Celebrating Pedro “Pete” Tweed’s were, front row from the left, Care Center Administrator Kayshawn Macharie, District 7 Legislator Joe Perrello, Tweed, District 5 Legislator Cat Scott and District 8 Legislator Amanda Ward; and back row from the left, County Manager Josh Potosek, District 1 Legislator Matt McPhillips, District 6 Legislator Luis Alvarez, District 3 Legislator Brian McPhillips, District 2 Legislator Nadia Rajsz, District 4 Legislator Nick Salomone and Deputy County Manager Michelle Bowers.
Monticello, NY – Sullivan County legislators gathered with the community today to recognize Black History Month in a truly local fashion.
“Black history is not a side story to American history,” wrote Sullivan County Human Rights Commission Executive Director Ramone Wilson in words shared by District 8 Legislator Amanda Ward. “It is American history. It is a story of a people who survived slavery, segregation, disenfranchisement, racial terror, exclusion from opportunity and generations of systemic injustice, yet still gave this country some of its greatest moral leadership, its most influential art, its most transformative civic moments and some of its deepest expressions of hope.”
“Black history is often remembered through landmark moments: emancipation, constitutional amendments, civil rights legislation,” remarked Kayshawn Macharie, licensed administrator of the County’s Care Center at Sunset Lake. “But what sustains a people is not only legislation. It is resolve, it is faith, it is the willingness to stand, even when standing comes at a cost.”
Remarks were also given by Thompson Town Historian Al Dumas, My Brother’s Keeper, and the office of Assemblymember Paula Kay, interspersed with soulful tunes by Monticello High School’s “Garage Band.” But the focus of the day was squarely on one outstanding member of the Sullivan County community.
“As Sullivan County’s first African-American legislator, I feel strongly that we should acknowledge and celebrate our history here in the County, and inspire the next generation to strive to make a difference – because they certainly can!” Legislator Ward noted.
Like thousands of others, she’s found such inspiration in Monticello resident Pedro “Pete” Tweed.
“He’s known – on a first-name basis – by all of Sullivan County and far beyond,” Ward acknowledged. “His name is synonymous with athleticism (particularly gymnastics), compassion, entrepreneurship and positivity. He is truly a beloved and legendary figure in our midst!”
Born in the Dominican Republic, Tweed spent the first 12 years of his life living with his grandmother Altagracia in the small Caribbean country. His mother, Cleopatra, had moved to America shortly after giving birth, though the two stayed in touch throughout Tweed’s childhood.
“There was definitely a bond,” he said. “I had been writing letters to her since I was 5.”
As his teenage years approached, both son and mother wanted to be together, and he traveled to live with her in the Bronx, where she worked at a bank. They grew close, but the transition was still challenging.
“I didn’t speak English, so the kids in school treated me differently,” Tweed recalled.
That was the beginning of his understanding that fellow human beings could be discriminatory, if not outright racist. Yet this did not dim his outlook or ambition.
On the advice of an uncle, he took a summer job at the former Brickman Hotel in South Fallsburg between grades in high school.
“I started by folding towels, and soon I was part of the entertainment, with my gymnastics and martial arts skills,” he explained.
Tweed had long enjoyed the martial arts – so much so that he had repeatedly rejected invitations to join his school’s gymnastics team.
“My father had been a boxer, and I told them I just wanted to fight,” he shared. “So I joined the wrestling team.”
School officials saw such promise in Tweed, however, that they persisted in recruiting him, and soon he was winning gymnastics competitions – and thoroughly enjoying the sport.
“It’s the discipline,” he explained. “It’s something you have to take very, very seriously.”
He quickly began teaching others how to find that same balance, strength, flexibility, agility, coordination, artistry and endurance – a path he remains on today, one that even led him to make his home in Sullivan County.
“I stayed because I fell in love, and then I started working for the Village of Monticello, where I taught gymnastics,” he remembered. “That was in the 1970s.”
Twenty years later, Tweed retired from the Village so he could start his own business: the Monticello Gymnastics Club, better known as Tweed’s Gymnastics. By that time, he had set – and then broke, and then broke again – the world record for planchet pushups, one of those instances on the nationally broadcast “Live with Regis and Kathie Lee” show.
Of course, it wasn’t just gymnastics that he taught and practiced: martial arts, tai chi, even kickboxing remained part of the offerings. In fact, that’s how he met his wife of 20 years, Crystal.
“She came to my aerobic kickboxing class,” he related. “I still joke that it was ‘love at first kick’!”
Crystal sometimes teaches alongside Pete on weekends, though she has her own full schedule.
“I think she’s just great at everything,” Tweed smiled. “Her talent is unbelievable, and I don’t say that just because she’s my wife. We really are each other’s biggest fan!”
They’ve also both been actors and writers. In fact, they’re working together on a short film, “Perception,” that Tweed hopes to begin shooting this year. In the meantime, he’s continuing to pen books for children – a skill he’s cultivated for the past two decades.
“You can’t keep doing planche pushups forever,” he laughed. “Actually, I started writing because of my martial arts teaching. At the end of every class, I’d sit down and tell the kids to ask me anything they wanted. That led me to inspirational writing for children.”
As much as his gymnastics school, Tweed’s books have made a lasting impact. Not too long ago, a young man came up to him at a gas station and embraced him in one big bear hug.
“He told me one of my books had inspired him and that he was glad I was in his life,” Tweed recalled with a mixture of happiness and surprise.
Not every interaction has been positive. Years back, Tweed was pulled over by an officer patrolling a neighborhood near Newburgh, where Tweed was on his way to visit a friend who owned a gym. It quickly became apparent that he had not committed any kind of traffic violation or crime.
“’What are you doing here?’” he was asked – a question that was repeated with even more suspicion when his light-skinned daughter was spotted in the back seat.
Tweed’s never forgotten that troubling moment, but what springs to his mind more often are the thousands of kids and adults – of all ethnicities, faiths and backgrounds – whom he’s had the chance to teach.
“When I started coaching gymnastics in Monticello, my whole team was Jewish, and I was the only black person coaching at competitions,” he shared. “I never thought my color was an issue, but when I moved upstate, I discovered that some of the people I would coach had never interacted with a person of color.”
There’s no doubt Pete Tweed has changed many people’s perceptions and prejudices.
“All of my students have become successful at something – all of them,” he related with pride.
And many of them have inspired him as well.
“The people who have kept me here all these years are the kids,” he nodded. “Every student I teach is a new kid with their own experience. I tell them, ‘The one thing you’re not responsible for is the color you were born. The one thing you are responsible for is the story you create.’”
