Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, will join the Fisher House Foundation for the presentation of $75,000 in grants to 12 volunteer organizations for their innovative programs to improve military quality of life at noon ceremony on Aug. 11 in the Pentagon Auditorium.

Pace will join Ken Fisher, the Fisher House Foundation chairman; Bill Lee, the vice president of Newman's Own; and David Smith, vice president for marketing and business development for the Military Times Media Group for the ceremony.

"Sew Much Comfort," an organization from Burnsville, Minn., providing adaptive clothing to hospitalized service men and women at military and Veterans Administration medical centers, was judged as the best entry and received a $15,000 grant. The "Adaptive Clothing for Wounded Troops" program recognizes the extensive medical treatment for those most grievously wounded, and "Sew Much Comfort" designs, creates, and delivers adaptive clothing to accommodate fixators, prosthetics and casts too bulky to fit under ordinary clothing.

Eleven other organizations shared $60,000 in grants, including two $7,500 grants for "Homes for Our Troops" of Taunton, Mass., which builds specially adapted homes or adapts existing homes to meet the unique needs of disabled veterans returning home from the global war on terror, and "Kids Serve Too" of Reston, Va., which fosters awareness of the challenges that face military children during deployments, hosts free events for them around the country, and provides financial assistance to keep them involved in their extracurricular activities.

The $5,000 grants include: the "Yellow Ribbon Fund" of Washington, D.C., which provides assistance to the families of wounded troops treated at the National Naval Medical Hospital, Bethesda and Walter Reed Army Medical Center. Supplying transportation and lodging assistance, and support for activities and events in the local area, the volunteers of Yellow Ribbon Fund welcome injured service members into their community; "Angels of Mercy of McLean, Va., with volunteers who visit wounded/injured military recovering at Walter Reed Army Medical Center weekly, providing clothing essentials, comfort items, and delivering messages of caring from all across America; and "Operation Laptop" of Chicago, which makes refurbished wireless laptops available to military medical centers all across the United States.

Also awarded $5,000 grants were: "Operation Helping Hand," of Tampa, Fla., which provides assistance to the very seriously wounded and injured active duty personnel who were deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan, and are now receiving treatment at the James A. Haley VA Medical Center in Tampa, Fla.; "Our Military Kids, Inc.," of McLean, Va., which is dedicated to making essential extracurricular activities, including tutoring services, available to children of deployed and severely injured Reserve and National Guard military personnel; the "Eagle Heroes Project," of Fort Campbell, Ky., and Nashville and Clarksville, Tenn., which provides all of the normal services for families of deployed soldiers directly to wounded soldiers returning from combat operations; "United Through Reading," of San Diego, which allows deployed military parents to stay connected with their children during long separations through the medium of reading aloud in videotape; "Emergency Support Services Program of San Diego, which serves as a lifeline for families of deployed service members during stressful emergencies; and "Stars for Stripes" of Nashville, whose mission is to enhance the morale of service men and women overseas, bringing a touch of home and comfort to internationally deployed troops, by allowing celebrity entertainers to donate their time by touring remote locations.

For more information about this ceremony, contact Jim Weiskopf at (301) 294-8560.