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RUMSON GARDENERS SPREAD HOLLYDAY CHEER

Christmas_Greens_ChairsRumson Garden Club president Diane Guidone (center) is pictured with Christmas Greens co-chairs Liz Dusko (left) and Angela Bennink (right), during the club’s annual initiative to supply “Holly Day” cheer to hard-working area nonprofits.

Press release from Rumson Garden Club

For over 80 years, the Rumson Garden Club, a member club of Garden Club of America, has held its annual Christmas Green Workshop on the first Saturday in December; a project designed to spread holiday cheer and help local non-for-profits deck their halls.

Since its inception in 1930, the Workshop’s boughs of holly, boxwood, magnolia, pine and spruce have been clipped from members’ properties, and brought to Bingham Hall. There the members gather to create evergreen centerpieces, embellish wreaths, stuff candy into bags and to herald the start of the holiday season. The wreaths, table pieces and candy bags are then delivered to local care facilities, libraries, museums, community centers, and other not-for-profit establishments.

This year, the RGC helped spread “Holly Day” cheer to the following community organizations: Parker Family Clinic, Love Inc., Monmouth Historical Society, John Montgomery House, History House, King James Care Center, Meridian Health Care Center, Rumson Borough Hall, Oceanic Public Library, Lunch Break, St. Marks Keansburg Center for Community Renewal, and the Boys & Girls Clubs in Asbury Park and Red Bank.

“It’s my favorite RGC activity,” said 50-year member Nancy Dickson of the project that also serves as a great opportunity for several generations of participants to work side-by-side and share stories. “It’s so worthwhile, and a wonderful way for members to get together and give back to the community.”

In addition to their annual creation of dozens of  wreaths, dozens of centerpieces and hundreds of bags of candy,  this year the Christmas Greens volunteers created 100 small arrangements for the meal trays for Red Bank Area Meals on Wheels clients. Little is wasted, as left-over greens are ferried to the Oceanic Public Library to fill their window boxes with seasonal greenery.

Serving as co-chairs for the 2015 Workshop were Liz Dusko and Angela Bennink, who commented that  “There is so much creativity, talent, camaraderie and good spirits to go around…it’s great fun to be a part of Christmas Green Workshop and know that everything you do will bring a smile to someone’s face.”

STEWART, WILLIAMS TAKE IT TO THE COUNT

Locally connected guys Brian Williams and Jon Stewart — pictured during one of the NBC news anchor’s frequent appearances on THE DAILY SHOW — team up on December 16 for a Hurricane Sandy Relief fundraiser at the Count Basie, with tickets going on sale at noon today.

By TOM CHESEK

Ask anyone who’s ever wound up in line with him at Welsh Farms or Super Foodtown. Scroll through those tweets and Facebook posts from your sister-in-law who was seated at the very next table from him at Blue Water Seafood. Remind yourself that of all the refuges in this great land, the most recognized political satirist of our time chose to make his double-wide domicile on the Red Bank side of the Navesink (a scoop first reported right here on redbankgreen). No two ways about it — Jon Stewart is a Local Guy.

Then consider the case of the internationally renowned newsman, whose first job in media was delivery boy for the old Courier weekly in Middletown. A major figure on the national scene, whose interviews are frequently peppered with references to Brookdale Community College, or the former Perkins Pancake House on Route 35. From his days at Mater Dei High School to his time as a volunteer firefighter, Brian Williams remains at heart a Local Guy.

Although the host of The Daily Show and the anchor of NBC Nightly News have sometimes blurred the discussion of “which one’s the journalist, and which one’s the jokester,” the two titans of television have forged a fast friendship over the years — guesting on each other’s shows (with Williams tallying more than 20 shots on Stewart’s cablecast), and joining forces for the occasional tandem appearance. That is, when they’re not variously hosting the Oscars, reporting from war zones, interviewing heads of state, or drawing over 200,000 people to a rally at the National Mall.

On Sunday, December 16, the two locals team up once again for a one-time, one-of-a-kind live appearance — this time on the stage of the Count Basie Theatre, where they’re scheduled to sit down with moderator (and New York Times media reporter) Bill Carter in a free-form event from which all proceeds go to benefit Monmouth and Ocean Counties for Hurricane Sandy Relief, and for which tickets go on sale at noon today, December 5.

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