Circular No 658

Newsletter for alumni of The Abbey School, Mt. St. Benedict, Trinidad and Tobago, W.I.

Caracas, 14 of June 2014 No. 658

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Dear Friends,

Here I continue with the exchange and show of the efforts done by the organizers and Don Mitchell.

Hope that Don does not mind, hahaha!

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NEWS on OSCAR SCHNELL

Feb 25

If anyone has old pictures, articles or stories please share them with me. I would love to have the memories

Sincerely

Clara Gamargo

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clara gamargo

 Feb 25

Nigel,

I have attached some photos of my father, some old, some are prior to his passing 9/24/2009. I will send his obituary for you all to read. He married my mother Lola Schnell in 1961 and was married until his passing. He had 3 daughters, Amanda, Noelie and myself, Clara. He also had 3 grandchildren, Alycia and Marquis Gamargo and Nicole Crawford. 

He was very proud of his soccer/football abilities and told of many stories playing against older and stronger boys but still winning. He taught my daughter, Alycia, some of his fancy foot work. :) My father worked hard all of his life and provided well for his family. He "retired" in the early 90's but because of his need to interact with others and enjoying being with other people he took a part time job at Walmart. First as a door greeter then working in the gardening center. He worked for 15 years at Walmart. He was still working prior to his passing. He died of lung cancer. He is missed but not forgotten. 

He has brothers and sisters that still reside in Venezuela but some have moved to other countries to get relief from the turmoil there.  

I hope this gives you all a little more insight to his life after leaving St. Benedict.   

Clara Gamargo

816-529-1159

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Nigel Boos

Feb 25

Hello Clara,

Thank you for getting in touch with us. It's nice to have another contact with someone who is related to one of our Old Boys.

My own time at Mt. St. Benedict extended from 1955 - 1960, whereas, according to my notes, your father, Oscar Schnell, was a student before my time, and seemingly left the school in 1949, some 6 years before I ever got there myself. Another Old Boy from those days, Trevor Evelyn, remembers your dad as the first Venezuelan boy to come to school at the Mount, and "the best centre forward the school had ever had." Since I did not know Oscar myself, I'd think you might get further in your search by contacting Trevor directly  (tevelyn@rogers.com). I would however, ask that you copy us with any ongoing correspondence between yourselves, so that we too might learn more about your dad.

Of course we'd like to know whatever you can tell us about him, and I look forward to receiving one or two interesting emails from you about your dad.

I'm also copying this message to all the Old Boys from the 1945-1940 period, in the hope that one or two of them might be able to offer you some memories of your father, and we too will all learn a little bit more about the man himself.

Best wishes.

Nigel Boos

Class of 1960

P.S. If you happen to have a nice photograph of your dad, would you mind sharing it with us? Thanks again.  NB

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Don Mitchell

Feb 24

Hello, Clara,

It is good to hear from you.

He would have been a little before my time. But, I am going to copy your message below to our chronicler, Ladislao Kertesz. I am sure he will put you inquiry in one of the Circulars he posts on the Blog. If there is anyone from the 1940s reading it, I am sure they will get in touch with you. 

Nigel Boos may even know who to send your message to since they will have come from the same period.

I look forward to hearing more about your dad in the weeks to come.

Sincerely,

Don Mitchell

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From: clara gamargo

Sent: Monday, February 24, 2014 8:59 PM

Hello Nigel and friends,

I came across a blog for Mount St. Benedict while I was searching the internet for some memories of my father, Oscar Schnell. It seems back in 2010 you all were discussing a young stout man who played forward on the football team. I believe you were referring to my father. I would like to hear more about his past, if we're are speaking of the same person. My father’s birthday was 1/17/1934 and came to the school when he was 10 years old to learn English.

If this name is familiar to you please respond. I am sure you would have many stories to share because my father was a character.

Sincerely,

Clara Gamargo

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NOW BACK TO THE REUNION 2014

Don Mitchell

May 9

Thank you, Justine, for that effort.

This is very informative. I suspect that the inadequacy of the Abbey facilities will disappoint some. 

Perhaps, I can recommend that we just not make a big thing about it, simply encourage the use of a central hotel, and let one or two who are determined to immerse themselves in the Abbey thing use the Abbey facilities, though perhaps at some inconvenience to themselves and the rest of us.

I’ll circulate this to the Committee now for their comment. Am I ready now to send out the draft Event Plan you last sent me?

Sincerely,

Don

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From: Justine Low

Sent: Thursday, May 8, 2014 9:24 PM

Don,

Yesterday I spent the morning up at Mount St. Benedict conducting a site visit and assessment of the facilities. Some things that I’ve noted are listed below.

The area they have available for lunch is not large enough to accommodate the number of people you are expecting as well as vendors. That being said I propose the possibility of a pre-packaged or “boxed” lunch, consisting of the same items if you wish (roti, doubles, etc.) Unfortunately we won’t be able to have the vendors on site but it’s something we can incorporate into another event.

Not all areas of the Mount are handicap accessible so I think that we should probably add an ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) section to the registration form asking whether patrons will require assistance.

The polos in the gift shop with the logos on them are currently priced at TTD $100 each. I am currently speaking with the shop manager to see if there will be a bulk discount.

