SKIP ALONG WITH JANINE

Long before she was a teenager, Janine Winston co-ordinated orders, deliveries and collection of money for pows and pies, made by her younger brother, Martin. Their customers were the staffers at Radio Trinidad and Trinidad  Tobago Television Co, where their mother, Ann, worked. Today, 30 years later, Janine runs Island Skippy Services from her Petit Valley home, a phone call away at 639-9942 or 680-2373. The company co-ordinates transportation for any occasion; or any type of function, including weddings, birthdays, anniversaries, an ordinary lime, a picnic, a wake, even an after-funeral gathering and children’s parties. “Skippy” explains the 39-year-old “is a nickname which stuck when I started using with an American slang “darned skippy” to describe something that was really good. We live on an island so I made the business Island Skippy. Also there was Skippy the bush kangaroo on a television show which I loved.”

After graduating from St Joseph’s Convent, Port-of-Spain, Janine completed a secretarial course at the Academy of Secretarial Knowledge, worked for a short while at Republic Bank, then went to the Great Lakes College in Toronto and completed Grade 13. She did a course in photography, a preliminary university year in English Literature, and returned home. For a short while she worked voluntarily at the Lady Hochoy Home for the Mentally Challenged, which led to her helping with the Special Olympics for over a decade now. She then worked for 14 plus years at Scotiabank and resigned as a Personal Banking Officer. While at Scotia, Janine completed a three-year Diploma in Mass Communications at the University of the West Indies, St Augustine.Always liking a good “lime,” Janine managed the bar at a well-known establishment in Chaguaramas, after banking hours, for about one year. “But I was always interested in event and function planning and management services on the whole so I would help to plan weddings, cocktail parties, co-ordinate functions such as seminars, on weekends.” 

Her specialty in which she excels: to provide full bar services of waiters, hostesses, for any function. Clients have a choice of either a bar on a consignment basis with Skippy’s providing a fully stocked bar inclusive of trays, glasses, napkins etc, or the client can provide their own alcohol. Then there is the option of guests being served at the bar itself, or waiters/waitresses in uniform black and white moving around with drinks. The young manager keeps a watchful eye on her staff, which includes youngest brother Wayne, to be assured that the full service is efficently carried out. On leaving the bank, Janine decided it was time to try it on her own and started operating “like a one-stop shop” adding a wide range of services to her business. She was the first person to organise a bridal shower via maxi taxi. “We wanted to go bar hopping, thought it would be wiser to have a driver, and safety in numbers having us all together in one vehicle, so we brought coolers, finger foods, music and had a most enjoyable night going to different clubs.”

There is nothing really that Island Skippy Services does not offer, and on a 24-hour basis, at that. One major part of their business is transportation, such as to and from Piarco airport, and re-location of homeowners. “Sometimes, visitors at seminars or conferences bring their wives and we will take them on shopping trips while the husbands attend to business.” The only part of transportation we do not do is dropping or picking up school children. Yet I assist with swimming coaching for infants and young children.”  In her early teens, Janine was a Counsellor at a YMCA Summer Camp for three to four years, so it was very easy to organise her own Sporting Summer Camp last year, which she plans to repeat next year at a location to be determined. One wonders where “Skippy”  finds the time  to look after pre-production for a leading advertising agency — organising sets, shoots, models and their clothing; to organise fun events for any corporate or club Family Day; to order gift baskets/vouchers for firms or individuals at Christmas, Secretaries’ Week, or for that matter other appropriate gifts. And as well to remember the socially displaced with whom Janine has become involved through projects dealing with people living with HIV /AIDS.  “We assist the many agencies in this country, especially with transportation. A couple years ago we were in charge of the transport for the Tenth International Conference for people living with HIV/AIDS in Trinidad, which was said to be one of the largest ever held in the Caribbean.” Skippy’s offer “we can take care of your needs” means exactly that as there is just no limitation to those “needs”  no matter how big or how small.