The Irish soldiers beat American crews to claim first place in the Bradley Fighting Vehicle division at the Sullivan Cup, despite the Irish Army not operating any Bradleys of its own.

The Sullivan Cup, hosted at Fort Benning, Georgia, is a weeklong event that brings together tank and Bradley crews from across the U.S. military and allied countries to test teams’ gunnery, maneuvering and maintenance skills, as well as physical fitness under difficult conditions.

The Irish team bested a crew from the U.S. Army’s 155th Armored Brigade Combat Team to win the Bradley portion of the biennial competition.

“It was embarrassing for them but they came up after and shook our hands. They knew how professional we’d held ourselves,” Sgt. Shane Molloy, the team’s gunner, told The Irish Times on Thursday, adding “they enjoyed our company. We enjoyed theirs.”

In an interview released last week by Fort Benning, the team — with neat green berets and red and white ribbons around their necks — also credited their success, in large part, to the teaching and training of American service members.

The Irish crew reportedly trained on the Mowag Piranha, the Irish Army’s armored personnel carrier, which was the closest the crew had to a Bradley in the country, before coming stateside.

Unlike tanks, which are built for heavy combat, Bradley Fighting Vehicles are lighter designed to move infantry troops while still touting firepower.

A group of soldiers from the 4th Infantry Division took home the title in the best tank division.

Teams from Poland and the United Kingdom also competed.

The Marine Corps wants to develop robots that can do the grunt work of laying down the matting used to quickly construct Expeditionary Airfields, or EAF, in amphibious beachheads and other remote locations.

“Currently, assembling EAF matting is a manual process carried out by Marines — a task that is physically demanding, labor-intensive and exposes personnel to potential hazards,” explained the Small Business Innovation Research proposal, which has a deadline of June 3.

The project, titled “Automated Expeditionary Airfield Assembly,” calls for robots capable of operating on “uneven or unstable surfaces.” They must also “manipulate and position heavy EAF mat sections with precision” while enduring “harsh environmental and operational conditions,” according to the proposal.

The Marine Corps envisions robots with sufficient autonomy to “navigate and control without human assistance, which includes obstacle avoidance, path planning and grasping,” according to the SBIR.

Contractor solutions will be expected to explore “various robotic configurations — such as mobile manipulators and assistive technologies — for their effectiveness in EAF mat handling, alignment and interconnection across diverse and austere terrains,” the proposal states.

Phase I of the project involves demonstrating “the technical feasibility of a robotic system capable of automating or augmenting the assembly of EAF prefabricated surfaced aluminum (PSA) Flat Top-Nested (Top-N) Trackway mats.”

Robots will be evaluated on metrics such as “payload capacity, reach, manipulation precision, power consumption and operational endurance,” according to the proposal.

Phase II calls for a functional prototype capable of automated or semi-automated operations.

“The robot shall be able to handle the PSA mats in some manner to aid in the assemble of the airfield, be a closed system and able be able to operate in a realistic environment,” the SBIR specified. “The system will be judged on feasibility, time to assemble, ease of use and overall size and mass.”

Phase III requires a deployable system for field testing. The SBIR emphasizes that the robot “will undergo hardening against electrical, environmental and cyber threats.”

“The resulting system must demonstrate sustained operation in deployed environments, achieving significant reductions in manning requirements, operational costs and/or deployment time,” the proposal states.

The Marine Corps has been working to ease the difficulty of expeditionary airfield construction, including adopting commercial lightweight matting.

Meanwhile, robotics companies are developing robots optimized for construction work, including four-legged and even two-legged humanoid robots.

For airport operations, Japan Airlines is testing humanoid robots for baggage handling.

During a hearing Thursday on the Defense Department’s $1.5 trillion fiscal 2027 budget request, Hegseth said he supports the Maj. Richard Star Act — a bill that would give roughly 54,000 veterans their retirement pay and VA disability concurrently.

“As I have said in the past to other organizations, we support the Richard Star Act,” Hegseth said during questioning by Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn.

Blumenthal is a lead sponsor of the bill who repeatedly has tried to pass the legislation, most recently, calling in March for a Senate vote. The legislation has the support of 79 Senators and 323 House members.

But it has been blocked by some Republicans over concerns of funding. In March, Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wisc., objected to Blumenthal’s call for a floor vote, saying the legislation would cost more than $70 billion over the first 10 years of enactment.

