A Tale of Two Courses

Help for veterans in Southwest Florida is coming from the area’s golf courses, in varying fashions. In Golden Gate, a Florida Dept. of Veterans’ Affairs (FDVA) nursing home projected to cost approximately $120 million is moving closer to rising on the site of the now-closed golf course owned by Collier County at the corner of Collier Blvd. and Golden Gate Parkway. And in Bonita Springs, members of The Nest golf club just held a golf tourney raising funds for the Home Base charity, bringing in more dollars than any previous Home Base event anywhere in the country. 

Helping to meet the needs of the military veterans who risked their lives and their health to keep this country protected is a sacred obligation, a duty brought into sharp focus in Southwest Florida. 

“Collier County has the greatest need of any county in the state” to care for veterans, said Collier County Commissioner Burt Saunders, who was instrumental in getting the veterans’ nursing home located here. “We have problems with homeless veterans and with veterans not getting quality care as they age.”  

“We have more vets per capita here than anywhere in the country,” said Basil Bennett, The Nest Home Base chairman, himself a former Army captain and paratrooper. “Home Base has seen a 67 percent increase year over year in requests for service from 2022 to ’23. There’s a tremendous need out there.” 

Home Base Veteran and Family Care was set up by the Boston Red Sox and Massachusetts General Hospital to provide services for returning vets. A joint project of the Major League Baseball team and the hospital, Home Base, Bennett said, focuses their efforts on post-traumatic stress, brain injuries, depression and related issues that are epidemic among many veterans, particularly in the wake of the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. Since 9/11/2001, over 100,000 veterans have lost their lives to suicide.

The FDVA nursing home will focus on “long-term care for veterans in need of assistance with daily life activities, dressing, cooking, bathing and medication management,” said Alexandra Scardino, manager of Collier County Veteran Services. “We need it as soon as possible,” but just when the facility will break ground, be constructed and fully operational is the $120 million question. 

Scardino said she doesn’t expect the nursing home to break ground for four to five years, an assessment shared by Collier Commission Chairman Rick LoCastro, a former Air Force colonel. Saunders is more optimistic, expecting the facility to break ground in 2025 and possibly open in 2026. But, said Saunders, “once built, they ramp up very slowly. The goal is to start with 15 or 20 (residents) and then add five or six per month” to keep a balance between staff and patients. 

Saunders disagreed with others including LoCastro and Home Base staffer Jason Cooper that the inability of FDVA to fully staff existing nursing homes, with the nearest in Punta Gorda, would hold up construction of the Collier facility. “The only potential holdup is getting the Federal funding” that is supposed to cover 65 percent of the cost, he said.

When it does materialize, the FDVA nursing home will be on 18 acres instead of the original 12-acre site, allowing greater flexibility and more options for added amenities. 

“This will be the most spectacular nursing home in veterans’ history nationally. It will look more like a resort,” said Lee Rubenstein, American Legion Post 404 commander. 

While the politics, design, funding, placement, construction and staffing of the nursing home are worked out, Home Base is moving full speed ahead with their contribution to the wellbeing of our veterans.

On a warm, bright Monday, a sold-out field of golfers teed off at the Nest, situated within the Pelican Landing gated community, for their eighth annual Home Base Golf and Charity Event. When the last Mulligan had been purchased, the last divot had been replaced and proceeds from the silent auction tallied, the event had raised over $335,000, easily topping their $300,000 goal and bringing the total of Home Base contributions from The Nest above the $2 million mark. As with all Home Base contributions, 100 percent of the money raised goes directly to programs, with no administrative expenses deducted. 

Reina Ozbay, the teenage star of streaming series “The Chosen,” sang the National Anthem and “God Bless America,” before the group heard from Gen. Fred Franks, who said taking care of our military veterans when they return from combat zones is a matter of fulfilling trust. 

“When they volunteered to serve, there was an implied trust that we would be there for them when they come home,” Franks told the golfers gathered at The Nest ready to head out for the shotgun start scramble. “We are. Home Base is the fulfillment of that trust.”

Franks, a retired four-star U.S. Army general, is the Southwest Florida honorary director and program advisor for Home Base and takes veterans’ issues seriously. The Naples resident took to the links with a prosthetic leg with a Home Base decal on it, after losing the original leg due to a combat injury from his time as a tank commander in Vietnam.

Two other retired brigadier generals were on hand, Home Base CEO Jack Hammond and Ed Dyer.