Jan. 19, 2004 – There's a lot for families to do the coming weekend on St. Croix, and one organization is planning it all: a health fair, a family evening featuring Dr. Clive Callender's life story, a Youth Walking for Health Walk-a-thon and pep rally, and drag racing to benefit the organization.
MOTTEP — the V.I. Minority Organ/Tissue Transplant Education Program — is on the move to raise funds to purchase a dialysis machine and an electro-encephalogram machine for the hospital. Because there's no EEG machine to provide tangible proof of brain death, said a release, organs for transplantation are not being recovered in St. Croix.
With the help of many organizations and individuals, MOTTEP® has planned a family weekend on St. Croix to benefit their fund-raising and families' health and entertainment as well.
The organization's first goal is to impact lifestyle, thereby reducing the need for transplantation. The second goal is to raise funds for two machines needed at the hospital.
Here's the activities lineup:
Health Fair from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Friday, Jan. 23, at the Sunny Isle Shopping Center. Free flu shots, blood pressure reading, glucose and cholesterol screening, and body fact analysis, will all be available, presented by Health Pact, Caribbean Drag Race Association and Quartermasters Drag Race Team, V.I. Health Department, Gov. Juan F. Luis Hospital, and the Cancer Society. There'll be an opportunity to donate blood and learn about diabetes, hypertension, obesity and cancer.
It's a Family Affair! from 7 to 9 p.m. Friday, at St. Croix Educational Complex. This will feature Dr. Clive Callender of Howard University Hospital, who overcame poverty, illness and poor academic performance to become one of America's leading surgeons. He's appeared on the Oprah Winfrey show.
The evening will also feature Kurt Vialet, Complex principal, and the V.I. Police Department's spokesman Sgt. Thomas Hannah.
Walking for Health, starting at 6 a.m. Saturday, Jan. 24. Although the morning starts with a walk-a-thon from Kentucky Fried Chicken Sunny Isle to the Educational Complex, there's much more to do than walk.
There'll be a pep rally at the destination, with nutritionist Dr. Letitia Henry, family physician Cora Christian, and D.J. Porter. The youth registration form signs off the participants with a promise by parent to bring the young person to KFC at 5:30 a.m. and pick up at 11:30 a.m. at Educational Complex, at the end of the program. Students will get six community service hours and a T-shirt. Groups, organizations and individuals are encouraged to bring a donation toward purchasing the needed equipment for the hospital, and churches and groups are asked to wear their organization's T-shirt or colors.
Members of the Frederiksted Twin City Lions Club will collect used eyeglasses at all events. Also taking part in the effort are Volunteers Learning Through Service, the National Technical Honor Society, and the Medical Explorers.
Drag racing time trials start at 3 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 24, at the St. Croix Motorsports Complex.
It all winds up with Drag racing on Sunday, featuring the Quartermasters Drag Racing Team from Maryland — their motor is "Racing to Save Lives" — and other teams, all to benefit the MOTTEP® fund-raising. The Caribbean Drag Racing Association is committed to helping raise the necessary funds for the purchase of these machines, the release said.
Donation checks or money orders should be made payable to "USVI MOTTEP," with an indication for use. All funds raised will be handled by the St. Croix Foundation. For those who prefer to mail checks, they may be sent to the Foundation, 72 Flag Drive, Gallows Bay Station, V.I. 00820, or to USVI MOTTEP at 302 King Street, Frederiksted, V.I. 00840.
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