35 YEARS IN: A Toby Cele-bration!

Amidst the celebrations and festivities of last year’s Beekman Group End Of Year Party, many of our colleagues and friends were deservingly recognised for the multitude of accomplishments and milestones they’d achieved with the company over the course of the year.

Among the awards and recognitions given out every year at our Group End Of Year Functions, are certificates for excellence within each department, overall achievement prizes, a Newcomer Of The Year Award, and a host of Service Awards for those who’ve given outstanding service to the company over periods of 5, 10, 15 years, etc.

There are many figures and statistics The Beekman Group is proud to claim, but the one that Director, Wayne Beekman, has often boasted about most glowingly is the remarkable retention rate of the company. Of 1150 employees at Head Office (at time of writing), 271 have been with us for 15 years or longer, while 152 have been with us for 10 – 14 years, and 215 have contributed their services for between 5 and 9 years.

And the undisputed ‘Poster Woman’ of this outstanding 99% retention rate is, without question, last year’s sole recipient of the 35 Years Of Service Award, Toby Cele.

Toby was only 18 years old when she first walked into the old Beekman Group head office, where it was then situated at Banana Beach Club in the late 80’s, and sat across from then office manager, Austin Weatherhead and receptionist, Wendy Botts, for the first – and it turns out only job interview of her adult life. It was late Summer, and the young lady from Mtwalume, made her way South to Melville Beach with the intention of returning home an employee of the Beekman Group.

“My mother worked for a woman named Maria at the time, who was Wendy Botts’s mother-in-law, and that’s how I got to hear about the job,” remembers Toby.

“Excluding the resort staff, there were probably no more than 8 or 9 head office staff based at Banana Beach back then. And I was employed to make and serve tea, wash the dishes, and stuff like that.”

Since then, Toby has gone on to occupy two further positions within the company; first as a Filing Clerk, and eventually to Sales Administration, where she remains an invaluable part of Patricia Labuschagne’s team until today.

Channa Slippers, who, herself, has been with the company for over 30 years, remembers the detailed tedium involved in Toby’s second position, as a Filing Clerk.

“It was so complicated back then! Toby had to open a folder for each member’s contract and their various details, with their allocated unit number as a reference on the folder, and some sort of colour-coded sticker system that I never understood,” she recalls. “And then she had to file copies of every single piece of type-written correspondence to and from each member in their corresponding files.”

As a 35-year veteran of the company, Toby has seen more colleagues and friends come and go through the Beekman doors than almost anyone else, including our trio of present directors, Neville and Wayne Beekman, and Cindy Allan (née Beekman).

Looking back, Toby is visibly moved, as she recollects the memory of watching the three Beekman heirs grow into the leaders they are today. “One of my favourite memories from those days is when I’d first got promoted, and Cindy would come learn about filing from me after school.”

For those who have followed in her footsteps, there are many a folklore about the Beekman Group’s longest-serving “non-Beekman”, and second-longest serving employee overall. Like how HR had to eventually force her to take her accrued leave, after going her first few years at the company without missing a single day. Or the one time she arrived at Beekman House on a public holiday, fully expecting to put in a full day’s work.

While for those who’ve known her longer than the rest, Toby represents all that John and Bram Beekman had hoped to build when they left Jo’burg in the late 70’s to set up a little timeshare business on the South Coast.

“Over the years, Toby has continually pushed herself to learn new skills and do her job to the best of her ability. Her passion and confidence ensuring she has continually achieved every goal she set out to accomplish,” notes her former protégé, Cindy Allan.

If the standing ovation and rapturous applause that engulfed the company’s 2022 End Of Year Function when Toby was presented her 35-year service award wasn’t evidence enough of everyone’s affection for her, may our continued trust, affection, and support of her be a living testament to the Beekman Group’s admiration for the single mother, colleague, and friend who has made exceptional service THE standard in her own life.