Megaride raises funds for Fisher House

Megaride raises funds for Fisher House

My Record Journal

By Farrah Duffany

06.30.13

MERIDEN — Revving engines echoed through Hubbard Park Sunday morning as nearly 50 people got onto their bikes for the Motorcycle Megaride.

Spirits were high on the warm summer day as people came out to support a good cause; the hour-long ride was put on by the Meriden Rotary Foundation to raise funds to establish Fisher House Connecticut, which will act as a home for families that have someone receiving medical care for injuries at military and V.A. medical centers.

Tim Dolan and his daughter, Shelly, of Meriden, were gearing up to get on their 2005 Harley-Davidson. They said they always come out to support it.

“It’s a tradition,” Shelly Dolan said.

“Everybody here has the same central thought and of course the motorcycle is what the common bond is,” Tim Dolan said. “It’s a great event.”

Kevin Creed, the director of Fisher House Connecticut, said the facility will be similar to a hotel and 20 families can stay at a time for free. It will be a 60,000-square-foot building on the campus of the V.A. Healthcare System campus in West Haven.

“The patient will stay in the house as well as the family, in most cases,” Creed said. “It’s a vital need that helps a family during that time of medical crisis.”

A total of $500,000 has been raised across the state to help meet the goal of raising $3 million. Once the goal is reached, the Fisher House Foundation Inc. will match the amount that was raised to get the construction started.

Creed said the support from across the state and at events like the megaride in Meriden has helped the project move forward.

“We’re going to make it within the next 18 months,” Creed said.

“When it’s built in Connecticut, it will cater to not just Connecticut, but new England veterans in general,” said Tari Marshall-Day, president of the Meriden Rotary Club.

John Gopoian, of Meriden, said the cause struck home for him. He is a father of four, and all have served or are planning to serve in the military. In 2010, his son Nathan Gopoian was injured on his first tour in Afghanistan when explosives hit his vehicle. He suffered severe burns on his body and recovered in Texas. Gopoian said he was grateful because his wife and he were able to stay in a Fisher House to be by their son’s side as he recovered.

“We lived there like our own home for an entire month,” he said. “You pick up from home and come live there.”