Veterans Home of California - Fresno

In honor of Mother’s Day, the Activities Team at the veterans Home of California-Fresno hosted a lovely brunch for our ladies. They enjoyed delicious food, sipped sparkling cider, created floral arrangements, and received some cosmetics. We hope everyone had a blessed Mother’s Day and felt special.

We are so grateful to Central Valley Honor Flight for taking four of our veterans on a trip of a lifetime. This is the first time we’ve sent four on an Honor Flight trip. They all came back from the from this experience filled memories and joy! From everyone at the Veterans Home of California-Fresno, thank you!

We are sending a big thank you to the organization Make A Difference Outdoors for treating the residents of the Veterans Home of California-Fresno to another spectacular fishing outing! They greet us with donuts, provide all the fishing gear and when we were done, served some delicious barbecue burgers and hot dogs. This is definitely one our favorite outings!

It was a glorious day at the Veterans Home of California-Fresno as residents, staff and their families gathered for the annual Easter Celebration! More than 50 children of all ages enjoyed face painting, Easter crafts, a magic show and of course an Easter Egg Hunt. The Master Gardeners set up a planting station where kids planted plants and decorated the pots. We also had a group of Assisteens, these are high school volunteers, come and help us out with the event. Our veterans love this celebration and look forward to it every year. They sit, side by side with the kids doing crafts and enjoying the magic show. We even had a special visit from the Easter bunny horse. From everyone at the Fresno Home, have a blessed Easter.

For more than 10 years, students from the Berean Christian High School have made a stop at the Veterans Home of California-Fresno to perform for our residents as part of their mission trip. Their voices united in song filled the dining room and flowed into the rest of the main lodge. This was a performance enjoyed by veterans and staff alike.
Prior to the Berean choir, Patrick Contreras performed music from his new collection, Violin on Fire. What an afternoon filled with music.

It was a glorious day at the Veterans Home of California-Fresno for the unveiling of 65 additional names to Phase 1 of the Memorial Project. This project spearheaded by the Central California Veterans Home Support Foundation, honors the veterans who spent the final chapter of their lives at the Fresno Home. Now completed it has 450 veterans names etched in granite, each name tells a story of service to our country. Families were able to take pencil and paper and etch their loved one’s name to take as a remembrance of this ceremony. Now it’s time for Phase II. The Foundation will be fundraising to add an additional 450 names on five granite walls. If you are interested in supporting this project, please call 559-493-4239.

Valentines for Vets was a huge success this year for the residents at the Veterans Home of California-Fresno. We received thousands of cards, most of them hand made by elementary school students. We had the Action Club for Developmentally Delayed Adults deliver cards and candy. Then there was the Central High School’s FFA group delivered cards and strolled through the Home singing to our veterans. Hands on Central California brought cake pops and pistachio bread from Starbucks along with lots and lots of cards to distribute. Congressman Jim Costa brought more than a thousand cards donated by people in his district. Finally, some of our veterans ended Valentine’s Day cheering on the Fresno State men’s basketball team as they faced off against Air Force. All in all, it was a tremendous outpouring of love shown to our veterans, which they truly appreciated!

Elvis, aka Jeremy Pearce, had the ladies swooning and the guys tapping their feet to their favorite Elvis tunes. It was a great way to kick off the Valentines season with a “hunk of burning love” for our veterans. This was a show that young and old alike enjoyed.

What a great way to start the day for the residents at the Veterans Home of California-Fresno. Having a cup of coffee with members of our sister agency, the California Department of Highway Patrol. “Coffee with Cops” as they like to call it, was a wonder way for a few local CHP officers to get to know our veterans and more importantly, for our veterans get to know them. After spending the morning with our resident’s they let us know they would be back again.

What a wonderful Holiday Season it has been at the Veterans Home of California-Fresno. We had our annual visit from some gentle horses. We sang Christmas Carol’s in the lobby every Friday. We had numerous groups performing for our veterans. We distributed Christmas gifts to all of our residents from the community who participated in our Adopt a Vet for the Holidays. Congressman Jim Costa visited with the veterans and dropped off over 600 Christmas cards from different groups throughout his district. All-in-all, we were truly blessed with support from our community. Thank you to all who support our veterans not only during the Holidays, but throughout the year.