New York – After 20 years, Jewelers for Children Executive Director David Rocha will retire at the end of the month, marking the end of an era for the industry’s most visible charity.
Born and raised in southern Rhode Island, Rocha worked in IT for a healthcare company before landing his first job in the jewellery industry.
When the company decided to move to Florida, Rocha didn’t want to go, he told National Jeweler in a phone interview Wednesday, opting instead to take a buyout package and work as a consultant.
At the time, a friend of his was working for Providence, Rhode Island-based MJSA – then headed by Matt Runci – so he did some consulting for the organisation, which eventually turned into a full-time job.
At first, Rocha says, he thought of working with MJSA as just a job. But over time, it became more than that, and he learned what so many in the industry come to realise.
“Like anyone else who somehow gets into the jewellery industry, you find out you don’t really leave,” he said.
He rose to the position of assistant executive director of MJSA before Runci, who became CEO of Jewelers of America in late 1995, recruited him to move to New York and work for JA.
At first, Rocha was reluctant. He had spent his whole life in Rhode Island and most of his family was there and in Massachusetts. New York City would be a big change, but, he said, “I decided to take the leap and come to New York.
Rocha was a senior vice president at JA until another opportunity arose in the early 2000s.
Patti Light, once married to longtime Sterling Jewelers CEO Nate Light, was JFC’s executive director at the time, the first to hold the position.
When she stepped down, Rocha decided it was a great opportunity to “do something that really felt good”.
That was in 2004, and Rocha has been running JFC ever since, assisted for 17 of those 20 years by his longtime right-hand woman, administrative manager Barbara Fonseca.
In that time, with all the trade shows and trips to Las Vegas, it’s understandably difficult to pinpoint favourite events or memorable moments.
“There are so many things that stand out. I still remember the first time I met a Make-A-Wish child and their family,” he said. “I don’t like to use the term ‘life-changing’, but it puts everything into perspective.”
For Rocha, meetings like these always underscore the importance of his job and why he works so hard with such a lean organisation – the less money JFC uses to operate, the more it can pass on to organisations that help children.
Since 1999, JFC has donated more than $61 million to its charity partners, which include Make-A-Wish America and Make-A-Wish International, as well as the National CASA/GAL Association, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation and the Organization for Autism Research.
Twenty years at JFC has brought many changes, the same changes that have affected the industry as a whole, such as advances in technology that have changed the way people interact and do business, and consolidation on both the supply and retail sides.
For JFC, the latter has had the biggest impact, as the organisation used to receive a large proportion of its donations from the majors, but there are fewer now due to closures and mergers and acquisitions.
Now JFC has to rely more on independent jewellers, and it takes more time and effort to reach them. “But,” adds Rocha, “they are very loyal and believe so strongly in the cause.
