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He leads a class of body pumpers at a local fitness center, but his job with the CDC battling disease gives his life a purpose.
By JACKIE RIPLEY, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times, published May 31, 2002
TOWN 'N COUNTRY -- Jonathan King can do everything from bench press to clean-and-press for a solid hour. And get a roomful of women motivated to do the same thing.
"You got mud on yo face. You big disgrace,"intones King to the '70s hit song We Will Rock You as he encourages a class of body pumpers, mostly women, to hang in there for a few more reps. "You're almost there."
That's life most Monday nights at Lifestyle Family Fitness Center in Westchase, where King teaches body pump. The class aims to strengthen muscles and streamline bodies by lifting bar bells for the length of time it takes to listen to such memorable toe-taping tunes as Livin' La Vida Loca and We Are the Champions.
As a volleyball fanatic in college -- and current weekend warrior on the beach volleyball circuit -- King is right at home pumping iron. But there's more to this 27-year-old Georgia native than muscle, music and one-arm push-ups.
He also has a day job, one with a mission.
King, who lives in Baycrest and works for the Centers for Disease Control, said he has a desire to serve, an aspiration that already has taken him as far away from his small-town Georgia roots as Africa and Haiti. In a few months he plans to be on the South Pacific island of Samoa, battling a mosquito borne disease.
"I want to help the under-served population," said King. He is now wrapping up a two-year field assignment at the Hillsborough County Health Department, where he works as a prevention specialist in the Tuberculosis Control Program. His job includes working with HIV patients, who sometimes have tuberculosis as well.
But King said seeing the devastation wrought by the AIDS epidemic in Haiti is what really put his world in perspective.
"It's amazing how something you can't see can affect us so much," he said.
King has done field work on AIDS in the Republic of Ghana, where he realized that what he does makes a difference in peoples' lives.
"Especially children," he said. "There are so many orphans left in Africa. Their lives are so different from what I came from."
King grew up in the small town of Powder Springs, Ga., to parents who remain his role models.
"My dad was the kind of father I want to become," said King recalling how his dad, Ron King, was a pharmacist and youth minister.
"He was the provider, the spiritual leader, the mentor, the encourager," he said.
That's the way King, who is not yet married, hopes to one day rear his own children.
"I hope I have a houseful of kids but I'll settle for a couple," said King. For now, he cares for his 10-year-old Siberian Husky, E.J.
E.J. will return to Powder Springs to stay with King's parents while King works in Samoa. While there, he looks forward to diving, spear fishing and taking recreational jaunts to New Zealand.
"I'll miss the body pump class," King said. "But I'll find my niche wherever I go."
-- Jackie Ripley can be reached at (813) 269-5308 or ripley@sptimes.com.