Denzel: Fact & Fiction

I don't know if you have seen this email floating about, but I have recieved this message from a dozen or so friends and colleagues:

Don't know whether you heard about this but Denzel Washington and his family visited the troups at Brook Army Medical Center, in San Antonio,Texas (BAMC) the other day. This is where soldiers that have been evacuated from Germany come to be hospitalized in the States, especially burn victims. They have buildings there called Fisher Houses.

The Fisher House is a hotel where soldiers' families can stay, for little or no charge, while their soldier is staying in the hospital. BAMC has quite a few of these houses on base but as you can imagine, they are almost completely filled most of the time.

While Denzel Washington was visiting BAMC, they gave him a tour of one of the Fisher Houses. He asked how much one of them would cost to build.

He took his check book out and wrote a check for the full amount right there on the spot. The soldiers overseas were amazed to hear this story and want to get the word out to the American public, because it warmed their hearts to hear it.

Well, is this truth or is it fiction? I have developed a pretty good urban myth sniffer over the past few years, and something just didn't quite seem right about this story. Maybe it was my skepticism, maybe I wanted it to be right... but needed to check the source before posting it here. Even though this is just a stupid little blog coming from BFE, I want to be accurate.

So what did I do? I used some of my unlimited long distance minutes from Sprint, and gave Brook Army Medical Center a call.

The bad news is: the story is NOT true.

The good news is: there are elements of truth within this story.



According to one of my favorite debunking web sites, truthorfiction.com Denzel Washington did make a visit to the Brooke Army Medical Center (BAMC) in San Antonio, Texas, in December, 2004. Among other things, he participated in a ceremony awarding Purple Hearts to three soldiers and visited several others.

He also toured the Fisher House facilities there, was impressed with what they were doing, and did indicate a desire to support it.

According to An eRumor got started that he dramatically pulled out his checkbook on the spot and wrote a check for the cost of building an entire house, which was not true.

Fisher House says the confusion may have come when an announcement was made later that a new $1-million facility was going to be built. That announcement came at the same Denzel Washington had pledged a donation to Fisher House. Four months later, however, he came through "in a big way", according to the folks at Fisher House.

While they wil not disclose the amount of Washington's gift, Fisher House spokesman James Weiskopf says it's one of the largest in the organization's history and that Denzel Washington has agreed to serve on the Fisher House board of trustees.
 
Fisher House is a program that provides special housing at each of the Army's major medical centers for the families of soldiers who are receiving medical treatment, often from being wounded on duty. Fisher house is a group of facilities where family members can stay for no cost or reduced cost, which helps ease the burden of possibly having made a long and expensive trip to be by the beside of a family member.



So, there's the scoop. Big benefactor he is, although the details were a bit exaggerated. (Shall we say Hollywood-Style?) Either way, kudos to Denzel Washington and his support for our fighting men and women. It's nice to see there are still a few patriots in the ranks of the stars.