Cypress Village takes ‘Lap Around the Lake’ to fight heart disease

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Cypress Village residents and associates organized a modified version of the First Coast Heart Walk on the senior living community’s campus complete with cheering squad at the halfway point. While associates from Cypress Village participated in the American Heart Association’s official heart walk held in downtown Jacksonville, Cypress Village created the “Lap Around the Lake” in order to offer a small-scale alternative for residents from all levels of care to participate in the cause.

After living in Seoul, South Korea with her military husband, Hodges realized there was a need for adequate healthcare in the region, particularly for people whose heart ailments went beyond the technical skill available locally. By the mid-1990s Hodges had arranged travel to the United States for 3,017 Korean adults and children. She convinced airlines to book seats, local nurses to serve as translators and American surgeons to book operating rooms. Hodges coordinated free or discounted cardiac surgery for more than 2,000 patients in about 20 medical centers throughout the United States. Her efforts are still recognized and honored by those, and the children of those, whose lives were saved by her servitude. Children whose lives she touched agave her the name, “Halmonie,” meaning “grandmother” in Korean, and by American doctors, she was known as the Queen of Hearts.

Cypress Village is a continuing care retirement care community that offers resident services, amenities and multiple levels of care. Located adjacent to the Mayo Clinic, Cypress Village has homes and apartments on a 120-acre campus. For more information, call (904) 223-6100.