For this community organizer, retirement looks very busy

Tom Cervenak

Tom Cervenak

 

By Mike Murphy
Special to The Review
It is hardly surprising that a person as dedicated to helping others as Tom Cervenak still answers his phone at Peoples’ Community Services of Metropolitan Detroit in Hamtramck while in post- retirement.
He just can’t seem to stop helping people.
“It will take awhile to disengage myself and to help the next person, and as of this date, they haven’t found the next person,” said Acting Executive Director of Peoples’ Community Services Tom Cervenak.
But Cervenak, who has a degree in anthropology and plans to take some archeology classes as well as put a little more into his sailing hobby and join the Coast Guard Auxiliary, has already filled up much of the free time he expects to have.
Cervenak also wants to put in some hours at the Hamtramck Historical Museum and continue his work toward opening a Latin-American culture and art museum in Southwest Detroit.
“People say that when you retire you get busier than you were before, and I believe them,” Cervenak said.
Cervenak has been part of Peoples’ Community Services since 1975 when he came to Hamtramck to help organize the block clubs that made up the Hamtramck Block Club Association.
“We started a lot of projects in the neighborhoods,” Cervenak said, “including rodent control, alley cleanup and crime prevention.”
In 1977,  Peoples’ Community Services also started one of the first seniors’ day care centers in the country on Caniff, and Cervenak still stands in admiration of the volunteers who helped with the many projects he’s been involved with since.
Now, PCS provides services through 12 separate programs, both for adults and youths. Through PCS, Hamtramck residents can join an after-school program or obtain food and transportation. PCS also operates an environmental program, a neighborhood development program, and a substance abuse prevention.
“When you work with really committed community people, it’s really a joy,” Cervenak said. “They’re not getting paid for it. It’s a great way to start a career.”
And what a career it’s been.
Since he started out as community organizer, Cervenak has served as a youth worker and a program supervisor. He was the recipient of multiple promotions until 1985 when he became PCS’ executive director in charge of all four PCS locations in the Detroit area.
As a 36-year Hamtramck resident, though, Cervenak holds Hamtramck close to his heart. It’s the city where he met and married his wife, a Hamtramck native, and it’s a city that has always maintained its unique flavor, Cervenak said.
Cervenak worked on an assembly line at Ford Motor Company and unloaded logs from freighters before becoming a community organizer. He was born in Taylor and he moved to Niagara Falls, New York before PCS brought him to Hamtramck.
“I am a Hamtramck person by choice,” Cervenak said. “I love it. It’s just an incredible place. On one hand it’s a small town, and people know each other and interact. By the same token, it’s got a big city feel. The diversity is something you just won’t see anywhere.”
In its farewell salute to Cervenak, PCS describes him as a “neighbor helping neighbors” throughout his career, and Cervenak describes himself as a people-oriented person.
“The people — that’s what I am going to miss most,” Cervenak said. “I’ve worked with a great group of people who have been friendly and outgoing.”
Cervenak said that while PCS has a paid staff of about 35 full-time and part-time employees, a large part of the community work is done by volunteers who continue to contribute to PCS’ success.
Cervenak said that PCS relies on people in Hamtramck neighborhoods for help as well as college students.
“Even the directors on the board are volunteers. Our board chairman is an auto executive,” Cervenak said. “They put in a lot of time, and there’s a lot of commitment there, and sometimes a lot of heartache.”

One Response to For this community organizer, retirement looks very busy

  1. Gordon P. Hargrove

    October 27, 2021 at 6:11 pm

    I would like to contact Tom to discuss the current status of the US settlement movement. I am currently the Director of Friendly House a 100-year-old settlement house in Worcester, Ma. I would like to discuss the future of our settlement house movement.

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