John Wybraniec’s voice strained, as he turned away, blinking back tears.

“I had friends … family,” Wybraniec said. “I like to do it for them, for what they did for us. … I fall under ‘veterans’ status, but I’ve never been out in the active part of it. I’m still here. I can do this. It’s the least I can do.”

Wybraniec is a member of the Wareham-New Bedford Lodge of Elks #73. Two years ago, he put on a fundraiser at the lodge for the Wounded Warrior Project, but wanted to find a different veterans’ aid organization for which to fundraise this year. A year of research yielded Fisher House, for which the Lodge put on a fundraiser Sunday.

Fisher House is a network of homes throughout the United States. Each house provides a place for the families active duty servicemembers and veterans to stay at almost no cost while a loved one is receiving treatment at a Veterans Administration medical center. The family may stay for as long as the person is in a VA medical center.

“It’s like the Ronald McDonald House for the military,” Wybraniec explained.

Wybraniec wasn’t the only one with a personal stake in Fisher House at the fundraiser. Francis and Audrey Wynne stayed in a Fisher House, while Audrey’s son, Joe Besse, was treated for colorectal cancer.

“We were there for three-and-a-half months,” Francis Wynne said. “It cost us $10.”

There were fewer people at the fundraiser than Wybraneic had hoped, but he said that it was probably “a difficult weekend”, because of Memorial Day.

Lodge member Ted Hatch later said in an email that the Lodge sold 50 tickets, and raised $1,500.