CHERI BOYCE is a volunteer with the Barbados Cancer Society and the HIV/AIDS Commission. She is also the attendant to the 2010 St Peter parish ambassadors, a bandleader, and manager of the successful Super Centre’s Sports Club and of Charles Reece [often dubbed “the local Michael Jackson”].
Her involvement with all of these causes has led her to develop long-distance relationships with friends, who often bemoan the fact that she scarcely finds the time to socialise with them.
But according to Boyce, right now she views her friends as “wants” and her charitable works as “needs”, and she has decided to put her needs before her wants.
The sacrifices this Boscobelle, St Peter resident makes to help “green, yellow, black or white people who are in need” has been recognised by the FirstCaribbean International Bank, who recently awarded her as a finalist in their Unsung Heroes programme.
The 33-year-old told the MIDWEEK NATION that her determination and commitment stemmed from the experience of almost losing her son to dengue haemorrhagic fever.
“While he was sick there was this little girl by the name of Brittany, who had cancer and she was the driving force behind me holding up as a parent. She was a sick child . . . but she used to give me hope by letting me know that my son will be okay. There were also other parents there whose children had cancer and they would also offer me words of encouragement.
“I then started getting Super Centre involved by asking the management for small donations of Ensure to keep the parents and children nurtured while they were in the hospital. My son is alive and healthy today, but I still go to the hospital to give out those Ensures.
“What also motivates me to be involved with all of these charitable organisations is where I came from. I was brought up in a children’s home for four years of my childhood and it was hard. But today I have put that past behind me because I am someone who prefers to focus on the past. I rather just look forward to the future.
“This is why when I have time I go to St Lucy Secondary School – my old school – where I attempt to counsel and encourage the young people there to be the best they can be and to remind them that they must always look forward to the future,” said the mother of three.
Boyce, a pharmacist assistant at Knight’s Pharmacy, stated that she was disappointed whenever she saw individuals ignoring charities, because they thought “it is none of their business”. She declared that they failed to realise that “what is not their business, may be their family’s business”.
“Every year I team up with the Sunrise Sports Club in Boscobelle to set up a game where they have a tournament and on the final night of the tournament I do a community drive and ask persons coming to the game to donate whatever they can afford. I walk the whole field – and Boscobelle field is not small; it’s very big.
“I am trying to change the mindset of many who believe that sports in the community [is] associated with crime and violence. When some people pass a football game they would say ‘I am not getting tie up with them because next thing I go there and I have to be running for my life’.
“I want people to say, ‘I wonder if it’s time to help that charity drive’. I want people to say, ‘You know what, last year I hear this football match was good and it wasn’t only good because it was football but it was really for a cause’,” Boyce said.
She admitted that her friends often call her the 24-hour charity worker. When asked how she tackled her busy lifestyle, Boyce said: “It’s all about time management and you must know why you are doing, what you are doing.
“And if you love what you are doing, time does not matter. Time cannot work for you; you have to work with the time.
“Right now I am living a structured life; I have three sons and they have football, cricket . . . I try to make it to their games and practice sessions . . . then I would have a meeting with some sporting entity, and then I would have a meeting with SAVE Foundation . . . You have to be able to manage your time,” she said, adding that all that mattered to her at the end of the day was that she accomplished what she set out to accomplish.
