Servol’s tribute to ‘Fr Gerry’

By Lara Pickford-Gordon

snrwriter.camsel@catholictt.org

The Servol community had a holiday on Monday, June 22, in honour of Servol—Service Volunteered for All—founder Fr Gerard ‘Gerry’ Pantin CSSp.

The observance has been taking place in the years following Fr Pantin’s death on June 23, 2014, at the age of 85. Around the anniversary, Servol centres hold activities and displays to remember and celebrate his legacy.

Fr Pantin left his job as a teacher at St Mary’s College to establish Servol in 1970. It was his response to the societal unrest of the Black Power revolution which brought to the fore the inequities of the time.

Fr Pantin and Sr Ruth Montrichard SJC, former Servol chairperson who died on June 14, were highlighted in a display at Servol’s head office, Pembroke Street, Port of Spain on June 17 and 18.

Servol Executive Officer Ian Gomes stated the exhibit was special because it was held for the first time in Port of Spain. He mentioned the ways in which the centres honoured the founder.

“Some centres, they would give out supplies to persons in the neighbourhood. In some centres, they would invite the public to come in, and they do their nails or pedicure and those kinds of things. We encourage centres to do an activity that brings remembrance of Fr Pantin not only to the staff, to our students but to the wider public”.

Scheduled visits to the exhibit in Port of Spain were arranged for Servol trainees who got a glimpse into the history of the organisation through displayed memorabilia.

Valerie Remy, Servol marketing officer, shared highlights about Fr Pantin and the organisation’s history. She told the trainees: “He made a decision. He walked up the hills of Laventille and he asked the community, [which] we still ask in Trinidad and in Servol, ‘How can I help you?’.”

They heard that Fr Pantin was viewed with suspicion when he first went to the community, but he did not give up and returned with retired cricketer Sir Wesley Hall.

Remy, pointing to a display said, “Father was really smart. [He took] this big, burly cricketer Sir Wesley Hall and he went up the hill again and asked, ‘How can I help you?’ and a relationship for a basketball was forged. He worked with Sir Wesley for four months then some soldiers and sailors worked with them to form this building here. This was the first Servol in St Barb’s.”

In an interview, Remy said the exhibit was impactful for the trainees. Although they would have gotten some information on Fr Pantin during their orientation, “going through the exhibits and looking at the timelines and looking at the memorabilia, looking at the awards and achievements. And after getting the information as we went through the entire exhibit, you actually saw some changes in the attitudes of some of the students.”

She’s hoping that the youths in Servol’s Adolescent Development Programme and those placed at Junior Life Centres from the Secondary Entrance Examination would be inspired and encouraged.

“I’m hoping that their self-esteem would be boosted especially the junior life students who are looked upon as not being as bright a student who would have passed for a secondary or traditional secondary school, to say ‘I too can achieve’ based on what they would have seen here. The legacy that Father (Pantin) has left for the impoverished, the grassroots, those who feel defeated,” Remy said.

She pointed to the display of the Trinity Cross, the nation’s highest national award to Fr Pantin in 1995 saying, “they would look forward to becoming higher achievers, that had they not come and seen this exhibition, they can see, they can feel, they can touch that one day, maybe they too can achieve an award like this”.  Servol Executive Assistant Janette Chacon Sampson Stewart, who worked with Fr Pantin for 38 years, said he always checked in with her before going to do his classes. “A gentleman, beautiful,” she said.

During the school term, Stewart said he visited all Servol Centres from September to December. And if there was need for someone to be disciplined, Fr Pantin was not harsh.

“Even if he discipline you, it would not sound like he discipline you because when you see him next, ‘Father, how you doing today?’, water under the bridge. You don’t take on that. Lovely man!”, Stewart said.