On July 2nd, 2012, the FCT’s Administrative Director, Nicole Garofano, left Barbados and the FCT, to return to Australia. She will be pursuing studies in Development Practice and, all being well, Environmental Sustainability in a second programme.
Many tributes have been paid to Nicole for her eight years of work at what was known as Counterpart Caribbean and of course, in recent years, known again as the Future Centre Trust.
The highest tribute Nicole could have received was that which was presented on June 20, 2012, at the Morgan Lewis tree planting site of the FCT (on land which has been kindly loaned to the FCT by Mr Hugh Foster of Canada), when a gathering of some ninety persons assisted in the unveiling of ‘a piece uh de rock’ – a boulder of limestone which was donated to the site and bears a plaque as testimony to Nicole’s work. These photos display some of the crowd which gathered, the unveiling of the tribute rock which now names the area, The Nicole Garofano Treescape, and the view which anyone can now take in thanks to the work of the FCT Board and in particular, Mr Barney Gibbs for his contribution of the new bench!
At the event, Chairman of the FCT, Mrs Vivian-Anne Gittens, read out a ‘citation’ of the work Nicole completed over the years with many activities and projects listed. The crowd listened patiently as the list was read, a list which provided an excellent summary of all that has been achieved under Nicole’s tenure.
Also to add to the memories, the Board of the FCT presented Nicole with a beautiful Earthworks platter care of David Spieler and his team which was presented at a private function.
There were some wonderful tributes also offered by Heather-Lynn Evanson of The Nation Newspaper who attended the Treescape event and subsequently, a tribute offered by Shawn Cumberbatch of Barbados Today.
And a note from Nicole:
There are so many people to thank, and as many of you know, I always miss one, so I will not try and list all, but there are two people I must thank from the deepest soul of my heart, and they are Senator Dr Frances Chandler OBE and Dr Basil GF Springer GCM. These two people were responsible for bringing me back to Barbados in 2004 after my first two months of volunteering with the Future Centre and they have provided ongoing support to me over these past eight years. Everything in life is indeed a choice, but these wonderful individuals have contributed to the choice to change my life which I neither planned or expected and it has indeed been a wonderful phase! Of course there are the Board members since 2009 who have given their all to the organisation and whom have recently changed, and of course will change again over the years to come, but to highlight those who have been instrumental in the rebirth of the FCT – Vivian-Anne Gittens, Lani Edghill, Barney Gibbs, Kammie Holder and David Spieler. Also to note is the support provided by Vicky Merrick who is now an FCT Board member also.
For those who wanted to make it to the wonderful send off event, but couldn’t, I offer my speech for you to read. Reading this without the event, doesn’t quite deliver the same energy, but it may help! Farewell Speech June 20 2012
Nicole will continue to update the posts here on the FCT Website as content is provided, and we thank her again, for her great contribution.
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