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Celebrity Philanthropy News
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Black Tie International:
First Lady Michelle
Obama Helps Dedicate First of Three New Fisher Houses at
Bethesda Naval Medical Center
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FIRST LADY MICHELLE
OBAMA HELPS DEDICATE
FIRST OF THREE NEW
FISHER HOUSES AT
BETHESDA NAVAL
MEDICAL CENTER
Photos by: Joyce Boghosian
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First Lady
Michelle Obama |
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Mrs. Obama and Ken Fisher encounter a young member
of a
family staying in one of the Bethesda Fisher
Houses
during a brief tour on Thursday.
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Bethesda, MD (December 2, 2010) - Michelle
Obama, First Lady of the United States of
America joined Ken Fisher,
Chairman of
Fisher House Foundation and veterans and
their families to officially dedicate the first
of three new Fisher Houses – joining two others
already in operation – on the campus of the
Bethesda Naval Medical Center, Bethesda,
Maryland here today.
Each of the 16,000
sq-ft., two-story buildings will join the
network of 50 Fisher Houses operating in the
United States and Germany and will be gifted to
the military. Each house consists of 20 suites,
each with a private, handicapped-accessible
bathroom and common areas that include a
multi-cooking station kitchen, large communal
dining and family rooms.
President Obama has supported the Fisher House
Foundation on numerous occasions in the past
year. Just this month, it was announced that
the after-tax proceeds from the book “Of Thee I
Sing,” written by the President for his
daughters, would be donated to Fisher House
Foundation. Earlier this year, President Obama
donated $250,000 from his Nobel Prize award –
the largest single donation to a not-for-profit
charity from that prize – to Fisher House
Foundation, which was used to construct a Fisher
House at Dover Air Force Base in Dover,
Delaware.
Founded in 1990, the Fisher House program builds
“comfort homes” for families of wounded service
members, and other military or veteran patients,
receiving medical treatment at VA and military
hospitals around the world. Since its
inception, more than 130,000 families have
stayed at one or more Fisher Houses – saving
more than $150 million in lodging costs alone.
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The Fisher House™
program is a unique private-public partnership that
supports America's military in their time of need.
Because members of the military and their families
are stationed worldwide and must often travel great
distances for specialized medical care, Fisher
House™ Foundation donates "comfort homes," built on
the grounds of major military and VA medical
centers. These homes enable family members to be
close to a loved one at the most stressful times -
during the hospitalization for an unexpected
illness, disease, or injury. There is at least one
Fisher House™ at every major military medical center
to assist families in need and to ensure that they
are provided with the comforts of home in a
supportive environment. Annually, the Fisher House™
program helps 13,000 families and has made more than
three million days of lodging available to family
members since it originated in 1990
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