A few months ago, the Bennie and Martha Benjamin Foundation made a $35,000 donation to Frederiksted Health Care Inc., and last month, the foundation’s executors visited St. Croix to see the new Panorex, a dental machine that takes full-mouth X-rays.
According to Masserae Webster, FHC chief executive officer, dental services have grown since 2006 when they added a dental chair. Since then, FHC opened a dental clinic in La Grande Princess with eight dental stations and added two more chairs to the Frederiksted facility.
“This is not the first time the foundation has donated to us. We are so thankful for their help and dedication to Virgin Island health care,” Webster said. “We’re always looking to help.”
Webster said the foundation’s donations come from Benjamin’s royalties for the music he wrote over his lifetime.
Claude A. “Bennie” Benjamin” was born in 1907 in Christiansted. At the age of 20, he moved to New York. He was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1984, after writing more than a dozen popular songs, including “Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood” and “I Ran All the Way Home.” He formed a publishing company in 1968. He died in 1989.
Benjamin and his wife, Martha, left their estate for Virgin Islanders who want to improve health care. In the last 30 years, more than $3 million has been donated to various health care and health education programs in the territory.
“Each year, the executors come down and find out what the health care needs are,” Webster said.
