How It Happened

The RIGGS Orthopaedic Clinic
(Chillum, MD)

Thanks to Dr. Easton Manderson and his wife Lois, affectionately known as "Sunshine", the Falmouth Hospital is the recipient of a modern, state of the art X-Ray equipment. This gift, made in memory of both of their Dads (Winston C. Gordon & Caleb S. Manderson), speaks volumes for the people of Falmouth and Trelawny because the Hospital has been without this capability for quite some time now.

Dr. Manderson, an othopaedic surgeon, has been practising at Providence Hospital in Northeast Washington DC and at his private clinic, the "RIGGS Orthopaedic Clinic" in Chillum, a nearby Maryland suburb.

The idea of donating the office equipment to charity came about when Sunshine mentioned to Dr. Calvin Chambers, a Dental Surgeon, that her husband has decided to cut back his work load and close the clinic in Chillum and she just wanted to get rid of everything. At this point Dr. Chambers suggested that she just donate it to charity and take the tax write-off, estimated value ~ US$15,000 (or ~ JA$900,000).

The Plot Thickens:
It was then that Sunshine got in touch with a very close friend of hers and President of the "Barracks School Alumni Association" Lois Johnson-Rodney (affectionately known as JonJon) and told her of her intention. JonJon then got in touch with Patrick "Foody" Beckford of "Friends of Trelawny Association" and solicited his help in shipping the equipment to Falmouth. It was obvious to "Foody" that the logistics of coordinating a move of this magnitude from New York warranted the use of local personnel, so he then solicited the help of "your's truly" from the "Hands Across Trelawny" organization to facilitate the move down here in the greater Washington DC area.

Donald and Sunshine,
X-Ray Room
(disassembled and boxed by the manufacturers)

I surveyed the premises and made an assessment of the size of the shipping container that would be needed while Foody made arrangements with the respective shipping and trucking companies. I then rounded up the "Good Old Boys of Falmouth" posse that live in the area (Donald Grant, David Chin, Roy "Raggy" Graham, and my brother Dennis "pinnani" Earle) to provide the brawn that would be needed to accomplish the move.

It was also evident, that a fork-lift would be needed to load the equipment into the container, so we had to wait a few extra days for a rental company to drop one off at the clinic.

So, with tools in hand (on a rainy Tuesday evening), we proceeded to dismantle, and dis-assemble everything that we possibly could and loaded it into the shipping container.

I'm happy to report that we did not leave much behind, and we managed to dis-assemble and load things like sinks (with faucet intact) and the five-piece sliding filing cabinet which were doubtful at the outset.

Needless to say, after the move we celebrated with some of Hampden's finest brew (...well, at least I did).

Sink and Faucett intact
(Thanks to David Chin, the cut-out-man)

The latest report from Flo Logan down in Jamaica is that phase one is now complete (ie. the shipping container arrived in Kingston, trucked to Falmouth, and unloaded) and hopefully phase two can and will be completed in short order. She is also happy to report, on behalf of HAT and the Chamber of Commerce, that the trucking expenses (from Kingston), amounting to the tune of JA$20,000, was paid from some of the proceeds from the Homecoming-2003 fund-raising "Merritone" event. The Barracks School Alumni Association and FOTA, together with contributions from private individuals, covered the cost of shipping the equipment from the United States to the tune of ~ US$5,500 (~ JA$330,000).

Loading the "Stuff"
(The Good Old Boys of Falmouth)

It is very heartening and encouraging to see the cooperation and lines of communication between the respective organizations (HAT, Barracks School Alumni Association, and FOTA), in pooling their resources for a joint venture...a perfect example of a synergistic effort, where the result is definitely greater than the sum of the individual parts.

Next is phase two of this project which involves the re-assembly and checkout of the equipment. Also, safety certification via the University of the West Indies (department of radiology), as well as the required personnel / technician training are included in this phase.

The third and final phase is the operational phase where the equipment is actually in use, serving the general public.

-- C. Paul Earle
October 2003