San Fer­nan­do May­or and CEO of Caribbean Air­lines Skif­fle Steel Or­ches­tra Ju­nia Re­grel­lo ini­ti­at­ed a hu­man­i­tar­i­an ef­fort to as­sist mem­bers of South­ern Marines Steel Or­ches­tra with food ham­pers. This has come about in the band’s time of need since the cri­sis of the world­wide pan­dem­ic COVID-19 has left many fam­i­lies with­out.

In an ef­fort to bring some re­lief to fel­low pan mem­bers, Re­grel­lo do­nat­ed the ham­pers to sev­en fam­i­lies who were iden­ti­fied and who are in dire need of as­sis­tance.

State-owned Petrotrin sub­sidised the steel­band for many years pri­or to the com­plete clo­sure of the re­fin­ery in 2018, set­ting the or­ches­tra back on some hard times.

On May 14, Re­grel­lo re­sponsed to the call of the son of for­mer South­ern Marines leader Michael “Sco­bie” Joseph to as­sist mem­bers in need of help since the virus en­tered T&T shores and did not per­mit mem­bers to go out and work.

Joseph’s son, Mal­o­mo Joseph, said. “The may­or vis­it­ed us dur­ing the Car­ni­val sea­son and ob­served our band. We have old and young per­sons, even vi­su­al­ly im­paired per­sons and, with­in the COVID-19 pe­ri­od, I was con­tact­ed by Pan Trin­ba­go to find out if there were any needy peo­ple with­in our band. We have a lot of mem­bers who have been un­em­ployed since the pan­dem­ic; so, we are glad to ac­cept the ham­pers.”

Re­grel­lo said he re­mem­bered when he vis­it­ed the Marines yard in Mara­bel­la dur­ing the 2020 Car­ni­val sea­son. He no­ticed the band played with­out uni­forms and that the steel­band has con­tin­ued to be un­spon­sored af­ter pri­ma­ry spon­sor, Petrotrin, be­came de­funct.

Re­grel­lo said he dipped in­to his own pri­vate funds to bring the re­lief to the fel­low pan en­thu­si­asts.

“This is from the may­or and not funds from the state or from the gov­ern­ment grant,” said Re­grel­lo.

“I at­tend­ed the Panora­ma pre­lim­i­nary judg­ing night at South­ern Marines pa­n­yard this year and no­ticed that the band need­ed as­sis­tance. The as­sis­tance the band re­ceived from Petrotrin no longer ex­ist­ed. I saw a need for help and spoke to the man­age­ment of the band and they iden­ti­fied with the is­sues and chal­lenges they were hav­ing. So, based on the na­ture of the com­mu­ni­ty and their sur­round­ings, with per­sons who are in­volved, to keep the art form alive there will be a need for as­sis­tance at this time.

“As a pan man, I am com­mit­ted to the de­vel­op­ment of the art form and those in­volved and to con­tribute to this de­vel­op­ment. It is my re­spon­si­bil­i­ty to give back and Mal­o­mo iden­ti­fied sev­en fam­i­lies to date who need­ed the help. They will let me know of any more as the need aris­es.”

Mal­o­mo said there are peo­ple who served a 15-year mem­ber­ship with South­ern Marines and have felt the ef­fects of COVID-19 since the lock­down of the non-es­sen­tial work­ing class.

He said many strug­gled to sur­vive and had to quit their day-to-day “hus­tle” by hav­ing to stay at home.

He added that his fa­ther, Sco­bie, was the third gen­er­a­tion of the fam­i­ly to pi­lot South­ern Marines be­fore he died on March 24 this year. He said with the ex­ist­ing com­mit­tee plans to con­tin­ue along the same vein as his fa­ther.

Caribbean Air­lines Skif­fle al­so dis­trib­uted food ham­pers to mem­bers of Hat­ters Steel Or­ches­tra.