Amidst the unsettling situation the country and community currently faces, there are people making a difference for those on the front lines.

Lee Health wants to say a big thank you to local businesses and residents who have pitched in to make life easier on those putting their health on the line every day interacting with those who need care.

“In the last five days, 110 local restaurants have dropped off food for our staff and frontline heroes. I don’t even know if I’ve eaten at 110 different restaurants in my life,” President and Chief Executive Officer Dr. Larry Antonucci said on April 8. “We are so thankful for our community’s continued support and for their recognition of what health care workers are facing every day during this pandemic.

“Yesterday alone LeeSar cleaned and sterilized over 600 homemade masks that have been donated by our community. As we continue to encourage everyone to wear masks while out in public, these donations will allow us to protect our patients while saving medical-grade masks for health care workers,” he added.

Antonucci also commented on the number of newborns Lee Health has delivered recently and gave his best to new parents bringing a child into this difficult climate.

“Over the course of the year, we birth enough babies to fill a kindergarten class every day,” he said. “These babies don’t have any awareness of the unique and trying times they have been born into, and I pray they only have to experience a pandemic via stories from their parents and grandparents about what it was like the day they were born. Before working in administration, I myself started my medical career delivering babies, and I wish these growing families nothing but joy and happiness.”