Making Warwick a better place

Jack Ellis and the Youth Leadership Team of the Chosun Taekwondo Academy have been named Warwick’s 2019-2020 Outstanding Community Service Award winners, selected for their volunteer contributions to the local community.

Along with this year’s Warwick Citizen of the Year, Hannelore Chambers, they will be honored during a celebration Oct. 23 at the Landmark Inn.

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John "Jack" Ellis

Jack Ellis began his community volunteer work shortly after moving to Warwick in 1974 and joining the Jaycees. As an officer, he chaired the American Flag Holiday Project, which required storing the flags in his garage and arranging to have them flown in the Village of Warwick on all holidays.

Although not a member of the Lions Club, Ellis has assisted George McManus as a co-race director on the Warwick Lions Labor Day 5K Memorial Run/Walk for more than 10 years. He was race director for the John S. Burke Catholic High School 5K run fund raiser in Goshen for eight years.

Ellis has been a trustee of the Warwick Historical Society for the past five years and chairs the Building and Grounds Committee, which is responsible for care and maintenance of 12 iconic properties owned by the society.

Besides being a tenor in the Warwick Chorale, Ellis is a lay lector, Eucharistic Minister and adult choir member for Sunday Mass and for funeral services at Church of St. Stephen, the First Martyr.

Ellis currently serves as Atlantic Regional President for the National Association of Retired Postal Inspectors (NARPI) and is past president of the New York Chapter.

Chosun Taekwondo Academy’s Youth Leadership Team

The Leadership Team was conceived and initiated in 2002 by Grandmaster Doug Cook, owner and head instructor of the Chosun Taekwondo Academy.

Throughout the year, the team conceives, organizes and executes many fundraisers and community events to benefit local organizations within the Warwick community.

These Warwick youngsters, ages 8 to 17, have demonstrated their commitment to the community as well as serving as role models within their organization.

They sponsor up to 30 children at the Lions/Rotary Holiday Party for Children in Need with money raised in community fund raisers including book and bake sales. Team members shop and wrap gifts for the needy children and help set up the party the night before.

During the summer the members volunteer to give personalized lessons and Taekwondo demonstrations to children of Black Dirt farm workers who are attending a special program at Pine Island School.

Some of their community projects include annual replanting and beautification of local parks, beach clean-up, Thanksgiving dinner at the Warwick Community Kitchen, concession sales at the Ultimania Basketball Game and Applebees Pancake Breakfast to benefit the Brian Ahearn Children’s Fund.

The following organizations have benefitted from the Leadership Team’s efforts: Warwick Lions Club, Warwick Valley Rotary, Brian Ahearn Children’s Fund, Warwick Ambulance Corps, Warwick Humane Society, Warwick Community Kitchen, Warwick Area Migrant Committee, Warwick Historical Society, Warwick in Bloom and Warwick Village and Town.

Hannelore Chambers

Hannelore Chambers, who spearheaded a community-wide effort to construct a new playground in Stanley-Deming Park for all ages and abilities, will be honored as Warwick’s 2019-2020 Citizen of the Year.

Chambers received eight separate Citizen of the Year nominations. They praised her for her “passion, drive and commitment to achieve the dream of creating a playground for children and adults of all abilities.”

Although “honored and humbled” by the award, Chambers said she felt the recognition should be shared with the entire Warwick Playground Dreams Committee members, the hundreds of volunteers who worked on the project and all of the donors who believed in the dream of a new playground and made it possible.

Warwick Mayor Michael Newhard praised Hannelore Chambers and her team for their three-year effort to create the $350,000 community-built, handicap-accessible playground in Stanley-Deming Park.