Camden Courier-Post, August 6, 1971View transcription
United Mission Rescue Corps
UNITED Mission Rescue Corps, Inc., founded by Camden resident Lewis T. Lewis in July 1969, has collected over $10,000 in door-to-door solicitations.
In April, 85 per cent of that amount had gone into the expenses till. Since then, Lewis says, expenses have dropped to slightly less than 30 per cent.
(In comparison, the United Fund of Camden County lists an administrative cost of nine per cent, according to San Angell, the executive director.)
The charity coffers also were swelled by a $10,000 inheritance, left, the founder said, by his father, Lewis T. Lewis Sr. Seven thousand dollars of the inheritance was used to purchase an office building at 2411 Federal St.
THERE is no doubt that United Rescue Mission has helped some people.
Although he had no formal financial records, Lewis, 30, produced for the Courier-Post a stack of canceled checks attesting to $3,258 spent in providing food, clothing and shelter to victims of fires and floods, from July 1969 to December 1970. He says he has spent more than $1,250 on charity cases since then.
Lewis himself lives in McGuire Gardens, a Camden public housing project.
Lewis's methods of awarding assistance are sometimes on the showy side. Last Christmas, for example, Lewis took $400 to a Horn and Hardart Restaurant in Philadelphia and passed out $5 to any senior citizen who could prove he was living on Social Security.
HE IS now planning to hand out a total of $2,000 in $10 chunks to Camden and Philadelphia schoolchildren who otherwise would not be able to afford a day at the shore.
Lewis' United Mission also gave a $250 check to the American Rescue Mission to replace the store-front window of their new headquarters which had been broken by children.
That act, and the restaurant money give-away, won Lewis coverage in newspapers, as have several of his other check presentations.
The amount spent by United Mission in charitable acts contrasts sharply with the amount spent on expenses, however.
LEWIS says that $8,739 has been spent for the purchase of a truck, a car, gasoline, stationary, uniforms, burglar alarm equipment and rent on a Locust Street warehouse. The figure does not include $7,000 for the purchase of a new headquarters building on Federal Street.
Of the more than $20,000 that the charity has raised, only approximately 15 per cent has been used to aid disaster victims.
LEWIS refers to himself as "reverend," "for the authority of the title," he says.
According to its charter, United Mission provides "spiritual guidance" in addition to aid to fire and disaster victims.
Lewis, who has had no religious training, is providing the spiritual guidance. He describes United Mission as non-sectarian although a cross and a crown are pictured on mission stationary.
Lewis says he takes no salary as director of United Mission. He had been considering drawing $100 a week from the charity since he has recently become unemployed, but abandoned the idea on advice from an Internal Revenue Service consultant.
Until March 16, Lewis was an engineer in the boiler room of the Camden County Courthouse. He was fired from the job, which he had held for less than a year, for failure to report to work, according to personnel records in the county administrator's office.
Lewis said that the county wanted him to shift from night work to day work, and that such a schedule would have interfered with his work for the mission.
OTHER incorporators of the United Mission, which was originally incorporated under the name Christian Salvation Mission Army, Rescue Workers (not to be confused with the Salvation Mission Army Rescue Workers of Peter Candelori) are Lewis's wife Betty Lou; William J. Weyman, a parking meter officer in Camden; Lewis Sr., Lewis's deceased father, and James L. Piliro of Camden.
United Mission solicitors, according to Lewis, were usually poor, elderly men who received as payment 15 per cent of their collections in Philadelphia and 15 to 25 per cent of their collections in New Jersey. Lewis employed four men in Philadelphia and one in New Jersey.
Lewis recently abandoned the practice of using paid solicitors and now uses only volunteers instead. "I think people kind of resent paid solicitors," he explained.
LAST August 8, Lewis was convicted in Camden County court on a charge of carnal abuse. He was sentenced to New Jersey state prison for not less than one or more than two years. The sentence was suspended. He was placed on five years' probation and is paying off a $1,000 fine at $7 a week.
Eight years earlier, Lewis was convicted for the same offense in the same court and was sentenced to an indefinite term in the Allendale state prison. That sentence was suspended.
IN Runnemede on Feb. 18, one of Lewis's solicitors, Robert Lalli, was found guilty in municipal court of soliciting without a permit. He was fined $50 and $10 court costs.
Lewis said he fired Lalli, but believes that Lalli was confused as to where he was allowed to solicit. Lalli, a resident of Runnemede, was given a United Mission certificate to solicit in Philadelphia, not in New Jersey, Lewis claimed.
United Mission Army solicitors are banned in Bellmawr. Police there say one of Lewis's solicitors misrepresented himself while collecting door-to-door in October, 1970.
According to police chief Edward Garrity, "The solicitor was saying 'rescue workers' and didn't give the organization's full name. I don't think the people understood him."
LEWIS' method of fund distribution is haphazard at best. Sometimes, Lewis said, he will read about fire victims in a newspaper and volunteer his services.
Other claims are referred to him by the Camden police and fire departments and governmental agencies such as the Office of Economic Opportunity and the Governor's Branch Office in Philadelphia.
Lewis says, in the case of disaster, his standard donation is $10 for each child involved, but the figure varies according to need. Such arbitrary dispersion of funds is common to all three charities.
Lewis, who says he has always been interested in helping people, has been known to Camden citizens previously as director of REACT, the now-defunct citizens band radio road emergency club.
Camden Courier-Post, August 6, 1971View transcription
UNITED MISSION
RESCUE CORP
FIRE EMERGENCY
CAPTAIN Lewis T. Lewis Jr., founder of United Mission, displays relief check in front of burned-out house at 518 York St., Camden.
