Wednesday’s ribbon-cutting ceremony was not the first time Theresa Mason has been in a Fisher House. It probably won’t be her last.
Mason had several stays in a Fisher House while her husband, an Army veteran who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, was undergoing spinal cord treatment in Seattle.
She was on Vancouver’s Veterans Affairs campus Wednesday for the dedication of the newest Fisher House.
“I wanted to participate in something that has meant so much,” Mason said. “It’s a fulfilling moment.”
Did You Know?
• On any given night, about 935 families stay in 69 Fisher Houses near military and VA medical centers.
• The biggest single donation to the local Fisher House came from the Enterprise Rent-A-Car Foundation. Business founder Jack Taylor, a World War II Navy pilot, named it in honor of an aircraft carrier he served aboard — the USS Enterprise.
And when Mason returns, it will be as a volunteer.
“I want to be a part of it,” said Mason, whose husband, Michael, died in 2013. “If I can bring a smile to someone’s face, that’s all I want.”
The program provides a home away from home for families of military personnel or veterans receiving medical care. With temporary free lodging, families can be close to the military and VA medical centers treating their loved ones.
Being close also means family members can be part of that treatment.
“You play an active role,” said Mason, a resident of Beaverton, Ore. She was able to be at her husband’s side, and “12 hours a day was not uncommon.”
David Coker, president of the Fisher House Foundation, said he has heard a lot of these stories from family members.
One was the wife of an injured Navy SEAL; doctors were trying to “recalibrate his brain,” Coker said.
“She started every day asking him, ‘What did we do last night?’ ” Depending on his answer, she knew if he was doing OK that morning or had lost two weeks, Coker said.
Tracy and Teresa Phillips of Washougal were at the ceremony to represent the family of Sgt. John Kyle Daggett. Their nephew was mortally wounded in Iraq in 2008. The foundation established in Daggett’s memory made a $10,000 donation to the Fisher House Foundation.
After the ceremony, Tracy Phillips made a $1,089.97 donation from another fund to Coker, who was the foundation’s first employee in 1994.
While Daggett’s family didn’t stay in a Fisher House when he was hospitalized, they benefited from another program. The U.S. military flew immediate members of the family to the hospital, but there wasn’t transportation for everyone who wanted to be there. The Fisher House Foundation provided Hero Miles for them.
That program relies on people who donate their frequent-flier miles, said Kerri Childress, foundation spokeswoman.
The house was built by the Fisher House Foundation and it was donated to the VA Portland Health Care System, which will manage the facility, during the ceremony. Value of the donation is estimated at $6 million.
Since the Vancouver campus has a lot more open space than Portland’s VA campus adjoining Oregon Health & Science University, the site just across from Clark College on Fort Vancouver Way was chosen for the Fisher House.
“The Portland VA has been looking forward to this sort of facility for 37 years,” said Todd Burnett, acting director of the Portland VA system.
The Vancouver facility is scheduled to welcome its first guests Monday, manager Barbara Decoito said.
At 13,500 square feet, the house will have suites for 16 families. It is expected to provide free lodging for about 500 families a year.