The $70 billion Johnson cited is the total estimated cost of eliminating the offset for all 250,000 military medical retirees, and according to the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, the Richard Star Act only applies to medical retirees eligible for Combat Related Special Compensation.

Under those requirements, the committee estimates it would cost $11 billion over 10 years.

The legislation is a top priority for major veterans groups including the Veterans of Foreign Wars and Disabled American Veterans.

Because of its cost, under current congressional rules, lawmakers must find a way to pay for it. One proposal set forth by the VFW is to use the federal Military Retirement Fund, which finances military retired pay and has more than $1.7 trillion in assets.

The legislation was named for Army Reserve Maj. Richard Star, who died in 2021 from lung cancer after being exposed to burn pits in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Since 2004, veterans who earned military retirement for serving at least 20 years and who quality for VA disability benefits receive full pay for both if they have a disability rating of at least 50%.

But veterans who retired early from service as a result of military injury or illness are subject to dollar-for-dollar offsets in their military disability and VA disability benefits, sometimes amounting to thousands of dollars in lost income.

Blumenthal implored his fellow legislators to support the bill.

“It will eliminate this wounded warrior tax,” Blumenthal said.

VA Secretary Doug Collins said Thursday during a Senate hearing on the VA’s $488 billion budget proposal for fiscal 2027 that the VA has decided to close facilities that don’t properly care for veterans and has made changes to address longstanding issues at Augusta VA Medical Center in Georgia.

According to Collins, community-based VA outpatient clinics in McMinnville, Tennessee, and Schenectady, New York, will close this year. McMinnville will close May 31, and the Schenectady clinic will close in August, according to reports.

The closures have alarmed veterans who use the clinics and will be forced to go elsewhere for care; in some cases, they will travel more than 35 miles from the existing clinics for health services.

In the hearing before the Senate Military Construction, Veterans Affairs and Related Agencies Appropriations Subcommittee, Collins said the clinics, which were privately run, did not meet VA standards of care and will be shuttered.

According to Collins, the contractors managing the facilities were not meeting requirements and veterans were failing to get quality care.

“For years, our veterans were going and being handed off, handed off, handed off, new doctors coming in all the time … a lot of time they were not showing up, we were having to then schedule them in other places,” Collins said. “This is a problem.”

Tennessee and New York lawmakers have raised concerns about the impact of the closures on the 4,000 veteran patients in their districts and states.

In March, Rep. Scott DesJarlais, R-Tenn., wrote Collins about the McMinnville closure, saying in his district, with 46,000 veterans, patients will have to drive more than an hour to receive medical care.

“I applaud the work your administration has done to improve patient outcomes. However, I am extremely disappointed and concerned about how the VA has handled the closing of this rural healthcare clinic,” DesJarlais wrote.

During Thursday’s hearing, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., urged Collins to consider establishing a VA-operated clinic in Schenectady or, at the very least, ensure that veteran patients at the existing facility don’t fall through cracks.

“In rural America, drive times are highly relevant. With gas prices as high as they are, this could mean much more expense for them, much more stress for them,” Gillibrand said. “Please, if you are willing to do a different type of facility at the VA site, that would be the best of both worlds.”

At the same time, the VA is working to improve the troubled VA Medical Center in Augusta, Georgia, replacing its management team in the last month, the second leadership change in 14 months.

Sen. Jon Ossoff, D-Ga., ranking member of the Senate Military Construction, Veterans Affairs and Related Agencies Appropriations Subcommittee, pressed Collins for answers on the Augusta VA, which was the subject of a VA Office of Inspector General investigation.

The VA OIG found last year that the facility had a hostile work environment, including retaliation against staff, and supply shortages that hampered veteran care.

“I sent a letter earlier this year requesting some specific information about the management of that facility, and have not yet received the detailed responses to that letter,” Ossoff said.

Collins assured Ossoff that the VA had completed the recommendations made by the OIG in its report and was working to resolve the management issues.

“Nobody’s more upset about Augusta than me. It’s my hometown, it’s my home area,” Collins said.

In response to Ossoff’s questions as to how the VA announced the closures of clinics, Collins said the Veterans Health Administration believes it has followed the law in cancelling contracts. He also noted that the VA has opened 34 clinics in the past year.

