Rad­hi­ca De Sil­va

Se­nior Mul­ti­me­dia Re­porter

rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

This Re­pub­lic Day, vet­er­an CNC3 video­jour­nal­ist Ivan Toolsie will be ho­n­oured with the Cha­co­nia Sil­ver Medal by Pres­i­dent Chris­tine Kan­ga­loo—a fit­ting trib­ute to a man who has spent his life be­hind the lens, cap­tur­ing the sto­ries of T&T.

For Toolsie, the ac­co­lade be­longs not on­ly to him but al­so to God and to his wife of 40 years, Sher­ry Rago­b­ar-Toolsie. Sher­ry, a re­tired teacher, said she has wit­nessed him nav­i­gate the chaos of dead­lines, late nights, and dif­fi­cult as­sign­ments with un­wa­ver­ing grace.

“To­day the na­tion sees what I’ve known all along,” she said proud­ly.

Their daugh­ters, Can­di and Sarah, shared in their fa­ther’s joy. Can­di re­flect­ed on his un­wa­ver­ing ded­i­ca­tion: “This award is on­ly a glimpse of the im­pact he has made. My dad has al­ways put his fam­i­ly and his work first, with love and com­mit­ment. This award is just a small re­flec­tion of the big dif­fer­ence he’s made in our lives and be­yond. He tru­ly de­serves this.”

Sarah fond­ly re­called ac­com­pa­ny­ing her fa­ther on as­sign­ments as a child, mo­ments she says will stay with her for­ev­er.

“My dad is my in­spi­ra­tion. I was al­ways so ex­cit­ed to join him on sto­ries, and he nev­er hes­i­tat­ed to bring me along. Those mem­o­ries will stay with me for­ev­er,” she said.

Toolsie, one of the found­ing staff mem­bers of CNC3 News—which cel­e­brates its 20th an­niver­sary next week—said his fam­i­ly and faith have kept him ground­ed through­out his ca­reer. He re­count­ed spend­ing Christ­mas Day on as­sign­ment in Ce­dros, when trav­el to Ica­cos took more than two hours.

Dri­ven by a pas­sion to bring sto­ries from far-flung ar­eas of south Trinidad to the na­tion, Toolsie ad­mits he has missed many fam­i­ly events over the years. Now, with his wife re­tired and daugh­ters grown, he en­sures he takes fam­i­ly cruis­es at least two or three times per year.

“Over time, I have seen how frag­ile life is and how im­por­tant it is to be with the ones I love,” he said.

De­spite the dra­mat­ic changes in the me­dia land­scape since he be­gan his ca­reer, Toolsie has stayed at the fore­front by re­search­ing state-of-the-art equip­ment and al­ways en­sur­ing he had the right cam­era and ac­ces­sories for the job.