A 14-year military veteran who once received a home through the Habitat for Humanity program is giving back to the community.

Sam Gonzalez was one of several volunteers out in East Brunswick Thursday building walls to be used for a home for a deserving New Jersey family.

“My walls were built here last year,” Gonzalez says. “And I’m here to build walls for somebody else.”

Gonzalez says that he used to live in the projects in South Amboy.

“Being a homeowner is not something I even really thought about,” he says.

The volunteers are currently building a three-bedroom home for the Habitat for Humanity Program.

Kamili Williams, the president of the Greater Plainfield chapter of the organization, says that homeownership is the American dream. And she says that there is nothing better than helping others achieve that dream.

“There’s nothing better than when the work that you do full-time is of service to someone else,” she says.