Lightning honors local health care organizations as Community Heroes

TAMPA BAY - The Tampa Bay Lightning, continuing its long-standing tradition of honoring those making local community contributions through the Community Heroes Program, presented by Jabil, at its games, has elected to donate $200,000 to local charities for each of the 2020 Stanley Cup Playoff rounds in which the team competes. For the second round of the playoffs, the organization, led by owner Jeff Vinik and his wife Penny, is honoring four local health care organizations, all of which have dedicated countless hours and resources to fight the COVID-19 pandemic over the last five months.

The organizations, AdventHealth, BayCare Health System, HCA Healthcare West Florida, and Tampa General Hospital, will receive their respective donations from the Lightning Foundation and the Lightning Community Heroes Program, in recognition of their work during this unprecedented time of COVID-19. HCA Healthcare West Florida's $50,000 will be donated to the American Heart Association to support their work in the community.
Throughout the pandemic, AdventHealth paused and deferred elective surgery procedures in order to prioritize treatment of COVID-19 patients. It also purchased several ambulance sterilizers for their hospital Emergency Room's and built lounge spaces where emergency medical service workers could wait while their ambulances were being sterilized after transporting COVID-positive patients.
BayCare has supported the community during this time by executing drive-thru testing and administering thousands of COVID tests across Hillsborough, Pinellas, Pasco and Polk counties. Additionally, BayCare is partnering with Hillsborough County to launch an alternate COVID care site for patients who are eligible for discharge from hospitals but need additional support as they recover.
In its efforts to fight COVID-19, HCA Healthcare West Florida has strategically decided to pause elective surgeries and received more than 200 travelling nurses from the state of Florida and FEMA to help ease the burden on hospital staff. It also launched a pay continuation program, and then also redeployed staff who saw reduced hours in order to keep caregivers working.
Tampa General Hospital has and continues to lead the way throughout the pandemic and was able to share its CareComm Command Center with fellow hospitals, using the technology to update real-time data regarding the capacity of hospital beds and ventilators across the Bay area. TGH has also provided a prevention response outreach program to help local businesses re-open safely and responsibly.
Collectively, these health care organizations become the 408th Lightning Community Hero since Jeff and Penny Vinik introduced the Lightning Community Heroes program in 2011-12 with a $10 million, five-season commitment to Tampa Bay area non-profits. That initial pledge has since been increased and extended. Through today's announcement, in total, the Lightning Foundation has granted $20.85 million to more than 750 different nonprofits in the Greater Tampa Bay area.