Peggy picked plums. Peggy picked patients. Now, Peggy’s pickin’ a fight.
https://www.newbyfoundation.org/tower-garden-project
https://elizabethrivertrail.org/
https://www.nps.gov/locations/chesapeakebaywatershed/index.htm
https://virginiahumanities.org/
(Sound of birds chirping)
Peggy Newby: My name is Peggy Newby. I am originally from Greensboro, North Carolina.
The neighbor in front of us, Ms. Dukes, and the neighbor behind me, Ms. Epps, had the best plum trees, the absolute best. They were so juicy and so sweet, but she was so afraid that we would hurt ourselves. So we could only pick the plums from the ground.
Well, we didn't want those, so we went climbing up the tree as we were instructed not to do, and got the best plums.
(Sound of climbing up a tree and picking a fruit off of a branch)
They weren't very hard, and they were not too soft. So that medium feel, that medium feel. And those were the sweetest plums we went around pressing plums to get the best.
But little did we know that Ms. Adams was watching, and every single kid on the street was on punishment for that week for disobeying the rules. (Laughs) True community. True community.
(Musical interlude)
Nichole Hill: Who knew that a little girl, grounded for climbing plum trees, was just getting started? That Peggy’s earliest act of defiance, picking the sweetest fruit from the highest branch, was actually a preview of a life led by bold choices. Peggy’s picking didn’t stop in that Greensboro neighborhood. She picked a partner who brought her to Hampton Roads. She picked a path… cardiac nursing…. where precision and heart go hand in hand. And when her profession landed her a job on a college campus, she found something she didn’t expect…
Peggy Newby: I had no idea that the students on college campuses between the ages of 18 and 26 had chronic diseases. Things that I did not see until I was maybe in nursing school, maybe the patients were 60, they were 50, they were 18 to 26 with undiagnosed diabetes, hypertension,. Hypertension, in an 18-year-old? Massive respiratory disorders, just unhealthy.
(Slow keys underscore the following)
A student that comes to mind--he was a member of the band
And the band was a performance band and very well known. So, of course, he wanted to participate, but he needed his physical. And in that physical, we discovered you have hypertension. But he knew he had hypertension, but he didn't think it was important enough for him to bring his medicines to school.
And so when I told him, well, you can't participate, he was livid. Livid. "What do you mean, I can't participate? This is not that big of a deal."
So I sat him down and I was like–we'll call him John. “John, what do you know about hypertension? Do you understand that disease? Do you understand what that word means?"
And John looked at me and said, "Well, it just means my pressure's high. Like something with my blood. My pressure's high." My question to him was, "Do you understand what that can do? What that can lead to if it's not controlled. And he shrugged his shoulders, very unconcerned. Just not educated.
So the physician and I took the opportunity to sit down and go over hypertension and, and that's when the pressure in your blood vessels are high and what that can lead to over time. And just gave them some realizations, that can lead to heart disease, that can lead to kidney disease. Explaining to him what that meant, and the outcome, and what that looked like.
And actually explaining to him that, you know, this also means that no one's gonna take the risk of you being on that field, playing that instrument, and passing out and maybe dying. And when I said those words to him, his face lit up. What do you mean? I said, it's just that serious. But it doesn't hurt.
So you don't think it's a big deal, but it's just that big of a deal. So then he started asking questions, "Well, my kidneys--how does it affect my kidneys?"
So we were able to answer his questions, educate him, and He called his mother and told his mother he left his medication.
He told her exactly where his medication was located in his room. And ask his mother if she could bring the medication (she lived in Richmond), because I can't play, they won't let me play until I get my pressure under control, and I wanna do this, I wanna live.
(NSU marching band music underscores the following)
That was the moment I just realized we're on to something here.
Nichole Hill: There was a change in behavior, and seriousness about it. Peggy saw it plain as day, the problems were showing up younger, but the news kept arriving late. So she didn’t wait.
John didn’t just drop weight... he picked up a whole new way of living. Better food, real movement, and a fresh seriousness about his health. And for Peggy, that was the spark. She saw it plain… if the warning signs were already showing up in 18-year-olds, waiting until adulthood was waiting too long. So she shifted her gaze.
