Feb. 19, 2008 — In memory of her son Nigel O. Hodge, St. Thomas resident Josephine Hodge has adopted the Health and Fitness Program at Lockhart Elementary School and made a donation Tuesday of more than $1,000 worth of exercise equipment to help the students stay physically fit.
The Nigel O. Hodge Foundation was established in 1996 after her son's untimely death from Hodgkin's Disease, Hodge explained. Tuesday would have been his 25th birthday, she said.
"At the time of his death, I was in so much pain, and I thought I had to do something to carry on, help other children to stay healthy," Hodge said. "Just the pain of losing him inspired me to go and help somebody else — another family, another child. Since Nigel was a student here, we adopted Lockhart School, and every year we do something positive for the students."
On hand to receive a plaque commemorating the event and the equipment — including two treadmills, two elliptical machines and exercise bikes — were Lockhart's assistant principals, Marion Lynch and Jamon E. Liburd, along with the school's physical education teacher, Janine Berry.
Speaking later, Berry explained that she started the health and fitness program to help overweight students slim down.
"Obesity has run rampant through the Virgin Islands and the U.S.," Berry said. "So I have taken my time and gotten the program together. It's only for obese students who want to lose some weight."
When not in the gym, students in the program are in the library reading up on how to eat and live healthier, she said. Students who lose the most weight in a month are given the "Slim Jim" award and are taken out to dinner with Berry.
The Nigel O. Hodge Foundation is part of the collection of funds at the Community Foundation of the Virgin Islands, and has provided more than $40,000 since the Fund was established in 1996 to children afflicted with cancer or other life-threatening diseases, according to a news release from CFVI. The fund is subsidized by money awarded to the family in a wrongful-death lawsuit, after it was discovered that Nigel had been repeatedly treated for his disease with the wrong type of chemotherapy.
Hodge added later that she hopes Tuesday's donation to Lockhart Elementary will be the first of many, as she continues to further the foundation's goal of promoting health and fitness to students throughout the territory.
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