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Motorcyclists ride for seriously ill woman
Ride nets $1,000 to help with medical bills
Riding for Morgan
Morgan Smith Rogers, shown here with her husband, Greg Rogers, has been hospitalized since early January with a serious infection. - photo by Photo provided.

Area motorcyclists gathered Saturday for a “Riding for Morgan” charity run to help raise funds for a seriously ill Hinesville native, Morgan Smith Rogers. Despite overcast skies and blustery conditions, the ride brought around 50 riders and raised $1,000 to assist Rogers’s family with mounting medical costs.
Rogers, 29, has been hospitalized at St. Joseph’s Candler since Jan. 3 with a serious bacterial infection and has undergone 15 different surgeries to date. She recently was moved from the intensive care unit to the progressive care unit, where she is beginning to recover; however, relatives say Rogers’s road to recovery is long.
“Her doctors say that she will have a very extended recovery, with more surgeries to come before, she is fully healed. ... We have no idea how long she will be in the hospital,” said Rogers’ father-in-law, Mike Allen.
Allen and his wife, Tammy, attended and rode in the event to thank those who came out in support of their daughter-in-law. He said that Rogers has her good days and her bad days, and it has been a difficult time for the entire family.
Allen and other family members contacted Sistaz and Soljaz with Vizonz, a local social club known for its involvement in community service, to help coordinate a charity event for Rogers.
“The club holds a ride in conjunction with our annual Presidential Bash and when we were asked for help, we decided to have the proceeds of this ride go toward Morgan’s care. It’s the least we can do to help,” said Lisette “LBoogie” Flores, president and founder of SWV.
Flores said the club held the ride in conjunction with its parent motorcycle club, Deep South Riders, and heavily promoted the event through other motorcycle clubs, social media sites and prayer groups.
According to SWV Vice President Amanda Lawson, the club always is open to opportunities to help the community.
“We try to help out where we can,” she said. She added that the group has been involved in collecting toys for Toys For Tots, working with area nursing homes and raising money for its scholarship program, which gives money to area high-school graduates.
Group members weren’t sure what to expect regarding turnout for the ride since such events typically tend to be influenced by the weather. Lawson said the cold, wind and threat of rain may have kept some riders at home. Still, multiple independent riders and several Fort Stewart and Hinesville-area motorcycle clubs did show, including Chosen Riders, Front Runnerz, Soldiers United, Kingz and other groups. One group, II Tight, came from Brunswick to show its support.
Riders met in the parking lot of the Quality Inn on Highway 17 in Richmond Hill to form a procession. A few co-workers of Greg Rogers, Rogers’ husband, from Interstate Paper and many of Rogers’ relatives and friends gathered at the rally point to see off the riders and thank them for participating.
“The community support has been great. We’re so thankful for everything that people are doing,” said Vicki Smith, Rogers’ sister. She added that Rogers is aware of the ride and other support efforts on her behalf but has not been able to comment due to her condition.
Flores gathered the riders together at noon and expressed her gratitude for the turnout.
“You all touch my heart,” she said before inviting Rogers’ family members to speak on her behalf.
Smith thanked all the participants before becoming overwhelmed with emotion. Allen said it meant a lot to see so many of his fellow brother and sister motorcycle riders come together in support of his daughter-in-law.
“God is good all the time and we thank everyone for their continued prayers,” he said. Attendees joined hands and prayed for Rogers and the safety of the group on the road.
The route brought riders down Highway 17 into Midway, then west on Highway 84 before looping back to Highway 17 via Leroy Coffer Highway.
An account for donations has been established at The Heritage Bank in Hinesville and Altamaha Federal Credit Union locations in Ludowici and Jesup. Anyone who wants to contribute to Rogers’ care should make checks payable to the “Morgan Rogers Fund,” or call Allen at 912-256-1743.

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From the book 'Outliers' comes proof that good health is more than just genetics
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Friends Jim Young, left, Mike Natale, Jeff Natale and Ryan Kiernan were on Greenwich High School football team together and Jim and Mike were captains. Jim, who was the youngest in Sherry Young's family, was welcome in the homes of the other three boys who still had siblings around and grandparents near. - photo by Sherry Young
As I look back on my life and the lives of others, both personally and in the reading I have done, I am convinced of the necessity of positive human contact in our lives. We are doubly blessed when we are able to make good friends or are a part of a family where we are accepted and loved.

Malcolm Gladwell in his book Outliers tells of a time in the 1950s when Dr. Stewart Wolf met a physician who practiced in the area of Roseto, Pennsylvania. Roseto was settled by a group of Italian families from Roseto, Italy, who re-created their life again in America.

This was in the 1950s before drugs and measures to prevent heart disease became important. In their conversation the physician said, You know, Ive been practicing for 17 years. I get patients from all over, and I rarely find anyone from Roseto under the age of 65 with heart disease.

Wolf was surprised by these words as, It was impossible to be a doctor, common sense said, and not see heart disease.

Wolf enlisted the aid of a sociologist and friend John Bruhn to help him. They found, There was no suicide, no alcoholism, no drug addiction, and very little crime. They didnt have anyone on welfare. Then we looked at peptic ulcers. They didnt have any of those either. These people were dying of old age. Thats it.

They checked into diet, genetics and possibilities of something in the foothills of eastern Pennsylvania but nothing made sense.

What they found was that Rosetans visited one another, stopping to chat in Italian on the street, say, or cooking for one another in their backyards. (Researchers) learned about the extended family clans that underlay the towns social structure. They saw how many homes had three generations living under one roof and how much respect grandparents commanded. They went to Mass at Our Lady of Mount Carmel and saw the unifying and calming effect of the church. They counted 22 separate civic organizations in a town of just under 2,000 people. They picked up on the particular egalitarian ethos of the community, which discouraged the wealthy from flaunting their success and helped the unsuccessful obscure their failures.

What they found eventually convinced the medical establishment to look beyond the individual and understand the culture people are part of their friends, families and town they came from. They determined that the people we surround ourselves with and the values of the world we inhabit have a profound effect on who we are.

Likely, this study could have been done with other ethnicities. However, my family's experiences with the Italian families in Connecticut ring true to the study. Our hungry and growing sons, especially our youngest son, Jim, who was left home alone with two beady-eyed parents, all had some memorable experiences being fed and loved in the Cos Cob multigenerational families. Proof of the African proverb, It takes a village to raise a child.

We live in an age when the contact we have with people often is on the internet, and many of us live among strangers. Unless we make the effort to reach out, we will become isolated, especially as we age. The Rosetan study is proof that reaching out and communicating may be good for our health.
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