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The Fisher House offers hospitality, healing and HOPE!

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CEO and Chairman of Fisher House Foundation, Ken Fisher

Editor’s Note: Last week Mission:Milpouse had the distict honor to interview Fisher House CEO and Chairman, Mr. Ken Fisher.

This interview will be extended into a podcast airing November 13th.

We are grateful for the Fisher House Foundation’s continued support of America’s Military and their families.

 

 

In the military world, The Fisher House is a part of our unique venacular of acronyms, mottos, and jargon. It a place of respite for many families enduring both the physical and mental scars of war.

It literally has been an “oasis of comfort” for many grateful families who have been the recipients of the Fisher Foundation’s hospitality, healing, and hope.

Fisher House Offers Hospitality.

 

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A day in the life at The Fisher House

The Fisher House program began in 1990, with $20 million dedicated to providing free and temporary housing to allow families to be close to loved ones receiving treatment at VA medical centers.

That well intentioned beginning has now blossomed into a foundation that has supported over 455,000 families with 95 Fisher Houses serving military installations and VA medical centers around the United States and overseas.

The Foundation’s CEO and chairman, Ken Fisher, carries the full weight of what his Uncle Zachary started three decades ago, and his committment to the military and their families fuels his passion for caring for our nation’s warrior tribe.

“Our servicembers and their families bear a burden this nation can never fully understand.”

Having a father who served in Korean War and seeing what the nation went through in the Vietnam Era, Fisher is forging ahead to help provide more care and comfort to servicemembers and families especially with the current challenges facing military communities.

Fisher believes that it will take all of us (Americans) to help heal our warriors and their families.

“It is going to take not just a department or agency, but an entire country to get behind our warriors and families; starting with the unacceptable suicide rates among veterans and their families.”

 

On the Road to 100 Houses.

 

The next Fisher House set to open will be in Bay Pines, Florida. This is house number 96 in the quest to establish 100 houses worldwide.

“Every house opening is an educational opportunity. The more I learn, the more engaged I am.”

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At the dedication of the Ohio Fisher house.

During Fisher’s tenure, houses have been stragetically placed to serve our nation’s warriors where they need it most.

Specifically, the Fisher House in Landstuhl was critical to those wounded warrior families as they traveled across the ocean to care for their loved ones.

Fisher is proud of all the houses, but one in particular stands out to him and that is the Fisher House for the Fallen in Dover, Deleware.

 

Fisher was walking through a supermarket when he received a call from the Army Surgeon General who made him aware how tough the situation was in Dover. The number of families compelled to travel for the transfer of their loved ones at the air base was growing.

Fisher remembers how he felt upon hearing about this:

“The thought that those families, who had already given so much, would have to drive to a hotel after doing the unthinkable was unconscionable to us.”

The Fisher Foundation team mobilized and built the Dover house in just 6 months, and since opening has supported over 4,000 families as they bore the ultimate sacrifice for our nation.

“One of the things I will never forget was the number of Gold Star mothers there for the opening of the house who came up and thanked me. You talk about misplaced thanks.

 

I told them, YOU made the sacrifice, we just tried to provide something to make your lives easier.”

Fisher House Offers HEALING

 

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A day in the life at the Fisher House

The Fisher Houses have become meeting places for family and friends of loved ones.

The layout of the sitting rooms is spacious and offers places to spread out to visit and comfort one another.

Fisher keeps this need in mind while planning the current and future houses.

 

 

“We have made the houses bigger to offer more comfortable spaces to gather.”

 

Healing and Mental Health  

 

The evidence of physical battlefield trauma, as well as both the mental and moral injuries caused by 20 years of battle, is becoming more obvious every day. Especially the effect is has on the warrior’s mental health and how it impacts the family.

Fisher reflects on this:

“Families had their loved one come home…different…changed. This can be difficult for both the children and the spouse to understand.”

Even after the physical wounds have healed, suicide is the second leading cause of death for post 9/11 veterans.

“As long as there is one veteran struggling, that is one veteran too many.”

Fisher recognizes that we need a more focused effort on Mental Health and emphasis on the healing needed from PTSD and the impact it has on both the warrior and their loved ones.

“The Fisher House steps in and does what it does best to support this fight and that is taking care of the families, and getting them from point A to point B. We don’t provide direct services, but our focus is on access to those services.”

And this is where Fisher believes Americans can step into this fight and say:

“You know what, these families have suffered enough. We have to make sure that they are taken care of, and their children and spouses get the help that they need.”

Fisher further recognizes the growing concern for family members who are caretakers and have been exposed to the secondary effects of trauma as well as the need for more attention to this problem.

“For families to go through what they went through during the war and then to have their loved one commit suicide, is also a battlefield casualty.”

