A ride to help wounded vets and their families

A ride to help wounded vets and their families

Fox 6 Now

By Bret Buganski

09.11.11

It’s a home away from home for military families. It’s called the Fisher House and it provides a place for families to stay when a loved one goes through a surgery or battles an illness. Now one organization is looking to raise enough money to open one right here in Wisconsin.

Hundreds jumped on their Harleys and hit the open road on Saturday, all in an effort to say 'thank you' to the men and women who served before us. With that, the riders are hoping to get donations for wounded war vets and their families. Riders say every dollar helps.

“Events like this you're not going to raise a half a million dollars, but if we raise 500 bucks, and we get the community out and make people aware of this mission," one rider says.

One vet shared his personal experience from war and said having a facility like this would have helped him physically and emotionally in the 60s. "I think for being in a hospital far away from home, and having a facilities like this on the grounds, would've probably mentally helped me out a bit better that my family was there to support me," he says.

Organizers expect to break ground in 2013 for the new Fisher House on the campus of Milwaukee’s VA Hospital. Right now, they need to raise 2.3 million dollars to make that happen.