FEBRUARY 2 • 2023 | 13

JWV SUPPORTS 
NEW FISHER 
HOUSE DETROIT

ALAN MUSKOVITZ

The Detroit VA Healthcare 
System has acquired 
property in Detroit for the 
site of a new Fisher House, 
which will provide temporary 
accommodations, free of charge, 
for the families and caregivers of 
veterans and active-duty military 
receiving care at the John D. Dingell 
VA Medical Center. 
The property, located at 7618 
Woodward Ave. in Detroit’s New 
Center area, is the former site of 
Lelli’s Steakhouse. 
The 20-suite VA Detroit Fisher 
House will include private bedrooms 
and baths. Families will share a 
common kitchen, laundry facilities, 
a warm dining room and an inviting 
living room.
The Jewish War Veterans Dept. of 
Michigan (JWV) has been a longtime 
supporter of Fisher House Michigan, 
which includes the already existing 
house that serves the families in the 
care of the Ann Arbor VA Medical 
Center.
Fisher Houses are constructed 
by the Fisher House Foundation 
on government land (military bases 
or VA facilities). Upon completion, 
the house will be donated to the 
Department of Veterans Affairs with 
the VA overseeing the operation and 
staffing of the residence. The new 
house will join almost 100 existing 
Fisher Houses located at military and 
VA facilities across the U.S., the U.K. 
and Germany.
“Fisher House Foundation is 

proud to partner with Fisher House 
Michigan to bring this vital resource 
to the community,” said Ken Fisher, 
chairman and CEO of Fisher House 
Foundation. “The people and 
organizations of Detroit have already 
shown what a wonderful community 
this will be for the new Fisher House.”
“We’ve been looking forward to this 
announcement since 2018, and we 
are grateful for financial support from 
Detroiters and Michiganders from 
every county in our state,” said Kate 
Melcher, executive director of Fisher 
House Michigan. “Their support will 
be life-changing for the thousands of 
veteran guest families who will stay 
for years to come.”
Last summer, Melcher was on the 
receiving end of a $6,000 check 
presentation by the JWV Dept. of 
Michigan.
“The Fisher House will provide 
not only a temporary home, but also 
that needed emotional support its 
residents require as they attend 
to the needs of their loved ones,” 
said Fisher House Adviser and 
Commander of Post 135 of the JWV, 
Donald Schenk. “After all, as the 
Fisher House motto states, ‘a family’s 
love is good medicine.’” 

Those interested in supporting this project can find 

more information at www.fisherhousemichigan.org.

directors. Fisher House Foundation builds 
comfort homes where military and veterans’ 
families can stay free of charge while a loved 
one is in the hospital. (See sidebar.)
In his invocation, Chaplain Christopher 
Biggins of the Dept. of Veterans Affairs 
spoke of how the entry to the Guy Stern 
Welcoming Center will “become a gateway 
to greater healing, purity, camaraderie and 
joy.
” 
In her remarks, Ann Arbor VA Medical 
Center Director Dr. Ginny Creasman spoke 
of Stern’s “selflessness and service to some-
thing greater than himself” and in officially 
naming the Guy Stern Welcoming Center 
she said: “Now, and for many years to come, 
when veterans walk into our facility, the first 
fellow-veteran who will greet them is Guy 
Stern.
”
Retired Army Brigadier General Donald 
Schenk, Commander of Michigan’s JWV 
Lt. Raymond Zussman Post 135, honored 
his dear friend and spoke of how a welcome 
center was so befitting Stern’s name. 
“
All you have to do is look at that wel-
coming infectious smile of his, hear his 
warm hellos and gaze into that ever-present 
twinkle in his eye, that is always searching 
for light wherever there is darkness,
” said 
Schenk. “He is the consummate welcoming 
man and his wife, Susanna, the consum-
mate welcoming woman. It is our hope that 
this welcome center, which we dedicated in 
Guy’s honor on the eve of his second cen-
tury of life, lives up to his memory and his 
legacy as a soldier, as mensch and as a loyal 
American Veteran.
” 
After the official dedication, everyone 
within reach of Guy Stern wanted to take a 
picture with him, folks who Schenk earlier 
referred to in his remarks as “Guenther’s 
Groupies.
” Guenther is Guy’s given name.
Doctors and nurses who manage Stern’s 
care at the VA were among the well-wishers 
who affectionately greeted him. It was a 
tremendously heartwarming scene that fit-
tingly concluded with the following remarks 
by Stern about the VA Medical Center: “It 
is in this atmosphere I feel so fulfilled; I feel 
so at ease. This is my home. And there is a 
line from a song about the U.S. armed ser-
vices and it says, ‘This was, and is, and will 
be worth fighting for.
’ I am proud to have 
received this gift you have bestowed upon 
me.
”

A rendering of the Detroit 
Fisher House

The JWV of Michigan donated $6,000 toward the new 
Fisher House.

continued on page 14

