GREAT FALLS — The Tunnel To Towers Foundation announced this week that it has paid off the mortgage on the home of the Weir family.
Tyler Weir, who served in the Montana Air National Guard and as a member of Cascade County Search & Rescue team, and his nine-year old son Wyatt died in a crash east of Great Falls in March 2021. Weir and his family were returning to Great Falls to help with a rescue mission when the crash occurred.
Tyler's wife Jennifer and their two other children were injured in the crash.
Jennifer explained, “We were dropping off the kids with our friends who were to go skiing and take them skiing while we did our things we needed to do for the day, and when we pulled out Tyler looked over and didn’t see and then the semi hit us.”
As Jen, Weston, and Wakely spent their days in the hospital trying to recover and fighting for their lives, a team of "warriors" back home got to work, including Corey Hansen.
Hansen, a Search & Rescue team member, explained, “It was obvious that we couldn’t help right then but we all wanted to know how we could help this family in the future succeed.”
After talking with one of his law-enforcement friends he learned about Tunnel To Towers, which pays off mortgages of families of military veterans and first responders struck by tragedies.
“Jen was actually still in the hospital when we found out but I messaged her and then I called her mom and said get everybody and sit them around the table. I have news,” recalled Hansen. “Which is when I was able to tell them, 'Hey, through this organization I just got your mortgage paid off.'”
According to Hansen, all it took was one email telling the organization the Weir's story:" Within hours I had a retired NYPD detective call me up and literally say we are going to make this happen.”
And now with their family home paid off, Jen can focus on her kids and her own recovery.
The mortgage pay-off is part of Tunnel To Towers third annual Season of Hope, which celebrates the holiday season by delivering mortgage-free homes or mortgage-payoffs to families of fallen first responders, Gold Star families, and catastrophically injured veterans around the country. Click here to learn more about the organization.
Tunnel To Towers also recently paid off the mortgage for the Baker family in Great Falls. Baker died in 2019 from lung cancer and used his illness as a platform to promote health and safety for firefighters across the state.