Fisher House Offers HOPE

 

Most importantly, the Fisher House Foundation is looking toward the future and offering hope through additional projects, programs and scholarship opportunities. Fisher reflects on the role his organization plays.

“It is about assessing in part that we have been able to impact and to bless so many families with support, and to to keep that support and community growing.”

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The Invictus games are where warriors continue to heal.

This is evident in the ways the Fisher House has expanded its programs so they can serve in a broader context.

Programs such as partnering with the Invictus Games Family and Friends Program that enables warriors to compete and to bring loved ones to watch the events.

Since the Fisher House is usually involved so early on in the struggles of warriors and their families, Fisher takes great pride in the fact that ther families get to see their loved ones heal and move forward.

“Watching a loved one who has come so far actually compete is incredible. They are no longer wounded warriors, they are athletes!”

Other programs the Fisher House Foundation offers is Hero Miles and Hotels for Heroes. These programs enable the foundation to purchase airfare using donated miles. The miles and points can be used for wounded service member and the families of the wounded to visit medical centers or attend the dignified transfer of remains at Dover Air Field.

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A day in the life at The Fisher House

Scholarships are also offered through the Fisher Foundation.

Scholarships include: The Heroes Legacy Scholarship, Military Spouses Scholarships and Training, and Scholarships for Military Children.

Finally, The Fisher Service Award of $250,000 is divided among the top applying nonprofits. This program began in 1999 and is currently partnered with The Military Times Foundation.

 

Fisher House and The Military Spouse

 

Military Spouses across the services are grateful for The Fisher House foundation and the support it provides families.

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Even the cost of lodging during a PCS can weigh on a military family, so to think about the costs of airfare and months of care support is staggering.

Military spouses may not be surprised that the original concept of building the first Fisher House came from the astute observations of one of their own – a Navy spouse.

“Pauline Trost, the wife of the Chief of Naval Operations in 1986, had watched a family exit a helicopter with their luggage at the National Naval Medical Center, Bethesda and wondered where they would stay. Knowing the hotels in the area are costly, she knew this would be a huge burden on families facing medical crisis.

 

She mentioned it to her husband, who in turn told Zachary. “I’m a builder. That’s what I do for a living. I can do this.”

 

Zach and Elizabeth Fisher dedicated more than $20 million to the construction of comfort homes for families of hospitalized military personnel to stay free of charge in support of their loved ones when they need it most.

 

Brick by brick, these houses were built, and a foundation was created for life-changing experiences for those who walk through Fisher House doors.” – (Original Story found at The Fisher House Foundation)

Like Mrs. Trost, military spouses pride themselves on really “seeing each other,” and that sparks their inclination to help each other whenever possible.

 

How Can Milspouses help The Fisher Foundation?

 

That’s easy!  Head over to the website, and look at the many volunteer opportunities available.  Mr. Fisher also has some suggestions that we can do to help with the issues facing our servicemembers and their families.

“Get out there and volunteer, and take advantage of our spouse scholarship programs.  Utlilize our programs and share the resources. You can also join the effort to hold our politicians accountable.”

There are many opportunities on the home page ranging from fundraising to donating to organizing events and memorial pages. These opportunities are great for SFRG and Unit endeavors.

Final Thoughts with Fisher

 

Mr. Fisher’s unique position over the past two decades of war has given him insight and perspective regarding the sacrifices of the American service family.

When asked what advice he might have for us as we carry the scars and burdens of the past 20 years, Fisher took a moment before answering.

“Lean on the families that have been there. The Warrior Ethos is “No One Left Behind” and that includes families.

 

No family should be left behind. Service is not just for the uniform member.”

On behalf of military spouses everywhere, we correctly place our THANKS to YOU, Mr. Ken Fisher, and everything the Fisher House Foundation provides our communities.

 

*All photos are attributed to The Fisher House Foundation.

*Please follow up this article with our extended interview with Mr. Ken Fisher on our M:M November 13th Podcast.

 

Author

  • Kathleen Palmer

    Kathleen is an educator and project seeker from Texas. In her 28 years as an Army wife, Kathleen has taught and coached in six different states and Germany. Kathleen has a big heart for both Army families and soldiers having served as a Soldier for Life counselor in both Germany and Korea. Her favorite part of Army life is her acquired community of battle buddies! Kathleen loves words (both speaking and writing them) and has contributed to AWN, NMFA, The Fort Hood Sentinel, The Army Spouse Handbook, Inside Abu Ghraib, Memoirs of Two US Military Intelligence Officers, and The Army War College at Carlisle. Her favorite writing piece about being an Army wife is “The Lady in the Grey Suit” which was published in 2015 in Proud to Be: Writing by American Warriors (Vol.3). You can find her on Instagram, Facebook, or on her website, Life Is Messy, Love Big. Just like Kathleen, the site is a WORK in Progress! She also currently serves as Mission: Milspouse Director of Content.

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