CAMP PENDLETON — A crowd of dozens of civilians and military gathered this morning for the groundbreaking of Camp Pendleton’s Fisher House.
The $2.65 million project is intended to provide free temporary housing for families traveling from across the country to visit wounded Marines getting medical care at the Naval Hospital Camp Pendleton.
Construction of the 8,000 square-foot lodging is estimated to take six months and be completed in time for a ribbon cutting on Memorial Day next year.
The eight-suite house sits next to the base’s new Naval Hospital Camp Pendleton, with a view of the ocean, and is expected to serve more than 280 families a year.
Two similar Fisher Houses are at the Naval Medical Center San Diego near Balboa Park and are almost always full, according to Derek Donovan, vice president of community relations for Fisher House.
The new house will also provide housing for families of Marines receiving treatment at San Diego and living at Camp Pendleton.
The groundbreaking was hosted by Brig. Gen. Joaquin Malavet, Deputy Commanding General, I Marine Expeditionary Force, who was one of the speakers along with Capt. Mark Kobelja, Camp Pendleton Navy Hospital Commanding Officer, John Mateczun, M.D., president, UnitedHealthcare Military & Veterans and Donovan.
Construction of the Camp Pendleton Fisher House is funded by the United Health Foundation, a private nonprofit set on improving health care. This is the first Fisher House built through the support of a single donor, Donovan said.
The nonprofit Fisher House Foundation based in Rockville Maryland, operates a network of 64 houses at 49 locations across the country where service members’ families can stay at no cost while a loved one is receiving medical treatment.
The homes are located at major military and VA medical centers and have up to 21 suites, with private bedrooms and baths. Families share a common kitchen, dining and living rooms and laundry facilities.
Camp Pendleton’s Fisher House will be piloting a new child care program. Military families staying at the house can get free child care at the base’s Zach and Elizabeth Fisher Child Development Center, through a grant from the United Health Foundation’s Caregiver Support Program.
The Foundation builds Fisher Houses at locations prioritized and put on a list by the Surgeons General of the services. Camp Pendleton was on the list. When the Fisher House opened at Camp Lejeune, Gen. James Amos, the commandant of the Marine Corps at the time, remarked that it would be good to have a Fisher House for Marines at Pendleton and Ken Fisher, chairman of the foundation assured him it would happen.
Since the Fisher House Foundation opened its first two houses in 1991, the nonprofit has served more than 220,000 families and saved them an estimated $235 million in out of pocket costs for lodging and transportation.
The foundation runs the Hero Miles program, using donated frequent flier miles to get family members to the bedside of injured service members along with Hotels for Heroes using donated hotel points for military families to stay at hotels near medical centers.
Zachary and Elizabeth Fisher formed the foundation with the idea that “A Family’s Love is Good Medicine” and the goal of bringing military family members to loved ones, even if they couldn’t afford to get there on their own.
