Our members joke about how Curtis Jewell was the "treasure" we picked up during our spring 2024 Keep Rockland Beautiful event. Two club members, Evelyn & Judy were working together gathering trash along the section of Route 202 close to Viola Road in Suffern when the driver of a pick up truck pulled over to thank them for keeping his neighborhood so clean. Evelyn engaged the driver aka Curtis in conversation about the wonderful things the Suffern Rotary Club does to help keep Suffern beautiful as well as caring. And so, after this encounter our Rookie of the Year joined our club.
Curtis dove right into all of our club events with the guidance of Evelyn, his club mentor. He went door knocking through the village businesses to get sponsors for our September Jamfest, got on the club's Meals on Wheels delivery rotation, got involved in the Sloatsburg Food Pantry stocking & serving as soon as he heard about them. Curtis was not afraid to get his hands dirty or to use the electric auger to dig holes for the installation of the fifty flags for our Flags for Heroes installations. His cheerful attitude, good sense of humor, willingness to serve and spirit of team work made him a stand out new member.
Curtis quickly began to show leadership skills and took on organizing the club's fall Keep Rockland Beautiful service event. His leadership for the Spring Keep Rockland Beautiful event brought in numerous groups of non-Rotarians from Suffern. Staff from the Sloatsburg Food Pantry, the Palisades Credit Union Bank, Scout Troops, The Salvation Army, past Interact members, etc. Curtis organized other areas within our assigned clean up area that were appropriate for young children and older adults. He secured Police supervision and gave out prizes for the child that found the gnome as well as any other child that helped.
Curtis had 100% attendance to our meetings & quickly grasped the concept that our guest speakers shared their experiences, expertise and stories of service. After six months or so of membership, Curtis approached our program planner eager to share a special personal service situation connected to helping a victim of Human Trafficking. Curtis has an older sister that is a Harvard Professor of Practice at their School of Education. Her Fiancé is the president of the American College of Greece. Through this connection Curtis became aware of Boye Mohammed Alhassan, a 23 year old student at the American College of Greece in Greece who was born & raised in Ghana until a terrible tragedy happened to his family. He was captured & sold into slavery several times until he escaped to a dangerous refuge camp in Greece where he was able to find support services & educational opportunities. Curtis's family did an Ancestry.com search and found in an 1870 Census a family connection to slavery. Curtis & his family members have done numerous things to support Boye on his recovery & educational journey; one of which was to raise money so that Boye could go visit his mother in Ghana. Details of Boye's story is in the link: https://www.ekathimerini.com/society/1225048/one-extraordinary-young-man-a-tale-of-two-narratives/
Through this endeavor, Curtis delved into learning more about Rotary International's core beliefs and projects connected to Human Trafficking and its humanitarian efforts to provide equity to diverse peoples. This touched a chord in his core beliefs which his single Mom & his religious upbringing cultivated in him. Curtis, the only son & middle child of 3, grew up in the Bronx housing projects where he attended Catholic schools during the 1960s which was a time of demonstrations for civil rights. He was brought up on the moral belief of "Do the Right Thing" to help or volunteer to support what he believed to be the fair & just. He did participate in strikes, some protests & demonstrations. (Yes, he attempted to get himself to Woodstock!) However, as a young man, he is most proud of helping an injured elderly woman he found on his way to work who fell on the ice in the wee hours of the morning. He put caring for this needy person ahead of his being on time for work.....Service Above Self and a Person of Action long before he was ever inducted into Rotary.
Curtis spent 31 years working for the United States Post Office where he was a Union Representative and a Trustee. It was as a Union Representative that Curtis experienced one of the happiest days of his life. The National PO Union Convention was in Waikiki, Hawaii and the hotel was right across the street from the beach.....well, he saw that beautiful water, the gorgeous Samoans on the beach and decided to NOT attend any of the meetings ALL week. So Playing Hooky in Hawaii was the happiest time and thankfully his union friends understood the difficult choice he had to make.
Photography was a hobby that that lead him to other employment after retirement. He worked at photographing events, head shots for human interest stories or actors. He became an instructor of photography at Chesterfield Street Middle School. Other hobbies are exercising, body building, biking, old films. He like to see new places but hates the "getting there.'
Bottomline: Curtis Jewell learned a great deal about Rotary, served our club in areas of team work and leadership as well as community outreach which included other community members in our projects. This is truly an outstanding Rookie Rotarian!
