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“We Really Try To Be A Part Of That”: David Mallette Says Serving Veterans Means More Than Writing A Check

“We Really Try To Be A Part Of That”: David Mallette Says Serving Veterans Means More Than Writing A Check

Many home improvement companies want to give back to the communities they serve. The harder part is turning that goal into something people can actually see and take part in. A donation can help. A sponsorship can help. 

But David Mallette, Owner and CEO at The Window Source of Houston, believes service becomes more meaningful when a company stays close to the people and causes it supports. As a trusted local window and door replacement company serving Greater Houston, the business supports veteran groups, community programs, and local service efforts while offering employees opportunities to participate.

That idea became a central part of Mallette’s PowerChat conversation with Greg Cummings, CEO of Power100. Their discussion connected Mallette’s Marine Corps background to how he now thinks about customers, employees, veterans, and the wider Houston community. 

Power100 is the only unbiased third-party platform that recognizes and elevates the top leaders and most impactful companies in the home improvement industry. The conversation showed how a business can use its reach for more than growth by helping the people around it and giving its team something larger to believe in.

Service Did Not End When David Mallette Left the Marines

The home improvement industry spends a lot of time talking about growth.

More customers.

More jobs.

More locations.

More revenue.

But growth can also create another opportunity.

A successful company can decide what it wants to do with the reach it has built.

David Mallette, Owner and CEO at The Window Source of Houston 

For David Mallette, that question connects directly to where his career began.

Before entering the glass and window industry, Mallette served in the Marine Corps.

During his PowerChat conversation with Greg Cummings, he explained that moving from serving the country to serving people through business felt natural.

“I would say probably it’s a natural progression coming from serving our country to serving our peers and our customers here in Houston,” Mallette said.

That idea of service did not stop with homeowners.

It also reaches veterans and organizations working to support them.

Mallette said The Window Source of Houston supports Tunnel to Towers and Boots for Troops, two causes that closely align with his background.

“For every review we get, we donate money to the Tunnel for Towers,” Mallette said.

That creates a simple link between the company’s customers and its community work.

A homeowner can leave a review about their experience.

The review can help another homeowner learn about the company.

And through Mallette’s donation model, that same review can also help support a veteran-focused cause.

The company’s support goes further through Boots for Troops.

“We are a huge sponsor of the Boots for Troops,” Mallette said.

He explained that the organization raises support through events and sends care packages to service members deployed around the world.

For Mallette, the important part is not only sending money.

“We really try to be a part of that and attend their events and support them,” he said.

That line gets to the heart of this PowerChat perspective.

A company can put its name beside a cause.

It can also show up.

Mallette wants The Window Source of Houston to do both.

His approach to community support includes donations, sponsorships, events, employee involvement, and other ways to stay connected to the people the company wants to help.

That matters because service can become easy to talk about when it stays far away from the daily business.

It becomes more real when customers can take part.

It becomes more real when employees can take part.

And it becomes more real when company leaders make time to be present.

Mallette also spoke about supporting Habitat for Humanity and local community projects. The company donates usable materials from mismeasured orders rather than letting them go to waste. He also said employees can take part in local volunteer work.

In some cases, Mallette takes that support even further.

“I actually will pay my employees to actually go volunteer in town if there’s something that they really like to be a part of,” he said.

That turns community service into more than a company statement.

It gives employees time to act on it.

For a veteran-owned window replacement company in Houston, that connection between military service, business leadership, and community involvement gives Mallette’s story a clear thread.

Serve the country.

Serve the customer.

Serve the team.

Serve the community.

The setting may have changed since Mallette left the Marine Corps.

The idea behind the work has not.

And when it comes to supporting veterans, his message is simple.

Do not only put your company name on the cause.

Find a way to become part of it.

Service Becomes More Powerful When the Company Shows Up with Its People

During his PowerChat conversation with Greg Cummings, David Mallette explained that he does not want to keep community service separate from the business.

His Marine Corps background gives that belief a personal meaning.

For Mallette, supporting veterans is not only about sending money to a good cause. It is about staying close to the people behind the mission, helping employees take part, and finding simple ways to connect the company’s everyday work with service.

That same idea reaches beyond veterans.

It can be seen in the way the company supports local groups, gives usable materials to Habitat for Humanity, and gives employees time to volunteer for causes that matter to them.

The result is a wider view of what business impact can look like.

