The “Hall of Fame” was established to honor the “Best of the Best”. The Pioneer honored here has devoted countless hours serving the community with his time and leadership.

Past President, Allen B. Lewis

Allen B. Lewis’s first involvement with Pioneering started during the 1980’s when he was recruited by Dottie Shannon. He worked with his local council on various projects.  One such project was to represent Pioneers at “Old Newsboy’s Day”, selling special edition newspapers for “The Variety Club“. Later this Pioneer coordinated the same project with the outside techs. This Pioneer attended the Special Olympics several times in West Virginia, working with various atheletes.

Later in his telephone career, he was recruited by James Reed to join the company’s external affairs team. He explained how the company’s external affairs and Pioneers combined their efforts, because in most cases both were working for the greater good of the communities.

That being said, this Pioneer assisted external affairs in a number of neighbor day projects which were held in the housing projects in South Philly and other communities. The intent was to build a better relationship between the residents, installer/repairmen, and the company.

Being embedded in Pioneering now, this Pioneer began to get involved in other projects….assisted in painting playground maps, the annual Valley Forge Cleanup, the Special Needs Party, Magee Desert Nights, delivering toys which were collected by Pioneers at 9th and Race (The Angel Tree Project) to “Action Aids” annually, assisting at Ronald McDonald House preparing meals for the clients and staff, and helping out at the Fellowship Breakfast. This Pioneer has worked the Alice Keen Games at the home for the incurable, and along with other Pioneers participated in the “Philly Cleanup“, where they cleaned the area around Cobbs Creek Park. This Pioneer has also participated in a number of the City of Phila’s “Super Sunday Events“, in which Pioneers would pass out company literature, and fingerprint hundreds of small children that day, and provide a copy of the document to their parents right on the spot. This Pioneer has also participated in Spruce Medical Center’s “Outdoor Health Fair“, hosted by the late Dr. Johnson who’s practice was in west Philly. Free health screening was provided to the residents in the immediate and surrounding areas in the neighborhood. This Pioneer has won the Pioneer in Excellence Award from his council several times.

Along with a group of Pioneers, this Pioneer assisted a local company (New Juice) and Verizon’s External Affairs in setting up volunteer mentoring/computer educational class at the School Of The Future in Fairmont Park. A limited number of students who volunteered, were selected and taught how to make web sites from scratch. Verizon provided the project teachers from their I.T. division, the kids met every Saturday until their projects were completed, at which time there was a ceremony and they were to display their finished project at the Board of Education building. This Pioneer found this project exciting, knowing what these kids started out with and to see their success.

This Pioneer assisted Verizon in sponsoring a night out at the Black History Museum, as well as several sessions of “Telling Amys Story” to several local church groups in Phila. This Pioneer has held several offices in the Chapter, from Member at Large to President. As a result of his involvement in external affairs, an opportunity was afforded to this Pioneer to sit with the President of Verizon at the time (2004) to discuss pioneering in order to establish a line of communication.

This Pioneer has a great love for Pioneering, loves working with fellow Pioneers, and enjoys answering the call of those in need.

Alon