Conference Charity - Fisher House

Conference Charity:

“Help Our Heroes in Their Time of Need”

    

SASFAA will collect donations during the conference to support a Zachary and Elizabeth Fisher House in Mississippi. Built in 1992, The Zachary and Elizabeth Fisher House is a compassionate-care facility, located on Keesler AFB (Biloxi, Mississippi) within walking distance of the hospital. The house provides a comfortable place to stay, serving patients and families from all branches of the military and veterans receiving active treatment at the Keesler Hospital and the Biloxi Veterans Administration Medical Campus. Guests must live outside a 50-mile radius of the hospital. Availability of rooms is provided on a space- available basis. Custom-built houses that are typically between 5,000-16,000 square feet, and feature 8 to 21 guest suites.

The intent was, and still is, to provide home-like accommodations. Operating costs are underwritten by nominal guest fees and by contributions to the non-profit Fisher House of Keesler, Inc., a Mississippi 501(C)3 tax-exempt corporation.

Our hope is that with enough donations, we can reduce or eliminate guest fees altogether in the future.

The Fisher House Foundation awards annual scholarships for military children. In 2014-2015, they awarded $1.2 million in scholarships.

Conference attendees will have the opportunity to provide support to the Fisher House in the following ways:

1.                  Each state will have a basket of goodies for a raffle.  Attendees can purchase tickets to place in the state basket collection box.  On Wednesday morning, at the closing session, the winning ticket will be pulled.  Tickets can be purchased for $1.00 each, $5.00 for six or $10.00 for twelve.  We will conduct a 50/50 raffle from the tickets purchased during the conference.

2.                  We are seeking items for a silent auction donated by SASFAA members.  Members can bid on these items throughout the conference, with the final bids concluding after the end of Tuesday’s concurrent sessions.  The winners will be announced on Wednesday morning.

3.                  The Local Arrangements Committee will have a booth in the vendor area where attendees can donate personal care items such as: shampoo, shavers, combs, lotions, soap, deodorant, etc. The items will be donated locally to the Fort Bragg: Womack Army Medical Center’s Fisher House. Representatives from Ft. Bragg and the Medical Center will be present.

4.                  SASFAA members not attending the conference can support the Fisher House Foundation online at: https://www.fisherhouse.org/ways-to-give/