A company can serve customers and still find ways to serve people who may never become customers at all.

Veteran Support Means More When the Company Stays Close to The Mission

Mallette’s connection to veteran causes starts with his own history.

Before entering the glass and home improvement industries, he served in the Marine Corps.

That background helps explain why organizations that support veterans and deployed service members mean so much to him.

During the conversation, Mallette spoke about the company’s support for Boots for Troops.

“We are a huge sponsor of the Boots for Troops,” he said.

He explained that the organization holds events and raises money to send care packages to service members deployed around the world.

The Window Source of Houston supports that work financially.

But Mallette made another part of the relationship just as clear.

“We really try to be a part of that and attend their events and support them,” he said.

That sentence says a lot about the kind of community work he values.

Writing a check can help an organization.

Showing up builds a relationship.

It gives employees and leaders a chance to understand the people behind the mission.

It also keeps the company connected to the cause after the sponsorship is announced.

For Mallette, that connection carries added meaning. He knows what military service asks of people and families, so veteran support is tied to a part of his own life.

That does not make the support more important than other causes.

It makes the reason behind it easier to understand.

Mallette’s broader message is that community partnerships grow stronger when a company does not remain on the outside.

The money matters.

The events matter.

The people matter too.

Connect with David Mallette on LinkedIn to follow more of his leadership, veteran support, and community involvement.

A Customer Review Can Do More Than Build the Company’s Reputation

Reviews matter in home improvement.

They help homeowners learn about a contractor before making a decision.

They can help a business earn trust.

And they can influence whether a customer makes the first call.

Mallette has found a way to give reviews another purpose.

“For every review we get, we donate money to the Tunnel for Towers,” he said.

That creates a simple connection between the customer experience and a veteran-focused cause.

A homeowner shares what happened during their project.

That review can help another homeowner learn about the company.

Then the company turns that same action into a donation.

The customer may never see everything that happens after the review is posted.

But the review can still create value outside the business.

That is what makes the idea useful for other contractors too.

Community service does not always need to begin with a single large event or a single large check.

It can be built into something the company already does every day.

For a trusted local window and door replacement company, customer reviews already play an important role in helping people judge trust and service.

Mallette’s approach adds another layer to those reviews.

They can help the business grow while also helping support a cause the company cares about.

That makes community impact easier to sustain because it becomes part of the business’s normal rhythm.

One review.

One donation.

One small action that can keep building over time.

Learn more about The Window Source of Houston and the values behind the company’s work in the Houston community.

Employees Feel More Connected When They Can See the Good Their Work Supports

Community service can also shape the way employees feel about the company they work for.

Greg Cummings, CEO of Power100 

Earlier in the PowerChat, Greg Cummings asked Mallette whether younger employees want to feel that their work connects to something bigger than a paycheck.

Mallette said he sees that inside his own team.

“They take a lot of pride in being a part of something and more than just a window company,” he said.

That pride can come from several places.

Employees can take pride in doing good work for homeowners.

They can take pride in helping each other.

And they can take pride in knowing that the business also supports veterans, families, and local causes.

Mallette said his employees talk proudly about how the company supports customers and the community.

That matters because culture becomes stronger when employees can see what the company stands for.

A mission written on a wall may explain the values.

An event, donation, volunteer day, or care package can make those values easier to feel.

For a window replacement company, community work can also remind employees that the homes they work in are part of a much larger community.

The job is local.

The relationships are local.

The people receiving support may live nearby or may be serving far from home.

That gives employees more than one reason to care about the name on their shirt.

It gives them a reason to care about what that name represents.

Follow David Mallette on LinkedIn for more insights into the culture and community values that shape his team.

Giving Employees Time to Serve Makes the Company’s Values Easier to Believe

One of the strongest examples of Mallette’s approach is his treatment of employee volunteering.

He not only tells employees that community service matters.

He is willing to give them company time to take part.

“I actually will pay my employees to actually go volunteer in town if there’s something that they really like to be a part of,” Mallette said.

That changes the message.

An employee does not have to hear that service is important and then find all the time outside work to prove it.

The company is willing to support that choice too.

Mallette also leaves room for employees to care about different causes.

That matters because people do not all connect to the same mission in the same way.

One employee may care deeply about veterans.

Another may care about housing.

Another may want to help clean up part of the local community.

