The Ro­tary Club of Port-of-Spain held its 53rd an­nu­al Hand Over Din­ner on Ju­ly 3, at Jaf­fa Restau­rant, Tra­garete Road, Wood­brook. The Club al­so made ad­di­tion­al do­na­tions of $15,000 to The Princess Eliz­a­beth Cen­tre; and, $20,000 to Heart­beat In­ter­na­tion­al.

It was a hap­py au­di­ence of friends, fam­i­ly and fel­low Ro­tar­i­ans that filled the Jaf­fa's Restau­rant as all came to wit­ness the cer­e­mo­ni­al "pin­ning" of new Ro­tary Club Pres­i­dent, Patrick Grell (a for­mer char­ter mem­ber of the Pi­ar­co Ro­tary Club), who be­gins his new chap­ter of Club Pres­i­den­cy af­ter a suc­cess­ful run by Im­me­di­ate Past Pres­i­dent, Labib Na­j­jar.

Chair­ing the pro­ceed­ings was Sergeant-at-Arms Je­re­my Ma­touk, who took every­one present, in­clud­ing guest of ho­n­our, Min­is­ter of the Peo­ple and So­cial De­vel­op­ment Dr Glen Ra­mad­hars­ingh, on a jour­ney through the Club's ac­tiv­i­ties and achieve­ments, in­clud­ing a peek at Na­j­jar's tire­less work eth­ic through­out his year as pres­i­dent.

Na­j­jar was high­ly com­mend­ed for his en­thu­si­asm and he in turn thanked every­one who had as­sist­ed (and would con­tin­ue to as­sist) Ro­tary's many projects and ven­tures. Among the many pre­sen­ta­tions made that night, the Av­enues of Ser­vice Chal­lenge Tro­phy (the Pres­i­dent's award) was giv­en to Di­rec­tor of Vo­ca­tion­al Ser­vice, Alain Laquis, who start­ed an In­ter­act Club at Na­j­jar's al­ma mater, Tran­quil­li­ty Gov­ern­ment Sec­ondary School.

The project (In­ter­act Clubs for teenagers) was based on a sug­ges­tion to help youth aged 14-19 made by the late As­tra Da Cos­ta, the Ro­tary Club's first fe­male Dis­trict Gov­er­nor. Grell has his work cut out for him as new Ro­tary pres­i­dent, but he was al­ready off to a good start with a new project aimed at 75 pri­ma­ry schools with­in the Ro­tary Club's Port--of-Spain lo­cale en­ti­tled "Build­ing Healthy Minds and Bod­ies for the Fu­ture."

He ex­plained that not every child is a nat­ur­al ath­lete, so a dif­fer­ent "play­ing field" is nec­es­sary. Oth­er types of ac­tiv­i­ties (such as ta­ble ten­nis) will get the young­sters phys­i­cal­ly ac­tive, while more cere­bral pur­suits (such as chess and scrab­ble) will en­cour­age nim­ble minds and the spir­it of com­pe­ti­tion.

Help­ing oth­ers

Grell al­so hoped, that with the sup­port of the Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion, So­cial Ser­vices, sport­ing as­so­ci­a­tions, teach­ers and school prin­ci­pals, this pro­gramme will help keep chil­dren off the streets and out of the reach of gangs. In ad­di­tion, Na­j­jar had ex­tra rea­son to cel­e­brate as it was an­nounced that through the Club, Pe­ter Mc Lean, Pres­i­dent of the Trinidad Den­tal Sup­ply Co, do­nat­ed an en­tire den­tal of­fice (from chairs to x-ray equip­ment), which will be housed at the Princess Eliz­a­beth Cen­tre on Ari­api­ta Av­enue, Wood­brook.

Na­j­jar men­tioned that the project took awhile to get off the ground, but every­thing fell in­to place by the end of his tenure. The Ro­tary Club PoS al­so made size­able do­na­tions to the fol­low­ing or­gan­i­sa­tions such as the Princess Eliz­a­beth Cen­tre, the Gift of Life pro­gramme and Heart­beat In­ter­na­tion­al. The Im­me­di­ate Past Pres­i­dent said that he will con­tin­ue his in­volve­ment with the Princess Eliz­a­beth Cen­tre's new den­tal of­fice, which is de­signed to pro­vide den­tal care for the un­der­priv­i­leged chil­dren in the com­mu­ni­ty.

Said a smil­ing Na­j­jar: "I've al­ways be­lieved in help­ing oth­ers and as Ro­tary Pres­i­dent, it was a hap­py mis­sion and quite an ed­u­ca­tion. I'm both sor­ry to see it end, yet hap­py to pass on the torch and hearti­ly wel­come my suc­ces­sor, Patrick Grell. "I may get a lit­tle rest from the du­ties, but I still have my com­mit­ment to Ro­tary. All in all, I had a won­der­ful time, and I thank every­one who has ac­tive­ly sup­port­ed the Ro­tary Club's ef­forts."