EUSTIS, Fla. – A Navy veteran who used donated trees to make canes for veterans delivered his first cane from the batch on Tuesday night.
Oscar Morris gave his first cane from the 200 trees donated from Lowe's to Shirley Johnson, a Korean War veteran who has been waiting three months to get his new walking cane.
"I think they're wonderful. You can't beat that," Johnson told News 6.
Each cane is different, filling the need of the specific veteran and branded with a penny of the year the veteran enlisted in the military.
"Normally when I mail them out I don't get the reaction on the face," Morris said. "The reaction is priceless compared to just mailing them out. You don't see, you get a response back through email, but when you hand one personally to somebody what it does inside is very special to me."
Morris said he's been making art out of wood since he was a child. He said back in September he ran across a strong broken tree limb and decided to make a cane.
As a Navy veteran himself and coming from a long line of veterans, he knew others could use the walking support. He took the prop to the VA hospital and people loved it.
He posted the walking canes on his Facebook page and in just a couple of days, it blew up with hundreds of orders. Since then, Morris has recruited four of his friends to help him make the canes.
For more information, visit Morris' Facebook page. A GoFundMe account was also set up for Free Canes For Vets.