Getting His Life Back

He pushes the cart from the room with medical supplies, shutting the door behind him. He whistles as he walks down the busy hallway on his way to deliver medical supplies to another wing of the Veterans facility. As he walks, he encounters a man who looks lost, so Freeman points the man in the right direction and waits until he reaches the room he was searching for. Freeman continues toward his destination, thinking he once found himself in this same hallway, feeling lost.

Freeman came to Asheville with a five-year goal of getting a job with the government, to enable him to buy a vehicle and become a homeowner. It had been three years since he set those goals, but he had been unable to achieve them. That is when he entered Goodwill’s Veterans Services program, where he obtained full-time employment at the VA Hospital through Operation Good Jobs.

When Freeman was asked how he would advise other veterans who needed employment assistance, he said: “Give Goodwill a chance; because if they can help me, considering my past, they can help anybody. Goodwill gave me my life back!”