Posted by By CHRISTY ANYANWU on
Gbemisola Shasore, an events management Consultant, is someone who has a great passion for charity. She confessed that she inherited this from her late mother, Chief Mrs. Simi Johnson, first female dental surgeon in Nigeria.
Gbemisola Shasore, an events management Consultant, is someone who has a great passion for charity. She confessed that she inherited this from her late mother, Chief Mrs. Simi Johnson, first female dental surgeon in Nigeria.
Recalling the good times she had with her mother, Shasore says that even though she died at old age, her death created a vacuum no one can fill. "I would have been in a psychiatric home when she died. I really missed her, but I had to go on. I remembered that I had my own life to live. She died at 87 years. That period, I lost my mind. But nobody can question God.
"My mother was everybody else's mum. Any time I went to see her in the office, I found lots of people waiting to see her. She was like my friend. We dressed alike."
At the moment, she confesses that her mother's shoes are too big to step into. "But one day, I will get there," she says: "All her life, my mother was doing one thing or the other for charity. Later in life, I found myself in some organisations she used to be, such as International Women Society (IWS) and Zonta International Club of Lagos.
"I will like to promote the passion my mother had in her lifetime (empowerment of women). I just put down all the groundwork to be able to take this to the next level." Shasore's target is to start a foundation in memory of her late mother, which would give scholarships yearly to an outstanding woman in the dental profession or banking sector.
Also, Shasore is compiling essays written about women on various subjects and issues concerning them. "The topics would cut across different segments of the society, like women in Medicine, theatre, religion, first ladies and anything that would be important to us."
Education
I went to the School of Basic Studies, Ahmadu Bello University. After this, I went to the New York Institute of Technology where I read Communications. All my life, I was in America working for others. So, I decided to come home to start my own business.
Activities as events planner
Life as an event planner has been very challenging because it makes her time. But she loves it. She always likes to talk about how she started the business about 10 years ago and her achievements so far.
"My outfit is called COSCOM and I started small by doing family fund-raising (bazaar) for the less privileged people in the society. This includes the Blind Society of Nigeria, Outreach Foundation, Little Saint's Orphanage. After this experience, I got a number of calls from people who wanted us to handle their private parties. My job is making sure everything is ready for people to have fun, helping them to accomplish that which they set out to do that day."
She is also the chief executive officer of The Green Park, a multi-purpose events centre. It also boasts of a banquet hall that accommodates 150 people with dinner tables and a lecture room which accommodates about 200 people. Other attractions include the green room for exhibitions, seasonal shops, karaoke, and facilities for meetings and small parties.
"There is also a conference room that seats 10 people. When we found the premises, it was all concrete, which I did not want because children will use the venue. We put in a whole lot of soil and planted green grass which is how the name ‘Green Park' was created," Shasore explains.
Husband
Shasore got married 11 years ago to Mr. Olasupo Shasore, a legal practitioner, whom she met through his cousin. "He was bunkmate of my cousin in secondary school. We were friends first, then we courted for two years before we got married. We are blessed with three children. He is my soulmate and friend. I hurriedly do all I need to do at work because I have to come back home to see the children before going to bed. Besides sleeping, I love spending time with people of like minds and my family and communicating more with God."