ABOUT KATE MELCHER:
Kate Melcher began her career in a research and speech writing position with the Supreme Court of the United States. Later, she would serve in the US Senate, as senior staff to three different US Senators.
In the years following 9/11, she left the Senate to enlist in the Army. She became an Apache Helicopter pilot, and a Legislative Liaison Officer for the US Army National Guard. Ms. Melcher is a seasoned military, non-profit, and private sector professional, with a passion for public service.
Since moving home to Michigan in 2017, she has had the privilege of serving as Executive Director for Fisher House Michigan. In this role, she and the FHM Board of Directors are responsible for raising funds and awareness to support Fisher Houses in Michigan. Additionally, she serves in leadership roles in other organizations promoting Veteran welfare, including Region 9 Veteran Community Action Team, Association of the United States Army, Women in Defense - Michigan, Veterans Radio America, and the Washtenaw County Veterans Affairs Committee.
Among her awards and accolades for her service, Governor Snyder named Kate the 2018 Michigan Veteran of the Year. The Daughters of the American Revolution named her an Outstanding Woman in American History, and in 2023, she was named Veteran of Distinction by the City of Detroit.
RESOURCES:
Fisher House Michigan on Facebook
Fisher House Michigan on LinkedIn
Fisher House Michigan on Instagram
TRANSCRIPTION:
Decky Alexander: This is 89.1 WEMU, and welcome to our weekly conversation on equity and opportunity in our county and in our community. I'm three episodes in as the new host, Decky Alexander, and I'm honored still and always to welcome you to this week's edition of Washtenaw United. When we talk about equity and opportunities in Washtenaw County, we often look at housing and education and employment. True equity also means removing the hidden structural barriers to healthcare. Right here in Ann Arbor, we have a world-class VA medical center, but world-class doesn't mean much if a family living 60 miles away can't afford a $200 a night hotel room to be at their veteran's bedside during a medical crisis. This is where Fisher House of Michigan steps in. By providing 100% cost-free lodging, they ensure that a family's financial status never dictates their ability to support a loved one through the toughest battles of their life. Today, we're talking about why caring for our caregivers is the ultimate form of community support. Welcome Kate Melcher, retired Army Captain and Executive Director of the Fisher House Board of Ann Arbor. Welcome!
Kate Melcher: Thank you so much for inviting me! I'm happy to be here!
Decky Alexander: So, let's start with your connection, personal and/or professional, to Fisher House.
Kate Melcher: Well, I learned about Fisher House right after I came off of active duty, believe it or not. Fortunately, no one in my unit when I was serving on active duty needed access to a Fisher House. But it was when we made a family decision for me to come off of active duty, and my husband at the time needed some medical care. And that's when we found out about Fisher house just by accident. I didn't rate staying there because we lived really close to base, but I learned that Fisher House is a home away from home for the family members and the caregivers of any service member or veteran who has to be hospitalized. On active duty, you're often stationed far from home, and family isn't always with you. So, being able to bring families together to connect them with their service member was essential as the mission started. Today, there's now actually more Fisher Houses at VA hospitals than there are on military bases, and that's because the number of veterans in this country just outpaces active duty service members by an order of magnitude. So, I'm proud to say we now have two Fisher houses here in the state of Michigan, one in Ann Arbor, one in Detroit, and these two houses are part of a network of 100 Fisher houses all over the world.
Decky Alexander: So, Kate, since you have a little bit of personal experience, tell us exactly how Fisher House works. Exactly, how do veterans and families reach out to you? Take us through a family's journey with you?
Kate Melcher: So, Fisher House is a public-private partnership, so a private non-profit like Fisher House Michigan helps raise funds, so that the Fisher House Foundation can build the Fisher House near a medical center. That's when it shifts away from being just a non-profit and actually becomes part of the government. The houses are given to the VA, given to the Department of Defense, and they become part of a healthcare system. So, unlike a hotel where you'd call up and say, "My name is Kate, and I'd like a reservation," you actually go through your doctor or your nurse or social worker, and it's part of your care plan.
Decky Alexander: Once a veteran and the family arrives at Fisher House, what does the actual support look like for them?
Kate Melcher: Support of a Fisher House is simply lodging. That is, if you go to any Fisher House in the world, you're going to be able to stay someplace for free. The benefit of staying in a Michigan Fisher House, is that my nonprofit, Fisher House Michigan, we rally donors from around the state to do even more. So, when families stay in the Fisher House in Ann Arbor, not only do they have free lodging, as long as it's medically necessary for their veteran, they also have meals. They have a stocked refrigerator. They have free local transportation if the VA has referred the veteran to University of Michigan, for example. We believe that love is good medicine. We believe that access to healthcare is essential, especially for the veterans that have earned it, and our partnership with the VA ensures that that's possible.
Decky Alexander: So, do you have more requests than space at Fisher House? I mean, particularly with our housing market here in Ann Arbor, which is pretty strained, do you enough room for the breadth of people that are wanting to attend?
Kate Melcher: So, that is a great question. I will tell you that the Detroit House is newer, and I think word is still getting out. So, we don't yet have an occupancy problem in Detroit, but we do have an occupancy problem in Ann Arbor. But I'm going to put an asterisk because I love to solve a problem. Our nonprofit, whenever there are too many requests, there are 16 private family suites, so 16 families can stay in each Fisher House on any given night, but if the VA staff gets a referral from the medical center for the 17th or 18th or 19th family, they call us at Fisher House Michigan and say, "We have an eligible family, and we don't have room. Can you help?" And my job is to figure out how to say yes. So, we've partnered with some local hotels where we have discounted rates, and we just pay for a hotel stay until there's room available in the Fisher House.