The VA has requested $488 billion for fiscal 2027, including $123 billion for medical care and services, nearly $4 billion to construct new facilities and $4.2 billion to continue rolling out the department’s new electronic health records system.

Collins told members of the committee that the restart of the medical records program in Michigan this month after a three-year hiatus has been “phenomenal.”

“A tornado hit one of our facilities — lose power — and we never lost a bit in a very new system. That is how well this is working right now,” Collins said.

Subcommittee Chairman Sen. John Boozman, R-Ark., said looked forward to receiving an update on the medical records system modernization program, which began eight years ago and is now in use at 10 VA facilities and associated clinics.

“We hope we are on track to make health records boring again,” Boozman quipped.

Citing multiple U.S. officials, the Post report suggested ground operations could involve both conventional infantry and special operations elements, but would not yet rise to the level of a full-scale invasion.

Decisions on whether or not to green light operations, which would put U.S. troops at substantially more risk to Iranian threats, now rest with President Donald Trump.

“It’s the job of the Pentagon to make preparations in order to give the commander in chief maximum optionality,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement provided to Military Times. “It does not mean the president has made a decision.”

The Post’s report comes as U.S. military assets continue to flood the region. On Friday, U.S. Marines and sailors assigned to the Tripoli Amphibious Ready Group arrived in U.S. Central Command waters.

The group, which is led by the America-class amphibious assault ship USS Tripoli and includes the embarked 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit, departed earlier this month from its homeport of Sasebo, Japan.

The Pentagon has also confirmed elements from the 82nd Airborne Division headquarters and a brigade combat team are slated to deploy to the Middle East. Based out of Fort Bragg, North Carolina, the 82nd acts as the Army’s rapid-response force and is often among the first units sent to respond to emerging crises.

The report also comes on the heels of an Iranian missile and drone attack on Friday that injured a dozen U.S. service members at Prince Sultan Airbase in Saudi Arabia. Two of the 12 injuries are considered to be serious.

The strike also reportedly damaged multiple U.S. aircraft, including an E-3 Sentry AWACS and multiple KC-135 tankers.

Thirteen service members have been killed in action and nearly 300 wounded during Operation Epic Fury, a joint undertaking by U.S. and Israeli militaries against the Islamic Republic that began on Feb. 28.

The majority of the wounded have since returned to duty, according to U.S. Central Command.

Prior to Friday’s attack, 10 U.S. troops remained in serious condition.

The newly announced testing was being carried out to “specifically address FAA safety concerns,” the military said Friday in a statement. It was to take place Saturday and Sunday at the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico.

Lawmakers were concerned about an apparent lack of coordination after the Pentagon allowed U.S. Customs and Border Protection to use an anti-drone laser in early February without notifying the FAA. The federal agency that ensures safety in the skies decided to close the airspace over El Paso for a few hours, stranding many travelers.

The Trump administration said it was working to halt an incursion by Mexican cartel drones, which are not uncommon along the southern border.

On Feb. 26 the U.S. military used the laser to shoot down a “seemingly threatening” drone flying near the U.S.-Mexico border. It turned out the drone belonged to Customs and Border Protection, lawmakers said.

The incident led the FAA to close the airspace around Fort Hancock, about 50 miles southeast of El Paso.

“We appreciate the coordination with the Department of War to help ensure public safety,” the FAA said of the testing, in a separate statement. “The FAA and DOW are working with interagency partners to address emerging threats posed by unmanned aircraft systems while maintaining the safety of the National Airspace System.”

The military is required to formally notify the FAA when it takes any counter-drone action inside U.S. airspace.

Illinois Democratic Sen. Tammy Duckworth, the ranking member on the Senate’s Aviation Subcommittee, called previously for an independent investigation after the two February incidents.

Leading the procession will be a Disneyland vehicle carrying Mickey Mouse and friends adorned with patriotic décor and red, white and blue flowers. They will be joined by more than 50 U.S. military veterans who now serve as Disney cast members and their families, symbolizing the company’s deep appreciation for those who have served our country and now help create magic for millions. The selection of the flowers on the vehicle holds special meaning for those who serve our country in uniform.

Each of the vibrant flowers on the car hold significance for military veterans. They include the red poppies widely recognized as a symbol of remembrance for fallen military personnel dating back to World War I. Other flowers featured in Disney’s entry include rosemaries, blue irises, white lilies, chrysanthemums and red roses to express love, honor, and appreciation for veterans everywhere.

