Founder of the Lee Health Military Support Program Honored for Her Service

May 17, 2021

Kim Gaide, community outreach program manager in Lee Health’s Community Affairs department has dedicated the past 35 years of her career to Lee Health. She has served in a variety of positions and has always been relentless in her quest to help others – both at work and in our community. Since 2003, the Lee Health Military Support Program has been assisting, encouraging, comforting and supporting Lee County’s servicemen and servicewomen and their families. With Memorial Day approaching, I wanted to take the opportunity to recognize and honor Ms. Gaide’s patriotism and passion for remembering the fallen and caring for those in our community who serve our country.

Each December, Ms. Gaide and the Military Support Program partner with Wreaths Across America to promote the sponsorship of wreaths and participate in the laying of the Remembrance Wreaths on the graves of our country’s fallen heroes. 

The Program also supports active-duty troops by sending monthly care packages with personal hygiene and comfort items, as well as clipping and sending coupons to military families to use at on-base stores. Military Support Program and United Way volunteers communicate with military families to assist with any immediate needs, such as food and utilities. Support doesn’t stop after deployment, though, because Ms. Gaide and her volunteers help returning troops with VA benefits, wheelchair or durable medical equipment needs, or with readjustment to civilian life.

In 2019, Ms. Gaide was integral in launching the Veteran Visitation Program at Cape Coral Hospital, which is a partnership between Lee Health and the American Red Cross whereby volunteers (dually trained by both Lee Health and the American Heart Association) visit veterans who are admitted to the hospital and provide information about available programs and resources, as well as a comforting word. This program at Cape Coral Hospital was the first in the nation at a civilian hospital.

In the first six months of the Veteran Visitation Program, volunteers conducted more than 3,000 visits with veterans at Cape Coral Hospital. Then, in April 2020, COVID-19 restrictions required the program to transition to telephone visits, and volunteers made more than 2,600 phone calls and were able to connect with, speak to and thank more than 1,100 veterans. Between building the program and then rebuilding it as a telephone visitation program, and living through the uncertainties of the COVID-19 pandemic, Ms. Gaide’s commitment never wavered and she was instrumental in keeping the program alive and even expanding it to a second hospital.

For her efforts, passion and commitment, Ms. Gaide was recently honored by the American Red Cross with the Service to the Armed Forces Volunteer of the Year award! One of Ms. Gaide’s volunteers, Lee Freeman, received the Veteran Visitation Program Volunteer of the Year Award. Mr. Freeman never missed a shift and he was recognized for his way of getting veterans to open up to him, which helps ensure they get the services and support they need. Congratulations to Ms. Gaide and Mr. Freeman, and thank you for your dedication to serving those who served our country and fought for our freedom.

Lee Health supports the Military Support Program as a program of Community Affairs, and assistance to our local servicemen, servicewomen and their families is funded solely by the generosity of our community. The success of the program is, no doubt, the result of our community’s generosity and patriotism, combined with Ms. Gaide and her volunteer team’s passion and tenacity.

For more information about or to get involved with the Lee Health Military Support Program, go to www.tinyurl.com/LHMSP.

Yours in Health,

Larry Antonucci, M.D., MBA

President & CEO, Lee Health

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