BY GLORIA STRAVELLI
Staff Writer
CHRIS KELLY staff Above, Rena Levine Levy and Steven Levine (r), executives of WindMill Gourmet Fast Foods, are being honored by the Greater Long Branch Chamber of Commerce, along with other members of the Levine family, for their commitment to community service. LONG BRANCH — Helping others and giving back to the community isn’t always accomplished by writing a check, according to members of one of the city’s leading business families.
“We don’t write big checks. That’s not what we consider giving back. That’s not our style. Our style is defined by participation. Being part of events, helping to support fund-raisers, that’s how we give back,” explained Rena Levine Levy, chief executive officer of WindMill Gourmet Fast Foods restaurants.
Tasti-D-Lite on Ocean Avenue is one of the renovations being recognized with Business Improvement Awards by the Greater Long Branch Chamber. “Our style of corporate support is very different,” Levine said this week. “We don’t give large amounts of money, we give large amounts of time and personal commitment.”
Levine, along with her brother, Steven H. Levine, WindMill chief operating officer, their father, Leo, president and chairman, and mother, Eleanor, secretary of the fast food restaurant chain, are being recognized for their community service by the Greater Long Branch Chamber of Commerce.
The Levines will be honored Saturday with the Louis G. Libutti Community Service Award at the chamber’s 71st annual Awards Dinner to be held at the Ocean Place Resort and Spa on Ocean Boulevard.
“The Levine family is so deserving of the award for their community service,” said Susan Woolley, assistant director of the Greater Long Branch Chamber of Commerce.
The award is named for the popular chamber president who died in office in 1969. Established a year later, the award “recognizes exemplary leadership, outstanding professional achievement and community service,” said Woolley.
In addition to the community service award, the chamber will hand out business awards at the dinner to recipients who “have improved the business climate and appearance along with the quality of life in the city,” according to the chamber’s Web site,
www.longbranchchamber.org.
“The award is very nice. We do a lot of community service, we don’t turn down anybody,” said Steven Levine. “If somebody comes in and says they’re hungry and have no money, we feed them.”
During 9/11, family members worked around the clock, feeding rescuers, Rena added.
“That’s how we define help,” she said. “We did what we know how to do. We know how to feed people. Individually we spend thousands in donations, but we’re not large corporate givers. It’s grassroots giving.”
Among the many causes the WindMill chain supports are the FoodBank of Monmouth and Ocean Counties, Neptune, and Family and Children’s Service, Long Branch.
An ongoing project is providing support to the U.S. Marines 6th Division Motor Transport Battalion out of Red Bank, whose soldiers WindMill supports with holiday packages and assistance to families that takes many forms.
According to Steve, the family’s focus on helping others goes back generations to his great-grandmother, who instilled the ethic of charitable works in her progeny.
Eleanor and Leo Levine are semi-retired now and live in Florida part of the year, but that hasn’t interrupted their commitment to community service. The elder Levines have organized blanket drives for shelter residents and a quilting brigade for children in need.
For the rest of the year, he said, the couple returns north and can be found working at the WindMill in Long Branch.
“They come back to work in the summer. They’re in every day,” Steve said.
Founded on quality — the WindMill’s claim to fame is the “World’s Greatest Hot Dogs” — and customer service, the original WindMill restaurant was purchased by Leo Levine and his brother Ed in 1976.
Leo continued as food service director for Howard Johnson in New York, a post he held from 1949 until 1987, while his brother ran the day-to-day fast food operation.
Three years later, the brothers opened a second location on Route 35 in Belmar. By 1991 they had opened two more locations, and between 1991 and 1994 had licensed three franchise operations.
Steve, who had managed the Newark location of the Howard Johnson hotel chain for his father, joined the WindMill operation in 1993. He is responsible for overseeing the three family-owned stores and advertising. As director of operations, he also oversees the construction of all new locations and supervises all on-site training.