This milestone is an opportunity to honor Walt Disney’s enduring love of country and our century-long support for those who serve — a legacy that began with Walt and Roy O. Disney’s contributions during the First World War and continues today. As part of this celebration, Disney is proud to highlight U.S. military veterans working across the company as well as our expanded support for military families — including a $2.5 million donation to Blue Star Families.

“The Walt Disney Company is proud to participate in the 2026 Tournament of Roses Parade as part of our ‘Disney Celebrates America’ initiative honoring our nation’s 250th anniversary,” said Robert A. Iger, Chief Executive Officer, The Walt Disney Company. “Both Disney and the Tournament of Roses Parade have long celebrated the spirit of America and the people who make it extraordinary — including our service members, veterans, and their families. By featuring our own veteran cast members, we’re excited to kick off the year at this iconic event and share the Disney magic that connects generations.”

For more than a century, Disney’s storytelling has celebrated American ideals — honoring the nation’s past, present, and future. Disney invites families everywhere to commemorate America’s historic 250^th anniversary through special events, new attractions like Soarin’ Across America, expanded support for military families and a multi-platform broadcast event on July 4. On 4^th of July weekend, Disney parks in the United States will feature themed fireworks and events, and programming across ABC, National Geographic and ESPN will highlight American heroes, traditions and communities.

ABC will broadcast live coverage of the 2026 Tournament of Roses Parade in Pasadena, California on January 1, beginning at 11 a.m. ET. The two-hour broadcast will be hosted by ESPN SportsCenter anchors Kevin Negandhi and Hannah Storm, both returning to the event, along with longtime reporter John Naber.

Learn more about Disney’s extensive celebration of America’s 250^th anniversary here.

Four years ago, the Elizabeth Dole Foundation (EDF) and Wounded Warrior Project^® (WWP), alongside White House officials and more than a hundred partners, launched the Hidden Helpers Coalition to change that—to make sure these children, teens, and young adults are seen, supported, and set up to thrive. What began as an intentional effort to listen has grown into a coordinated endeavor that brings together schools, pediatric and behavioral health providers, youth organizations, employers, and community leaders to actively support hidden helpers and their parents. Together, we’re closing gaps that once left families to navigate impossible choices alone.

That commitment came into sharp focus during this year’s Hidden Helpers Summit at Walt Disney World in Orlando. We heard elementary, middle, and high-schoolers speak about the pride they feel in caring for a parent—and the worry they carry when pain flares or difficult memories intrude. We didn’t just hear them; we formed solutions with them. With families and partners, we introduced two practical resources designed for and with hidden helpers: a Hidden Helpers Journey Map, powered by WWP, to guide kids and caring adults through the twists and turns of the caregiving experience, and an Activity Book that helps build coping skills for younger children. These aren’t glossy brochures. They are tools born of lived experience, designed to help our young caregivers reflect on their caregiving experience, identify their strengths, and identify sources of support.

Leading through Partnership

Partnership is the point. No single organization can meet the growing needs of veterans and their youth caregivers.

At the forefront, WWP exists to reconnect every warrior with a path of hope and renewed purpose following military service. The organization believes that families and caregivers of all ages play a vital role in this journey, which is why it invests in programs that meet warriors and families where they are. WWP understands the resounding impact of a network of collaboration and care. WWP administers community grants that augment its own programming and expand mental health care, respite, and enrichment for kids, among other crucial investments.

EDF is a longtime WWP community partner and has spent more than a decade elevating caregivers’ voices into policy and practice—ultimately bettering the outcomes for those whom they care for—by helping advance reforms at the VA, improving how care teams understand and include caregivers in veterans’ treatment and recovery, and commissioning research so solutions are grounded in facts, not assumptions. The picture is clear: caregiving demands time, emotional energy, and financial sacrifice; children absorb those pressures, too. The Hidden Helpers Coalition exists to turn that reality into a national responsibility.

We have seen what works. A teacher who understands why an assignment is late after a night in the ER with Dad. A clinic that brings a social worker into the exam room so a 12-year-old doesn’t have to be the translator for Mom. An employer who offers flexibility for a therapy appointment—and a stipend that covers childcare or transportation. None of these acts make headlines. Together, they change a hidden helper’s childhood for good.

