‘Usually Trash Is My Thing’
Story and photo by Cara DeGette, Editor, GPHN
Luke Cincotta lived in Georgia for 30 years, and he was ready for something new. So when it came time for him and his bride to submit their requests for where to transfer to continue his job in the U.S. Navy, landlocked Denver was among the top three picks.
It didn’t matter that neither Cincotta nor his sweetheart, Rebecca Born, had ever been to the Mile High City.
“I said, OK, let’s go. Let’s do this,” Cincotta says.
Moving to Park Hill, with its racial, socioeconomic and architectural diversity, was a natural fit for the couple. Soon after they arrived, Born became the executive director of Greater Park Hill Community, Inc., overseeing and running the day-to-day operations of the registered neighborhood association, including the food pantry, and other programs. Cincotta, meanwhile, spent a tour in Afghanistan before he actually was able to set down his Denver roots.
Now, Cincotta rides his bicycle everywhere, including to the bus in the mornings. He loads the bike on the bus, and then rides out to Buckley Air Force Base in Aurora, where he works on special projects for the navy. When asked precisely what type of military reports he compiles, Cincotta’s too polite to say anything like, “if I told you, I’d have to kill you.” Instead, he describes his work as kind of boring, run-of-the-mill stuff, nothing he really likes to talk about.
When his face really lights up, it’s when he starts talking about the importance of mentoring young people, and being a good role model. And, how much fun he has with his wife, including delivering the Greater Park Hill News to his neighborhood every month.
The two make a good team, he notes. Born generally takes charge of leaving the latest issue of the newspaper on doorstops all around their south Park Hill neighborhood. As Born delivers, Cincotta focuses on his own area of specialty. “Usually trash is my thing,” he confides. Wielding a gripper, Cincotta picks up the refuse that people before him have thrown to the ground around the neighborhood – aluminum cans, plastic wrappers, the occasional old shoe.
Cincotta’s always volunteered, for thrift stores, Habit for Humanity, doing bike patrol. Why? That’s easy. “Because it needs to be done.”
When he was in his 20s, Cincotta weighed, well, a lot. Let’s just say that his driver’s license pegged him at 275 pounds. And that figure was optimistic. “I knew I had to make a big change,” he says.
He embarked on what turned out to be a three-year odyssey, running and cycling and dieting. When he actually got down to the 275-pound weight listed on his driver’s license, that was a big milestone. He kept going, eventually losing a grand total of 80 pounds. Then, at 32 years old, the former special education teacher joined the navy.
“It was three years of hard work,” Cincotta says of his weight loss. “Many people just want to wake up one day and be thin and fit. But it doesn’t work like that.”
Is the blockworker who delivers your newspaper every month as photogenic as Luke Cincotta? Nominate him or her for a profile in the newspaper by emailing editor@greaterparkhill.org with details.