JINSA Report #564 "Let All Who are Hungry Come and Eat" – Help for Fran O'Brien's

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April 17, 2006

JINSA Report #564

"Let All Who are Hungry Come and Eat" – Help for Fran O'Brien's

You said it at the Passover Seder, but did you open the door? The owners
of Fran O'Brien's Stadium Steakhouse do every week, inviting wounded
soldiers from Walter Reed Army Medical Center and Bethesda Naval
Hospital to a free dinner at the restaurant. Regular readers not only
know about Hal Koster and Marty O'Brien's kindness – to primarily
amputees – but have also contributed generously to helping our young
heroes return to society.

No, we're not asking for more money.
We're asking – urgently – for a few minutes of your time.

The restaurant is located in the Capital Hilton Hotel and the lease ran
out in December. Hal and Marty had been asking for a new lease since the
fall and management had been assuring them it would be renewed. Last
week, they were given until 1 May to vacate. Two things to know: Hilton
admits it has no other tenant for the space. The restaurant has been a
profit center for the hotel and had no plans to close or move.

We're guessing two things – neither says much for the Hilton Hotels
Corporation. First, the hotel is in violation of the Americans with
Disabilities Act. Hilton has not made the
basement restaurant ADA compliant – part of the lease negotiation was to
have been for the replacement of a non-working escalator with an
ADA-compliant elevator, but there were no negotiations. The soldiers
have been using a steep stairwell or the service elevator, and Hilton is
probably worried about a lawsuit.

That is the less ugly scenario. Worse would be that the Hilton is
uncomfortable with so many wounded soldiers passing through its lobby on
the way to the restaurant and worries about the impact it will have on
the hotel guests.

Please help us make the Hilton Hotels Corporation worry about something
else: future business. Take a moment to e-mail or call the following
people and (politely) let them know that a) ADA non-compliance is
illegal, but more importantly, it is shameful when the chief victims are
veterans; and b) you are appalled that a major American corporation
would turn its back on the young men and women who have been injured in
service to our country, and that being the case, you will not stay in a
Hilton (or related hotel) and will do everything in your power to ensure
that others take the same course of action. Please cc: info@jinsa.org
on the e-mail.

Atish Shah, VP for Investor Relations – atish_shah@hilton.com
Kathy Shepard, VP for Corporate Communications – kathy_shepard@hilton.com
Candace Hollis – Sr. Mgr. Corporate Communications –
candace_hollis@hilton.com
Stephen F. Bollenbach, Co-Chairman and CEO – 310-205-4656

Hilton's website proudly boasts of its corporate philanthropy and starts
its paean to itself with, "We at Hilton recognize our responsibility to
corporate citizenship wherever we do business." Right now, that appears
not to include Fran O'Brien's Stadium Steakhouse or our wounded soldiers.

To view this JINSA Report online click on the link below.
http://www.jinsa.org/JINSAReports/3379

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