Lu­cin­da “Mi­ni” Smith, a tire­less source of kind­ness and com­fort in her com­mu­ni­ty, has been named the CIBC Caribbean Re­gion­al Un­sung Hero for 2025.

A dis­tin­guished re­gion­al judg­ing pan­el se­lect­ed Smith for the top award in recog­ni­tion of her life­time of care, com­pas­sion, and gen­eros­i­ty to­ward the peo­ple of her com­mu­ni­ty in Tor­to­la, British Vir­gin Is­lands.

Smith has de­vot­ed her life to serv­ing oth­ers, vol­un­teer­ing not on­ly her culi­nary skills but al­so her time to pro­vide meals for fam­i­lies in need through the Road Town Ad­ven­tist Church, where she wor­ships.

She is al­so known for of­fer­ing meals and care at no cost to those bat­tling se­ri­ous ill­ness­es such as can­cer. Her fa­mous co­conut bread—a week­ly sta­ple across the is­land—is ea­ger­ly an­tic­i­pat­ed and freely shared with many in her com­mu­ni­ty.

Sur­round­ed by her four daugh­ters, Smith was show­ered with praise and pre­sent­ed with her award at a spe­cial cer­e­mo­ny held at Har­ri­son’s Cave, Bar­ba­dos, on Oc­to­ber 18.

Smith, along with first run­ner-up Venet­ta Za­k­ers of St Kitts and Nevis and sec­ond run­ner-up Joshuanette Fran­cis of An­tigua and Bar­bu­da, was cel­e­brat­ed for her self­less­ness and com­pas­sion dur­ing the event.

Za­k­ers is the founder and dri­ving force be­hind Za­kes Affin­i­ty Caus­es (ZAC), a non-prof­it, all-vol­un­teer or­gan­i­sa­tion in St Kitts and Nevis ded­i­cat­ed to reach­ing, in­spir­ing, and em­pow­er­ing un­der­served in­di­vid­u­als in her com­mu­ni­ty.

Joshuanette Fran­cis, de­scribed as a fear­less and com­pas­sion­ate change­mak­er, has turned per­son­al ad­ver­si­ty in­to pur­pose. Di­ag­nosed with os­teoarthri­tis at age 24 and told she might lose her mo­bil­i­ty by 40, she went on to found Good Hu­mans 268 Inc, a non-prof­it fo­cused on dis­abil­i­ty aware­ness, cli­mate jus­tice, and youth em­pow­er­ment.

“We are here this evening to cel­e­brate and ho­n­our three tru­ly de­serv­ing women who have made and con­tin­ue to make a re­al and mean­ing­ful dif­fer­ence in their com­mu­ni­ties and coun­tries,” said Olivia Bur­nett, Trustee of the CIBC Caribbean ComTrust Foun­da­tion and As­so­ciate Se­nior Coun­sel with CIBC Caribbean.

“I say coun­tries be­cause I firm­ly be­lieve that kind­ness is con­ta­gious, and as they show kind­ness, love, and com­pas­sion to the vul­ner­a­ble, it spreads—rip­pling across their re­spec­tive com­mu­ni­ties,” Bur­nett added.

She not­ed that the bank was “tru­ly heart­ened by the lev­el of self­less­ness and ser­vice demon­strat­ed by this year’s nom­i­nees and even­tu­al na­tion­al and re­gion­al awardees, across so many ar­eas—from care for the en­vi­ron­ment to work­ing with at-risk youth and vul­ner­a­ble women, to feed­ing the home­less and car­ing for the el­der­ly.”

“The 39 nom­i­nees this year cer­tain­ly con­firm what we al­ready knew deep in our hearts when we re­launched this pro­gramme in May—that there is a very strong cul­ture of care and kind­ness in com­mu­ni­ties all across our Caribbean.”

The CIBC Caribbean Re­gion­al Un­sung He­roes pro­gramme was re­launched in May 2025 af­ter more than a decade on hia­tus, across the bank’s ten-mem­ber foot­print. It aims to iden­ti­fy peo­ple aged ten and up who are qui­et­ly work­ing in their com­mu­ni­ties, mak­ing a dif­fer­ence in the lives of oth­ers.

Nom­i­nees may al­so be recog­nised for ex­tra­or­di­nary acts of kind­ness or brav­ery.