Kendrick Fincher Foundation receives donation

Thanks to the interest of Gentry seventh grade football player Keeten Jones

— Through the interest of Gentry seventh-grade football player Keeten Jones, a gift of $500 was presented to the Kendrick Fincher Foundation on Sept. 29 to assist the organization in educating athletes and coaches on the importance of maintaining good hydration during physical activities and preventing heat-related illnesses on hot days.

The interest began when Rhonda Fincher spoke to the Gentry Pioneer football teams during summer practices. She stressed the importance of proper hydration before, during and after practices and outlined the warning signs of heat stress and heat stroke and how to respond when heat-related symptoms appear.

Keeten Jones was moved by the presentation and continued to talk about it for days, his mother Sandy Jones said. Keeten's interest moved Sandy to speak to McKee Foods, her employer, about it and McKee Foods responded with a gift for the foundation.

The Kendrick Fincher Foundation is named after Rhonda Fincher's son Kendrick, who suffered heat stroke and later died as a result of poor hydration and getting too hot during summer football practice. Mike and Rhonda Fincher want no otherparents to suffer the loss of a child unnecessarily because of heat and dehydration. Kendrick died as a result of heat stroke suffered during summer football practice before his eigth-grade school year.

The Fincher's wrote on the foundation's Web site: “As parents, we have committed that we want no other parent to experience this heartache over a preventable death. The Kendrick Fincher Memorial Foundation was developed to ensure children have proper hydration during athletic activities and that they have squeeze bottles with them at all events. Because of Kendrick's death, procedures have been changed in the sports programs at the local schools to make it unlikely a similar accident will happen. We wish to work with any other schools or teams nationally to provide information on heat illness prevention.”

The gift will be used to further educate schools, athletes and their coaches on the dangers of dehydration and heat-related illness.

Rhonda Fincher speaks to the Gentry Football teams each year during summer practice.

More information on the foundation, on the importance of proper hydration during physical activity and on the warning signs of heat-related illness is available on the foundation's Web site: www.kendrickfincher.org.

News, Pages 14 on 10/06/2010