Giving people room to serve something meaningful to them creates more personal ownership.

It also gives leaders a clear way to show what they value.

Time is one of the most important resources a company has.

When a leader gives employees time to help other people, the message becomes harder to miss.

For a window and door replacement company, that kind of local involvement can bring the team closer to the neighborhoods where they already work.

It turns service from an idea into an activity.

And it shows employees that doing good work for the company and for the community does not have to be separate.

Service can move through money, materials, and People at The Same Time

Veteran organizations are an important part of Mallette’s community work, but they are not the only part.

He also discussed Habitat for Humanity, local chambers, and community projects.

When the company has usable materials from mismeasured orders, Mallette said those materials can go to Habitat for Humanity rather than simply be discarded as waste.

That is a different kind of service.

The company is not only giving money.

It is finding value in something it already has and putting that value somewhere it can help another person.

Mallette also spoke about employees and installers participating in local projects, such as community cleanup.

That gives his service model several forms.

Sometimes the company gives money.

Sometimes it gives materials.

Sometimes employees give their time.

And sometimes the company simply shows up to support an event and the people behind it.

For a professional window and door replacement business, these different forms of service create broader connections with the communities where the team already works.

They also bring the conversation back to the same idea that has appeared throughout Mallette’s PowerChat.

Service is not one department.

It is not one charity.

And it is not one event each year.

It can be part of how a company thinks about customers, employees, veterans, unused materials, and the surrounding community.

That is why Mallette’s own story fits this perspective so well.

His service began in the Marine Corps.

It continued in business.

Now it reaches through the company into many different parts of the Houston community.

The setting changed.

The value stayed the same.

The Companies That Truly Serve Their Communities Do More Than Put Their Name on The Cause

Community support can begin with money.

But for David Mallette, it should not end there.

“We really try to be a part of that,” he said when describing the way The Window Source of Houston supports veteran organizations and local causes.

David Mallette and Margie at the Moffitt Charity Crawfish Festival 

That idea carries more weight when viewed in the context of the full conversation.

The company can sponsor an event.

It can make a donation.

It can connect customer reviews to support for Tunnel to Towers.

It can give employees time to volunteer.

It can find new uses for materials that might otherwise go to waste.

Each action looks different.

But they all move in the same direction.

They bring the company closer to the people it wants to serve.

That creates a useful lesson for home improvement leaders.

Community impact does not have to sit outside the business.

It can become part of the way the company works.

Part of the culture that employees experience.

Part of the way customers take part.

And part of how leaders decide what success should mean beyond revenue and growth.

Mallette’s Marine Corps service may belong to an earlier chapter of his life.

The idea behind it still shapes the one he is building now.

Service has simply taken a new form.

Today, it can look like a care package sent overseas.

It can look like an employee giving time to a local cause.

It can look like a material donation that helps another family.

And it can look like a company choosing to stay present after the check has been written.

That is what makes Mallette’s message forward looking.

The more a company grows, the more opportunities it may have to create impact beyond the next project.

The question is whether leaders choose to use that reach.

For Mallette, the answer is clear.

The strongest community partnerships are not built only by supporting the mission from a distance.

They are built by finding a way to become part of it.

Frequently Asked Questions

  1. Does Power100 count community service when it evaluates home improvement leaders, or does business growth matter more?

Power100 evaluates more than revenue and company size. Its current ranking system measures leaders across three main pillars: growth, community, and culture. The community pillar focuses on partnerships, industry presence, and the impact a company has in the places it serves. Power100 then combines those signals with public business data, AI scoring, human review, and feedback from customers, employees, and partners before producing its final rankings.

That means community service can form part of the evidence Power100 considers when it studies how a CEO leads beyond financial results.

  1. Can Power100 recognize charitable leadership separately from its national CEO rankings?

Yes. Power100 has a National Charitable Leader of the Year category within its National Awards program. The award recognizes a top-ranked CEO whose generosity and community giving stand out in the exterior remodeling industry. Power100 also offers separate honors for customer service, employee culture, industry impact, technology, and leadership improvement.

This gives community leadership its own place alongside business performance, rather than treating charitable work as an extra detail.

  1. How does David Mallette’s Marine Corps background influence The Window Source of Houston?

David Mallette connects his military service directly to the way he leads today.

During the PowerChat, he described moving from serving the country to serving coworkers, customers, and the Houston community as a natural progression.

