Local veterans take on the cold to raise money for Fisher House

3 hours ago

KVRR Staff,

Giant Flag — Veterans raising money outside West Acres attempting to raise a U.S. Flag given to them to use for their Freeze Out for the Fisher House event. The veterans ultimately decided to not raise it due to heavy winds making it unsafe. 2/6/26.

FARGO — Local veterans took to the West Acres Mall parking lot to raise some money for a good cause despite the lower temperatures outside.

Those funds will help pay for the construction of the Fisher House.

For a free will donation, the veterans are serving cookies and coffee to all who visit.

Each donation gets them closer to the estimated $8 million that will be needed to build the facility.

The house is planned to be over thirteen thousand square feet with 16 suites and will provide free lodging to veterans getting care through the Fargo VA, as well as for family members.

Veteran organizer Tom Krabbenhoft used to teach winter weather survival and says that they plan on sleeping on the ground despite the cold weather.

“Yes, so we are going to be here. We won’t be in the fish house, we will be on the ground,” Krabbenhoft said. “Yeah, it’s going to be bad (…) But I already committed to do it and we got two other people that are going to do it, at least. So we’re going to have at least three of us here on the ground, and hopefully we can patch a tent together, but it’s going to be a little bit tought with this wind.”

KVRR’s own TJ Nelson and Alex Bertsch bundled up and came out to support the veterans by helping serve coffee and cookies.