Roaring Thunder 2008: Riding for Fisher House Wounded Warriors - Ft. Gordon. Saturday November 1, 2008. Visit the website.

Landstuhl Fisher House manager, Kathy Gregory, accepted a $650 donation from the Kaiserslautern Sunny Coyotes Volksmarching Club, President, Mike Medolo.

The membership of the club voluntarily donates $1 per volksmarche (usually 10 kilometers) which is usually about 5 a month for each member.  Our Volksmarchers go all over Europe!

What better way to take care of our own?  Most of the membership is either retired military or works for the military in some capacity, it just seems to be the natural thing to do.
We LOVE the Landstuhl Fisher House!

By Samantha L. Quigley
American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, April 4, 2008 – It was all a big joke for servicemembers and their families at Walter Reed Army Medical Center’s Fisher House yesterday when comedian Kathy Griffin came to visit.

Comedian Kathy Griffin, star of “My Life on the D List,” greets Susan Badia at Walter Reed Army Medical Center’s Fisher House III on April 3, 2008. Badia, her daughter, Kylee Ray, and her husband, Army Sgt. Jace Badia, currently are living next door at Fisher House II. Sergeant Badia is recuperating from wounds he suffered in Iraq when he was hit by a homemade bomb. Griffin visited troops and their families in the Fisher Houses and at the hospital before performing a show for the troops in the evening. Photo by Samantha L. Quigley
(Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available.
With camera crew in tow, Griffin, star of Bravo cable network’s “Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D List,” spent the morning touring the installation’s two Fisher House facilities and joking with the residents.

“I had to get a pass to come out here so I could see Kathy Griffin,” said Army Cpl. Nicholas Joseph McCauley. “I heard about her; she seemed cool, and my buddy … who lost his leg in September kind of figured he’d show me around, make me smile, cheer me up a little bit.”

McCauley is recovering from a head injury suffered March 23 in Iraq. Getting out of the hospital, where he’d been for two days, and verbally sparring with Griffin about his tattoos, a salty take on an Irish phrase, seemed to give McCauley the boost he needed.

“(She’s) the first person I’ve ever met that’s famous,” he said. “It’s pretty cool. I get to be on TV, I guess. It’s not cool being on TV in a wheelchair, but I’m alive.”

Army Spc. Michael Brown, a below-the-knee amputee who’s living at Fisher House with his wife and 14-month-old daughter, agreed.

“It’s definitely a cool thing to tell your friends about when you go home,” he said. “It’s definitely a morale booster for everybody that’s here.

“You get so run down with appointments every day and the daily grind,” Brown continued. “Something like this is good to have, a break … (to) find out what’s actually going on elsewhere.”

Amanda Poppenhouse, whose husband, Army Cpl. Adam Poppenhouse, is recovering from a recent leg amputation, said celebrity visits aren’t uncommon, and most of the visitors take a real interest in the families.

“We had a wrestler come (from World Wrestling Entertainment), Mankind, I think is his name,” she said. “We met him like two or three times, and he recognizes us, calls us by name. He’s really cool.”

She said visits by stars can offer an outlet for servicemembers and their spouses to talk and tell their stories.

Servicemembers and their families soon will have a huge audience to listen to their stories thanks to Griffin, who is planning to turn her visit into an episode for her show. She discovered just how many people are interested in troops’ stories when an episode of her show featured her tour to entertain troops overseas.

“Doing our silly little reality show, we got the most response we’ve ever gotten from the episode where I went and performed in Iraq,” Griffin said. “I got lots and lots of e-mails, ‘How are the guys doing?’ That was an interesting insight to something.

“So often you hear about these men and women and they’re just numbers … on the news, and it’s a news story that’s 90 seconds and then it’s on to what starlet was drunk and flashing,” she quipped.

Griffin said the combination of her audience’s reaction to her episode from Iraq and some stories last year about conditions at Walter Reed made her want to show her audience a bigger picture. She wants to make sure her viewers understand the facility and the people there, and Bravo agreed.

