HeroCare helps community's finest
_BY EVAN _WILLIAMS Florida Weekly Correspondent

PHOTO EVAN WILLIAMS Lane Houk

Sporting a neatly trimmed goatee and pressed blue HeroCare shirt, Lane Houk slipped into the conference room at his yellow and blue painted offices on College Parkway and Winkler Avenue last Tuesday morning with a mission - to define what heroes are, what a community is, and how he's trying to bring local businesses together to help them all.

Houk's non-profit company ties local heroes - defined here as anyone who works for the government, the military, the school system, plus all firemen, policemen, and medical personnel - to local businesses that help them with all their financial needs. This includes home loans, insurance, financial planning and more.

These heroes call up HeroCare and a "concierge" puts them in touch with the appropriate organization which helps them, often for free.

"The police officers and firefighters are stakeholders in the community" he said. "We want to be their voice, their advocate."

Realtors, financial advisors, and other businesses provide Houk with a monthly donation to be a part of his network of services at HeroCare. Those businesses, Houk said, are chosen because they are "top notch in the industry," and adds that he's always adding new ones to his large, growing, HeroCare repository.

"This community has a lot of assets," he insisted. "But we're fragmented. There's a need to bring all of these community resources together. HeroCare is the middle-man, the connection to all these resources."

Houk says his company will help the Lee County community and beyond, to grow.

"We were losing teachers, firemen and police officers to other communities and states," he said. "When a teacher leaves their classroom, this school district has a challenge in replacing that teacher. And the school district is growing. When we lose a teacher, what happens to the quality of education for kids in that classroom?"

It's what he calls "The Negative Cycle of Growth," a cycle Herocare aims to reverse.

Houk himself is a teacher on the weekends, for kids who play hockey. They practice at Germain Arena.

"It's a blast watching five- and six-yearolds play hockey in Florida," he said.

He also does a lot of reading. Top on his recent favorites list is the intense sounding "Firms of Endearment," by Rajendra S. Sisodia, David B. Wolfe, and Jagdish N. Sheth.

"It talks about how companies that have a 'soul' and treat their customers as though they have one are more successful than companies that don't have a passion and purpose," he said.

In Houk's case the passion is people, and the purpose is helping them financially.

"If I have anything to say to this community, it's that we have to take care of the people that take care of this community," he said. "The day we don't take care of those people is the day this ceases to be a community."