Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

» New VA guest house:

Fisher House offers free stay while at VA hospital

- By MEG JONES mjones@journalsen­tinel.com

The new Fisher House near the Zablocki Veterans Affairs Medical Center, which provides free lodging to families of veterans receiving care, will be open by early May.

When Ken Lee arrived at Walter Reed Medical Center in 2004 it was as a patient, not a medical profession­al.

Lee was a lieutenant colonel in the Wisconsin National Guard commanding a medical company when he was seriously wounded by a suicide bomber in Baghdad. His wife, Kate, and two young children traveled from Milwaukee to Washington, D.C., to be with Lee shortly after he returned to the United States.

Knowing they would be there for a while, Lee’s wife booked a hotel room, but when medical staff learned the family had traveled from Wisconsin they put the Lees in touch with the Fisher House Foundation, which provides free lodging at fully furnished homes built on the grounds of veterans hospitals.

“It was a godsend for my family,” Lee said Thursday as he stood in the new Fisher House built near the Zablocki Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Milwaukee, where he’s director of the Spinal Cord Injury Center.

“I had other things to think about, and it was a relief for me because the hotel wasn’t in a nice neighborho­od,” he said. “You don’t expect generosity at a time like that.”

It took several years of fundraisin­g, planning and constructi­on, but the Fisher House on the Milwaukee VA grounds is almost finished and will be open by late April or early May. More than half the $6.2 million cost was raised through donations before groundbrea­king in June 2014.

At 13,000 square feet, Milwaukee’s Fisher House features 16 private suites and a communal kitchen and living area for people traveling at least 50 miles to be with family members undergoing surgeries and treatment at Zablocki.

Treatment teams for individual veterans at the Milwaukee VA will make referrals for people meeting qualificat­ions. The Milwaukee Fisher House staff will either make arrangemen­ts for them to stay, or if Fisher House is filled, help arrange for free lodging through Hotels for Heroes, a Fisher House Foundation program that pays for hotel rooms for families of injured and ill veterans.

“The goal being that no family will have to pay for lodging,” said Jennifer Kiefer, Milwaukee VA Fisher House manager.

During an open house Thursday for local media, Kiefer gave tours of the new facility, including Room 205, which overlooks both Miller Park and the VA hospital. The large kitchen includes three refrigerat­ors and two

freezers with containers in each marked with room numbers for families who bring their own food or have special food needs.

An adjacent room is filled with washers and dryers. Living areas feature comfy couches and chairs and a large screen TV with an Xbox. An outdoor porch with patio furniture will soon get a couple of gas grills.

Families will have private areas to sleep and bathe and can meet with other families to prepare and share meals. Visitors will be expected to clean up after themselves — they can get replacemen­t linens during their stay — and cook their own meals with food provided by the Fisher House and donations.

“It’s the concept of healing by families coming together. They have private suites when they want to stay alone but we also encourage people to eat together or watch a movie together,” Kiefer said. “We want them to think of this as their home away from home.”

Similar to Ronald McDonald Houses, 68 Fisher Houses are located on the grounds of military medical facilities in the U.S. plus one each in Germany and England. The program was started more than two decades ago by Zachary Fisher, a New York real estate mogul known for his philanthro­py.

Donations big and small

Maryland-based Fisher House Foundation raises money to build homes on the grounds of VA hospitals and then gives the buildings to the government, which operates and maintains them. Organizers began raising funds several years ago in the Milwaukee area to pay for the new Fisher House. Donations have been big and small, from large corporatio­ns and individual­s.

Among the donors are Hayden and Connor McDonald, who visited Fisher House on Thursday to see how their dollars were spent. They’re on spring break this week from Aquinas Academy in Menomonee Falls. Hayden is 8 and Connor is 6 and for their joint military themed birthday party last summer, the young brothers decided they didn’t want gifts. Instead they asked for cash which they wanted to donate to a military charity.

Their parents helped research local charities benefiting veterans, and the brothers ended up choosing Fisher House.

“Me and Hayden were into military stuff so we decided to give money instead of gifts to Fisher House at our birthday party,” said Connor, as his brother sprawled on one of the couches. The brothers donated more than $2,000.

Fisher House organized “wish lists” at Target, the Container Store and Bed Bath & Beyond for donations, and only a few items on the Target wish list have yet to be purchased. The Milwaukee Fisher House will also rely on donations to pay for food and other items as families come and go, which could be as short as a day or as long as a year.

Kathy and Michael Halula of Waukesha stayed at a Fisher House in Minnesota while their son David recovered from injuries from a car crash while he was stationed in the Army in Colorado.

“We knew nothing about Fisher House. We drove up monthly and stayed at a hotel, which was costly,” Kathy Halula said. But then VA hospital staff told the couple about Fisher House and they began to stay there when they visited their son between the fall of 2008 and summer of 2009.

It was comforting living with other families who were going through the same thing, worrying about a wounded or sick service member and receiving support from people who knew what they were going through, Michael Halula said.

“You didn’t have to worry. You could concentrat­e on your loved one,” said Kathy Halula.

To donate to Fisher House Wisconsin, visit fisherhous­ewi.org.

 ?? / APETERSON@JOURNALSEN­TINEL.COM ?? Melissa McDonald holds her daughter Bella while Ken Lee shows her sons Hayden (center), 8, and Connor, 6, photos of his recovery. Also lending a hand with the tour of the new Fisher House is Angie Christians­on (right). For more, go to...
/ APETERSON@JOURNALSEN­TINEL.COM Melissa McDonald holds her daughter Bella while Ken Lee shows her sons Hayden (center), 8, and Connor, 6, photos of his recovery. Also lending a hand with the tour of the new Fisher House is Angie Christians­on (right). For more, go to...
 ??  ?? Connor McDonald looks out a window Thursday at Fisher House. Connor and his older brother, Hayden, donated $2,000 they helped raise for the house.
Connor McDonald looks out a window Thursday at Fisher House. Connor and his older brother, Hayden, donated $2,000 they helped raise for the house.
 ??  ?? The Milwaukee VA’s Fisher House is over 13,000 square feet and has 16 private suites where family members of veterans getting care at the hospital can stay at no charge.
The Milwaukee VA’s Fisher House is over 13,000 square feet and has 16 private suites where family members of veterans getting care at the hospital can stay at no charge.

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