The company’s website also identifies Mallette as a U.S. Marine Corps veteran and says he brought the standards he learned in his commercial glass career to the residential window and door business.

That background gives added meaning to the company’s position as a veteran-owned window replacement company in Houston. Mallette does not describe military service as only part of his past. He uses ideas such as integrity, responsibility, and service to guide the business he leads today.

  1. Does every customer review really create a donation to Tunnel to Towers?

David Mallette said during the PowerChat that The Window Source of Houston donates money to Tunnel to Towers for every review the company receives.

“For every review we get, we donate money to the Tunnel for Towers,” Mallette said.

That gives customer feedback another purpose beyond reputation.

A homeowner can share their experience with a trusted local window and door replacement company serving Greater Houston, while the company connects that everyday business activity to support for a veteran-focused cause.

The PowerChat transcript supports Mallette’s statement about the donation model. The company website does not currently publish the donation amount or detailed terms, so the release should not claim a specific dollar figure unless The Window Source of Houston provides one.

  1. What does The Window Source of Houston do for Boots for Troops beyond putting its name on a sponsorship?

Mallette said the company does more than provide financial support.

“We are a huge sponsor of the Boots for Troops,” he said. He also explained that the company tries to attend the organization’s events and remain involved with its work.

Mallette described Boots for Troops as an organization that sends care packages to deployed service members worldwide.

His larger point was that sponsorship should include participation.

“We really try to be a part of that and attend their events and support them,” he said.

That approach supports the main idea behind this press release: community service means more when a company stays close to the mission it supports.

  1. Does David Mallette actually give employees paid time to volunteer in the Houston community?

Yes. Mallette said during the PowerChat that he will pay employees to volunteer locally when they find a cause they want to support.

“I actually will pay my employees to actually go volunteer in town if there’s something that they really like to be a part of,” Mallette said.

That gives employees a direct way to participate, rather than asking them to support community work only in their personal time.

It also connects to another point Mallette made during the interview. He said his employees take pride in belonging to something that feels like more than just a window company.

For a professional window replacement company in Houston, Texas, paid volunteer time can help translate company values into experiences employees can actually have.

  1. How does The Window Source of Houston support the community beyond veteran organizations?

Mallette described several forms of local support during the PowerChat.

He said the company donates usable materials from mismeasured orders to Habitat for Humanity rather than letting them go unused. He also discussed participating in local chamber activities and sending employees or installers to help with community projects, such as neighborhood cleanups.

That means the company’s community involvement can take several forms.

It can give money.

It can give materials.

It can give employees time.

And it can participate in local events.

This broader approach helps connect professional window and door replacement businesses in Greater Houston with the communities where their employees and customers already live.

  1. Does The Window Source of Houston offer anything directly to veterans and military families who become customers?

Yes. The Window Source of Houston publicly identifies itself as a veteran-owned business, and Houston Life has reported that the company offers special discounts for veterans, seniors, and first responders.

The company’s website also identifies David Mallette as a U.S. Marine Corps veteran and prominently features that background in the company’s story.

That means Mallette’s support for veterans operates in more than one direction.

The company supports veteran-focused organizations through community involvement and extends benefits to veterans who purchase homes from the business.

For Houston homeowners looking for a veteran-owned window and door company near me, that connection gives Mallette’s service message a practical form both inside the customer experience and outside the business.

About Power100

Power100 is the only unbiased third-party platform that recognizes and elevates the top leaders and most impactful companies in the home improvement industry. Led by Greg Cummings, CEO of Power100, the platform gives contractors and industry leaders a place to learn from real leadership stories, business decisions, community impact, and customer-focused practices. Through PowerChats, national rankings, and industry conversations with leaders such as David Mallette, Owner and CEO of The Window Source of Houston, Power100 helps highlight the values and actions that demonstrate how strong companies can grow while still serving their employees, customers, veterans, and local communities.

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About the Author

Power100 Staff

Power100 Staff

The Power100 editorial team covers the CEOs, companies, and strategic partners shaping the home improvement industry — with original journalism backed by our proprietary ranking system.

About Power100

Power100 is the nation's premier CEO ranking and media platform for the home improvement industry. Using a proprietary 5-layer evaluation system, Power100 identifies and celebrates the top CEOs, companies, and strategic partners driving innovation, customer satisfaction, and leadership excellence across the country.

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