Long-serving member of the Rotary Club of Anguilla, Vanier Menes Hodge, is the first of many Rotarians, in District 7020, to have been featured in an interview in the first issue of the Club’s newsletter for that district.
District 7020 comprises Anguilla, French St. Martin, Dutch St. Maarten, St. Barths, St. Thomas, St. Croix, Tortola, Jamaica, Haiti, the Bahamas (where the District Governor, Rotarian Felix Nathaniel Stubs, resides); Turks and Caicos Islands and the Cayman Islands.
Rotarian Hodge is a former Director of the Department of Information and Broadcasting in the Anguilla Public Service having been seconded from the Customs Department. He also served as Principal Assistant Secretary in the Chief Minister’s Office before studying at Codrington Theological Seminary in Barbados and entering the Anglican Ministry.
Reverend Hodge, a quasi-retired Priest, was quoted as saying in the interview, for the August edition of District 7020 Newsletter, that without Rotary, “I would be like a fish out of water”.
An excerpt of that interview reads as follows: “For the past 37 years I have attended our Rotary meetings regularly. Even when I was off-island I always kept in touch with Rotary. I see myself as a people’s person and, apart from my association with the church, Rotary continues to play an important role in that regard. Through Rotary, I have made some lasting friendships at home and abroad which I treasure greatly. I also enjoy ‘fun time’ at Rotary occasionally. At this stage at 76 years, life without Rotary would be like a chain with middle or central links missing.”
Asked his opinion as to whether young people should be encouraged to become Rotarians, he replied: “Indeed, I would highly recommend young people to join Rotary, as I often do, though not with success always. Rotary can help young people to keep focused on things that are positive, and so to help their community and island to be a better place in which to live. Rotary can help to make them into more sociable people.”
Rotarian Menes Hodge also spoke in the two-page newsletter interview about the work of the Rotary Club of Anguilla in the island’s community. He stated as follows:
“I am of the opinion that the community understands a fair amount of what the role of Rotary in Anguilla is all about. Judging from the many requests we have received after the word about the ‘Tyrone [Home] Project’ got around, the community is well aware of what Rotary is all about. But we must guard against giving the impression that Rotary is there to satisfy all the needs and wants of the people. Each case must be assessed on its own merit.
“The provision of the Blood Bank Project for the Hospital, now in the pipeline, will help our community to understand all the more what Rotary is doing for the island and its people.”
As if he is not already fully engaged in various forms of church and community life and activity, the eminently-multifaceted gentleman is the percussion musician for Anguilla Time, a string band involving two of his – sons Arnie and Vanroy, along with some friends. They perform at parties and other social events, with the paternal player shaking the maracas and swaying and stamping his feet to the rhythm.
