Born for a Life of Purpose

Photo Credit: Gavin Fernandes @photaugraf

“God put me here for a purpose, to make people happy to do what I can do to support the community.”

That’s the reflection of Gemma Raeburn-Baynes, who has been a survivor her whole life, from her birth at just three pounds to pushing on after three close calls with congestive heart failure. “My doctors told me my heart was just too big,” Gemma explains. If you ask anyone who has had the privilege of spending time with her, they would agree.

Gemma started her mission of giving back to her community at just 9 years of age when she still lived in her native Grenada. “I gathered all the kids from the area in the village, many who couldn’t afford to go to school, and I taught them what I learned in my school. So I was 9 years old being a teacher in the summer.” 

When she was 13, her father sent her to Canada along with her mother and her older sister. He intended to join them, but within months he was dead; a sudden heart attack at just 50-years-old.

“He gave us that gift before he left, it was really good that he made Canada our home.”

It was 1964, and Gemma’s mother was now a single mom in a new country with two teenage daughters to look after. “My sister went to work to help her, and help me finish high school, and go onto CEGEP,” Gemma shares. And then, in 1970 she made a decision that would set the stage for her entire lifetime of giving back. She took a job at Bank of Montreal as secretary to an account manager.

“Big thumbs up to the bank because when you are an employee and you go to school they pay for your schooling. So thanks to the bank I was able to go to school.” Gemma went to McGill and studied management and public relations, and went back again years later to study auditing. By the time she left the bank 32 years later, she was a senior auditor, but more importantly, she had led the bank to make massive strides forward in the areas of equity and diversity.

Gemma served on the bank’s Task Force on the Advancement of Women and helped them become the first Canadian company to win the coveted U.S. Catalyst Award.  She also held the position of Manager, Workplace Equality and Internships where she launched BMO’s Trans-Canada “Possibilities” program encouraging young people to stay in school, graduate, and build job skills.

“They gave scholarships to each of those kids,” Gemma enthuses, “and they were black and visible minority kids. That was very dear to my heart.”

Gemma’s working life came to a sudden end when that big heart of hers literally overflowed. “One day I was in the bank doing an audit and the whole room was spinning. I called my doctor and he said you go home and stay home, but I said I have to finish my audit. I worked two more days until Friday, and on Saturday night I was taken to hospital with congestive heart failure. And that was the last day I worked.”

“The bank was really good to me. They said you’ve given us 32 years of your life, now it's time for us to take care of you.” 

But this dynamo of a woman, with her very big heart, was not going to stop giving back to her community. Gemma had laid the groundwork for her second act throughout her entire career at the bank, not consciously, but it was there, in the background, all the time. It started way back in the ’70s when Gemma was putting on fashion show fundraisers for local churches. That led to her being a founding member of the Montreal Caribbean Carnival in 1972, and the owner of Quebec’s first black modeling group in the ‘80s. 

“I never saw any young, black women in magazines or TV commercials, and I thought why can’t we have young, beautiful black women modeling,” Gemma remembers.

“I was really forward in my younger days, so I went to the Gazette and I spoke to Iona Monahan, the fashion editor, and I said we have a lot of beautiful black girls and boys here, and I guess she liked my spunk and she said, “I’ll do something about it.” So I put together a fashion show, and Iona did a beautiful spread in the Gazette with my models. I called them the Montreal Ebony Models.”

When her working life came to a sudden end after 32 years, Gemma anchored herself even more deeply in her community, founding the Playmas Montreal Cultural Association, a not for profit organization that celebrates Caribbean culture and fundraises for worthy causes.

“I wanted to showcase the splendour and beauty of the Caribbean, so we not only do parades and carnival, we do fashion shows, food events, and a yearly tea honouring women on international women’s day.” 

She also sits as Vice President of the Spice Island Cultural Association of Quebec, an organization showcasing the land of her birth, Grenada.

“This year we were able to send thousands of PPE to the islands. We also did a toy drive because we have a lot of orphanages in Grenada. This is just something I feel the need to do, to help my island. Although Montreal is my home, I’ve lived here longer than I lived in Grenada. It’s still is part of me. I still want to help the people there. I want to help the kids.”

Back to that urge, that lifetime drive Gemma has been guided by, the need to help. Where does it come from?

“When I was born,” Gemma shares, “I was only three pounds at birth. My mother had 10 children, but only two lived, and I was number nine. My sister is number six and I am number nine, number nine! If it had been me, if I had had two, three, four kids and lost them all, I would have stopped. But she continued, and I am number nine, and number 10 died, and I was only three pounds at birth! I was definitely put on this earth for a purpose.”

For her third act, Gemma is preparing now to be a grandma with two grandbabies due in 2021, and with all the cuddling, and spoiling, and love she will give them, she also knows exactly what advice she’ll share.

“You know when you do things and you don’t look for a tap on the back, or being put on a pedestal, it’s really good. You’re doing it from your heart. And when you do things for that reason, life is full of rewards. I’ve met so many nice people, made so many friends, and my life is really fulfilled, really fulfilled, with all the things that I have done.”

That big heart of hers is full, and beating strong with all the love she has poured into her community, and all the love they are giving right back.

You can follow the Playmas Montreal Cultural Association and Spice Island Cultural Festival Pages on Facebook.