No one was more surprised at the identity of person of the year than the honoree Wednesday at Rotary Club of St. Thomas II’s annual award luncheon at Marriott’s Frenchman’s Reef’s Windows on the Harbor Restaurant.
2010 is the 31st anniversary of the annual award, with previous honorees including Ron De Lugo, Edward Thomas, and Randy Knight, as well as governors, judges, university presidents and even a publisher of an online news publication.
“One of life’s delicious ironies is that humility and selflessness seem so often to exist together in harmony,” Person of the Year Committee Chair Elliott MacIver Davis said in his speech announcing the honoree.
Davis clearly had Therese Hodge pegged – spot on – when he chose those words for when she was called to the podium, she couldn’t help covering her face with embarrassment.
“I don’t feel like I do anything anyone else doesn’t do,” Hodge said tearful at all the attention she received. “Did you hear the names of the people who were called before me?”
Hodge, who chairs the Physical Education department at Addelita Cancryn Junior High School, is so much more than an educator or a public servant. She is a tireless supporter of Girl Power, a program to promote confidence in girls ages 9-14; a promoter of track-and-field events for youth and adults; and a huge source of energy for the American Cancer Society’s Relay for Life; among others, according to Davis’ speech.
Hodge’s energy is legendary, and Davis suggested that as President Barack Obama searches for promising sources of alternative energy, Rotary II might do well to write him about Hodge as a potential source for the country’s future needs.
Service above self is another quality the club looks for in selecting its honoree. Hodge has this trait in spades, and getting her to talk about herself is nearly impossible; coworkers, friends and colleagues were quick to enumerate how she has contributed to the community.
“She’s truly awesome,” Yvonne Pilgrim, Cancryn’s principal, said. “She works hard with the entire faculty and staff. She’s also very much out there in the community.”
St. Thomas-St. John-Water Island Administrator Barbara Petersen agreed. Petersen and her mother, Candia, (who was last year’s recipient) have worked closely with Hodge to raise funds for the American Cancer Society.
“She’s always been in charge of creating teams for the Relay for Life,” Petersen said. “She is always so organized and has been doing it since its inception.”
Her mother Candia concurred.
“It couldn’t happen to a better person,” Candia Petersen said.
There has been talk amongst Hodge’s colleagues for some time that she would be recognized for all she has done for the community.
“She does so much,” said Joseph Crawford, who runs with Hodge in the St. Thomas Association of Road Runners. “We were all hoping that someone would recognize all that she’s doing.”
Hodge humbly received the Lladro figurine of Don Quixote, which personifies the traits of “the legendary knight …whose exploits celebrated the quest for and achievements of one’s unreachable star,” according to Davis’ speech.
