thedrifter
12-01-08, 07:36 AM
$5M oasis for war wounded to open at Fort Sam
By Michelle Roberts - The Associated Press
Posted : Saturday Nov 29, 2008 14:30:03 EST
SAN ANTONIO — Judith Markelz has relied on volunteers for years to help the war wounded and their families. They’ve brought meals, DVDs, event tickets and an endless supply of cookies to help comfort those whose lives are suddenly upended by a bomb or a bullet.
So when a new volunteer, Les Huffman, arrived at the chaotic 1,000-square-foot room used for the Warrior and Family Support Center in January 2007 and asked what Markelz needed, the program manager said a new video game system.
But Huffman, the president of a small commercial development firm, wanted to do more. And when Markelz conceded she could use a little more room, that’s what she got: a $5 million building designed like a Texas Hill Country home with a therapeutic garden, classroom, video game room and kitchen — all paid for by private donations. It’s the first center of its kind built on an Army post.
“I asked for an Xbox 360 and I got a 12,500 square-foot building,” she laughs. “Nice trade-off.”
Markelz gets the keys to the new place, built at Fort Sam Houston, on Monday.
The original support center opened five years ago and was expected to just offer a couple of activities a month and provide a small place for the wounded to hang out so they wouldn’t stay in their cramped barracks all the time.
But as the fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan dragged on, the number of severely wounded service members grew. Brooke Army Medical Center at Fort Sam has the Army’s only burn unit and a large amputee rehabilitation program, meaning many of the wounded are there for the long haul.
Their family members — usually wives or mothers — often drop everything when they get the call that their spouse or child is wounded and arrive in San Antonio overwhelmed. They forget diapers for their infants, don’t have more than a couple of changes of clothes and don’t have any way of getting around the city.
“I had a lady get off the plane with two left shoes,” Markelz said. “When you get that phone call, rational is not what you are.”
But even after the immediate panic, the families have other needs. Sometimes, spouses need education or job skills, and they often need the diversion of crafts, meals and outings, Markelz said.
The 59-year-old retired teacher and her three-member staff have been working with volunteers to provide all that in the overflowing conference room of a Fort Sam hotel. They’ve logged 264,000 visits from service members and their relatives in the last five years.
But the new building gives them a lot more space and the ability to do things the cramped room didn’t.
A large kitchen will allow families to cook. A barbecue pavilion sits near a garden built for relaxation and therapy. A classroom will offer graduation equivalency diploma classes and other skills. A high-end game room designed by a couple of the wounded servicemen will allow for video game tournaments and movie nights.
A soaring 18-foot metal sculpture of butterflies — a symbol of hope that a group of the burn center mothers adopted — swirls up over the fireplace; it was designed by one of the wounded soldiers.
“It doesn’t look like anything the Army has ever built,” Markelz said.
Cash donations to the Returning Heroes Home, the nonprofit Huffman Developments set up to oversee the project, were supplemented by subcontractors eager to give their time and by suppliers willing to give materials for free or at steep discounts.
“Whenever we’ve needed anything, things have just come together,” said Beverly Lamoureux, the Huffman Developments executive vice president who helped oversee the design and building of the new center.
Huffman, a local developer with just 10 employees, mostly builds medical and dental offices. It had never built for the Army before and wanted the center to feel like a Hill Country lodge, with a limestone facade and rustic Lone Star-themed fixtures.
But the support center also had to comply with Army building codes, so blast resistant windows were installed, energy efficiency rules were followed and reclaimed beams from a Naval base were used, Lamoureux said.
“It’s just our way to say thank you,” she said. “I don’t think there will be a project I’ll ever be involved in that will mean as much to me.”
Huffman and the Returning Heroes Home just got permission from the Army to do more. Seven acres off the back of the garden will be developed into a park space, with an amphitheater and barbecue areas. It’ll also include trails that therapists can use to work with new prosthetic wearers and other wounded service members.
Markelz is ecstatic to get moved into the new building before the holidays. A Jewish group will provide a big Christmas dinner, as it does every year for the wounded and their families who can’t go elsewhere. The staff and volunteers will make sure the wounded service members, especially the ones here without family, get gifts and a sense of family.
“I can guarantee, Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus,” Markelz said, borrowing a line from a famous 1897 New York Sun editorial. “That much I have learned.”
