There were no chainsaws or hard hats and just one scoop shovel involved, but Team Rubicon members rocked a service project for a Vietnam-era veteran in Venice, CA on Sunday afternoon.
That veteran, Stuart Sarbone, served in the United States Army Quartermaster Corps and received an Army commendation for how he “revolutionized the way the Quartermaster Corps sorts and orders” according to long-time friend and associate, Harry DeLigter. After returning to civilian life, Mr. Sarbone began working in finance and then “came out here to fund movies and got lost in Hollywood.”
Members of Region 9 assembled at the former home of Vietnam veteran Stuart Sarbone to clear out the space after he was transferred to the local VA hospital.
Mr. Deligter shared several stories about Sarbone who recently moved to “assisted living courtesy of the US Government and the VA.”
Over a dozen TR members from Region 9 SoCal came together on short notice to help sort and salvage some of Mr. Sarbone’s precious mementos collected over the past few decades. In 90 minutes, the team was able to completely clean out the apartment, save personal items like his Army citation, Army uniform name tag, and family pictures, and brought large items to Goodwill for donation.
Marine veteran Andrew Adams brought the muscle, a roll of garbage bags, and a dolly to haul some trash and old furniture to the curb.
“For years, I told him you have to move out of here, it’s a mess,” said Mr. Deligter. “He said ‘I don’t know how that’s ever going to happen.’ And you people are the how. Everyone was terrific. You did wonders. We didn’t know how it was going to happen. You guys were a miracle. Thank you.”
A job expected to take 3-4 hours took this dirty dozen roughly 90 minutes to complete on a Sunday afternoon.
