JOE COVELLO

Date Added:

July 11th, 2011

State:

 New York

Charity:

American Cancer Society

Views:

7010

Votes:

4133

Joe Covello is a 32 year old native Staten Islander who has worked
since he was very young and always did it with a smile. At 18 years old he became a carpenter for the NYC Carpenters Union and worked for a sewer company installing new sewer lines. At 20 he started working for a Hoisting company and quickly became a foreman. Bored with the repetition of his daily tasks, after a few years wanted to get into sales. Shortly after that he became a partner in the company that he now runs.
Skill and luck have put him in a good place and he seems to appreciate that. He spends many hours giving back to the community and different organizations. He always believed in giving first and everything else will fall into place and he still does.
He is a co-chair for the American Cancer Society Business Council.
This council puts together three fund-raising events a year targeting the younger business crowds (sometimes young family events) with fun networking events that generate approximately $25 to 30k a year for the ACS. He also is involved with the Chamber of Commerce of Staten Island and focuses on economic development for the community.
The other organizations he is committed to is East River Development Alliance, which is a non for profit by his company's office in Long Island City, NY. The East River Development Alliance also known as ERDA provides educational and improvement tools for the less fortunate in their community. He also works with local artists in the communities around his place of business.
Another non for profit he donates to and is involved in is a company called Art-Bridge. Art-bridge uses the unsightly scaffolds on the job sites and in a nutshell beautifies the site so the community doesn't have an eye sore for the duration of the project. They use local upcoming artists to paint on the scaffolds while giving them the opportunity to have their work displayed in NY while beautification of the construction site is done. Once the project is complete the vinyl is recycled into handbags and sold online which is how the organization makes money.
Other projects Joe has donated to this year is "Padilla-Harris Mist Wave", which was an art sculpture fabricated and donated to a local artist and was displayed at figment 2011 on Governors Island.
Two Coves Community Garden is a community garden in the neighborhood who was in need of flower boxes. Joe donated the lumber for the boxes and is continuing to work with them on future gardens. He also donated recycled lumber to the Van Alen book store which is part of the Van Alen Institute. Van Alen Books is New York City's new center for architecture and design publications, where books are read, sold, discovered, and discussed.
As you can see giving back is part of his nature and that's why he should be nominated for the "Rare Life Story"