The work ahead is not abstract. It is practical and urgent. We call o leaders at every level—school boards and superintendents, mayors and governors, Congress and VA—to make hidden helpers a priority by investing in respite and mental-health supports, integrating simple identification and referrals in schools and pediatric care, and backing the community partners families already trust. We are expanding training so educators, counselors, and pediatric providers can spot caregiving stress early and connect families to help without stigma or red tape. We are scaling the Hidden Helpers Journey Map and Activity Book so they’re easy to find—in schools, community clinics, VA facilities, and online—because families shouldn’t have to hunt for support. And we are widening the circle of commitment, inviting businesses, youth organizations, local governments, and neighbors to adopt simple, concrete practices that lighten the load at home.

See Them. Support Them.

As we enter the holiday season, many of us are reminded to reflect on the often unsung heroes in our lives—the families caring for our nation’s veterans and service members. For millions of American families, the service is ongoing—at kitchen tables, in waiting rooms, and during quiet moments when a child steadies a parent’s hand. Our promise to those who served must include the children who still do. America’s youth caregivers need our support—not with sympathy, but with systems that work; not with applause, but with access; not someday, but now.

We know what partnerships can accomplish. We have seen it in policy milestones, in new tools co-designed with families, and in the relief on a child’s face when support finally arrives. With the strength of this coalition and the generosity of our supporters, we can ensure no hidden helper feels invisible, and every young caregiver has the recognition, resources, and room to be a kid. That is how a grateful nation honors service — by standing with the families who live it every day.

Note to editor: Steve Schwab is CEO of the Elizabeth Dole Foundation. Lt. Gen. (Ret.) Walter Piatt is CEO of Wounded Warrior Project.

Tuesday’s report from the VA’s Office of Inspector General is based on surveys from late March and early April that were taken at 139 Veterans Health Administration facilities. Severe staffing shortages are not necessarily an indication of vacancies but refer to particular occupations that are difficult to fill.

The surveys were taken just weeks after it was reported in early March that the VA had planned to cut 80,000 jobs — out of 484,000 — through the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, known as DOGE. The VA later reduced the figure to nearly 30,000 jobs to be cut by this fiscal year’s end on Sept. 30.

President Donald Trump’s administration said Tuesday that the surveys are unreliable because they do not reflect actual vacancies, which VA officials said were in line with historical averages. But Democratic lawmakers warned that veterans won’t get the health care they need as VA positions become harder to fill.

The surveys reflected a 50% increase in the reporting of severe staffing shortages for specific jobs, both for clinical occupations that include doctors and psychologists and for non-clinical jobs that include police and custodial workers.

Nearly all of the facilities — 94% — reported a shortage for medical officer occupations that include doctors, while 79% reported shortages for nurses. The report noted that severe shortages for medical officers and nurses have been identified every year in the report since 2014.

Pete Kasperowicz, the VA’s press secretary, stressed in an email that the report is not based on vacancies and is therefore “not a reliable indicator of staffing shortages.”

“The report simply lists occupations facilities feel are difficult for which to recruit and retain, so the results are completely subjective, not standardized and unreliable,” Kasperowicz wrote.

He said that vacancy rates for doctors and nurses are 14% and 10%, respectively, which he said are lower than most other health care systems and in line with “normal VA historical averages.”

But Jacqueline Simon, policy director for the American Federation of Government Employees, said the surveys reflect the Trump administration’s profound hostility toward the federal workforce and what she said are its plans to ultimately privatize the VA.

“This is a deliberate effort to incapacitate and to undermine veterans’ support for and approval of the care they receive in VA hospitals and clinics,” Simon said. “They’ll have to wait much longer for appointments. There won’t be specialists available. They’ll have no choice but to go to the private sector.”

Simon also noted the VA’s announcement last week that it was terminating collective bargaining agreements for most VA bargaining-unit employees, which could further hurt recruitment.

The VA said in a news release that the move will “make it easier for VA leaders to promote high-performing employees, hold poor performers accountable, and improve benefits and services to America’s Veterans.”

But U.S. Sen. Mark Warner said in a news release Tuesday that the Trump administration has made it harder for public servants to do their jobs “and ultimately harder for veterans to get the care they’ve earned.”

“We also know from recent jobs reports that applications to work at the VA are plummeting,” said Warner, a Democrat who represents the veteran-dense state of Virginia. “How do skyrocketing staffing shortages and declining applicant pools make it more ‘efficient’ for veterans to access the care and services they deserve? The answer is: they don’t.”

