MMC Alum Francesca DiPaola ’14 Restores Homes—and Hope—for Veterans
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Francesca DiPaola ’14 spent Veterans Day doing what she always does: listening to those who’ve served. Capping a busy week that saw her attend the American Veterans Center’s annual conference in DC—an opportunity for older vets from wars now consigned to history to share their stories—she headed to a fundraiser on the Upper East Side for her family’s nonprofit, Homes for Veterans. In all, she heard dozens of moving accounts about sacrifice and courage. But DiPaola is just as attuned to another reality: the struggles many veterans face upon returning home, hardships that, as they age, tend to deepen. Those stories, she said, would surprise most people.
“Civilians assume that the government and the VA provide everything for veterans, but they don’t,” she said. “A lot of veterans fall through the cracks.” She worries in particular about those elderly veterans, a “forgotten demographic,” who, as resources have moved online, often have trouble navigating the digital maze of forms that stand between them and potential assistance.
Homes for Veterans acts as a salve where it can. Founded nearly two decades ago, it helps make the homes of elderly and disabled veterans more accessible and livable at no cost to the veteran or their families. The organization has grown exponentially in recent years, going from two or three projects per year to two or three projects per month. It has also expanded well beyond its home base in New Jersey, tackling projects for veterans in 19 states across the country.
Much of that is a testament to DiPaola’s hard work and determination. An actress who has held a series-regular role on Lifetime TV’s “The Sisterhood: Becoming Nuns” and appeared on platforms such as Elite Daily and NBC Business, she now serves as Homes for Veterans’ chief executive officer and chair of the board. She stepped into the roles unexpectedly, after her father Doug, the organization’s founder and heartbeat, passed away in 2020.
Doug had run a printing business that often hired veterans, and as the country struggled to pull itself out of a recession in 2009, he saw how vulnerable a population they were. One veteran employee had even become homeless. Though Doug had never served himself, he was deeply sympathetic; his father and father-in-law had both fought in World War II, DiPaola said, and he had always had a strong patriotic streak.
Looking for a meaningful way to help, he threw himself into personally repairing veterans’ homes. “My dad was extremely handy,” DiPaola said. “He loved to fix things and fixed everything in our home.” As he became more well-known among veterans in their New Jersey community, the calls for assistance increased.
In March 2020, however, he and DiPaola’s mother, Joanne, became part of the region’s first flood of Covid patients. Although Joanne’s condition improved, Doug’s worsened, and he was admitted to intensive care.
“He was on a ventilator for 21 days, and we couldn’t visit. It was impossible to get doctors on the phone. It was really, really traumatic,” DiPaola said. Knowing how passionate her father was about Homes for Veterans, she occupied herself by answering the group’s emails and completing a grant he was working on. “We all assumed he would come home,” she said. “I never thought he would pass away.” As they grieved, she asked her mother, who served on the Homes for Veterans board, if she could continue the organization’s work.
“Because I had such a close relationship with my dad, it was important to me that we continue his legacy,” DiPaola said. “So, I just powered through—we kept going and I kept raising money. Although it was devastating, it was also satisfying, because I felt like I was fulfilling his mission.”
As one of her first acts, DiPaola found a way to have pallets of toilet paper and cleaning supplies—some of the pandemic’s hardest-to-access products—brought to her home. She hand-delivered the items to VA hospitals and facilities in the area.
Until her father became ill, she mainly steered Homes for Veterans’ social media and publicity efforts. While studying at MMC, where she majored in BFA Acting, DiPaola also enlisted friends from the creative community to perform at a family day for veterans that the organization held at a New Jersey park.
But once at the helm, she focused on strengthening the organization’s partnerships, collaborating with major corporations such as Blackstone. Those relationships have allowed Homes for Veterans to expand its reach; in addition to its renovation projects across the country, it sponsors a range of activities, including quarterly events at the Borden Avenue Veterans Residence in Long Island City—New York’s only veteran-specific shelter—where it distributes personal care items to residents. In honor of Veterans Day, the organization recently partnered with Blackstone and SMBC to distribute Target gift cards and backpacks filled with essential goods to veterans in Yonkers.
“I’m really proud of our expansion because it started during Covid when my family had suffered such a huge loss,” DiPaola said.
Now she’s aiming to expand the organization’s cadre of volunteers and partner with a community close to her heart—MMC. With the Borden Avenue Veterans Residence just a 30-minute train ride from campus, she hopes to work with students on collecting and dropping off staples for veterans at the facility in the near future and enlist them for possible internships. “I know how creative Marymount students are, and I would love to work with them,” she said. She invites fellow MMC alumni to volunteer with the group as well.
“Civilians stepping up and showing their support for the veteran community in any way means so much to our veterans,” she said. “And there are a lot of opportunities to get involved.”
Small Gestures, Lasting Impact
Yamrick remembers how much those words meant to her late father when strangers at a restaurant stopped by their table after noticing his “Proud Navy Veteran” hat. “So many people walked up to thank him,” she said. “At the time, he was in the mid-stages of Alzheimer’s, but he’d look at me with such joy on his face when someone came over to say that.” Francesca DiPaola, chief executive officer and board chair of Homes for Veterans, agrees that those five small words can have a profound impact. “Hearing ‘thank you for your service,’ isn’t that common anymore,” she said. “Veterans feel that—they feel like nobody cares. So when someone takes the time to say it, it’s huge.” For MMC students, Yamrick added, there’s also an opportunity to seek out and appreciate the diverse perspectives that veterans or their family members bring to the classroom and campus community. “They oftentimes have a different view of the world, and there’s value in that,” she said. Moreover, DiPaola noted, whether you’re still in school or well-established in your career, you can use social media as a bullhorn to help amplify veteran-focused organizations, fundraisers, and events. Financial donations are obviously helpful to veteran programs that make a difference, she said, but if you can’t give money, you can always give time, energy, and attention. |
Published: November 14, 2025
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