FISHER HOUSE - HELPING MILITARY FAMILIES

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Ken Fisher wishes the fancy homes he builds around the country would never have to be used.

“Unfortunately, there is a need for those homes,” said Fisher, a senior partner at the Fisher Brothers real estate company in New York City and chairman of the Rockville, Md.-based Fisher House Foundation.

Fisher was referring to the 54 “Fisher Houses” his nonprofit foundation has built throughout the United States, including a new $6 million Fisher House dedicated Thursday in Minneapolis.

The 16,000-square-foot, 20-room brick structure, across from the Minneapolis VA Medical Center, offers a free place to stay for up to 40 family members of combat-injured veterans receiving treatment at the VA.

Since it opened in April, the Fisher House II has been running at 100 percent capacity, said Ralph Heussner, public affairs officer for the Minneapolis VA Medical Center. Its next-door neighbor, a 6,000-square-foot Fisher House, has had 5,000 guests in its 10 rooms since it opened in 1995.

Such accommodations are sorely needed, especially in Minneapolis.

As one of four VA poly-trauma centers in the country, the Minneapolis VA at One Veterans Drive takes in injured service members from well beyond the Twin Cities. And the ranks of the injured being treated here have grown since the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Poly-trauma care is for veterans and service members with multiple injuries that result in “physical, cognitive, psychological or psychosocial impairments and functional disability,” according to the VA poly-trauma website (www.polytrauma.va.gov).

“They come to us from all over the upper Midwest,” Heussner said, adding that many veterans are at the hospital for extended stays. “The families are here with them, and the Fisher House is where they are able to stay.”

William Maxwell, a Vietnam-era veteran who traveled to the VA this week from Ladysmith, Wis., said the Fisher Houses make it possible for veterans to get the medical care they need without repeatedly driving long distances from home to hospital.

Having loved ones close by is an important part of the healing process. But because of his fixed income, Maxwell said he and his family could not have otherwise afforded to stay in Minneapolis for the four days it took this week for him to undergo medical testing at the facility.

He was somewhat skeptical when the VA offered to put him up at the Fisher House and wanted to make sure the facility would be comfortable for his family. His wife, Terrie, traveled to Minneapolis to preview the Fisher House.

It was nothing like the Marine Corps Quonset hut he envisioned as his worst-case scenario.

“To have something like this, and to be treated like this, is phenomenal,” Maxwell said.

The couple and their two school-age children, Lizzie and Willie, stayed in two rooms, were served meals and had the run of well-appointed public spaces in the Fisher House and the new Fisher House II.

Terrie Maxwell was impressed. “This place has been heavenly for everyone,” she said.

Tony Garczynski is charged with making the Fisher House a home for families like the Maxwells.

A San Diego-area builder of luxury homes, Garczynski headed a team that has built 13 Fisher Houses throughout the country, including the new one in Minneapolis.

The foundation is “very, very adamant that these not feel like a hotel or motel. They want people to feel like they are at home,” said Patty Garczynski, vice president of Tony Garczynski Development and Tony’s wife.

The new building’s design, featuring a large kitchen and inviting common areas, encourages families to mingle and socialize instead of holing up in their own private rooms – nice as those spacious rooms may be.

As guests walk in, they are greeted by a living room on one side and a dining room on the other. The kitchen, a popular gathering area, includes a pair of double ovens, two dishwashers and plenty of countertop space.

“Anything they can do in their own home, they can do here,” Patty Garczynski said.

Nothing is done on the cheap, which explains the hefty $6 million price tag, which was covered entirely by private donations. Half came from the Fisher House Foundation and half from other sources, including the Bryan McDonough Military Heroes Foundation, established in honor of a Minnesota soldier who was killed in Iraq.

The solid brick construction, interior finishes and décor are considered first-class.

“The structure itself is very strong – well-built and well-engineered, and very expensive to do,” said Tammy Tavares, project manager for the new Fisher House in Minneapolis and the daughter of Tony and Patty Garczynski.

“People are always surprised – why did they spend so much? It really is a reflection of the Fisher Foundation,” she said. “They are extremely generous in producing one of the highest-quality buildings, commercial or residential, that you will find in the market, and that says a lot about what they stand for.”

Tony Garczynski said it was a “very rewarding” project.

“When you build a shopping center, the goal is to get it on schedule, below budget. There is not much feeling to it. But this is something very special,” said Garczynski, who served in the military between the wars in Korea and Vietnam.

Fisher said he expects to add three more Fisher Houses around the country by the end of the year and seven more by the end of 2012. Before he is through, that number will likely grow to “somewhere in the 80s or 90s,” he said.

Each year, the Fisher House program serves more than 11,000 families and has provided nearly 3 million days of lodging since Zachary Fisher, Ken Fisher’s uncle, started the program in 1990, according to www.fisherhouse.org.

The lodging speaks to the idea that it’s no longer enough to just say, “Thank you for your service,” Fisher said at the dedication. “You deserve more than just thanks.”

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