At this point, after getting a good feel for the Mount, which will be our main venue, it is my opinion that we should revert to the idea of housing all attendees in one hotel. It allows everyone to socialize on a daily basis as well as helps us save costs on transport. By keeping all attendees in one location, we can ensure that we are always on schedule, create cohesiveness amongst guests, provide better maintained facilities and cut costs which can be better spent on food and entertainment for guests.

Everything else on the itinerary is very do-able and getting in touch with the Brothers at the Mount should be our main focus now. I am currently trying to get in touch with Brother Tony at the Mount in regards to a possible guided tour of the rehabilitation center as when I visited it was locked. Also the Rehabilitation Center and the Church are all on different tiers of the mountain so should the group wish to see all, we would just need to ensure that the bus driver can manage the turns.

Justine

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From: Kazim Abasali

Sent: Wednesday, May 14, 2014 10:07 AM

Hi Don,

Our Facebook Group has not heard anything lately about the Reunion and have been asking? So, can you share any information to keep them abreast and interested in some way. Take care.....Kazim

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From: Father Harold Imamshah <frharold12@gmail.com>

Sent: Thursday, May 15, 2014 11:01 PM

Let me emphasize that if anybody at Mount St. Benedict does not show us the hospitality we expect, we ought not to do the same!

Let us not return discourtesy with discourtesy.

There are a few monks alive who were part of the fabric of Abbey School and so many who have passed on, in whose memory and in great tribute to them and the lay Teachers and the fine school tradition we are reuniting.

We must never betray the traditions, the memories, the friendships on the Mount that have made us who we are by excluding the Monastic Community from anything we are doing.

They or individual monks can choose to be absent or attend. I am only sorry I had not known this earlier, since I was in the Abbey Shop on Tuesday negotiating some business with the Abbey Shop Manageress and I obtained a very agreeable business deal with her on behalf of some visiting Priests who were with me at the time.

I did have a look at the Abbey Polos that were being sold and I didn't like them.

I suggest we go ahead with the logo we circulated (through Denis Gurley) that had been used during a previous Reunion.

On another note I spent a glorious week at the Seminary at a Conference of Diocesan Priests from Guyana, Suriname, Curacao, Barbados and St. Vincent.

The Food was excellent, warm and friendly Staff, efficiency was the name of the game, newly renovated rooms, 2 beds in each of the 35 rooms, with communal bathrooms and 4 of those rooms are air conditioned with their own bathrooms.

This means that any guys who are real buddies and don't mind sharing a room, the Seminary could accommodate 70 in all.

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On Thu, May 15, 2014 at 12:40 PM,

Don Mitchell <idmitch@anguillanet.com> wrote:

Dear Organising Committee,

Judging from the below, I am not sure that the Monks welcome any involvement with us. 

Should we be considering omitting them from the reunion altogether? Or, should we pretend all is well?

Sincerely,

Don

(It is a natural human feeling, Don, I just do not understand why the Monastery´s Guiding Committee is so negative, Editor)

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From: Justine Low

Sent: Thursday, May 15, 2014 11:48 AM

To: Don Mitchell

Subject: Re: Our Facebook Group

Hi Don,

Just wanted to let you know that I spoke to the shop manager at Mount St. Benedict in regards to the polos.  She has made it clear to both Shira and myself that she is not interested in selling anything to the Abbey Boys and wants nothing to do with them.

That being said, the Organizing Committee should go ahead and organize polos themselves if they still wish.

Justine

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From: Don Mitchell <idmitch@anguillanet.com>

Sent: Fri, May 16, 2014 4:59 pm

Thank you, Winston,

I like the idea of the Seminary.

It will work especially as many of the foreign participants will stay with other Mount Boy friends, and those who want to stay in a hotel can be centralised in one hotel.

I would like to see if we can explore the idea of one of the Trinidad contingent managing a Register of attendees and handling the registration payments, if this is at all possible.

Shira has made it clear why her firm cannot do this.

I know, when I was a lawyer, and kept a Client’s Account at my bank, with hundreds of small payments (debt collections and child support contributions, for example) made each month, it would have been no problem for me to keep track as my accounts were computerised, and I employed two accounts clerks to do little else by keep track. 

However, I know that for most of us this will be a difficult thing to do unless we have the computerised accounting system.

Don

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From: Winston Ramsahai

Sent: Friday, May 16, 2014 4:37 PM

Greetings Don, Joe, Jimmy and others

Fr Harold suggestion and recent experience at the seminary is good news and suggest we consider using the venue.

This will be an incentive for International guests (My estimate app 40-60 International guests projected based on past Reunion). Plus the logistics of moving around guests will be totally eliminated.

Don, let’s keep the all outstanding issues until Fr Harold meets with the monks to have them resolved. All negative news will serve us no good at this stage.

Please be guided accordingly

Regards

Winston

NB : Joe kindly email Gabe to have the pay pal issue resolved, he had a suggestion for the last Reunion.

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Photos:

6003 East St. George Sports Event p08

37858LK14FB, Richard Farah

03DM0010REUNION2003

06WK0675RCH, Ronald Charles