WESLEY CHAPEL, Fla. (WFLA) – A Wesley Chapel Gold Star Family had their mortgage paid off by the Tunnel to Towers Foundation in honor of Memorial Day.

The mortgage on the Wesley Chapel home of Army Sergeant First Class Benjamin Bitner was paid.

SFC Bitner was killed by an IED on April 23, 2011 in Afghanistan during his tenth deployment.

He left behind his wife, April, and two children, Rogue and Gunnar.

SFC Bitner was a volunteer firefighter and enlisted in the Army in 1991. He graduated from the Special Forces Qualification Course as an Engineer Sergeant in 2000.

The Tunnel to Towers Gold Star Family Home Project honors the legacy of those who have made the ultimate sacrifice by paying off the mortgage or providing surviving spouses and young children with mortgage-free homes.

The foundation has set a goal to reach 1,000 mortgage-free homes delivered across the country to military and first responders by the end of the year.

That includes the first home in the Tunnel to Towers “Let Us Do Good Village” in Land O’ Lakes. The village will be the first-of-its-kind community of mortgage-free homes for the nation’s first responder families, Gold Star families and catastrophically injured veterans and first responders. The foundation said the first homes in the community are on track to be completed by the end of the year.