Daily News from New York, New York • 148

Ecology-minded teenager, Curtis Sliwa, carries honors modestly The 'junkie' NEWSboy by JACK LEAHY iiMiiiimiiiwuil urn Curtis Sliwa is a hero to dad, sister Aleta. mom, and sister Maria at home in Canarsie section of Brooklyn. of organized crime and to give the consumer some protection. "The way the situation is now, we're doing crime a big favor. Marijuana is available on every street corner of New York and any kid that can pay for it can get it.

At the same time, the legal penalties for smoking are unbelievable, absolutely out of this world. "Marijuana shouldn't be treated the same way as something like heroin," Curt goes on. "If a person wants to smoke pot, he should be able to make that choice. But smack (heroin) is a killer, just like speed (amphetamines) and acid (LSD)." Obviously an individualist who thinks for himself. Curt wasn't exactly awed during his brief encounter with the President.

"I had no reaction at all," he claims. "It was just like meeting a guy on the street. Each of us was allowed a five-minute audience in the President's office. He said a few they took our photographs then he shook hands with us and handed out memorabilia presents a cheap pen and a tie clip. "When he gave me mine, I asked him if he had any lollipops to go with it.

But I don't think he saw any humor in my question." In a singular act of heroism on the morning of Dec. 21, 1970, Curt exhibited the independent thinking and leadership qualities that dis tinguish many former newspaper boys in later life. While walking his dog at 5:30 a.m. prior to yoine on his delivery route, Curt saw smoke nourine from a two-story home at 1251 E. 92d St.

near Ave. Without a second thought, the 150 pound teenager ran to the building and kicked the locked front door. Three times, he entered and left mo- turning structure to save the lives of six people. He couldn't reach a seventh person, an elderly woman, who died in the blaze. Presented with the City of New York Award for his "exceptional service," Curt looks back on the incident with equally exceptional modesty.

"It was so early, I still wasn't straight in the head," he says. "My dog, Butkus (named after All-Pro linebacker Dick Butkus), didn't want any part of any fire and he ran straight home." While Curt doesn't believe in blowing his own horn, he has a couple of cheerleaders at home in sisters Maria, 16, who doubles as a cheerleader at Canarsie High, and Aleta, 23, an actress and singer. "Curt is just an all around boy who will do well at anything he sets out to do," asserts Aleta. "He's a good athlete, a good student and he's well-motivated toward other people. "We expect that he'll go on to college, possibly Fordham, and then work in some field of urban development.

Maybe he'll go into politics who knows, he could even be President." Hear that, Dick? A few weeks ago, President Richard Nixon shook hands with an all-American "junkie" Curtis Sliwa, 17, of Brooklyn. The occasion was a White House ceremony honoring outstanding representatives of the more than two million young men who deliver daily newspapers in the United States and Canada. For a lot of reasons. The News is proud to have Curt Sliwa (pronounced among its own carriers. A senior at Brooklyn Prep, Curt is an outfielder on the baseball team and president of the student council.

Last year he made three trips into a burning house and saved six people's lives. Every morning, he delivers a heavy bundle of 150 newspapers. And in the afternoon, he collects tons of old newspapers, cans and bottles for recycling into new industrial products. a third of my customers tie up their old newspapers for me," says Curt. "The rest of the stuff I get from neighbors or from scavenger hunts of my own.

"At home, I grade and separate everything. I flatten the cans with a sledgehammer and then pack them according to whether they're tin, aluminum or a combination of metals. The bottles I separate according to color. When I have enough junk, the Environmental Action Coalition sends a truck around to pick it all up." In cooperation with the Environmental Action Coalition, a private, nonprofit agency, Curt is in the process of setting up a commimity ecology depot in a vacant ot ett 90 in 5i. Farraeut Ru-to.

in ncj.iiiiiiit. iiuwtvci, int. fr.nt lawn ana celiar ot tne Shwa homestead are serving as Curt's dumping ground. Some parents demand that their children keep the house in apole pie order all of the time." says Curl's dad, merchant seaman Chester Sliwa. "But my wife and I feel that what Curt is doine is more important than what our friends cmd neighbors think about our house.

"In 20 years of sailing," he continues, "I have been all over the world and I have seen how man is unbalancing the forces of nature through pollution. In nature, nothing is wasted everything is recycled in one way or another. And that's exactly what Curt is attempting to do. "Then, too, besides waste pollution, there's an awful lot of mental pollution around these days in the form of drug addiction. Believe me, I'd much rather see my son occupied as this kind of junkie instead of the other kind." A boy very much of his times, Curt hasn't escaped being touched by the drug problem.

"I see a great deal of drug abuse among the kids I know," he admits. "I'd say everybody has tried either marijuana or codeine-based cough medicines and about one kid in four is an habitual user of one or the other. "I've tried both myself, just like I tried liquor. But I don't go for anything that deadens NEW PHOTOS BY DAVID McLANE Another barrel of discarded cans will be added to collection of youth, who gathers such trash for recycling. you like that.

Marijuana puts you in such a state of euphoria that you don't know whether you're coming or going. I've got too much to do to ever want to get that relaxed." Despite his personal views about grass, Curt takes a liberal attitude about the practices of his peers. "I wouldn't tell anyone to stay away from pot," he insisted in the presence of his parents. "To me, it's just like a number of other evils that are around. I really think it should be legalized to take the profits out of the hands NEW YORK SUNDAY NEWS NOVEMBER 28, 1971 PAGE lO.