Chairman of the Postal Corporation of Jamaica, Lance Hylton, and Carolle Hainsley react to a performance during a recent send-off ceremony. Mrs. Hainsley, who was the runner-up in the 2006 Civil Servant of the Year Award, went on pre-retirement leave in February 2007. - Contributed

The increased focus on staff development and welfare in the postal service has once again created a favourable spin-off - a formal thank-you celebration to the many hard workers who have helped develop and sustain the organisation.

The ceremony, dubbed 'Retirees' Celebration', was held at the picturesque Caymanas Golf and Country Club in St. Catherine, on May 24. It included postal staff who had retired between October 2004 and December 2006.

The short programme was ably handled by master of ceremonies Marston Thomas, branch manager of the Half-Way Tree office at Life of Jamaica, who kept things alive and moving.

Postmaster General Michael Gentles, after welcoming everyone, indicated that this celebration for retired staff members was a testimonial to the spirit of caring engendered by the organisation. He commended the retirees for their years of dedication to duty.

Guest speaker for the event, himself a retiree, Ivan 'Wally' Johnson, former principal of Kingston College (KC) and now principal of City College on Red Hills Road, had the audience in stitches throughout his stirring, inspirational speech.

With flashbacks aplenty in reference to his tenure at KC, Johnson delved into the glory days and dished out a serving of thought-provoking social commentary injected with humour.

Johnson lamented the existing societal tendency towards ignoring the adage, 'it takes a village to raise a child', and expressed his wish that all present would embrace children within their immediate spheres of life, sharing with them the need for developing such aspects of appropriate social behaviour as learning how to settle disputes amicably and other similar tenets for developing into good citizens.

Spread your wings

In seeking to stimulate action by the retirees, he stated that they could still contribute to society, urging them to use their experience and skills in pursuit of furthering their dreams while doing what they relish.

Presentations to the retirees were made by Postmaster General Michael Gentles, Post Corp Chairman Lance Hylton, retired Postmaster General Dr. Blossom O'Meally-Nelson and Sorting Office Manager Eileen Stephenson.

The inaugural official 'send-off' was held in 2004 and so this event, sponsored jointly by the Postal Corporation of Jamaica and Post and Telecommunications Department, highlighted the intent of the postal service's human resource management unit to spearhead a number of morale-boosting initiatives intended to further energise staff.

Retirees

Postal Service retirees with 40 or more years of service:

Years Name

40 Norma Cowan

40 TerrenceDillon

40 Howard Doran

40 Gaugh Johnson

40 Clinton Tucker

40 Sonia Wong

41 Herma Lawson

41 Stilton Samuels

42 Elaine Julal

43 Livingstone McCarthy

44 Vincent Campbell