Sept. 18, 2007 — First lady Cecile deJongh spoke at the Rotary West Community Center Tuesday evening on her efforts to establish a V.I. chapter of Children and Adults with Attention Deficit Disorder (CHADD), as well as other initiatives.
St. Croix, like many places, has a lot of substandard housing, something she feels strongly about as a Virgin Islander and as a founding member of Habitat for Humanity in the Virgin Islands, deJongh said.
“We are about to dedicate the first home site,” she said. “It should be completely built sometime in December. John (Gov. John deJongh Jr.) and I donated the site, and it will go to a young lady, a single mother with several children. My grandmother lived on that site, and she was a single mother of six herself, so I feel a connection.”
The first lady also spoke about alternative physical education, the V.I. Special Olympics and recent Camp Shriver summer camp events on St. Croix and St. Thomas.
Asked what Rotary West could do, she said volunteer labor and donated land would help. She also said she hoped to speak with the Housing Finance Authority to see whether there were any tracts of land in government hands not being used for large projects. “Then we should start building,” she said.
Habitat for Humanity trades sweat equity for cash equity, she explained. They put out ads and families fill out applications.
“One of the most stringent qualifications they have to meet is they have to actually, currently be living in substandard housing,” she said. After that, if accepted, the family has to put in 350 hours of sweat equity in lieu of a down payment. The labor of the family and volunteers greatly reduce the cost of building, and Habitat for Humanity finances the mortgage interest free. So a family might get a $190,000 house for $60,000 with a zero-interest 30-year mortgage.
The Special Olympics are another passion for the first lady. The Virgin Islands has held a Special Olympic for 30 years — “as long as it has been international,” she said.
“For these children, this is their one special day,” she said. “It’s very sad to see when there is no one there. It’s just once a year and I really strongly encourage you to come out in March. It’s not much to do, and it makes them incredibly happy to have us there cheering them along. It would mean a lot.”
Camp Shriver made its debut on both St. Croix and St. Thomas this year. It is a two-week summer camp for the developmentally challenged which, like Special Olympics, is a creation of Eunice Kennedy Shriver.
“We were fortunate enough to meet Ms. Shriver last February,” deJongh said. “She began the camp in her backyard in 1962 to help her sister, who suffers from intellectual disabilities. The camp teaches them sports — dodge ball, kickball and basketball — to help them improve their physical prowess. … At the beginning most all of them were afraid to swim, and after two weeks there were kids diving off the diving board. Imagine if instead of two weeks, it was all year.”
After the February meeting mentioned above, Shriver agreed to finance the 25th and 26th Camp Shriver on her way to establishing a camp in every state and territory.
Establishing a CHADD chapter is a high priority for her as well, deJongh said.
“It is something my oldest son has lived with for 15 years now,” she said. “I was stumbling around looking for solutions for my child, and nobody was saying this is the place to go and this is what you can do. What I found really helpful is speaking to parents in the same situation. This is about having a parental support group, with people who can share the knowledge and experience they have acquired.”
For more on this topic, see "First Lady Raising Awareness About Attention Deficit Disorder."
The first lady invited the public to come hear Anne Teeter Ellison, president of CHADD, speak at Government House in Christiansted on at 6 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 26.
Rotary West often has guest speakers. May Adams Cornwall, executive director of the Waste Management Authority, will speak at the community center at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday. Labor Commissioner Albert Bryan is scheduled for the following Tuesday, Oct. 2.
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