Volunteers from Rebuilding Together Greater Florida, The Home Depot Foundation and others rebuild the Five Stars veterans center gardens on Thursday, Nov. 13, 2025. | Dan Scanlan, Jacksonville Today
Published on November 13, 2025 at 3:31 pm
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Clods of weeds and grass were being pulled out of the raised garden in front of Arlington’s Five Star Veterans Center early Thursday, the yardwork of a dozen men and women accompanied by AC/DC’s Dirty Deeds, Done Dirt Cheap on a nearby speaker.
That rock ballad’s lyrics were apropos as the workers got dirty doing volunteer deeds, joining dozens of others in a free makeover of the veterans center’s gardens and vegetable garden.
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Volunteers in orange Home Depot and yellow Rebuilding Together Greater Florida T-shirts weeded and beautified the 13-year-old residential transitional center for veterans in crisis. They also built a greenhouse and raised garden beds to grow fresh vegetables, plus installed new seating for outdoor movie nights and much more.
As work wrapped up later Thursday, Five Star CEO John Bear said he cannot thank all the groups that did “all the great work” for free, especially rebuilding a former barn into a woodworking shop.
“It’s going to go a long way into helping us rebuild purpose in the lives of the veterans here at the Five Star Veterans Center,” Bear said. “They rebuilt a falling-apart building into a sound structure and turned it into a workshop where we can train our veterans, get some skills in a workshop environment and hopefully take those skills along with them as they move along to build a sustained life.”
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After seeing the work, City Council member Ken Amaro said the volunteer makeover helps a well-known and needed facility in his Arlington district.
“They continue to serve the community, and this will extend their ability to reach the veteran community that is in need of their service,” he said. “The work — and it’s all volunteer — shows that those donating their services are comitted to serving those who serve our country.”
Veterans center services
The nonprofit Five Star Veterans Center was founded in March 2012 in a former nursing home off Atlantic Boulevard to help veterans in need suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, traumatic brain Injuries, depression and other related mental health issues.
Thirty-one veterans live in the facility as part of residential counseling, therapy and job skills training, and others come in for mental health counseling and post-residential support programs to ensure a successful transition to civilian life, focused on veterans ages 22 to 55.
The center’s entrance sign is flanked by gold statues of soldiers standing at attention in front of the main flower garden, with another on the front wall. That is where some of the 70 volunteers from Rebuilding Together Greater Florida, Home Depot, the Builders Institute and others were weeding and landscaping Thursday morning.
This was the first project in Jacksonville for Rebuilding Together Greater Florida, said its CEO, Jose Garcia. Founded in 2000, the group has helped thousands of Florida families with needed repairs as well as fixing storm damage, construction of affordable housing and construction apprenticeship education.
“This is a longtime planning call. We want to have our presence in Jacksonville, to fulfil a need,” Garcia said. “We understand there are many great nonprofits doing work like we do, but there is always much more need than those available to help, and we just want to come and help, and fulfill a need and be partners.”
In the backyard area, more volunteers were creating a butterfly garden, six raised vegetable garden beds for the center’s kitchen and four benches for the outdoor theater.
Four picnic tables were assembled for the outdoor barbecue area, plus two more benches for the butterfly garden walkway. The framework for the greenhouse was starting to rise by 9 a.m., as mulch was added to all of the gardens surrounding the building, plus stepping stones in the raised garden area.
Other work had included replacement of the south wall of the old barn after cleaning out mold there, and building that new woodworking shop.
The Home Depot Foundation contributed $40,000 to the project. Volunteers from Rebuilding Together Greater Florida and Home Depot came from all over the state to help, fed for free by the Soldiers Angels group.
“The idea is that that they know that we are here, that we acknowledge and support them, and we will always be around with whatever we have in hand, ” Garcia said.
Thursday’s event also included a ceremony honoring Francis Loving, a retired 30-year U.S. Marine Corps veteran and just-retired Five Star CEO.
