Fisher House at Dayton VA on schedule to open this summer

A rendering shows the Fisher House that will be built at the Dayton VA Medical Center. Below, a photo taken early this week showing the progress on the house.

The new Fisher House near the Dayton VA Medical Center will house families of patients undergoing treatment at the Dayton VA Medical Center as soon as this fall.

Construction of the 3,500 square foot facility, located in front of the Colonel Harris Building, at 4100 W. 3rd Street, is on schedule.

The home, with its 16 bedrooms plus other amenities, will be able to host 16 families at a time. Dayton VA officials expect the house to host about 500 families a year.

The $6.5 million project broke ground Oct. 23, 2017 and was privately funded with the support of Fisher-Nightingale Houses, Inc., and a $1.075 million donation from local real estate developer Randy Gunlock and his wife, Vicki. More than $650,000 was also raised by the local community. Cardinal Health, a Dublin-based pharmaceutical wholesaler, also donated $812,000 at the groundbreaking ceremony.

The Fisher-Nightingale Houses are dedicated to providing an opportunity for military families to stay together and support each other when a loved one is undergoing medical treatment. The Fisher Houses provide physical and emotional support to our servicemen and servicewomen.

The house will be the third in the Dayton area and the only one located near the Dayton VA. The other two homes are on Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. They offer where military & veterans families a place to stay free of charge, while a service member or veteran is in the hospital.

These homes are located near military and VA medical centers around the world.

According to the national Fisher House Foundation website, since inception, the program has saved military and veterans’ families an estimated $407 million in out of pocket costs for lodging and transportation.

The national Fisher House Foundation also operates the Hero Miles program, using donated frequent flyer miles to bring family members to the bedside of injured service members as well as the Hotels for Heroes program using donated hotel points to allow family members to stay at hotels near medical centers without charge.