Thanks for the Memories: Honoring Rev. Dr. Andrew Jenkins
As part of this celebration of his contribution to the community, Rev. Jenkins wrote the following letter:
Dear Mantua and its residents:
I, the Reverend “Andy” Andrew Jenkins would like to say thank you for entrusting me as your community leader for fifty-seven (57) years with the Mantua Community Planners (MCP) organization and later with the Mantua Civic Association (MCA) organization. It was truly a pleasure with growing pains in the early years to work passionately for you and the residents of the Mantua community for five (5) decades. I started my journey in 1961 with the dream that Mantua was a great community that had great promise.
As I am reflecting on my life and times in Mantua with my family and as Mantua’s community leader, I want to thank all of the men and women who worked with me and volunteered their time fighting shoulder to shoulder with me for what was right for Mantua.
Under my leadership, we were able to do some great things together through the challenges and obstacles we faced back then. I was proud to fight for Mantua, the community of 19,000 residents in the early 1960’s because we were a strong family -based community that endured the challenges of life together and was able to reduce gang violence and bring a long-term public housing facility in the Mt. Vernon Manor for low-income residents.
Building those relationships and partnerships with the special entities of “America’s First Zoo” (The Philadelphia Zoo), Drexel University, “America’s First University” (University of Pennsylvania) where I sat on its community advisory board during its inception and my relationship with the City of Philadelphia. It was a rewarding and challenging vision that kept my drive to see a better Mantua, the community I love. I also want to thank many of the other community organizations in Mantua and former gang members who helped reduced gang violence and turned their lives around to be productive people.
More importantly, I want to thank my family for sharing me with a great community where my children Ricky, Denise, Andrea and Duke grew up without fear. And lastly, I want to thank my late wife of fifty-four (54) years Patricia “Pat” Jenkins for her love and support of my dreams for the community I love in Mantua for all of those years.
Mantua Youth, I haven’t forgot you not one bit, I have a Scholarship Fund in my name at the Morton McMichael Elementary School for a deserving male and female student that is rewarded every year starting on June 12, 2020.
Sincerely,
Reverend “Andy” Jenkins