MONTELLO, Wis. -- A group of second-graders in Montello set a goal to raise money to help a local veteran who was seriously injured last year in a helicopter crash.

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It started as a school-wide project -- a "walk-a-thon" to raise money for a year-end school trip.

But 50 second-graders decided to put their money elsewhere. They set a goal to raise $50 for a local veteran and his wife, to help them build a new home. The outcome of the project surprised everyone.

On Feb. 18, 2007, the day of Chuck and Brenda Isaacson's second wedding anniversary, their lives changed forever.

"We were just flying around in Afghanistan, when one our engines shut off," Chuck Isaacson said. "Then our rotor blades drooped, and we fell 400 feet."

"It didn't even occur to me to ask what happened," Chuck's wife, Brenda, said. "(I asked), 'Is he going to make it?' And they said, 'We don't know. We can't tell you that.'"

Chuck Isaacson survived the crash, but eight of his fellow soldiers did not survive. He suffered through two collapsed lungs, broken ribs, a broken leg, a broken neck and compression fractures to his spine.

Today, Chuck Isaacson is bound to a wheelchair. On Wednesday, he visited Montello Elementary School to share his story with the students. Most of the kids knew about Isaacson -- his wife was a former student teacher there. That's why at the school's "walk-a-thon" last month, the second-graders set a goal to raise money for the Isaacsons -- to help them build a new, wheelchair-accessible home.

The Isaacsons asked for nothing, but were humbled by what the students were doing. The students wanted to raise at least $50 for a light fixture to help the Isaacsons light their new home.

The result was much more. In a surprise presentation Wednesday, the students presented the Isaacsons with a check for $1,030.

"I really didn't expect anything," Chuck Isaacson said. "If they raised $2, I would have been happy, because it's really great when teachers and students can do something like this -- $1,000 is just unbelievable."

The new home, in Sun Prairie, will be built at no cost to the Isaacsons thanks to the nonprofit group, Homes for our Troops.

Note: This is part one of a two-part series. Tune in to WISC-TV's "News 3 at 6" and Channel 3000 on Thursday for part two, which looks at how the Homes for our Troops organization helps disabled veterans across the country.