‘I was just speechless’: Local veteran receives holiday home makeover

VILLA PARK Proudly surveying her new living room Monday evening, Beth Jarosy tried to put into context the vast changes that had recently occurred in the common space of her Villa Park residence.

Everything in here is better than I ever would have dreamed, she said with an excited smile.

Jarosy, a U.S. Navy veteran, was the recent recipient of a living room makeover courtesy of a partnership between Fox Valley ReStore and DuPage Habitat for Humanity, as well as designer Kevin Grace and the team at ABC 7s Windy City LIVE.

ReStore, a nonprofit organization that raises funding and collects donated housing materials to support Habitat for Humanity, initiated the makeover idea with the goal of giving back to a local veteran, said Randy Hamann, general manager of ReStore.

Working in conjunction with the DuPage chapter of Habitat, the organizations eventually chose Jarosy, who served as an information systems technician from 1996 to 2004.

Unbeknownst to her, Jarosy was surprised with the makeover news on a Veterans Day episode of Windy City LIVE, a daytime talk show featuring hosts Val Warner and Ryan Chiaverini. Grace, whose segment, Kevin Grace, Save My Space, has been a feature on the show for the past year, said Jarosy was the perfect person to honor.

She is a veteran, but she is also a female veteran, said Grace, a former contestant on HGTVs Design Star. We always think of the men, but there are so many women involved in our military that it just made sense.

Jarosy, a mother of three who grew up in Lombard, initially struggled to find a permanent home for her family after being discharged from the Navy Reserve in 2004. After moving more than half a dozen times, the Glenbard East High School graduate became a homeowner in 2009 through DuPage Habitat.

Habitats Veterans initiative helps alleviate the shortage of quality housing that often directly affects veterans.

The house on Ridge Road was one that Jarosy had previously driven by, and despite damage to the roof, she remembers telling herself, that is going to be my home. To her benefit, the house was one Habitat also had an eye on remodeling, and shortly after, Jarosy and her children moved in.

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'I was just speechless': Local veteran receives holiday home makeover