The annual WellFit for Life and Best Weigh to Go programs have helped many members of our community adopt and maintain a healthy lifestyle. These programs have a tendency to reveal those within the CCSD doing so despite much greater challenges than simply maintaining willpower.

A perfect example of an educator exhibiting limitless fortitude is Rhonda Houston of Sig Rogich Middle School. Ms. Houston is one of the many Trust participants who completed the 2009 WellFit for Life program, which is arguably an accomplishment worth celebrating in and of itself. Her participation in the program is even more notable due to the fact that it was completed alongside a regimen of dialysis treatments to aid her recovery from a kidney transplant.

As a physical education teacher, Ms. Houston has always placed a great emphasis on leading a healthy lifestyle and, upon meeting with her, it comes as little surprise that dialysis failed to slow her down. In fact, it was her overall excellent health and fitness that confounded her physicians four years ago when Rhonda suffered from renal failure. To date, her doctors are unable to provide any explanation as to its cause. Those who treated her best verbalized their bafflement when they dubbed her the healthiest person requiring a transplant they had ever seen.

After her transplant, unfazed and more determined than ever, Rhonda focused on remaining active despite any obstacles from the recovery process. Regardless of treatment side effects and having to forgo beloved activities, she persevered. An example of her determination can be seen in her approach to regular exercise. Due to the fragility of skin grafts she received following the transplant, Rhonda had to give up her favorite sport, volleyball. Most would have utilized this as a rationalization for inactivity. Rhonda, on the other hand, simply adapted by taking up new activities such as dancing and jogging. In addition, Rhonda has grown quite fond of hiking the numerous trails at Red Rock, Ice Box Canyon being her current favorite.

When the admirably humble Ms. Houston was pressed to discuss her motivation, she revealed she felt a sense of duty: "We are educators, we are role models and we have so many kids who are out of shape. They look up to us, and, if we can, we must be role models of health to them."

As far as we at the Trust are concerned, this sense of dedication to the children she educates encapsulates why Rhonda has received the 2009 Lifetime Achievement Award! It is also why she is yet another community hero you should know!

Philip DiGiacomo
Contributor

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