Winter 2004-05
Ask anyone who has been hospitalized, and they will tell you the importance of having relatives and friends at their side during the healing process.
Since the onset of combat operations in Afghanistan and Iraq, more than 15,000 service members have flown on specially equipped Air Force medical evacuation aircraft to the military's only major medical center on foreign soil, the Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany. Some are quickly cared for and returned to their units, but others continue their journey, from Landstuhl back to the United States for inpatient or outpatient care at any of the military's or Veterans Administration's major medical centers.
This is where Fisher House enters the picture.
Begun by the late Zachary Fisher and his wife Elizabeth in 1990, Fisher Houses are fully furnished "comfort homes," built on the grounds of all the military's major medical centers and at six VA medical centers. There are now 32 such homes, each given as a gift and staffed with a full-time manager and a host of volunteers. In 14 years, these homes have provided more than 1.5 million days of lodging, accommodated nearly 60,000 families and collectively saved these families more than $40 million from the cost of commercial lodging. They have provided a "home away from home" for families, enabling them to stay near a loved one during a highly stressful time.
More than 1,000 families of service men and women wounded or injured in Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom have called a Fisher House their home, with stays ranging from a single day to more than 11 months.
The continuation of the Fisher House program now belongs to Zachary's grand nephew, Kenneth Fisher, and Fisher House Foundation, a not-for-profit organization that raises the money to build new homes and supports projects that improve the quality of life for military members, veterans and, of course, their families.
Support for the wounded and injured and their families has become the Foundation's highest priority. The daily room charge, normally $10 or less per family per day, is waived for all patients serving in Iraq or Afghanistan, as well as their families. This offer also is extended to stays at an on-base guest house or off-base hotel if the Fisher House, normally an eight- to 11-room facility, is full.
Families are given prepaid long distance calling cards and gift certificates good for purchases in military commissaries and exchanges, as well as other comforts.
Through donations of frequent flyer miles, airline tickets and flight coupons, the Fisher House Foundation partners with certain airlines to provide free air travel to wounded and injured patients that enables them to take a leave or pass from the hospital to go home to visit relatives and friends. Tickets also are provided to family members to bring them to the bedside of a loved one unable to leave the hospital. To date, the Foundation has distributed more than 700 airline tickets, saving service members and their families more than $420,000.
The Foundation is able to provide this unprecedented level of support to America's wounded and injured heroes because of the generosity of service members and federal employees who donate to Fisher House Foundation and individual Fisher Houses through the annual Combined Federal Campaign, military-affiliated organizations such as spouses' clubs and chapel funds, veterans service organizations, individuals and corporations.
In addition to the Fisher House program, the Foundation administers a scholarship program for the sons and daughters of active, reserve and retired military members. Financial support for the Scholarships for Military Children program, a joint venture with the Defense Commissary Agency, comes from manufacturers and suppliers that sell products at military commissaries. In four years, the program has awarded nearly 2,500 scholarship grants, worth $3.2 million.
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James D. Weiskopf is vice president of communications at Fisher House Foundation, Inc. To learn more, go to FisherHouse.org or call 888-294-8560. For information on Scholarships for Military Children, go to MilitaryScholar.org.