The organization can currently host 1,300 families per day, and has served more than 500,000 families since its inception. This week, the organization marked a big milestone, as it dedicated the 100th Fisher House, located at the Capt. James A. Lovell Federal Health Care Center in North Chicago, Illinois.

But there will be no resting on laurels, says Fisher House Foundation Chairman Ken Fisher. In fact, the lessons learned from previous Fisher Houses and how they have been used have helped shape the future of the organization.

“It was our intention to build a Fisher House wherever one was needed,” says Fisher. “The need for Fisher House started to evolve in ways that we didn’t see before.”

That evolution has been driven by advancements in health care. As medics in the field and military doctors and nurses have learned how to treat injuries that would have previously been fatal, the number of troops killed in action has declined significantly. But survivors are often coming home with injuries such as multiple amputations that have created new challenges for both their ongoing health care and what Fisher House can provide.

But opportunities have been born from those challenges, as the organization has learned from Fisher House guests and how they have adapted in unexpected ways.

Fisher pointed out that in many cases, people will stay at one Fisher House initially, but then use other Fisher Houses as they transition from DOD health care to the VA. There was one other unexpected development as well.

“We also noticed that what was happening inside the houses was something that nobody ever thought was possible, and that was the support system that was forming in each and every house that we built,” says Fisher. “And why is that? Because when you look at it, you’re putting a group of people in one place under extreme stress. That can manifest itself in different ways. But as we learned and we noticed, the families had commonality of experience.

“Not many people understood what military and veteran families are going through, and so when you put these people together, what we found was they supported each other, and this was consistent in every Fisher House that we built.”

That support system is critical, because caring for wounded service members isn’t just about their physical needs. It also means taking mental burdens away, to help both those receiving treatment and their families focus on recovery.

“So there was the healing aspect, which made families better caregivers,” says Fisher. “It also made the patients better patients because they didn’t have to worry about not only the financial burden, but where their loved ones were staying and how they were getting from point A to point B.”

The mental and emotional support are critical to wounded service members, veterans and their families, but their physical needs must be met as well. The designing, planning and construction phases focus on accommodations such as wheelchair-accessible bathrooms, balconies that can be accessed by guests with limited mobility and elevators, as well as services such as on-site laundry and playrooms for children. As the needs of those who use Fisher House have changed, the organization has incorporated those needs into its planning and construction, providing for an easier user experience — which also helps with the mental and emotional aspects of a stay at a Fisher House by removing obstacles for those with limited mobility or other health issues.

“We didn’t want anyone not to be able to use a Fisher House because it wasn’t accessible given their current situation,” says Fisher. “I’d rather have a house that had too much than not enough.”

Learning from how Fisher Houses are being used has helped the organization adapt how it supports those in need, and not just through building physical locations. The organization created a Hero Miles program, where people can donate unused frequent flyer miles to help defray travel costs; to date, more than 70,000 airline tickets have been donated through the program. The organization also has a hotel program, where it can provide lodging in local hotels if there isn’t room at a Fisher House, through donations of credit card or hotel loyalty program points. In addition, Fisher House has multiple scholarship programs, which have awarded more than $27 million to 15,000 students, and is involved in sponsoring events such as the family programs for the Warrior Games and the Invictus Games.

“The Fisher House program has tried to keep up with the needs of our families,” Fisher says. “Servicemen, women and veterans, just by paying attention to what they’re doing and what their needs were, but also by staying lean and agile and only evolving in family-oriented ways.”

Lean and agile are key concerns for Fisher House, as its core mission is focusing on providing services to those who need them. Fisher points out that the organization spends 93 cents of every dollar it raises on providing services, and has received 20 consecutive four-star ratings from Charity Navigator for its performance and stewardship of how donations are spent.

“There’s a business mindset to running Fisher House, that we view ourselves as a public company and our donors are our shareholders,” says Fisher. “And so the dividends to our donors are the metrics, are the 600,000 families that have benefited from this program, the over $600 million in savings of lodging and travel, and plus the other things that we’ve gotten involved in.

“So what’s kept Fisher House on the straight and narrow is again having that public mindset, that mindset that we’re answering to our donors and to the people that we seek to serve. And if we’re not reaching those people, then we’re not doing our job, we’re not fulfilling our mission.”

Editor’s note: This article has been updated.