First-ever children’s museum on a military base gets top service award

The one kids’s museum positioned on a navy base is that this 12 months’s main winner within the 2024 Fisher Service Award competitors.

The Youngsters’s Museum at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Washington, is “a vivid spot of coloration in a sea of khaki,” mentioned Tanya Durand, govt director of Greentrike, the mum or dad group in Tacoma, on the Oct. 23 award ceremony in Arlington, Va. The museum gives excess of artistic play and studying for navy kids and their adults, she mentioned, offering a means for kids to reconnect with their dad and mom after deployments, and a gathering house for households.

It’s certainly one of 5 nonprofits that obtained a mixed whole of $400,000 for his or her work to assist navy members, veterans and their households. The museum obtained $100,000; 4 different wide-ranging nonprofits obtained $75,000 every.

“When these awards are positioned within the fingers of those organizations, they achieve energy to rework these {dollars} right into a measurable influence throughout the navy neighborhood now and into the long run,” mentioned Military Lt. Gen. Douglas A. Sims II, director for the Joint Employees, talking on the ceremony.

The awards are sponsored by the Fisher Home Basis and the Army Occasions Basis. Along with their particular person financial awards, every nonprofit obtained an promoting package deal valued at $50,000 donated by the Army Occasions Basis.

Since this program started in 1999 because the Newman’s Personal Awards, it has awarded greater than $3.4 million throughout 210 nonprofit organizations.

“We imagine the navy does an incredible job with every little thing they’re approved to do. However what they’re approved to do and what a household’s wants are, may be two various things,” mentioned Dave Coker, president of the Fisher Home Basis.

“On the coronary heart of what we do will all the time be our community of Fisher Homes,” he mentioned, noting that there at the moment are 98 of those consolation houses. Army and veteran households can keep without charge at these houses whereas a cherished one is receiving therapy at a close-by navy or Veterans Affairs hospital.

Because the Fisher Home program grew, he mentioned, they realized they couldn’t be all issues to all individuals. So that they have challenged different nonprofits working of their communities to establish an issue, clarify how they might be a part of the answer, and compete for funding.

“I really like how, by means of this program, we discover others, each organizations and leaders, as passionate and devoted to supporting the navy neighborhood as we’re,” Coker mentioned. “The 5 organizations we honor in the present day are proof of that.”

This 12 months’s winners have been chosen from a pool of greater than 515 entries. Many spouses of present and former senior navy leaders have been among the many 11 judges, to incorporate Gina Allvin, Patty George, Christine Grady, Kelly Hokanson, LyndaLee Lunday, Ann Morrison, Jennifer Saltzman and others.

The winners

The Youngsters’s Museum at Joint Base Lewis-McChord’s $100,000 award will go towards operations of the museum, mentioned Durand, the Greentrike govt director. The museum, which opened in 2021, operates with “pay as you’ll” admission, which means that persons are “gently invited to contribute to the museum,” she mentioned. “That doesn’t come near protecting what it prices me to function the ability,” she advised Army Occasions. This admission mannequin permits the museum to remove monetary boundaries and supply entry for everybody.

The interactive reveals enable adults and youngsters to play and be taught collectively, and one profit is that it helps service members reconnect with their kids after getting back from deployments, Durand mentioned. As well as, she mentioned, virtually on daily basis workers members inform her they’ve seen a toddler face-timing a mum or dad.

There’s a JBLM bus cease outdoors the museum, and it’s additionally subsequent to the navy change. Some troopers meet their households on the museum throughout lunch time. “We’re not removed from the lodge, which is necessary,” Durand mentioned, due to the size of time households spend ready for housing. The museum has a big gathering house. “They see us as their lounge. They’re bringing their children in on daily basis we’re open.”

The promoting package deal from the Army Occasions Basis can be appreciated, she mentioned, as a result of they’ll use it “to verify each household at JBLM is aware of that this exists.”

The opposite 4 winners, every receiving $75,000 are:

*HillVets Fellowship Program, Washington, D.C.: The nonprofit will use the funds to proceed their program connecting veterans, service members, and spouses with fellowships on Capitol Hill, together with offering housing which may accommodate as much as eight people, mentioned Justin Brown, founding father of HillVets. They often have about 10 to fifteen fellows. After their fellowships, HillVets helps them discover everlasting positions in authorities, coverage and past.

*Musicians on Name Veteran’s Bedside Program, Nashville, Tennessee: The funds will assist develop their applications past the seven VA hospitals the place volunteer musicians at the moment carry out, and can be used for prices of workers dealing with necessities corresponding to background checks, and coaching, mentioned Katy Epley, chief operation officer of Musicians on Name. Volunteer musicians have carried out for greater than 100,000 veterans, in individual and just about in VA hospitals nationwide.

*Cellular Service Models Serving Remoted Veterans in Mendocino and Lake Counties, California: The funds can be used to purchase one other van and outfit it with the tools wanted, in order that irrespective of the place the van goes it has Web entry, and displays, and a workers member to assist veterans get advantages and providers, mentioned Anne Fabiny, board member of the mum or dad group, Nation’s Best. The models deliver case administration providers, and telehealth providers, together with psychological well being, to veterans who might stay three hours away from the closest VA hospital.

*Stronghold Ambassador Program, Leavenworth, Kansas: The funds will assist develop their attain to alter the standard meals pantry mannequin into a worldwide motion with “ambassadors” on the bottom, mentioned Military spouse Monica Basset, founder and CEO of Stronghold Meals Pantry in Leavenworth, Kansas. These ambassadors join with navy and veteran households to debate what they want, and purchase and ship per week’s price of recent and nonperishable groceries.

The competitors has opened for the 2025 Fisher Service Award.