Employee Gives Back

Spend five minutes talking to the director of Grant Administration at Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital, and you instantly know that Gary Cook is unassuming and humble. A man who repeatedly talks about the others he works with to help the families served through Le Bonheur Community Health and Well-Being.

In his role, Gary focuses on helping the community division meet its annual budget of nearly $30 million through finding, applying for and tracking grants from a variety of governmental and philanthropic sources. And while he has personally helped Le Bonheur bring in millions in grant money over his tenure at the hospital, he has also backed its work through making an annual gift to Le Bonheur every year for three decades.

"The commitment to serving the patients here, regardless of their ability to pay, is one of the things that is most important to me," Gary said.

Gary has no children of his own and has one brother. He thinks of his co-workers as his extended family, and that's why, beyond making an annual gift to Le Bonheur, he has also included the hospital in his estate plan.

"I want to see the services that we've developed in the community have even a better chance of continuing and possibly expanding, and that's why I have decided to give everything I have to Le Bonheur," Gary said. "Our programs need to have better financial foundations to continue into the future, to enhance the quality of the programs and the capacity of the programs. There's no better way than for us, as Associates, to be a part of that equation. I'm just proud that I'm able to do that."

Gary, who grew up in Tampa, Fla., received both his bachelor's and master's degrees in social work at Florida State University. "I always have enjoyed helping other people and providing support to other people who needed it. I never had any other intentions other than to help disadvantaged people. And I guess somehow it was my calling—and I can't tell you precisely how that came to me," said Gary.

But come to him it did, setting Gary on a lifelong path of service to others. Upon receiving his master's in social work, Gary headed to Middle Tennessee and worked for the Madison County Juvenile Court for five years. He then joined Le Bonheur in 1981 as a social worker, eventually moving over to help manage the Center for Children in Crisis, a program that evaluated families and children when there were allegations of neglect or abuse. The program, says Gary, quickly grew from simple evaluations to becoming a resource for at-risk families.

"There were always these questions about golly, if we have this kind of a resource, wouldn't it be great? Or, if we had a primary prevention program available so that these kids were never abused, wouldn't that be great?" he said. "Programs kept growing and growing, and we actually have about 150 people working in the community division now."