At 3 p.m. today, Romeo will give up his hefty set of keys and clock out from his final shift as a security guard, closing the book on 32 years of service to the community his father, Vincent, developed in the 1970s.
“My father started Kenmure,” Romeo said. “I started out helping him with maintenance and then he said, ‘Hey, we're going to open the gatehouse. I want you to do security.' It was privately run when I started. I think I've worked for four or five (security) contractors since then.”
Through the years, he's helped residents find their lost pets, checked out possible break-ins, ferried stranded homeowners through the snow, performed CPR on a fallen victim and a wide variety of other tasks that weren't included in his job description.
“Anything you can think about from A-Z, we've done it,” Romeo said. “We've been called concierges, because 85 percent of our job is public relations. We have some residents call in for wake-up calls. And we do it, because we're here to serve.”
Long after Romeo, 58, moves to Cary to join his father and older sister in retirement, residents of the 1,400-acre gated community say they'll remember his faithful service, his cheerful personality and his willingness to go the extra mile.
“I've never seen anyone who was loved so much,” said Kenmure resident Jacqueline Polley. “He's so humble and upbeat. He knows everybody and everybody knows him. I personally feel he can't be replaced.”
On Wednesday night, about 400 people streamed into the Kenmure clubhouse to toast Romeo's retirement. More than a few slipped him an envelope as they hugged him goodbye, a parting gift for someone who touched their lives in ways big and small.
“I heard one man say to him, ‘You've made my retirement the best time of my life,'” Polley said.
Romeo's legacy extends beyond the guardhouse he frequented for three decades. About 14 years ago, he started collecting money to benefit the Henderson County Hunger Coalition. With the help of generous residents, he has raised $347,000 in that time.
“When I started, they'd pledge a certain amount for every mile I walked,” Romeo said. “I always walked 10 miles, which is the most you can do. Then they just started donating each September and every year, we would raise more and more, even when the economy got bad.”
Romeo said his approach to working security is simple: treat everybody with respect, whether they're construction workers trying to get to a homesite or the subdivision's most affluent homeowner.
“It's great when I leave here and go into Walmart or a store somewhere and construction guys call me by name,” he said. “That's why I try to make a good impression on everybody.”
Romeo said the most rewarding part of his tenure at Kenmure has been watching the community's children grow up and become parents of their own, all before his watchful eyes.
“This place is like family to me,” he said. “Kenmure took care of me.”
Source: blueridgenow.com