Lady Lieutenant Governor

On the day of her interview, she looked lovely.

That rainy September afternoon, when all woman arrived at the executive suite of the NCB head office in New Kingston, Gerthlyn Reid-Holman was where she usually is, impeccably dressed, at work, although she’s been retired for more than two years.

She says she’s retired, but nobody at NCB – neither the CEO nor the security guard in the lobby – dares to remind her of that. After all, having been employed by the bank for over 35 years, she’s more of an institution than an employee, and given the level of energy she exudes, it’s not hard to understand why sitting at home knitting was not a retirement option for her.

“I don’t even know why I bothered to retire, I’m here everyday,” she says with a laugh. In the two years since she’s ‘retired’, Reid-Holman hasn’t slowed a bit – rather, she’s just been refocusing her energies, mostly toward fulfilling her passion – service to her community.

This Wednesday, Reid-Holman will be installed as the Lieutenant Governor of the Kiwanis’ Division 23 East, making her responsible for leading 16 Kiwanis Clubs in Kingston, St Andrew and St Thomas. It’s an awesome responsibility, but also an awesome honour, and Reid-Holman will only be the second woman to ever hold that post.

“I guess you can say I’ve given my life to service, to helping other people,” explains Reid-Holman, a founding member and past president of the Kiwanis Club of New Kingston, the first all-female Kiwanis club in Jamaica.

That club, which earlier this month celebrated its ‘Sweet 16’, is perhaps the most decorated Kiwanis club in Jamaica, winning recognition far and wide for its successful projects. Among them the development of the Tropical Learning Centre at Kingston’s Hope Zoo; the media campaign to expose and promote the Rights and Responsibilities of Children; and Reid-Holman’s personal point of pride – the Dare to Care Home for HIV-positive children.

“Our current major project is called ‘Bringing Hope Back to the Zoo’,” she says, her voice brimming with excitement. “It’s going to take a lot of money, because we want to repair and restore areas within the zoo and relocate the petting zoo to make it more accessible to children. You see, children need to be able to learn outside of textbooks, and it is a shame that we’ve allowed the zoo to almost fall apart, but it’s never too late for a shower of rain!” she adds optimistically.

For Reid-Holman, the Kiwanis Club has been the ideal avenue to pursue service, and, she says the minute she received the initial letter from Jennifer Messado inviting her to a founders’ meeting, she knew she wanted to be a part of it.

“Remember the Kiwanis Club was male-only until the international body decided to admit women in 1987. Before that, although women weren’t allowed to be members, it was the women who were doing the work!

The men would plan all sorts of projects and go to meetings, but their wives were the ones doing the cooking, the preparing – everything. They made sure that the men looked good, and that all the things were done – even the projects, as a matter of fact, the major work of the men was to do funding! Everything was being done by the women, but we weren’t getting the accolades.”

In the first few years after being chartered, the New Kingston club outshone, out-performed, and out-did all other existing Kiwanis clubs in Jamaica, reinforcing what Reid-Holman long knew, that women were just as capable – if not more capable – than men in managing and executing projects.

“Generally, I find that we have a lot of men who think they are better managers, but aren’t really, and that there are many women who could do those jobs much better.

I think that we as women are timid to take on the top positions, especially in the male-dominated corporate world. I mean even here at NCB, we’ve never had a female managing director, but when you look through the organisation, most of the managers are women,” says Reid-Holman, who in her 35 years at NCB, worked at almost every branch in Kingston, mostly in managerial positions.

“Women are natural leaders, and many of us seem to forget that. Remember, leadership is having the discipline to plan, organise and implement, and while men do very well at talking and planning, women are actually better at getting things done.”

And Gerthlyn Reid-Holman may just be the poster-child of implementation of ideas.

While she was president of the Kiwanis Club of New Kingston, Reid-Holman initiated the Dare to Care project, and even though the club has since started other projects, she and other members are still highly involved with the home.

“We are very hands-on. Dare to Care was started in 1999, and do you know that the ladies of our club, and we have a lot of professional women – lawyers, doctors, businesswomen and so forth – still go to the home regularly to feed the children, to play with them and to read to them? Even last Saturday, we were there, and the children are fantastic,” she proudly shares.

But that’s the thing with giving, she explains. You really can’t stop.

After building the home, which helps HIV-positive children experience a better life – and may have even saved some lives – there now is the challenge of educating them. Jamaican schools largely have not yet been sensitised to the needs of HIV-positive children, and so there is the need for a special facility for these children, some of who have severe disabilities.

“The integration of HIV children into the school system is not good, and I have a great problem with that. I long to see the day when nobody will look at an HIV-positive person and say I can’t touch you, or I can’t love you… I’d love to see that day.”

Until then, Reid-Holman has a dream, a dream she’s given herself a deadline to realise.

“I wish someone would give me $5 million to put up a building! I really mean that. I want a learning centre there, a place where we can have teachers, computers, learning tools… a safe zone where it doesn’t matter what your HIV status is, where the only thing that matters is learning. I really don’t know how I’m going to get it yet, but I’m going to try.”

And there’s little to stop her from getting her building.

In fact, its her capacity to get things done that has brought her success in her career, and later, in her philanthropic endeavours. Still, insists Reid-Holman, she is hardly unique, because although she devotes the majority of her time to the Kiwanis, there are many other women, like her, who’ve discovered the joy of giving and who, like her just can’t stop. In fact, she points out, the service club has been one of the best ways to spend her time.

“I get home late every night, I’m at a committee meeting every night, I go inter-clubbing, and I have very little time for myself. On Saturdays and Sundays I’m at projects, meetings, and these take me all over the island. But I think I’m a service-oriented person; I really like being part of people’s lives, and helping anyway I can. I find it so rewarding.”

Will she ever retire, from either her day job or from the Kiwanis?

“A better question is why would I?” is her smiling reply.