About US

No One Is Ever Alone

That belief is the reason this organization exists. Everything else on this page is that sentence, said again in different ways.

A person who has worn a uniform, carried a radio, or answered a call that nobody else could answer does not stop being who they are when the shift ends. But sometimes they forget. The years pile up, the phone stops ringing, and a person who spent a career showing up for everyone else finds that nobody is showing up for them.

The Heroes' Build exists to change that. We are here to help our people remember who they are, even in the seasons when they have forgotten it themselves.

Who We Serve

We serve veterans of the United States Armed Forces. We serve law enforcement officers, firefighters, and emergency medical services personnel. We serve 911 telecommunicators and dispatchers, who hear the worst moment of someone's life and rarely learn how it ended, and who are too often left off the list when people say the words "first responder." We serve the families of all of them.

We serve people who are still on the job and people who left it decades ago. We serve career personnel and volunteers alike. We do not ask which era you served in, which department gave you your badge, or how your service ended.

Our work reaches across the tri-state region, into Iowa, Illinois, and Wisconsin, from our home at the Pay It Forward Center in Dubuque.

What We Do

A place to land. Our community center is open with the coffee on. There are snacks, a craft table, room for a lesson, and no form to fill out at the door. You can come in, sit down, and say nothing at all. Belonging comes before paperwork here, and it always will.

Trades and skills. At the workbench, people learn to build. A trade is not only a way to earn a living, though it is that. It is proof, held in your own two hands, that you can still make something that did not exist before. For a lot of the people we serve, that proof matters more than the paycheck.

Home repair. When someone we serve is facing a repair they cannot manage, we help. Sometimes that means covering the cost. Sometimes it means materials from our donated stock. Sometimes it means showing up with tools and people. A furnace fixed in January is a life protected, but the deeper point is simpler than that. Somebody who spent years being the one who shows up finally gets to have someone show up for them.

Direct assistance. Furniture, appliances, tools, and vehicles come to us through the generosity of this community. Before any of it is priced for sale, it is offered to a member who needs it. Nobody should have to buy back their own dignity.

Who We Are

The Heroes' Build was founded by McKenzie Brock and Jerry Brimeyer, and is governed by a volunteer board of directors. We are a young organization, and we say so plainly. What we have is a clear belief, a serious commitment to running this the right way, and a community that keeps showing up.

We operate from the Pay It Forward Center in Dubuque, Iowa.

Mac Brock

President

Jerry "Sliver" Brimeyer

Vice President