“I felt really passionately about doing an episode here,” Griffin said. “What I think is important about today, what’s so great about Fisher House and coming here, is it really humanizes the numbers we see on the news.”

Griffin was working to carry out a secondary mission as well: to make the servicemembers and their families laugh.

“That’s all I know how to do,” she said. “I think everybody needs a laugh and especially at a time like this.

“I just really, really hope I can provide them a good chuckle,” she said before leaving to spend her afternoon with patients in the hospital and her evening performing a stand-up comedy show.

The episode of her show featuring Walter Reed is expected to air in late summer.

The Fisher House Foundation is a supporter of America Supports You, a Defense Department program connecting citizens and companies with servicemembers and their families serving at home and abroad.

July 15, 2007 was the 4th Annual Rally for the Troops at Destination Harley Davidson in Tacoma, Washington.

View pictures at: http://photos.destinationharley.com/gallery/3149298_qS8CK#P-1-9

Members of Troop 122, Lewis Memorial Evans, stopped by the Fisher House on 31 May 2008. They painted and stained the picnic tables and did some beautification by replacing normal bricks with 16” pavers at the meditation area and placing weed barriers. Thanks to the following for their work and support of the Fisher House.

1. Collin Gibson (Scout Project Leader)
2. Ian Peterson (Scout)
3. Jake Daines (Scout)
4. Eric Peterson (Scout)
5. Ross Weglarz (Scout)
6. Andy Gibson (Project Overseer)
7. John Daines (Scout Awards Chair)
8. Orita Weglarz (Charter Chair)
9. Walt Peterson

Thanks to Scout Pack 74 for building an donating a picnic table for the Fisher House. And Thanks to Girl Scout Troop 511 for eight (8)cases of girl scout cookies. On 19 May 2008 Both of these groups made a special trip from Sandersville, Georgia, together to the Fort Gordon Fisher House to deliver these items, they also donated some children’s dvd’s.

Wal-Mart Associates from Distribution Centers (6055,6061 and 68100) from Monroe, Statesboro, and Douglas Georgia came to the Fort Gordon Fisher House and had a cook-out on Memorial Day for the Fisher House Families. Individuals and Service Members from the Warrior in Transition Battalion and the Active Duty Rehab from the Charlie Norwood Uptown VA where also invited to the cook-out. Attached are some pictures of the event. The Wal-Mart DC’s also presented a check to the Fisher House for $13,200 at the cook-out and present for that where WalMart Associates, BG Bradshaw (SERMC/DDEAMC Commander) and COL Tucker-Harris (CHIEF, Department Of Social Work), And Mr. Cruz (Fisher House Manager). Thanks to the following individuals from Wal-Mart DC’s for their support on Memorial Day and making it an eventful day.

1. Mr. Jim Lawson DC 6055 Monroe, Ga.
2. Mr. Marco Gonzalez DC 6055 Monroe, Ga.
3. Mr. Rick Gray DC 6055 Monroe, Ga.
4. Mr. Steve Martin DC 6055 Monroe, Ga.
5. Mr. Ricky Knight DC 6061 Statesboro, Ga.
6. Mr. James Smith DC 6810 Douglas, Ga.
7. Mr. Brian Lee DC 6810 Douglas, Ga.
8. Mrs. Patty Abell DC 6055 Monroe, Ga.
9. Mr. Tim Smith DC 6055 Monroe, Ga.
10 Sonia Reiner-Smith DC 6055 Monroe, Ga.
11.Brianna Smith DC 6055 Monroe, Ga.

Tripler docs, nurses, chaplain make a difference! Tripler Chaplain Chip Wilson and his family, along with a group of doctors, nurses and family members all spent Easter Sunday at Tripler’s Fisher House preparing a wonderful Easter dinner. Everyone enjoyed fellowship with the residents along with a phenomenal meal. After dinner the children were treated to an Easter Egg Hunt around the house.

Soldiers were from C/1-62 ADA

Airlift Tankers Association (ATA) decorating the house for Christmas. These ladies and gentlemen have volunteered their time for the past couple of years.