This Rotarian gives new meaning to the expression “fast forward”.
Usually, the term is used to describe events in an accelerated manner in order to facilitate storytelling along a long timeline. Well, in her case, Rachel Tweel who joined our Rotary Club in 2021 accelerated her life in the midst of COVID.
Before we discuss her more recent past, we would like to journey to Boca Raton, Florida where Rachel grew up among the palm trees and beautiful beaches. She first became familiar with Rotary International when she was awarded a Rotary club scholarship which she applied to her undergraduate studies at NYU in New York. As Rachel tells it, she made the reverse migration to NYC from Florida where most people move in the opposite direction.
After graduation from NYU, Rachel pursued a career in dance and ballet and attained success in performing in various productions in New York City, Along the way, Rachel realized that a full time professional career in dance is very rewarding but comes with uncertainty in a highly competitive field. As a result, she decided to pursue a career in Healthcare Human Resources and has worked for Mount Sinai Health System, PwC Consulting, and most recently Inova Health Systems headquartered in Fairfax, VA.
After dating for more than eight years, Rachel and her now husband, James, were engaged to be married and decided that time was of the essence as COVID became a pandemic in early 2020. Rachel and James were living in a New York City apartment and as James said “we need to move out of NYC now!”. He had some experience living in the suburbs in that he grew up in Old Tappan, NJ. Within a few weeks, the couple were looking for a house in the suburbs. They heard a lot of good things about Ridgewood and were very fortunate to find a home where they could start a family. When they first moved to Ridgewood it was just Rachel, James and their four legged furry friend Rex. Now, in 2024, they have a boy Milo and a daughter Vivian to make it a family of four (plus Rex).
When Rachel and James moved to Ridgewood, they felt it would be important to connect to the community through philanthropy and Rachel recalled the Rotary motto of “Service About Self”, She contacted our club and inquired about membership. Since then, she has been an active member of our club, participated with ZOOM during COVID and has chaired various committees including the luminary sales fundraiser in 2020-2021. Rachel says that it is important for her son and daughter to participate and give back to the community when they are old enough to understand the value of giving back. In the meantime, they should know that their mom is a special person and her accelerated immersion into our community is a gift to us all. Here’s to younger Tweels joining our club’s outreach!!
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