Moving Performances Anticipated at Fisher House Michigan’s Stories of Service.

Tickets On Sale Now For November 6 Michigan Theater Event.

Ann Arbor, MI, October 4, 2019 – Wednesday, November 6 at Ann Arbor’s Michigan Theater, Delta Air Lines presents Fisher House Michigan’s Stories of Service. Fisher House Michigan will celebrate the service of all Veterans from WWII through present day, through Veteran storytelling and song. The $15 tickets may be purchased at www.fisherhousemichigan.org/storiesofservice and at the door. Veterans, first responders, and students will attend free, thanks to our generous sponsors. Online reservations for these free tickets are highly encouraged.

Fisher House Michigan’s Stories of Service is a moving event that surrounds our Veterans with community support and raises awareness for our larger mission: bringing Fisher Houses to Michigan. Like a “Ronald McDonald House” for our military and Veteran families, a Fisher House allows families to stay together when Veterans require in-patient care at a VA Hospital. Fisher House Michigan is raising awareness of and support for the Fisher Houses coming to the VA Ann Arbor Healthcare System and the John D. Dingell VA Medical Center in Detroit. 

This year’s Michigan Theater event will be hosted by former Commander of “Michigan’s Hometown Air Force” at Selfridge Air National Guard Base, Brigadier General (Retired) Doug “Odie” Slocum. Slocum is a fighter pilot and FHM board member from Macomb County who pioneered safety initiatives that led to his induction into the US Air Force Safety Hall of Fame.

Storytellers include WWII Veteran, Art Fishman, 92. Fishman enlisted at age 17 to become an Army Air Corps pilot, but was diverted to a Navy minesweeper ship in the South Pacific. Art remains active in Oakland County, and presently serves as Senior Vice Commander of the Jewish War Veterans Department of Michigan. 

Vietnam Veteran Tyrone Chatman came home to take up the mission of supporting homeless Veterans in Detroit. While this work began in the early 1980s, he currently serves as Chief Executive Officer of the Michigan Veterans’ Foundation in Detroit. Tyrone has been awarded the “Spirit of Detroit” Award six times and the “Americanism Award” from the American Legion.

Dean Ditto’s family military history is rich with service from WWII to Korea to Vietnam. During four years on active duty in the Marine Corps, Ditto deployed across the globe, serving in Panama, Thailand, Japan, Desert Storm, and more. A graduate of Eastern Michigan University, Dean currently works in the automotive industry and resides in Brighton with his wife and three children, while coaching youth in football, lacrosse and wrestling.

Before she was a combat Veteran, Cassie Michael was a petite ballet dancer in Flint. As a Marine, she was a Lioness embedded with the Infantry, searching Iraqi nationals at security checkpoints and during counterinsurgency missions. After separating from the military in 2010, Cassie continued her education at the University of Michigan. She is presently earning her Master’s of Social Work degree from the U-M while working with the Warrior-Scholar Project helping service members transition from the military to academia. 

Beginning in 1966, Dave Dillard served eight years as a US Army Paratrooper, including two tours in Vietnam. After returning home, the combat Infrantryman was classically trained in theater arts. Dillard, a recording artist, singer/songwriter, and regular on NPR’s Moth Story Hour, founded the “Home Town Release Foundation,” making sure we don’t forget our men and women serving in combat zones today.

An audience favorite, the Concordia University Ann Arbor Choir, under the direction of Brian Altevogt, will emotionally frame these stories with their performances.

FHM Stories of Service will open and close with the precision drill of the Detroit Renaissance High School Cougar Battalion Rifle Team under the direction of retired Sergeant First Class Frank Varner.

FHM has raised nearly seven million of its twenty million dollar goal for constructing and sustaining high quality, temporary accommodations for Veterans’ families at VA hospitals in Michigan. With the help of Michigan donors and event sponsors, the first Fisher House in Michigan will open in Ann Arbor in the spring of 2020. 

Support for the November 6 FHM Stories of Service event comes from: Delta Air Lines; First Nation Group; Ambassador Ron and Eileen Weiser; Stutzmann-Moore Wealth Management Group; Dignity Memorial; Michigan Daughters of the American Revolution; Thomson Reuters Veterans Network; Fretz Family Foundation; Memorial Bracelets; Mike and Ardis Cicchella; CPT(R) Kate Melcher; Robert and Ann R. Meredith Charitable Foundation; Marlys Hamill; the Mandell and Madeleine Berman Foundation; Kerry Family Periodontics; and Katherine Hay, Charles Reinhart Company.

An invitation-only V.I.P. event, sponsored by Old National Bank will precede the storytelling program. Other supporters of the VIP event include the Fretz Family Foundation and AUSA Arsenal of Democracy Chapter. 

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Details are at www.fisherhousemichigan.org/storiesofservice. For more information, please contact info@fisherhousemichigan.org or (518) 481-0552.