In 1994, Leo recruited his daughter from her position as director of food and beverage at Stern’s department store. Rena is responsible for franchise development, product research and development, advertising and public relations. Since the Levine siblings joined the company, WindMill has grown to eight locations — five franchises and three owned by the family. WindMill locations include Red Bank, Belmar, Freehold Township, Brick, Piscataway, Westfield and two in Long Branch, with two more planned to open this spring.
Other honors to be awarded at the Greater Long Branch Chamber dinner will include The President’s Award, which this year goes to the Monmouth County Park System for the Skateplex skateboard park at Seven President’s Park.
“The award recognizes something out of the ordinary. The Skateplex was a huge undertaking for the county, which is already present in Long Branch with Seven Presidents Park. [The award] recognizes the investment that was made, both monetary and in building the Skateplex. It’s so popular, it’s attracting children, and adults for that matter, from all over the county,” Woolley said.
The Invest in Long Branch award will be presented to The Applied Companies of Hoboken for Pier Village, the original redevelopment project along the oceanfront, where commercial tenants are starting to move in to the retail space, Woolley noted.
“The award definitely recognizes an investment in the city,” Woolley said, “plus having faith and backing it up.”
Business Improvement awards, which recognize significant renovation projects, will be awarded to 13 projects.
Recipients include: the Long Branch Free Public Library, for the Elberon Library on Lincoln Avenue; First Atlantic Federal Credit Union; Monmouth Enterprises, for renovation of a private residence converted to a commercial space at 450 Broadway at Morris Avenue; Shore Institute of the Contemporary Arts, for renovation of a vintage cannery at 20 Third Ave. into an art gallery/studio/performance space; Pax Construction, for renovations at 157 Broadway, a building so blighted, Woolley said, it was formerly called “the Swiss cheese building because you could see right through it.”.
Also, Jesse’s Café at 139 Brighton Ave. in West End; Richard’s Deli at 155 Brighton Ave.; businessman Kevin Martin for renovations to 11 Brighton Ave.; Celeste Carlesimo for renovations to Tasti-D-Lite at Brighton and Ocean avenues; Joanne Decuolo for Charley’s Ocean Grill at 29 Avenel Blvd.; BCP bank at 339 Broadway; Anthony Pugliano for Biaggio’s Italian Grill at 581 Broadway; and Monmouth Community Bank for its new Ursula Plaza branch.
“The chamber has 230 members ranging from the city, individual professionals, and businesses of all sizes from very large, like Monmouth Medical Center, to a one-person business. We have a very diverse business community,” said Nancy Kleiberg, executive director of the Greater Long Branch chamber.
The business group’s roots go back in the community to the early 1900s and the Long Branch Board of Trade, she said. The Greater Long Branch Chamber of Commerce succeeded that group and was formed in 1933. In addition to Long Branch, the chamber’s service area includes West Long Branch, Ocean Township and Eatontown.
More than 70 years into its mission, the chamber is looking to the future and is part of Long Branch Tomorrow, an initiative Kleiberg described as a public/private partnership of the business community and the city that is focused on the revitalization of the city.
“There are many interested parties,” she said, “as diverse as the Ocean Place [Resort and Spa], and the mayor. We all started talking about what would be the best approach. All these things came together at the same time, and we came up with Long Branch Tomorrow.”
After renting office space at several locations, the chamber secured a permanent home, purchasing the building at 228 Broadway, which it occupies along with two tenants. In addition to its focus on the business community, the seashore location means the chamber has another function, for at least part of the year.
“We act as a tourist bureau here,” said Woolley. “We get so many calls during the summer months because we’re a coastal community.”
But the chamber’s primary focus, she said, remains providing networking opportunities for its members, including businesses and professionals in the Uptown, Downtown and West End business groups.
Major chamber-sponsored events are the awards dinner, held every March, a business expo that will be held on May 18, OceanFest held July 4, a summer golf outing, and a two-day antique show held in December.
The Levines said this week they are happy to support the awards dinner as a way of helping the chamber raise funds and to encourage philanthropy by others.
“The only reason we talk about the charity work we do is so other people will do it, too,” said Steve.
“If you help somebody, and they help somebody else,” added Rena, “then it’s a wonderful thing.”