SAN­DRA L BLOOD

On Au­gust 23, 20 steel­pan pi­o­neers were cel­e­brat­ed with the sweet­est notes of ap­pre­ci­a­tion by Friends of Pan Trin­ba­go (FOPT) dur­ing a se­mi-gala lun­cheon at the VIP Lounge, Queen’s Park Sa­van­nah. Each ho­n­ouree re­ceived a to­ken of recog­ni­tion, a sump­tu­ous meal, and shared an af­ter­noon filled with li­ba­tions, hugs, and sto­ries.

The pi­o­neers—Stephen Dray­ton, Roy Au­gus­tus, Kei­th Simp­son, Thomas Julien, East­lyn Hinds, Ger­ard Clarke, Ken­neth Charles, Jessy Lessy, James In­niss, Earl Brooks Sr., Jer­ry Wal­dron (Jer­ry Wal­don Ken­neth Charles), Rudolph Hope, Eden Charles, Noel Skair, Glen Sandy, Dal­ton Phillip, Hamil­ton Alexan­der, Clarence Mor­ris, Dar­cy King, and Bun­ny Daly—re­con­nect­ed like alum­ni at a school re­union.

Heather Har­roo-Wal­dron Charles, wife of Jer­ry Wal­dron Ken­neth Charles, said: “I feel proud of Jer­ry. He was among a group of ‘old’ pan­men rec­og­nized by Friends of Pan Trin­ba­go. He nev­er got any­thing be­fore.”

FOPT was in­spired by a con­ver­sa­tion in Au­gust 2014 be­tween for­mer trustee Al­lan Au­gus­tus and for­mer ad­vi­sor to the last pres­i­dent of Pan Trin­ba­go, Kei­th Di­az, along with Melville Bryan. The not-for-prof­it or­ga­ni­za­tion was found­ed in Rene­gades pa­n­yard by sev­en en­thu­si­asts, in­clud­ing cur­rent chair­man Do­lores Adams-Au­gus­tus.

The cur­rent ex­ec­u­tive team com­pris­es Ri­car­do Di­az (vice-chair­man), Pa­tri­cia White (sec­re­tary), De­lano White (as­sis­tant sec­re­tary), Lin­da Irvine (trea­sur­er), Gid­deon To­by (PRO), and trustees John Bar­row and Glen­dor Thomas. Their mis­sion: to sup­port Pan Trin­ba­go Inc. by pro­vid­ing ser­vice, ad­vice, and ex­per­tise through a fo­rum of en­thu­si­asts ded­i­cat­ed to the steel­band move­ment.

The pub­lic views FOPT as hum­ble, yet they are qui­et­ly a gem in the steel­pan com­mu­ni­ty. In their first year, they gave $1,000 cheques to three pi­o­neers dur­ing Pan in the Coun­try­side in Rio Claro.

Oth­er no­table ded­i­ca­tions in­clude:

• Ham­per dis­tri­b­u­tions dur­ing the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic.

• Wheel­chair pur­chase for Glen­ford Sobers, dis­trib­uted in March 2023.

• Ham­per dis­tri­b­u­tions in To­ba­go (three ham­pers, Feb­ru­ary 2024) and three each to the re­main­ing re­gions in De­cem­ber 2023.

En­ter­ing their sec­ond decade this year, FOPT de­cid­ed to “sparkle much brighter” dur­ing Steel­pan Month, cul­mi­nat­ing in the Au­gust 23 func­tion. To­kens of ap­pre­ci­a­tion were pre­sent­ed by Adams-Au­gus­tus, White, and Irvine. To­ba­go’s cel­e­bra­tion is sched­uled for Oc­to­ber.

Al­so in at­ten­dance were Pan Trin­ba­go’s vice-pres­i­dent Ter­ry Bernard, who brought greet­ings; PRO Kwe­si Moore; and North­ern Re­gion Chair De­siree My­ers, who ex­pressed de­light at see­ing so many pi­o­neers to­geth­er.

Adams-Au­gus­tus ex­tend­ed spe­cial thanks to Di­az and the cur­rent ex­ec­u­tive un­der Bev­er­ley Ram­sey-Moore, not­ing their ded­i­ca­tion, love, and ap­pre­ci­a­tion for the in­stru­ment as an in­spi­ra­tion to main­tain FOPT’s mis­sion. Trea­sur­er Lin­da Irvine em­pha­sised that FOPT con­tin­ues to se­cure funds to ful­fill its man­date.

Look­ing ahead, FOPT will host their 8th An­nu­al Cool­er Lime to­mor­row at Rene­gades pa­n­yard. Tick­ets are $150, with part of the pro­ceeds sup­port­ing Pan Pi­o­neers. Mu­sic will be pro­vid­ed by DJ Plat­inum In­ter­na­tion­al and Vet­er­ans Steel­band (for­mer­ly Sapo­phon­ics).