Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
‘Local Hero’ contest
3 women recognized.
Gail Doxie, recently selected as Tropical Financial Credit Union’s newest “Local Hero,” said the real heroes are members of the military “who lay their lives on the line each day to preserve the freedoms we all love and enjoy.”
On their 20-acre ranch in North Fort Myers, Doxie and her husband, Keith, provide free treatment for veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan with post-traumatic stress disorder.
The Lee County woman, who works as a real estate agent, is the second winner of the Miramar-based credit union’s “Local Hero” contest, according to a news release.
The Doxies’ charity, the Miles of Smiles Foundation, helps veterans by encouraging them to work with horses, Gail Doxie said in a 2014 interview with WGCU, a public radio station in Southwest Florida.
The treatment is called Equine Assisted Therapy. Gail Doxie, a licensed mental health counselor, provides therapy, while her husband handles the horses.
“The therapy itself involves doing exercises with the horses and perhaps building certain obstacles; things that they want to get around, get over or get through, and it will be a metaphor for what they’re experiencing in life,” Gail Doxie said in the interview.
The credit union solicited recommendations over the summer in the eight southern Florida counties where it operates. More than 300 candidates were nominated with stories about why they deserve the honor, and the public cast more than 4,800 votes for their favorites.
The top 10 vote-getters were submitted to a panel of judges who selected the finalists and winner. Criteria included impact on the community, reach and location of the impact, and number of people helped.
Gail Doxie will receive a check for $4,500, and Tropical Financial will donate $1,000 to the couple’s foundation.
Two runners-up were named:
Julia Kadel of Delray Beach formed a baseball league for youngsters with special needs called Miracle League of Palm Beach County that’s now in its 18th season.
Bernadette Todd of Cutler Bay was born with muscular dystrophy, has traveled the world as a missionary spreading her story of survival, love and faith, and today mentors teen girls in Broward County with a group of women from area churches she calls Team Bernadette.
Kadel and Todd will each receive $500 for their chosen charities.
Tropical Financial said Gail Doxie has provided $60,000 in free services over the past two years.
The Doxies opened the ranch in 2013 in honor of their only son, Miles, who at 17 volunteered to serve in the Air Force but died in a car crash two weeks before reporting for basic training.
Tropical Financial CEO Richard Helber said Gail Doxie is “the epitome of what a local hero is all about; someone doing selfless acts on a regular basis for the betterment of a community or for the benefit of other people.”