Pasco County to Become Home for Tunnel to Towers Foundation Village The Pasco County Commission has cleared the way for the Stephen Siller Tunnel to Towers Foundation to create a neighborhood in Land O’Lakes devoted to recipients of mortgage-free homes for catastrophically injured veterans, surviving widows and children of fallen military and first responders. “The Let Us Do Good Village, which is what we are calling our development, is a community created by our Foundation, which is going to bring these families together,” said Matthew Mahoney, Executive Vice President of the Foundation. It will be the first development of its type in the country, created by a Foundation that began 20 years ago, in the aftermath of the September 11 terrorist attacks. The Foundation is named after Stephen Siller, a firefighter who had finished his shift and was on his way home when the attacks occurred at the Twin Towers. Instead of going home, the firefighter turned around and headed back toward Lower Manhattan. When he wasn’t able to drive into the area because of the emergency, Mahoney said, “Stephen donned over 60 pounds of firefighting gear on his back and ran over two miles to the World Trade Center, ultimately losing his life that day at the South Tower.” Siller was one of 343 firefighters who perished, of the 406 first responders lost that day. He left behind five young children. The Foundation provides mortgage-free homes for recipients in its Smart Home, Fallen First Responders and Gold Star Family programs. Typically, it either provides mortgage-free homes or pays off the mortgage. By the end of this year, it will have paid off or provided 400 homes. The Let Us Do Good Village will be created on about 75 acres, on the south side of Parkway Boulevard, about a half-mile east of Ehren Cutoff. It will include specially adapted one-floor homes, on 100-footwide lots, for catastrophically injured veterans in the
Foundation’s Smart Home Program. It also will provide two-story homes, on 60-foot lots, through its Fallen First Responders Program and through its Gold Star Family program. The Foundation believes that bringing these families together will help them to recover. “Their children are going to be able to grow up, where other children don’t have a dad or other children don’t have a mom – because of their service,” Mahoney stated. The development will also include several other amenities for its residents, including a clubhouse and neighborhood park.
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