Peggy Newby: I did more research, and I decided we're gonna have to do something different. And it has to be with the kids in elementary school in order to change the behavior.
So what do they do? We started a program--my husband started the James E. Newby Junior Foundation, in honor of his father. We decided we were gonna make an impact in this community through education, through different venues.
Nichole Hill: Something you need to know about the Newby Foundation…
Peggy’s father-in-law, Dr. James E. Newby Jr., was the first African-American board-certified internist to obtain privileges at Norfolk General Hospital while Chief of Medicine at Norfolk Community Hospital- the Black hospital.
Essentially, he was *THE* Black doctor.
(Slow jazzy music underscores the following)
With that legacy, Peggy and her husband built a one-stop shop for healthcare and named it Fort Norfolk Plaza. A name shared by Fort Norfolk, a Civil War refuge for self-emancipated Black men, women, and children, just a half-mile down the Elizabeth River Trail. Fitting, right? From that plaza, and through the work of their foundation, their impact flowed into the community like arteries from a beating heart.
Peggy Newby: But one of the things that I brought forth to the board was vertical gardens in the school to teach students how to eat healthy.
Because if they're like me, I'm hands-on. So I wanted something that was very hands-on, and the vertical gardens was perfect for this. So we literally bring in Aeroponic Gardens into the Norfolk Public School systems and other school systems, and the kids put the garden together.
They literally build it. We teach them about the science behind it.--'cause it really is a STEM project with a secondary benefit of nutrition. So they actually put the garden together. We teach them how to take care of it. They plant seeds and then they watch it grow. We go back, and they put the seeds--
I remember this, this little 5-year-old, when we went in initially to show them pictures of the vegetables, he told me, I'm not eating that. But once he took care of that, he not only ate that, but he was one of my tower champions. He was a tower ambassador. He literally took care of the tower. I wanted to take care of everyone's tower because he had learned so much, and he was my little basil fellow because he would literally go up to the garden and pull basil off the garden and just eat it.
(Break with sounds of kids expressing deliciousness, veggies being chopped, and silverware on plates.)
The students get an opportunity to, once they harvest, they literally go up. They pick the lettuce or the arugula or whatever it was. We grew and we have salads in the classroom, and we supplement with carrots and different things so they can get a variety, but they are excited about eating vegetables and they wanna do it again.
So we just harvested a huge tower at PB Young Elementary School. We had a harvest-to-home party, so they were able to harvest probably 30 bags of fresh leafy greens, an assortment of greens, and take that home and share it with the administration as well. But they were able to take that home.
And so when we come back, and we go in several times to because the, the gardens replenish pretty quickly, another month they've grown and they're ready to harvest again. So they are now armed with hopefully changing the dynamics in their family to a better lifestyle.
So hopefully when they reach college, they won't have these chronic diseases.
Nichole Hill: The towers sprouted little ambassadors who left with more than produce; they carried home influence, a legacy that shows up in grocery trips, at dinner tables, and in encouraging everyone in their path to eat the rainbow.
(Birdsong)
A picker of plums, a picker of passions, a picker of people. Peggy’s life was stitched together by instinct, curiosity, and care. And just like those medium-feel plums, not too hard, not too soft, Peggy found the sweet spot. Every. Single. Time.
(Music builds to underscore the following)
Peggy Newby: I feel confident each time. I feel like if I've reached one person, I've been successful, 'cause I've been on the other side of that. I've been at the bedside where people are dying. I've seen the dialysis center that has a population--literally 80% of the people look like me. I've seen it. So I know if I've reached one person, it was worth it.
Nichole Hill: Visit our website Truthbetoldcommunity.com to find out ways to get involved and share this episode with friends.
This series was written by Jackie Glass and Hannah Sobol, edited and hosted by me, Nichole Hill, Sound Design by Trendel Lightburn, and our work has been supported by the Elizabeth River Trail Foundation through a National Park Service Chesapeake Gateways Grant. Follow our work by subscribing wherever you get your podcasts. We couldn’t do this without people brave enough to share their experiences, so thank you, Peggy Newby!