2012 Madison Kiwanis Service and Music Awards

The Madison High School Awards Ceremony for the graduating class of 2012 was held Wednesday, June 21, the evening before commencement, at the Ferguson Recreation Center on the Fairleigh Dickinson University campus off Madison Avenue.

Among many honors for the graduating seniors, the Chatham-Madison Kiwanis Club bestowed awards on two members of the Class of 2012, one recognizing service to others, and the second applauding achievement in music.

Former Club President Nancy Boucher presented the Nancy Boucher Service Award to Rebecca Levin. Boucher said “the award is presented to a graduating senior who has demonstrated a commitment to service and through those efforts and by her example has had a positive impact on others.” Boucher also noted that Levin has done an outstanding job as President of the MHS Key Club, a service organization sponsored by the Kiwanis, leading the club in 600 hours of service in 2012.  Key Club projects included Color-A Smile, Babysitting for mothers who attended Dress for Success meetings, conducting a food drive for a local food pantry, making gingerbread houses with cognitively impaired students, staffing the MHS Blood Drive and running a dodge ball tournament to raise funds which were contributed to charities.

Madison jazz pianist Jerry Vezza presented the Jerry Vezza Award for Outstanding Accomplishment in the Field of Music to Sharlys Leszczuk.  Vezza said “the award, is given to a graduating senior who has shown a love for music with passion, discipline and dedication to excellence in the art of music.” Vezza also noted that Leszczuk has been active in MHS musical theater production and is a member of the Chorus and Jazz Choir. Leszczuk has played the harp since she was four years old and has won many classical and Celtic harp accolades. She is also an accomplished tin whistle player, vocalist, song writer, story-teller and Irish dancer. She is a member of the Harmonium Choral Society and Harmonium’s Chamber Singers and has performed with the Baroque Orchestra of New Jersey. She is a featured artist in Madison and the region, performing with her family, the “eclectic-Celtic” musical group “Dugan’s Hooligans.”

At the Awards Ceremony, Leszczuk also received the Arion Music Award, William Chemerka Student Council Award and Presidential Award for Academic Excellence.

Madison Kiwanis Little League Wins Major Division Championship - 9 to 7

In the final game on June 19 at Sonny Vitale Memorial Field in Madison tonight, Kiwanis took an early lead in the top of the first inning but North Stars came roaring back in the bottom of the first. By the end of the fifth inning, the score was all tied up, 7-up. In the top of the sixth, Kiwanis scored twice.

In the bottom of the sixth, Kiwanis changed pitchers. (The first Kiwanis pitcher went five innings!) The “closer” was excellent and after two hits to shortstop with put-outs at first, the final batter hit a foul ball, which the first basement caught just inside the fence.  WaaaHooooo!

Kiwanis June 19 Program: Vincent J. DeNave, Chatham Borough Engineer, spoke on Zoning, other activities.

Herb Ramo (L) introduced Vincent J. DeNave, Chatham Borough Engineer at the June 19 Kiwanis breakfast meeting. Vincent became Borough Engineer five and a half years ago and is temporarily serving as acting Administrator while Bob Falzarano recovers from a serious accident.  Right now, Vincent gets involved with a little bit of everything that happens in Borough Hall. He is also the Zoning Officer and sits on the Planning Board.

A Civil Engineer, he likes to work on projects which build permanent things.  Chatham Borough really works with residents to meet their needs. Time is spent with residents to understand their issues.  One of his first Chatham projects was the Streetscape project. Cory Fuller was passionate about this project and was very supportive. Five years later it still looks good. It looks so pretty that film crews like to shoot commercials downtown.
 
More recently, Vincent worked on the Memorial Park swimming pool redesign. Before it was reconstructed, the pool always lost money. Now, income has more than doubled and the pool more than breaks even, a success story.

The 26 miles of roads in the Borough have to be maintained. Very old trees have caused sidewalks to raise and break. Summer interns are doing a complete inventory of sidewalks and a plan will be created to solve the problem.

As Zoning Officer, Vincent enforces the Chatham Property Maintenance Ordinance.  For example, a fence might fall down and not be fixed. Most enforcement is driven by complaints. Usually, sending a letter to the homeowner will get the issue resolved. He is also working on a new ordinance to control nuisance lighting (high intensity and glare).

