WEBVTT 00:01.940 --> 00:03.440 [steel guitar blues music] (Tommy Donovan) It stands for freedom. 00:04.620 --> 00:05.600 It stands for... 00:05.600 --> 00:08.920 all the men and women that died to give us that freedom. 00:10.940 --> 00:13.940 I love them and thank them for doing that for us. 00:14.200 --> 00:17.300 But it's just what the American flag stands for. 00:17.780 --> 00:18.940 I love my country. 00:19.700 --> 00:21.040 Greatest country on Earth. 00:22.520 --> 00:28.100 My dad was my hero, and he told me, he says, "What do you do every morning when 00:28.100 --> 00:32.220 you get up?" I said, "Well, whatever I feel like doing, really." He says, "Yeah, it's 00:32.220 --> 00:36.270 called freedom. Go defend it just like I did and just like all your uncles did." 00:36.270 --> 00:38.420 He says, "In fact, go join the Navy." 00:39.320 --> 00:41.320 So two days later, I told him to get in the car. He 00:41.320 --> 00:43.140 drove to the Navy base, and I joined. 00:44.700 --> 00:47.440 I got really detail-oriented working on 00:47.500 --> 00:52.220 aircraft. And when you look at that pilot sitting in a cockpit, you know something 00:52.300 --> 00:55.700 could happen to him. It might be your fault. You better not ever make a mistake. 00:55.920 --> 01:00.320 You better be very detail-oriented. And around here, my wife says, 01:00.329 --> 01:03.270 "You know, if I walk past the picture that's off a little bit, I gotta straighten it." 01:03.270 --> 01:06.040 It drives my wife crazy. 01:06.960 --> 01:08.960 I saw it on YouTube, somebody making American 01:08.980 --> 01:14.020 flags, and me, I'm an American flag junkie. I saw how they were made, and I said "Oh, I 01:14.140 --> 01:16.000 like doing things with my hands." 01:17.420 --> 01:19.400 I work at a furniture store, and we get a lot of our 01:19.400 --> 01:25.920 products on pallets. I'll just break them down and use the wood. 01:26.340 --> 01:29.060 First thing I want to do is make sure I cut the board straight! 01:29.980 --> 01:31.060 That's really important. 01:31.360 --> 01:34.260 Each board is different. There's none of them alike. 01:35.160 --> 01:36.400 They're not straight. 01:36.820 --> 01:39.980 You have to square them off, you have to cut the stripes to the T. 01:40.240 --> 01:41.840 You can't leave any gaps in them. 01:42.660 --> 01:44.620 I'm concentrating on doing it right. 01:45.640 --> 01:49.580 I like to look at the grain of them because I burn them with a torch and it brings all the grain out, 01:49.640 --> 01:51.720 and the better the grain, prettier it gets. 01:55.840 --> 01:58.980 Before the military, I was kind of a rebel; 01:59.420 --> 02:00.980 but I now I take my family 02:01.000 --> 02:05.260 really, really serious, and the military had a lot to do with that. 02:05.940 --> 02:10.180 I just started taking things more serious, things that I have to take serious, instead of, 02:10.620 --> 02:14.140 instead of just pushing them aside, I take everything seriousl now. I give it more thought. 02:15.080 --> 02:16.800 That's Sydney Madison 02:17.880 --> 02:19.340 My squad girl. 02:20.320 --> 02:21.340 Yeah, that's my girl. 02:24.520 --> 02:25.600 One of our relatives. 02:26.620 --> 02:28.760 took in a child as a foster child, 02:29.380 --> 02:31.500 and they had her for about a year and a half, 02:31.880 --> 02:35.200 and during that time, she was diagnosed with spinal muscular 02:35.200 --> 02:37.340 atrophy, which is a life-threatening illness. 02:37.340 --> 02:39.120 Your muscles break down over time, 02:40.060 --> 02:43.900 and it was just a lot for them to deal With. They had two small children of 02:43.900 --> 02:49.040 their own. Then. All of a sudden she had 10 doctors, and they just couldn't keep 02:49.040 --> 02:52.010 up with it. The state was gonna take her back.. 02:52.010 --> 02:53.760 But we already fell in love with her. 02:53.860 --> 02:56.040 She was like a granddaughter for a year and a half. 02:56.500 --> 02:58.420 We decided to go ahead and take her. 02:58.700 --> 03:02.480 Once a year there's a big fundraiser for spinal muscular atrophy 03:02.480 --> 03:03.880 to find a cure. 03:04.520 --> 03:05.200 They already have the treatment, but 03:05.280 --> 03:07.200 they gotta have enough to find a cure. 03:07.200 --> 03:09.200 When I found out I could do something to help, 03:10.260 --> 03:13.420 yeah, I jumped all over that. I said,"Man, I never thought about that before. iI's 03:13.430 --> 03:16.940 perfect." You know. They have a silent auction, and they keep the money 03:16.940 --> 03:21.440 to try to find a cure for tit. And last year, I donated a small one, and this year I'm 03:21.440 --> 03:22.500 donating a big one. 03:22.820 --> 03:23.780 Yeah it's great. 03:24.000 --> 03:25.000 It does my heart good. 03:25.940 --> 03:27.180 For what I'm doing for my daughter, 03:27.860 --> 03:29.100 I'm nowhere near a hero. 03:30.140 --> 03:35.540 The only heroes they have are the guys that went to defend our country and didn't come back. 03:36.460 --> 03:37.920 I consider them heroes. 03:37.920 --> 03:39.920 Me, I'm not a hero. I'm just doing something for a 03:40.120 --> 03:42.920 child. I think God wants me to do it. 03:43.940 --> 03:45.720 And I'm glad he, I'm glad he picked me. 03:46.120 --> 03:46.620 Really, 03:46.620 --> 03:48.340 because she's a great little girl. 03:50.660 --> 03:52.660 (Daughter) [exaggerated kissing sound] I love you Pumpkin. 03:56.320 --> 03:58.320 (Tommy Donovan) I tell her all the time: "I love you Pumpkin." 04:02.360 --> 04:03.600 When I went in the Navy, they kinda 04:03.600 --> 04:05.240 polished me up a little bit. 04:05.460 --> 04:09.420 And I got out, and I was a whole different person. I was more 04:09.420 --> 04:14.320 polished. I mean. I knew a lot more. My attitude was a lot different. It did a world 04:14.320 --> 04:15.180 of good for me. 04:15.840 --> 04:18.680 That's the same thing with a pallet. I mean, look at it... 04:18.680 --> 04:23.900 it's a pallet. It's 2 by 4s with some scrap wood nailed to it. you know. 04:24.840 --> 04:27.780 You take it off today you refine it, you polish it up, 04:27.780 --> 04:31.230 and you make a flag out of it. Something beautiful, something to hang on the wall 04:31.230 --> 04:32.700 and keep forever. 04:33.640 --> 04:36.560 If you look around my house and you look at my shop, I got 04:36.560 --> 04:38.180 American flags everywhere. 04:39.380 --> 04:40.440 I love my country. 04:41.120 --> 04:42.400 Greatest country on Earth.