HCA Healthcare announces $150,000 donation to local veterans’ organizations

Today, Nashville-based HCA Healthcare and the HCA Healthcare Foundation honored U.S. military veterans, those currently serving and their families by donating a total of $150,000 to local veteran support organizations.

The donations were in honor of the late HCA Healthcare employee Avery King, an Air Force veteran who was instrumental in the creation of the Military Affairs Program, the organization’s veteran and military spouse employment program.

HCA Healthcare and the HCA Healthcare Foundation contributed to the following organizations during a Veterans Day event, “BRAVE Conversations: Honoring Our Veterans”:

• REBOOT Recovery
• A Soldier’s Child
• Operation Stand Down Tennessee
• MTSU Charlie and Hazel Daniels Veterans and Military Family Center

“HCA Healthcare is proud to support and honor our nation’s veterans and military spouses for their service to our country,” said Sherri Neal, chief diversity officer of HCA Healthcare. “Today, we are especially honored to celebrate the life and legacy of Avery King, a treasured member of the HCA Healthcare family, by contributing to several organizations. We hope that our gift will positively impact the veteran community here in Tennessee and across the country.”

“REBOOT Recovery is the largest peer-led trauma healing program in the world, and we have been the recipient of HCA Healthcare’s Veterans Day gift for the past six years,” said Evan Owens, executive director of REBOOT Recovery. “We are humbled to receive a donation in honor of Avery, who was a longtime board member of our organization. This gift will provide trauma healing courses to veterans, their families and first responders at nearly 300 locations in 34 states and seven countries.”

“A Soldier’s Child is humbled by this donation from HCA Healthcare,” said Daryl J.W. Mackin, founder and executive director of A Soldier’s Child. “Our mission is to serve Gold Star families, and these funds will go a long way, helping us fund camps and celebrations for children of fallen service members. We can think of no better way to honor the life of Avery King and other fellow veterans.”

“Avery King was a longtime friend and champion of Operation Stand Down Tennessee,” said Eden Murrie, CEO of Operation Stand Down Tennessee. “His leadership in the community helped to pave the way for this organization to provide veterans and their families with resources and basic needs, transition assistance, housing, peer engagement, volunteerism and community connection. We are proud to accept this donation and will honor Avery’s life further by including him and his wife Lynda with dog tags in our one-of-a-kind ‘Dog Tag Flag.’”

“Thanks to this donation, the MTSU Charlie and Hazel Daniels Veterans and Military Family Center will establish the Avery King Memorial Scholarship Fund to support the financial needs of U.S. military service members, veterans and military spouses and children who are enrolled students at Middle Tennessee State University,” said Lieutenant General Keith M. Huber, U.S. Army (Retired), MTSU Senior Advisor for Veterans and Leadership Initiatives. “Avery was committed to assisting veterans and military spouses with transition assistance and employment, and we know this scholarship will provide a lasting legacy of Avery’s work.”

HCA Healthcare has a longstanding commitment to U.S veteran and military communities. Since 2012, HCA Healthcare has hired more than 40,000 veterans, active-duty personnel and military spouses. In 2021, HCA Healthcare received the Secretary of Defense Employer Support Freedom Award and was again named one of the country’s best employers for military-connected employment programs, benefits and support by the Military Times. Additionally, HCA Healthcare has been nationally recognized as a military-friendly employer and military-spouse friendly employer for 10 years by VIQTORY, and in 2015, received the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Hiring our Heroes – Lee Anderson Award for overall excellence in hiring and retaining veterans, transitioning service members and military spouses.