a widow.

Her late husband, James, served during the Vietnam War on a ship. He was in the Navy for 16 years.

“I have his ashes,” she said of her husband, who she said passed away Feb. 7, at the age of 80.

With nowhere else to turn as the leak went unfixed, the widow said she turned to the Veterans Affairs Office in Lycoming County.

The office personnel there, she said, connected her to a group known as the Veterans of Foreign Wars VFW Riders Group – District PA 15.

That is when she said she came into contact with Jeffery McMahon, a skilled contractor, with Combat Veterans PA 22-1, who not only led an effort to repair her roof, but also has completely overseen the remediation of the interior, and reconstructed the floors, walls and framework of her house, she said.

Water-fed mold had contaminated and led to rapid deterioration, she said with sadness in her voice.

But when asked what the veterans helping others meant to her, she replied: “They mean the world to me,” she said, with a more positive reaction in her tone.

The widow said she has a safe and liveable home because of the VFW Riders and the networking they did with a fellow combat veterans motorcycle association.

“They put a brand new roof on, and brought in people to take all the mold out,” she said, adding “they put a beautiful new roof on . . . they’ve just been very kind to me. I don’t know what I would have done without them. I’d be out on the street because I could not live here and I did not know where I was going to go,” Dunlap said.

A donated and repaired trailer

Earlier this year, Brian Wiant, a 17-year Navy veteran, stood on the porch of his donated trailer in Meadowbrook Park, just off Route 405 between Muncy and Hughesville.

“A kind and caring group,” Wiant said in a follow up interview.

The owner of the mobile home park donated the trailer.

“Veterans aren’t treated very well,” Wiant said.

But this was a pure display of love and caring with such an impact on his life that he also joined the group because of their mission.

“I want to also give back to other veterans,” he said.

It is because of these volunteer hours and the transformational results achieved for fellow veterans and their families, with a promise to continue the commitment in 2026, that the Williamsport Sun-Gazette nominated VFW Riders Group – District 15-PA as Person(s) of the Year for 2025.