Fisher Houses are a ‘miracle’ and a ‘blessing’
Thank you for printing Larry Dandridge’s informative weekly articles about veterans’ benefits.
I encourage any Island News reader who is a veteran to read, or reread, last week’s article “The Miracle of Fisher House Charleston!” You might even want to cut it out and save it – just so you have it if you ever need to stay overnight in Charleston while receiving care at the Ralph H. Johnson VA Medical Center.
Fisher Houses are homes built adjacent to military and VA medical centers where the family of a veteran can stay, free of charge, while their loved one is receiving medical care. There are 96 of these magnificent homes next to military or VA medical centers throughout the continental U.S., and overseas in Hawaii, Germany, and Great Britain.
If you live in Beaufort, our nearest Fisher House is in Charleston, and when you compare the cost of a hotel room in Charleston to staying at the 16-suite Fisher House free of charge, with free transportation to and from the hospital and no-cost meals provided by volunteers, the savings are enormous!
The point of contact is the social work staff at the VA Clinic in Beaufort, or if you go to the VA Clinic in Savannah, the person to contact is your social worker at the Savannah Clinic. They will validate eligibility and put the veteran in contact with the Fisher House staff in Charleston.
If the Fisher House is fully booked, the nonprofit “Friends of Fisher House Charleston” will pay for a room in a nearby hotel until a room becomes available at the Fisher House.
Larry Dandridge calls it “a miracle,” but for any veteran or veteran’s family who has stayed at a Fisher House, they call it “a blessing.”
– Jim Weiskopf, Beaufort. Weiskopf is the Public Image Chair of the Rotary Club of Beaufort. In the interest of full disclosure, before moving to Beaufort in 2014, he was the Executive Vice President of Fisher House Foundation.
