MAXINE Foster can’t forget the devastation inflicted on Jamaica by Hurricane Gilbert in September 1988.

The Category 3 cyclone swept across the entire length and breadth of the island, killing more than 45 people, forcing at least 800,000 into shelters, and destroying upwards of 100,000 homes. So destructive was Gilbert that four months after its rampage at least 600 people were still in hurricane shelters across the island.

The island suffered billions of dollars worth of damage, with the agricultural sector the worst affected. The banana and poultry industries, in particular, were obliterated.

It was a frightening ordeal for Jamaicans, the majority of whom were left without electricity and water for months.

At the time, Foster was living in Airy Castle, St Thomas. Instead of falling victim to the heavy pall of gloom that hung over the island she put her energies into volunteerism, providing help to her fellow Jamaicans in need.

“We had no light and water, no anything, and you couldn’t go to work so I just jumped in with the Red Cross at the time by taking food up into the parts that people couldn’t get to. So that’s where it started for me, and it just continued throughout my life,” Foster, who is now living in Atlanta, Georgia, USA, told the
Jamaica Observer after being being presented with a Special Achievement Award in Community Leadership at the third annual Atlanta Caribbean Community Awards on March 9.

“Whenever I am in any part of the world I always try to get involved. I am proud of my Jamaican heritage, I am proud of my culture,” said Foster.

“It’s a good feeling, you know, because a lot of times, to be frank, we do a lot of work, we are behind the scenes, and a lot of times what we do is not recognised. People don’t know what you’re doing. These are just volunteer work, it’s giving back to the community, and I have a heart to give back and I do enjoy what I do,” Foster told the Sunday Observer.

The Morant Bay High School alumnus, who is a past president of the Atlanta Jamaican Association, has been living in Georgia for more than a decade.

She recalled that after leaving high school, financial difficulties prevented her from enrolling in university. However, when she migrated to the United States a few years later she put her plan in motion to get tertiary-level academic qualifications.

“After I moved from Jamaica I went to live in Washington state in the west and then I moved to Okinawa in Japan for three years, then returned to America to reside in Tampa, Florida, and then to New Jersey. For the past 11 years I have lived here in Atlanta,” Foster explained.

Foster earned an associate degree in business at University of Maryland, then studied at St Leo University in Florida where she attained a bachelor’s degree in business management.

She next attended Montclair State University in New Jersey where she earned an MBA in Finance, and followed that up with a PhD in Christian Counselling.

She said that while she was living in Japan she and a few other people formed a Caribbean Heritage Club.

“I’m always getting involved in the Caribbean community,” she said.

Foster is married to Dr D Terrence Foster, an author and stress, pain and rehabilitation medicine management consultant who has his practice in the Stockbridge area of Georgia. He, too, is originally from St Thomas.

“I work with my husband who has a business called The Centre for Pain and Rehab Medicine; I’m more on the administrative side of the business. Since I moved here to Georgia I have been involved in volunteer work, ministry work, and counselling,” she said.

“Looking ahead, I want to focus on a purpose, destiny, legacy — that kinda thing. I am hoping that I can slowly ease out of a nine-to-five and really put more time into what I feel God has called me to do, which is serving and helping people,” Foster said.