They fought for the country; she fights for their wounded
May 19, 2007 - 7:10AM

Two weeks ago, Karen Guenther shared the award spotlight with Sharon Stone in New York City.

She spent last weekend in California, bedside with a young U.S. Marine who’d lost both legs in the war.
That’s where the Colorado Springs woman feels most rewarded.

The nonprofit she started, the Injured Marine Semper Fi Fund, has raised $10 million in three years for combat veterans with burns, brain injuries and lost limbs.

Guenther and two Semper Fi workers were among 11 women honored by parenting magazine Cookie for contributions in the business, philanthropy and celebrity fields.

“They have taken on a vital issue that affects families nationwide, committing their time and resources to better the lives of total strangers,” Cookie editor Pilar Guzmán said of the Semper Fi trio.

Guenther started small in 2003 by collecting toothbrushes and phone cards for wounded Marines brought to the Camp Pendleton hospital, where she was a civilian nurse.

“It was a very personal experience. I knew my husband could be one,” said Guenther, whose Marine husband, Glenn, was in Iraq at the time.

In 2004, Guenther and four other active-duty wives each chipped in $100 to start the fund.

It now has 90 active volunteers at major military hospitals and covers all service members attached to a Marine unit.

“We helped 13 soldiers last month, two of those were at Fort Carson. We’ve helped Air Force and a lot of Navy,” Guenther said. “It’s not like the civilian world where someone is hospitalized and your whole network is in the same town. These families are displaced for weeks to months to years. The needs are so intense right now, because our military medicine has advanced. These injured would not have lived in past wars. We stay with them throughout their recovery.”

Volunteers take referrals at hospitals nationwide and in Germany and Japan.

The fund supplements what veterans services cover, paying for the extras on specially equipped vans and housing modifications.

It might cover mortgage payments so a wife can miss work to be at the hospital during her husband’s recovery.

It pays for special computers, software and equipment — such as acoustic guitars as therapy for patients with brain injuries and severe hand damage.

“Whatever is needed to help them get through their recovery faster or reach the highest level of functioning. Requests come from hospital staff, doctors, nurses, therapists,” Guenther said.

As the fund’s executive director, Guenther visits hospitals about 30 times a year, often taking her 9-year-old daughter, Brooke, who keeps the patients company.

“It is easy and fun to treat them like normal Marines instead of injured Marines,” said Brooke, a Stetson Elementary third-grader.

Her goal: “Get their mind off their injuries and pay attention to fun.”

After two years in Colorado Springs for Guenther’s husband’s Peterson Air Force Base assignment, it’s time to move again. The family will head to Philadelphia later this month.

Guenther will return to Colorado Springs in June for the Team Semper Fi bike race to raise money for the fund.

Colorado Springs resident Lt. Gen. W.C. Gregson joined the fund’s board 18 months ago after retiring from the Marines.

“It’s a way for us to stay involved with the life we were so involved with before,” said his wife, Cynthia, who does followup care with injured Marines.

Their 24-year-old son deploys later this year to Iraq with his Marine unit.

“We stay connected with his world, which was also our world,” Cynthia Gregson said. “It makes you keep your own life in perspective.”
CONTACT THE WRITER: 636-0253 or andrea.brown@gazette.com

FOR INFO

Write:

Injured Marine Semper Fi Fund, 825 College Blvd., Suite 102, PMB 609, Oceanside, CA 92057

Phone:

(760) 725-3680

On the Web:

www. semperfifund.org

Ellie