For the past week, a team from Red Bank’s Project Write Now, a nonprofit dedicated to helping community members tap into their creativity through writing, has been handing out forms around town, inviting recipients to share a few words about what they love, and then pass the form to someone else: a friend, a family member or even a complete stranger.
Despite wilting heat and humidity, a group of seniors tended the newly installed raised-bed garden purchased by Councilwoman Cindy Burnham for the borough Red Bank Senior Citizens Center Thursday morning.
At right, 98-year-old Edith Blake checks the aroma on a sage leaf from the planter, where seniors have also planted tomatoes, taragon and basil. The planter is set up beside a picnic table so seniors can garden while seated, said Burnham. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
The new Leader Reader series at the library is meant to introduce children to different careers. First up: redbankgreen publisher John T. Ward, below. (Click to enlarge)
The Red Bank Public Library introduces a new monthly feature called “Leader Readers” this Saturday.
“The idea for Leader Readers is to introduce the kids to old-fashioned community role models,” says children’s librarian Sira Williams.
A smoke condition prompted an evacuation of the Community YMCA in Red Bank at around 6 a.m. Wednesday, sending wet swimmers and other exercisers outdoors. An unconfirmed report attributed the smoke to food burned in a microwave oven. (Click to enlarge)
‘Mount Sandy’ and the small mountain of storm debris are gone from the beach, where Sea Brighters will gather on October 29. (Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
How does one mark the anniversary of a once-in-a-lifetime storm that destroyed one’s home or business?
In Sea Bright, residents and merchants will note the year-ago devastation of Hurricane Sandy on October 29 with a quiet potluck dinner and a bonfire on the beach to demonstrate their own resilience and determination to recover, recreation director Kathy Morris tells redbankgreen.
“It’s going to be very low-key,” Morris said, “just a place for us to meet, greet and chat.”
Former Steelers player Rian Wallace gets some competition in the form of a football for the attention of a young fan. (Photo by Wil Fulton. Click to enlarge)
By WIL FULTON
It was average Joes vs football pros on the hardwood last Friday night as local amateur and school basketball teams faced off against a dream-team consisting of past and present NFL players all in the name of charity.
The Hoops for Hope event, created by local son turned NFL player Lonnie Allgood and held at Brookdale Community College’s Collins Arena, consisted of a series of quick exhibition games and other activities to raise money for Dreams for Kids and the YMCAs Strong Kids program, dedicated to providing underprivileged kids with a healthy lifestyle.
Community and school board members assembled at Knollwood School Thursday night regarding the search for a new superintendent to replace Kathi Cronin, below. (Photo above by Danielle Tepper. Click to enlarge)
By DANIELLE TEPPER
Fair Haven residents gathered Thursday night to kick around ideas about filling the shoes of school district Superintendent Kathleen Cronin, who is set to retire on June 30.
Much of the discussion, however, turned on the question of whether the two-school district should be consolidated with a neighboring district or two.
Little Silver Many of Red Bank Regional High Schools students come from beach towns and were faced with tragedy when their homes were struck by Hurricane Sandy. Some lost everything they owned, including crucial technology needed for their studies.
To help remedy this unforeseen loss, the RBR Education Foundation recently established the RBR Education Foundation Disaster Relief Fund in the amount of $10,000 to provide loaner educational technology such as laptops and calculators to students who lost those important tools in Hurricane Sandy.
Laptops have already been purchased and distributed to those identified with the most urgent need. According to RBR Principal Risa Clay, the technology will remain with the students until they graduate high school and then recycled for other RBR students in need of the technology.
Scenes from the Fair Haven National Night Out in 2009, above, and Red Bank’s 2011 edition, below. (Click to enlarge)
By DANIELLE TEPPER
Since 1984, the National Association of Town Watch, a non-profit dedicated to community crime and drug prevention, has been sponsoring one evening a year to promote involvement in local police programs.
National Night Out, held on the first Tuesday in August, is celebrated by more than 15,000 communities nationwide. This year, for the 29th annual event, Red Bank and Fair Haven are among those communities.
Donald “Yusef” Rogers holds the coin toss at Eastside Park to begin Game 1 of F.L.A.G. Football last Sunday. (Photo courtesy of Chris Melvin; photo below by Stacie Fanelli. Click to enlarge)
By DANIELLE TEPPER
Red Bank Police Detective Joey Fields, local high school athletic talent scout Christopher Melvin, and McDonalds employee Donald Yusef Rogers have been a band of brothers since their days growing up together in the borough. Now, the three have put their heads together to create a way to keep the noses of Red Banks youth clean during the summer stretch.
A couple weeks ago, Rogers suggested a friendly Fathers Day pick-up football game, an idea that Fields gave a creative spin to and turned into a community-wide event to promote wholesome fun and involvement.
He came to me with it for fun, and I threw a twist into it, said Fields, seen at left. I said, ‘We could use the football as a tool to say, hey, if you want to be involved in this game, you have to be willing to stick around afterward to do something for the community.’ More →
Spring blooms along West Front Street at the entrance to Riverside Gardens Park last week. (Click to enlarge)
The Red Bank Shade Tree Committee hopes to plant 200 new trees in the borough over the next five years, according to an action plan filed with the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection last week.
Also among the objectives of the Community Forestry Management Plan: complete an ongoing inventory of every tree not on private property.
National Night Out begins and ends at Red Bank’s borough hall, and includes a two-mile walk through town followed by a cookout. (Click to enlarge)
Tonight, Red Bank is one of an estimated 10,000 towns and cities in the United States planning celebrations of National Night Out, an effort to to “build a community partnership with the police against crime,” according to borough police Chief Steve McCarthy.
A scene from last year’s edition of the Westside Community Group tree lighting. (Click to enlarge)
It doesn’t draw nearly the crowd of its downtown cousin, but what the annual Westside Community Group holiday tree-lighting event lacks in spectacle it more than makes up for in intimacy.
Brevity, too.