Foundation pays off mortgage for fallen Deputy Wyatt Maser’s family on Veterans Day
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IDAHO FALLS — Fallen Bonneville County Sheriff’s Office deputy Wyatt Maser and his family are being honored in a unique way for his service this Veterans Day.
The Tunnel to Towers Foundation, which honors the United States of America’s military and first responders who sacrifice “life and limb” for the country, has a Fallen First Responder Home Program. Created in 2015, the program pays off the home mortgage when a first responder is killed in the line of duty leaving behind young children.
In observance of Veterans Day, the organization is paying off the home mortgages for eleven veteran and military families, and one of the recipients is the Maser Family.
“Wyatt and I bought our house a week before our daughter was due, and we moved in when she was a week old. This house has so many special memories,” Maser’s wife, Paige, said in a Tunnel to Towers Foundation news release. “Not having the financial burden of a mortgage payment has made life so much easier, and I’m so thankful for the Tunnel to Towers Foundation.”
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Maser served as a Senior Airman with the United States Air Force. He and Paige met while they were both serving as active duty Air Force in Germany. He later returned to Idaho where he decided to serve his community with the sheriff’s office.
He had been on the job for a little over a year when he was hit and killed by another deputy’s vehicle while responding to a call on May 18, 2020. Maser, who was 23-years-old at the time, left behind his wife and young daughter, Morgan.
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“Deputy Maser went to work risking his life to protect his community. Now it is our honor to protect his wife and daughter by making sure they always have a place to call home,” Frank Siller, Chairman and CEO of the Tunnel to Towers Foundation said in an emailed statement to EastIdahoNews.com.
Siller explained that the foundation knows how important the stability and security of a home is to a family dealing with the tragic loss of a loved one.
“While lifting this financial burden will never replace a father and partner, it will hopefully bring some peace to the family knowing they will be able to stay in the home where they made memories as a family,” Siller said.
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Members of the BCSO attended the ribbon-cutting ceremony with Paige. Sgt. Bryan Lovell with the sheriff’s office told EastIdahoNews.com it was special for them to be there.
“It is … an honor for us to be a part of it, and help show appreciation for that foundation because that foundation is doing some amazing things,” Lovell said. “It’s definitely a good thing that can come from tragic things.”
Paige said in the news release that her husband was proud of his military service and he loved being a veteran.
“It was a big part of our relationship,” she added. “I think he would have been happy to know that we were chosen for this day.”
To learn more about the Tunnel to Towers Foundation, click here.
