By Howard Koplowitz
The president of the Cambria Heights Development Corp. and the executive director of a Cambria Heights senior center are among six slated to be honored Saturday in St. Albans by a black sorority service organization.
The Phi Zeta Zeta Chapter of the Zeta Phi Beta sorority, established in Jamaica in 2007, is scheduled to recognize the honorees for their community work.
“It’s always good to be recognized,” said Kevin Jemmott, president of the Cambria Heights Development Corp. and former president of the Cambria Heights Civic Association. “As a volunteer, we don’t get paid for what we do and we get our satisfaction by seeing results.”
The corporation started operating about two years ago with the goal of revitalizing Linden Boulevard, Cambria Heights’ commercial strip.
Among the organization’s accomplishments were putting up uniform green banners along Linden that promote the neighborhood and helping two businesses — a women’s gym and a Christian bookstore — open up on the strip.
The Rev. Harding Dunlop, executive director of the Alpha Phi Alpha Senior Center on Linden Boulevard for 16 years, said he felt “very honored” for his work to be recognized.
Dunlop said the center recently established computer classes and also has art, sewing and craft classes.
The center serves between 90 and 105 seniors five days a week.
“Of course, we provide [the seniors] with a nutritional, balanced hot meal every day, five days a week,” Dunlop said.
The seniors also put on their own fashion and talent shows and are taken on trips to the city’s cultural institutions, he said.
Also being honored Saturday at Thomasina’s Banquet Hall are Harold Dow, a social engineer; the ChaRosa Foundation, a community−based nonprofit; St. John’s University student leader Lameeka Hawthorne, a police cadet; and Detective Harriet Stevenson Lewis, who is being honored as Zeta of the Year.
Reach reporter Howard Koplowitz by e−mail at hkoplowitz@cnglocal.com or by phone at 718−229−0300, Ext. 173.
