Joy Symonds prides herself on being a planner.

The captain of the Church Girls Brigade at St Paul AME Church always knows what the girls are going to do in their Thursday night meetings.

“Children thrive on structure,” she said. “They really respond to it.”

If everything goes haywire, more children turn up than expected, or fewer, she has a back up plan.

Ms Symonds, the chief of human services at the Bermuda Housing Services, has run the group for 20 years and is now working on her second generation of girls.

The group is similar to the Brownies or Girl Guides but has a religious flavour.

At the beginning of every meeting they line up in formation. They read out a creed and they shout “we fight the good fight” — some more enthusiastically then others.

Afterwards, they work on crafts or bake or learn skills such as first aid.

Ms Symonds has no biological children of her own but considers the CGB members, ages 5 and up, her girls. Some of her favourite times with them are taking them camping in Sandys in the summer.

She grew up in Paget, the youngest of seven children. She was a Brownie, a Girl Guide and a member of the Explorers Club at St Paul, the precursor to the CGB.

“My mother thought I needed something to do,” Ms Symonds said.

Earlier this month St Paul gave her a long service award, the Christian Service Award and the Exemplary Service Medal for her broader work with the church.

The citation for her awards said, in part: “Her inclusiveness, attention to detail and warm mentoring character inspires and helps CGB leaders and girls grow in faith and confidence.

“At all times she fosters a culture of giving and leads by example. She also encourages the girls to put their faith into action through service so that along the way they may encounter God.”

It was Ms Symonds who presented the names of people who qualified for long service at the church, so she knew her name was on that list. The other two awards were a total surprise.

“With the Christian service and exemplary service awards your name has to be put forward,” she said. “The church does a whole write up on you and sends your name to the UK. There it has to go through scrutiny.”

Hearing her many activities and achievements read out in church on Communion Sunday was a surreal experience for her.

“I don’t do things for recognition,” she said. “I was completely speechless.”

The CGB is far from her only charitable activity.

At Christmas, while many people are scrambling to cook a turkey, or wrap gifts at the eleventh hour, Ms Symonds found she had time on her hands.

“You get everything ready ahead of time, don’t you,” she said.

Ten years ago, to fill the hours before Christmas dinner began, she decided to throw a Christmas lunch at St Paul.

When she first proposed the idea, the minister at the church was a little doubtful, wondering who would come to the event.

Beforehand, Ms Symonds contacted other churches to let them know about the lunch. She marshalled various community stakeholders to donate turkeys and other food. Then on Christmas Day she sent the trolley train into town to collect people there.

“We had about 40 to 50 people the first year,” she said.

Some people who attended had nowhere else to spend the holiday, or had nothing to eat that day at all, with most local restaurants closed. Other attendees were expatriate workers who were new to the island and alone.

A decade later the lunch has become so popular, that last Christmas the church hall filled with 90 or more people.

The rest of the year, Joy quietly deals with people who ask the church for help with utilities or food, arranging for them to receive a voucher or a bag of groceries.

“I like to do things quietly,” Ms Symonds said.

She also holds fundraisers at the church, such as a fair and a carwash. Girls from CGB help.

For a long time, she also tutored students at the Adult Education School.

“Initially, I volunteered with the literacy programme when it was under Julie Beach,” she said. “Adults would show up and we would have to start with ‘see spot run’.”

One client came in and said they wanted to be able to read to their grandchildren. They had not learnt as a child and had been dissuaded from doing so by their spouse.

After a few years the director found there were more young people coming in who needed help getting their General Education Diploma.

Eventually, she switched to teaching mathematics skills. During her first lesson, she quickly realised she needed to switch up her game.

“I was writing things on the board and there was complete silence behind me,” she said. “I turned around and said, OK, let’s make some noise, what do you all do?”

She found that many of her students worked in construction by day.

“If I was going to teach them something, I had to deliver it on their terms,” she said.

She left the Adult Education School when doctors diagnosed breast cancer in 2022.

While she was going through treatment, she did not have a lot of energy for different activities.

“You do not know what it is like until you go through it,” she said. “I had to step back from a lot of things.”

Now that she is feeling more herself again she is focused on the CGB.

Community service is a tradition in her family. Her grandmother and mother taught Sunday School at St Monica’s Mission, while her grandfather played in the North Village Band. Her older sister, the late June Saltus, was also an inspiration.