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A thank you for his service: Realtor helps Iraq war vet move for free
By Justin Wier
AUSTINTOWN
A Cleveland moving crew braved the rain on Thursday to move Michael Willochell, a 35-year-old disabled Iraq war veteran, and his family to their new home free of charge.
Willochell has been living in an Austintown rental with his wife Dawn, their 6-year-old son, Hayden, and his mother, Joann Plummer, who helps take care of him and her grandson. Willochell recently purchased a home in Boardman, and Keller Williams Chrevenic Realty helped arrange the move with Stevens Worldwide Van Lines, the Realtor’s moving vendor.
“It’s unbelievable,” Willochell said. “I don’t even have the words for it because you know how the world is. You can’t find very many people that will do anything like this. It means a lot.”
His mother fought back tears as she expressed her gratitude. She said the companies are validating her son’s service.
“These companies will never know how it does mean, and it will mean, to him for the rest of his life,” Plummer said. “It means everything.”
His wife was a bit more pragmatic.
“It’s wonderful because I can’t do it all myself,” she said.
Willochell served two tours of duty with the Army. He was deployed to Fort Wainright in Alaska from 2002-2004. After four years working as a truck driver, he was recalled to serve in Iraq in 2009.
He was stationed in Mahmoudiyah, a city south of Baghdad that saw major combat activity during the U.S. occupation of Iraq.
As an infantryman, he said his battalion was on the front lines, going through checkpoints and clearing houses.
He sustained injuries during combat. He remembers waking up on life support after being med-evacuated.
Willochell suffered a traumatic brain injury and a spinal fracture, and continues to struggle with post traumatic stress disorder.
The family lived in Fort Bragg, N.C, for a while when he returned from Iraq, but Dawn, a graduate of Austintown Fitch High School, wanted to return to the area. Willochell was born in North Carolina, but grew up in Saltsburg, Pa., a small town about 30 minutes east of Pittsburgh.
He seemed taken aback by the generosity of the moving crew, and especially Christina Kuban, his Realtor who started the process of finding someone to move his family.
“She could have just handed me the keys and said, ‘Peace out,’” Willochell said. “But she asked me, ‘What’s next? How are you going to get to your place?’”
People often thank veterans for their service, he said, but Kuban went above and beyond.
She said she has a soft spot for veterans. Willochell has limited mobility and his wife works, so she was concerned about the difficulties moving might pose to them, which led her to reach out to her boss and get the ball rolling.
Adam Matthews, Keller Williams Chrevenic’s sales manager, said part of the company’s culture is to give where they live.
Mary O’Donnell, director of new business development for Stevens Worldwide Van Lines’ Cleveland office, said it does a lot of charity work as well, including military moves.
Michael has inspired Kuban to help more veterans in the future, she said.
“I don’t want this to be the last one that we do,” she said. “I want to continue to help and pay it forward.”