Sama­ki Fe­li­cian

Free­lance Cor­re­spon­dent

In the cool morn­ing air of Paramin, be­fore the sun ful­ly ris­es over the hills, a group of ten men gath­ers in the same place they al­ways have. They move with pur­pose, set­ting up ta­bles, un­pack­ing bread, prepar­ing salt­fish, and mak­ing sure every­thing is just right. There’s no big an­nounce­ment, no grand stage, just 550 sand­wich­es wait­ing to be hand­ed out to the peo­ple of their vil­lage.

For Col­in Ro­many and the team (Hiyo, Pi­rate, Joel, Mike, Kevin, Chris, Brad, Lennon and Lamy) this is more than just a year­ly tra­di­tion. It’s a way to give back to the com­mu­ni­ty that raised him. At 45, he still lives in the same home where he was born, sur­round­ed by the fa­mil­iar faces of friends he grew up with. By day, he works as a tech­ni­cian with Flow, and in his free time, he en­joys fish­ing and bar­be­cu­ing. But in be­tween all of that, there’s one thing he and his friends nev­er for­get–help­ing oth­ers.

“The guys in the neigh­bour­hood just de­cid­ed that in­stead of just lim­ing, which we nor­mal­ly do, we sit down and have a cou­ple of drinks for our­selves. One day, let’s do it for the com­mu­ni­ty, so we wouldn’t be looked at as idle all the time. And we re­al­ly start­ed with that, so that was the orig­i­nal con­cept,” he said.

They call them­selves The Bam­boo Crew, a name tied to their roots in Morne Cyril, Saut D’Eau Road, Paramin, an area once filled with tow­er­ing Chi­nese bam­boo. What start­ed as a sim­ple idea–a few friends de­cid­ing to do some­thing pos­i­tive in­stead of just lim­ing–has turned in­to some­thing much big­ger.

The first Break­fast Give­away hap­pened in 2012, with no re­al plan. They didn’t ad­ver­tise it. They just met up, made sand­wich­es, and hand­ed them out to peo­ple head­ing to work or school. It was a qui­et act of kind­ness, but one that grew in­to a tra­di­tion. This year, on Tues­day, Feb­ru­ary 25, they pre­pared and dis­trib­uted 550 sand­wich­es be­fore most of the vil­lage had even start­ed their day. Be­tween 6:15 am and 8 am, every­thing was gone.

But for the Bam­boo Crew, it’s nev­er just about break­fast. It’s about bring­ing peo­ple to­geth­er. Af­ter the morn­ing rush, they spend the rest of the day cook­ing and serv­ing lunch and din­ner for any­one in the vil­lage who wants a warm meal.

Their gen­eros­i­ty doesn’t stop there. A few years ago, they host­ed a Christ­mas par­ty, us­ing the same con­cept, giv­ing back to the com­mu­ni­ty in what­ev­er way they could. This year, they hope to bring it back, adding an­oth­er lay­er to their tra­di­tion of giv­ing.

Some years ago, break­fast was made pos­si­ble in part by Joel Thomas, a gar­den­er, who de­cid­ed af­ter his last har­vest that he would spon­sor the food for an­oth­er give­away. This year he of­fered fresh sea­son­ing. Be­ca meat shop pro­vid­ed salt­fish. Claire R0many (Col­in’s mom) and An­gela Lan­cast­er of­fered their homes, time, and en­er­gy.

Oth­ers chipped in where they could, with one per­son pro­vid­ing eggs, and an­oth­er con­tribut­ing salt­fish. But for the most part, the Bam­boo Crew funds every­thing them­selves.

It hasn’t al­ways been easy. With Car­ni­val sea­son in full swing, many mem­bers were stretched thin, mak­ing it hard­er to set up the night be­fore. The ris­ing cost of in­gre­di­ents al­so posed a chal­lenge. Hop­ing to make things a lit­tle more of­fi­cial, they ap­proached Carib this year for jer­seys and stock so they could look more pro­fes­sion­al while serv­ing their com­mu­ni­ty. Cam­pari gave them cups and stock.

Be­yond food, the Bam­boo Crew has al­so start­ed a com­mu­ni­ty fit­ness group, en­cour­ag­ing res­i­dents to take charge of their health and well-be­ing. For them, it’s not just about giv­ing; it’s about strength­en­ing the bond with­in their vil­lage, cre­at­ing some­thing big­ger than them­selves.

No one in the Bam­boo Crew is look­ing for recog­ni­tion. They don’t do this for praise. They do it be­cause Paramin is their home, and this is their way of say­ing thank you. Year af­ter year, sand­wich af­ter sand­wich, they prove that small acts of kind­ness can cre­ate some­thing tru­ly spe­cial.