Editorial: Community Should Rally to Help Build Fisher House

Editorial: Community Should Rally to Help Build Fisher House

Daily News Journal

By Editorial

06.11.11

Each year, more than 100,000 seriously-sick veterans come for medicine and treatment at the VA hospital in Nashville and Murfreesboro's Alvin C. York VA Medical Center. The men and women who seek help from the VA range from modern day soldiers to aging veterans.

They come to VA hospitals to treat ailments many of them suffered while serving our country and protecting our freedom.

But during long stays at the hospitals, their families often find themselves shelling out money for extended periods in hotel rooms or, even worse, having to travel back home away from their sick loved one.

That's why we're excited about a campaign to bring a Fisher House to York VA.

The Fisher House program, much like the Ronald McDonald House does for families of sick children, builds "comfort homes" through public and private partnerships at military and VA medical centers so that family members can stay close.

Currently, there is at least one Fisher House at every major medical center in America, according to the program's website. The program serves more than 11,000 families every year. Since its beginnings in 1990, the Fisher House program has offered close to 3 million days of lodging to family members of soldiers free of charge.

A groundbreaking for the one here is set for later this year, but it's going to take some serious fundraising.

It was recently announced that retired Lt. Col. Hooper Penuel and retired newspaper reporter and columnist Dan Whittle are heading up a campaign to raise the estimated $3 million needed to get the $6-million Fisher House constructed here.

For years, Whittle headed up Whittlemania, a fundraiser for Habitat for Humanity that resulted in the construction of 17 homes in La Vergne, Smyrna and Murfreesboro. Penuel, a former Rutherford County administrator of elections, has been involved in United Way of Rutherford and Cannon Counties.

We encourage local people and businesses to thank military families for their sacrifices by helping get the Fisher House built here.