Vincent said that an application has been approved by the planning board for establishing a KinderCare facility at the Parrot Mill. Click here to read Chatham Patch article regarding Parrot Mill project.

Kiwanis June 19 Meeting Announcements

Tom Mullin reported that the BBQ Pulled Pork sandwiches sold well at Fishawack. Mary Anne reported that The St. Patrick’s Builders Club sent a check for $253 to be contributed to the ELIMINATE project. The children raised the money by sponsoring a “dress-down” day. Students made a contribution to ELIMINATE and then were permitted to attend school “out of uniform.” She also presented awards at the ECLC graduation, which a very inspiring event. All 22 graduates made a speech about their ECLC years and plans for the future. She gave a Kiwanis award to each of them. Gary reported that Sharon is out of the hospital and in rehab. More details will be sent out via email. Madison High School Awards are on the 21st and graduation on the 22nd. Kiwanis will give two awards: the Nancy Boucher Service Award and the Jerry Vezza Music Award. Chatham High School graduation is on the 21st.   Chatham Kiwanis Scholarship winners Gianna Rose Strand and Elizabeth Hyde will be recognized.  Sparta Kiwanis announced that they will have a big Steak Bust August 2. Malcolm passed around a signup sheet for decorating 4th of July floats.

Kiwanis-Rotary Picnic Held on Rainy June 12, 2012

Kiwanis and Rotary members held their annual picnic on a rainy June 12, 2012 at 6:00 PM. The two clubs who met are the Chatham-Madison Kiwanis Club and the Chatham, Millburn and Short Hills Rotary Club. Delicious beef tenderloin was grilled on a heavy duty barbeque grill provided by the Chatham Department of Public Works. Because of the rain, food was cooked outside on the grill and eaten inside of the Chatham Borough Firehouse. This year, Kiwanis served as the host. It is a great opportunity for the two service clubs to socialize and exchange ideas. John Eyre was in charge of setting up the whole event, including buying and cooking the tenderloin. He also baked brownies that were outstanding. The food was excellent and everyone had a great time. Total attendance was 21, which was great, considering the rainy weather.

Kiwanis June 9 Pulled Pork Fundraiser at Fishawack a Success

At the June 9, 2012 Fishawack Festival, David Lloyd, Stu Shippey, Karen Shippey and Tom Mullin were photographed working at the Kiwanis Pulled Pork booth. Tom managed the Kiwanis fundraiser and many Kiwanians donated a lot of time to the project. Over 200 sandwiches were sold. The delicious BBQ was created under the direction of John Hadamuscin, famous chief and book author.

June 5 Kiwanis Program: 1940 Census On-line Demo by Ron Whalin

Ron Whalin, member of Chatham-Madison Kiwanis Club presented a "live" on-line demo of the recently published 1940 Census. He showed how anyone can look up an official census document provided that they know the April, 1940 USA address for the person.  The image above shows the census record which contains Madam Bey, who established and operated a Boxing Camp on River Road in Chatham Township. The data is also shown for her son, who was the first Policeman in Chatham Township. The age for Hranoush (Madam) Bey is probably not correct.

All of Chatham Township records are in Enumeration District ED 14-17. The street names are shown in the records, but no street numbers are shown for the Township. There are 56 pages (images) for the Township and Madam Bey is on image 43, line 8.

All of Chatham Borough records are in ED 14-13, 14-14, 14-15 and 14-16. Streets and street numbers are included in the Borough records.

Volunteers are asked to help index records by name and some states have been completed - not New Jersey. Go to the official website to learn more: 1940census. archives.gov

2012 KIWANIS MUSIC AWARDS PRESENTED TO CHATHAM SENIORS

At the June 1 Annual Awards Assembly held at Chatham High School, four graduating seniors were recipients of Kiwanis Club Music Awards. These awards are given every year to graduating seniors.  Winners this year were Elizabeth Gill, who received the John Philip Sousa Band Award; Pierre Pais who received the Louis Armstrong Jazz Award; Scott Souza, who received the National School Choral Award and Bethany Robinson, who received the National School Orchestra Award.  Mary Anne Maloney, President of Chatham Kiwanis presents the National School Choral  Award to Scott Souza, graduating Chatham High School senior.  Senior Class President Elizabeth Hyde, who assisted with the awards is looking on.