WOCC graduates donate to Fisher House Foundation

By Shadi May, Contributing WriterMarch 13, 2015

WOCC graduates donate to Fisher House Foundation
(Photo Credit: U.S. Army) VIEW ORIGINAL

FORT RUCKER, Ala. (March 13, 2015) -- The recent graduates of Warrant Officer Intermediate Level Education Class 15-005 made a donation of more than $1,100 to the Fisher House Foundation.

Traditionally, professional military education classes donate money to local or national charities to help make a difference in their missions. The students come up with a list of charities and they decide on the one with the majority of the class votes.

"I believe in the Fisher House Foundation because it supports not just the Soldiers but also their families during tough times," said CW4 Robert Hembrook, a February WOILE Class graduate and class operations officer. "I convinced my classmates to go with the Fisher House because it spends its largest percentage of their donations serving military and veterans' families. We collected an attractive sum of money for a class of 56 students, so we wanted to make sure we would give it all back to our own."

The Fisher House Foundation is most known for the free homes or lodging it provides the military and veterans' families while their loved ones receive medical care, but it also operates other programs such as the Hero Miles program, which gives donated frequent flyer miles to bring family members to the bedside of injured service members, and the Hotel for Heroes program, which provides donated hotel points to allow family members to stay at hotels near medical centers free of charge. In addition, it also supports other military charities to include scholarships for military children, spouses and children of fallen and disabled veterans.

"We have received donations from other military schools, such as the Army War College and the Army Non-Commissioned Officer Academy, but this is the first time we have received a donation from the Army Warrant Officer Career College," said Mary Considine, Fisher House Foundation Headquarters chief of staff.

Donating money or goods to help out local or national charities is an integral part of many military PME schools. The effort is intended to unite students, who are from Army active duty, Reserve and National Guard, for a common cause, and doing something above and beyond the academic requirements.

"The course we attended was about leadership, and it is a fundamental concept of successful leadership to take care of your troops and their families, so we thought taking care of our own military families by donating to the Fisher House would be the best use of our money," added Hembrook, who is the Army Reserve Cyber Operations Group's command chief warrant officer in Adelphi, Maryland.

For more information on the Fisher House Foundation, visit www.fisherhouse.org and for more information on Army Warrant Officer Career College, visit http://usacac.army.mil/organizations/lde/wocc.

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