Kim Gaide, group outreach program supervisor in Lee Well being’s Group Affairs division has devoted the previous 35 years of her profession to Lee Well being. She has served in quite a lot of positions and has all the time been relentless in her quest to assist others – each at work and in our group.
Since 2003, the Lee Well being navy help program has been helping, encouraging, comforting and supporting Lee County’s servicemen and servicewomen and their households. With Memorial Day approaching, I needed to take the chance to acknowledge and honor Kim’s patriotism and keenness for remembering the fallen and caring for these in our group who serve our nation.
Every December, Kim and this system companion with Wreaths Throughout America to advertise the sponsorship of wreaths and take part within the laying of the Remembrance Wreaths on the graves of our nation’s fallen heroes.
This system additionally helps active-duty troops by sending month-to-month care packages with private hygiene and luxury objects, in addition to clipping and sending coupons to navy households to make use of at on-base shops. Army Assist Program and United Manner volunteers talk with navy households to help with any instant wants, akin to meals and utilities. Assist doesn’t cease after deployment, although, as a result of Kim and her volunteers assist returning troops with VA advantages, wheelchair or sturdy medical gear wants, or with readjustment to civilian life.
In 2019, Kim was integral in launching the Veteran Visitation Program at Cape Coral Hospital, which is a partnership between Lee Well being and the American Crimson Cross whereby volunteers (dually educated by each Lee Well being and the American Coronary heart Affiliation) go to veterans who’re admitted to the hospital and supply details about obtainable packages and assets, in addition to a comforting phrase. This program at Cape Coral Hospital was the primary within the nation at a civilian hospital.
Within the first six months of the Veteran Visitation Program, volunteers performed greater than 3,000 visits with veterans at Cape Coral Hospital. Then, in April 2020, COVID-19 restrictions required this system to transition to phone visits, and volunteers made greater than 2,600 telephone calls and had been capable of join with, converse to and thank greater than 1,100 veterans. Between constructing this system after which rebuilding it as a phone visitation program and residing by the uncertainties of the COVID-19 pandemic, Kim’s dedication by no means wavered, and she or he was instrumental in maintaining this system alive and even increasing it to a second hospital.
For her efforts, ardour and dedication, Kim was not too long ago honored by the American Crimson Cross with the Service to the Armed Forces Volunteer of the Yr Award! Certainly one of Kim’s volunteers, Lee Freeman, obtained the Veteran Visitation Program Volunteer of the Yr Award. Lee by no means missed a shift and he was acknowledged for his method of getting veterans to confide in him, which helps guarantee they get the companies and help they want. Congratulations to Kim and Lee and thanks in your dedication to serving those that served our nation and fought for our freedom.
Lee Well being helps the Army Assist Program as a program of Group Affairs, and help to our native servicemen, servicewomen and their households is funded solely by the generosity of our group. The success of this system is, little question, the results of our group’s generosity and patriotism, mixed with Kim and her volunteer workforce’s ardour and tenacity.
For extra details about or to become involved with the Lee Well being Army Assist Program, go to www.tinyurl.com/LHMSP.
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Larry Antonucci, M.D., MBA is the president & CEO of Lee Well being, Southwest Florida’s main vacation spot for well being care providing acute care, emergency care, rehabilitation and diagnostic companies, well being and wellness schooling, and group outreach and advocacy packages. Go to www.LeeHealth.org to study extra.