Decky Alexander: You are listening to Washtenaw United on 89.1 WEMU. I'm Decky Alexander. And today, we are talking about Fisher House with Kate Melcher. So, do you have any stories of families who could not make the journey with their family member and perhaps even the flip side? So, do have somebody that they couldn't make it and they needed other housing or the flipside?
Kate Melcher: Sure. Between the two Michigan Fisher Houses, those houses have actually served over 14,000 people, and there are that many stories to share. I will tell you that sometimes I'm so grateful for this opportunity to tell people more about Fisher House because there are veteran families that make decisions not to proceed with specialty care because they can't afford the travel. The logistical barriers from coming to Alpena down to Ann Arbor, they couldn't do it if the Fisher House didn't exist. And so, families are forced to make the decision about living with a diagnosis rather than fighting for a cure. Between Ann Arbor VA and Michigan Medicine, there's specialty services available there that aren't available in rural areas. So, that's a very real conversation that families are having. But if they know about Fisher House, they might be able to make a very different decision. There are families every week that come in that didn't know about it, and their medical care team tells them, and that's great! But we would love for your listenership to tell somebody about Fisher House because you could be changing a life--you could be saving a life. But there are 14,000 folks who have stayed in the Michigan Fisher House, and they all have stories. A lot of times, they'll write in a little leather journal that's in each of the family suites. And there's one in there where it was a couple who had just gotten married, and they were planning to travel for their honeymoon. But on the way to the airport, the veteran started having some medical issues and was rushed to emergency. Well, she moved into the Fisher House, he was being taken care of at the VA hospital, and they spent their honeymoon in the Fisher House. Obviously, it wasn't what they planned, but she was just so grateful. You know, the Fisher House is not a dormitory. It's not a barracks building with fancy curtains. When Zachary and Elizabeth Fisher started the Fisher House program, they wanted to build something worthy of our men and women in uniform. And so, that Fisher House guest actually writes that this is nicer than any hotel that we could afford to be in on our honeymoon, so it was actually a real blessing that it turned out the way that it did. We have a talented and passionate board of directors at Fisher House Michigan, and our treasurer, she's been supporting Fisher House for years. She's passionate about it. She was a Marine Corps spouse. And she and her husband were just out West in Denver. They were just going to go hiking in the mountains for their anniversary, and her husband had a medical emergency, and they took him to the VA. She was taken to the Fisher House, so that she could support him through a very scary time. And it was amazing for her to have that firsthand experience after supporting Fisher House for all of these years to really experience what it's like to sit in a dining room with other families having similar situations. She said she met a Coast Guard family, and their Coast Guardsmen was battling bone cancer and was hoping that the treatment would be successful, so that he could get back on his Harley. Every single dinner table you sit at in a Fisher House, everybody's there for the same reason, even if the medical condition is a little bit different. So, the Fisher House is lodging, it's meals, it's transportation, it's all of that. But truly, it's a brick-and-mortar support system.
Decky Alexander: You talked about how you've supported over 14,000 families and individuals. How can the Washtenaw County community support the Fisher House community?
Kate Melcher: There are tons of volunteer opportunities! And because folks are here in Washtenaw, you can actually come to the Fisher House to volunteer. You can sign up for the meal train. We have a stocked kitchen there, but there's nothing like a home-cooked meal. And if you've been bedside with your loved one all day, the last thing you want to worry about is what's for dinner. And so, we find that volunteers love to grill burgers and dogs on the back porch or make pasta or whatever you would like to make at home. Bringing that into the Fisher House is just really, really meaningful. So, there's a ton of volunteer opportunities. You can support us financially, so that we can stock the refrigerator. And because we have such a large need, we can pool resources, and we get great discounts when we work with Kroger and different grocery chains, so that the donor dollar stretches farther. But truly, giving the gift of gab is important, even veterans who stay in Washtenaw, who live in Washenaw, who think, "Well, I'll never need my family to stay in the Fisher House because my wife and I live 10 miles away." Well, maybe your children are in California or Florida, and the Fisher House would be wonderful for them. So, just because a veteran lives in Washtenaw doesn't mean that a Fisher House won't be needed. The other thing I should mention is that while a lot of things in government are very black and white, the Fisher House program can operate in the gray, which is great because it means it's a mission-based program, not a rules-based program. The rule is that families have to travel more than 50 miles to stay in a Fisher House. But if your veteran is in end-of-life care, that 50-mile rule can likely disappear. It's important for families to be together in those moments. And if that house is full, Fisher House Michigan will put that family up in a hotel.
Decky Alexander: This was Kate Melcher, Executive Director of Fisher House, our guest on Washtenaw United. Stop by our website at WEMU.org for more information. Washtenaw United is produced in partnership with the United Way for Southeastern Michigan, and you hear it every Monday. I'm Decky Alexander, and this is your community NPR station, 89.1 WEMU, Ypsilanti.
WEMU has partnered with the United Way for Southeastern Michigan to explore the people, organizations, and institutions creating opportunity and equity in our area. And, as part of this ongoing series, you’ll also hear from the people benefiting and growing from the investments being made in the areas of our community where there are gaps in available services. It is a community voice. It is 'Washtenaw United.'
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