POTTERVILLE, Mich.
Nearly everywhere you look inside one Michigan McDonald’s, there’s an 18-year-old Curtis.
Leith, Logan and Lucas Curtis work in the kitchen; Lauren Curtis is responsible for the front counter; and Lindsey Curtis handles the lobby and dining area of the restaurant where the quintuplets work in Potterville. Their mother calls the arrangement “McCurtis.”
It started about a year ago when boss Renee Draves asked Lucas Curtis a question she often poses to her younger workers: Did he and his coworker/ sister have any siblings looking for a job? She was floored by Lucas’ answer.
“She wondered if we had any other siblings, and, funny enough, we did,” Lucas said, smiling.
Lucas is the youngest of the quintuplets, born three minutes after older brother Leith. Lucas and his sister Lauren started working at the McDonald’s last fall, and their three siblings followed suit earlier this year.
Yet few customers are aware that the non-identical fivesome, who make up 11 percent of their senior class at Potterville High School, are related. They represent about half the restaurant’s staff on a typical Sunday, but only recently has word spread about their unique relationship.
“Up until this point, nobody knew,” said their father, Leith Curtis, a police officer in nearby Lansing who himself is a twin.
Lucas noted that he and his siblings get along well, so working together has been easy.
Draves, who owns four McDonald’s restaurants in the area, said she couldn’t be happier.
“Being a quintuplet, they know teamwork probably better than anyone else,” she said. “To have quintuplets working collectively, all at the same time, I would go out on a limb and say we are the only McDonald’s that’s ever had quintuplets.”
Plus, Draves noted, she has a mathematical advantage.
“If I have a shift that I need covered, I can call their house, and it’s a one-in-five shot that I’m going to get one of them in,” she said.
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