Ellie
By Michelle Roberts - The Associated Press
Posted : Saturday Nov 29, 2008 14:30:03 EST
SAN ANTONIO — Judith Markelz has relied on volunteers for years to help the war wounded and their families. They’ve brought meals, DVDs, event tickets and an endless supply of cookies to help comfort those whose lives are suddenly upended by a bomb or a bullet.
So when a new volunteer, Les Huffman, arrived at the chaotic 1,000-square-foot room used for the Warrior and Family Support Center in January 2007 and asked what Markelz needed, the program manager said a new video game system.
But Huffman, the president of a small commercial development firm, wanted to do more. And when Markelz conceded she could use a little more room, that’s what she got: a $5 million building designed like a Texas Hill Country home with a therapeutic garden, classroom, video game room and kitchen — all paid for by private donations. It’s the first center of its kind built on an Army post.
“I asked for an Xbox 360 and I got a 12,500 square-foot building,” she laughs. “Nice trade-off.”
Markelz gets the keys to the new place, built at Fort Sam Houston, on Monday.
The original support center opened five years ago and was expected to just offer a couple of activities a month and provide a small place for the wounded to hang out so they wouldn’t stay in their cramped barracks all the time.
But as the fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan dragged on, the number of severely wounded service members grew. Brooke Army Medical Center at Fort Sam has the Army’s only burn unit and a large amputee rehabilitation program, meaning many of the wounded are there for the long haul.
Their family members — usually wives or mothers — often drop everything when they get the call that their spouse or child is wounded and arrive in San Antonio overwhelmed. They forget diapers for their infants, don’t have more than a couple of changes of clothes and don’t have any way of getting around the city.
“I had a lady get off the plane with two left shoes,” Markelz said. “When you get that phone call, rational is not what you are.”
But even after the immediate panic, the families have other needs. Sometimes, spouses need education or job skills, and they often need the diversion of crafts, meals and outings, Markelz said.
The 59-year-old retired teacher and her three-member staff have been working with volunteers to provide all that in the overflowing conference room of a Fort Sam hotel. They’ve logged 264,000 visits from service members and their relatives in the last five years.
But the new building gives them a lot more space and the ability to do things the cramped room didn’t.
A large kitchen will allow families to cook. A barbecue pavilion sits near a garden built for relaxation and therapy. A classroom will offer graduation equivalency diploma classes and other skills. A high-end game room designed by a couple of the wounded servicemen will allow for video game tournaments and movie nights.
A soaring 18-foot metal sculpture of butterflies — a symbol of hope that a group of the burn center mothers adopted — swirls up over the fireplace; it was designed by one of the wounded soldiers.
“It doesn’t look like anything the Army has ever built,” Markelz said.
Cash donations to the Returning Heroes Home, the nonprofit Huffman Developments set up to oversee the project, were supplemented by subcontractors eager to give their time and by suppliers willing to give materials for free or at steep discounts.
“Whenever we’ve needed anything, things have just come together,” said Beverly Lamoureux, the Huffman Developments executive vice president who helped oversee the design and building of the new center.
Huffman, a local developer with just 10 employees, mostly builds medical and dental offices. It had never built for the Army before and wanted the center to feel like a Hill Country lodge, with a limestone facade and rustic Lone Star-themed fixtures.
But the support center also had to comply with Army building codes, so blast resistant windows were installed, energy efficiency rules were followed and reclaimed beams from a Naval base were used, Lamoureux said.
“It’s just our way to say thank you,” she said. “I don’t think there will be a project I’ll ever be involved in that will mean as much to me.”
Huffman and the Returning Heroes Home just got permission from the Army to do more. Seven acres off the back of the garden will be developed into a park space, with an amphitheater and barbecue areas. It’ll also include trails that therapists can use to work with new prosthetic wearers and other wounded service members.
Markelz is ecstatic to get moved into the new building before the holidays. A Jewish group will provide a big Christmas dinner, as it does every year for the wounded and their families who can’t go elsewhere. The staff and volunteers will make sure the wounded service members, especially the ones here without family, get gifts and a sense of family.
“I can guarantee, Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus,” Markelz said, borrowing a line from a famous 1897 New York Sun editorial. “That much I have learned.”
Ellie