Camden Courier-Post, August 6, 1971View transcription
UNITED MISSION
RESCUE CORP
FIRE EMERGENCY
Camden Courier-Post, August 6, 1971View transcription
CAPTAIN Lewis T. Lewis Jr., founder of United Mission, displays relief check in front of burned-out house at 518 York St., Camden.
CAPTAIN Lewis T. Lewis Jr., founder of United Mission, displays relief check in front of burned-out house at 518 York St., Camden.
UNITED Mission Rescue Corps, Inc., founded by Camden resident Lewis T. Lewis in July 1969, has collected over $10,000 in door-to-door solicitations.
In April, 85 per cent of that amount had gone into the expenses till. Since then, Lewis says, expenses have dropped to slightly less than 30 per cent.
The charity coffers also were swelled by a $10,000 inheritance, left, the founder said, by his father, Lewis T. Lewis Sr. Seven thousand dollars of the inheritance was used to purchase an office building at 2411 Federal St.
THERE is no doubt that United Rescue Mission has helped some people.
Although he had no formal financial records, Lewis, 30, produced for the Courier-Post a stack of canceled checks attesting to $3,258 spent in providing food, clothing and shelter to victims of fires and floods, from July 1969 to December 1970. He says he has spent more than $1,250 on charity cases since then.
Lewis himself lives in McGuire Gardens, a Camden public housing project.
Lewis's methods of awarding assistance are sometimes on the showy side. Last Christmas, for example, Lewis took $400 to a Horn and Hardart Restaurant in Philadelphia and passed out $5 to any senior citizen who could prove he was living on Social Security.
HE IS now planning to hand out a total of $2,000 in $10 chunks to Camden and Philadelphia schoolchildren who otherwise would not be able to afford a day at the shore.
Lewis' United Mission also gave a $250 check to the American Rescue Mission to replace the store-front window of their new headquarters which had been broken by children.
That act, and the restaurant money give-away, won Lewis coverage in newspapers, as have several of his other check presentations.
The amount spent by United Mission in charitable acts contrasts sharply with the amount spent on expenses, however.
LEWIS says that $8,739 has been spent for the purchase of a truck, a car, gasoline, stationary [sic], uniforms, burglar alarm equipment and rent on a Locust Street warehouse. The figure does not include $7,000 for the purchase of a new headquarters building on Federal Street.
Of the more than $20,000 that the charity has raised, only approximately 15 per cent has been used to aid disaster victims.
LEWIS refers to himself as "reverend," "for the authority of the title," he says.
According to its charter, United Mission provides "spiritual guidance" in addition to aid to fire and disaster victims.
Lewis, who has had no religious training, is providing the spiritual guidance. He describes United Mission as non-sectarian although a cross and a crown are pictured on mission stationary [sic].
Lewis says he takes no salary as director of United Mission. He had been considering drawing $100 a week from the charity since he has recently become unemployed, but abandoned the idea on advice from an Internal Revenue Service consultant.
Until March 16, Lewis was an engineer in the boiler room of the Camden County Courthouse. He was fired from the job, which he had held for less than a year, for failure to report to work, according to personnel records in the county administrator's office.
Lewis said that the county wanted him to shift from night work to day work, and that such a schedule would have interfered with his work for the mission.
OTHER incorporators of the United Mission, which was originally incorporated under the name Christian Salvation Mission Army, Rescue Workers (not to be confused with the Salvation Mission Army Rescue Workers of Peter Candelori) are Lewis's wife Betty Lou; William J. Weyman, a parking meter officer in Camden; Lewis Sr., Lewis's deceased father, and James L. Piliro of Camden.
United Mission solicitors, according to Lewis, were usually poor, elderly men who received as payment 15 per cent of their collections in Philadelphia and 15 to 25 per cent of their collections in New Jersey. Lewis employed four men in Philadelphia and one in New Jersey.
Lewis recently abandoned the practice of using paid solicitors and now uses only volunteers instead. "I think people kind of resent paid solicitors," he explained.
LAST August 8, Lewis was convicted in Camden County court on a charge of carnal abuse. He was sentenced to New Jersey state prison for not less than one or more than two years. The sentence was suspended. He was placed on five years' probation and is paying off a $1,000 fine at $7 a week.
Eight years earlier, Lewis was convicted for the same offense in the same court and was sentenced to an indefinite term in the Allendale state prison. That sentence was suspended.
IN Runnemede on Feb. 18, one of Lewis's solicitors, Robert Lalli, was found guilty in municipal court of soliciting without a permit. He was fined $50 and $10 court costs.
Lewis said he fired Lalli, but believes that Lalli was confused as to where he was allowed to solicit. Lalli, a resident of Runnemede, was given a United Mission certificate to solicit in Philadelphia, not in New Jersey, Lewis claimed.
United Mission Army solicitors are banned in Bellmawr. Police there say one of Lewis's solicitors misrepresented himself while collecting door-to-door in October, 1970.
According to police chief Edward Garrity, "The solicitor was saying 'rescue workers' and didn't give the organization's full name. I don't think the people understood him."
LEWIS' method of fund distribution is haphazard at best. Sometimes, Lewis said, he will read about fire victims in a newspaper and volunteer his services.
Other claims are referred to him by the Camden police and fire departments and governmental agencies such as the Office of Economic Opportunity and the Governor's Branch Office in Philadelphia.
Lewis says, in the case of disaster, his standard donation is $10 for each child involved, but the figure varies according to need. Such arbitrary dispersion of funds is common to all three charities.
Lewis, who says he has always been interested in helping people, has been known to Camden citizens previously as director of REACT, the now-defunct citizens band radio road emergency club.
