JEFFERSON, Ga. — Devon Gales, the former college football player who was paralyzed in a game against UGA four years ago, will see his new home fully completed for the first time on Thursday morning.
11Alive’s Nick Sturdivant toured the 5,000-square-foot home in Jefferson with Gales while it was being built in May. It will have space for Gales’ whole family, who moved here to be closer to the Shepherd Center after his injury.
Gales was blocking for a Southern University teammate during a kick return on Sept. 26, 2015 when a seemingly routine block left him paralyzed from the waist down.
Despite the trauma, he has continued with the sport since then, settling in Jefferson and joining the coaching staff of Jefferson High School’s football team, one of Georgia’s best programs.
On Thursday, with help of a makeover from the home renovation nonprofit Sunshine on a Ranney Day, he can finally feel fully at home in this next chapter of his life.
“We’ve been through a lot through these past years, but we overcame a whole bunch of stuff,” Gales told 11Alive in May.
According to Sunshine on a Ranney Day, Gales and his family will be taken around room by room “to see their new beginning.”
“We’ve been working at this for about a year. The construction for about six months and we are close to finishing. So, it’s really exciting,” Mike Elrod with Currahee Home Builders told 11Alive in May.
MORE HEADLINES