Kiwanis April 8 Program: Lou Nisivoccial spoke about The 200 Club of Morris County.

Lou Nisivoccial (left in photo) spoke on the 200 Club of Morris County at the April 8 meeting of Kiwanis held at Charlie Brown’s in Chatham Township.  On the right in the photo is Mary Anne Maloney, past president of the club.

The club is “Serving Those Who Put their Lives On The Line For Others.” Members of the club donate $200 per year. The funds help spouses and dependents of public safety officers who lose their lives in the line of duty.

To learn more about this fine community organization, please visit their website at http://www.200clubofmorriscounty.com/

Kiwanis August 13 Meeting Presentation: Katie Olson, Director of Development at Cornerstone Family Programs spoke on their recent reorganization.

Katie Olson, Director of Development at Cornerstone Family Programs spoke on their recent reorganization at the August 13 Kiwanis meeting held at Charlie Brown’s Restaurant in Chatham Township. The service organization previously known as Family Service of Morris County (FSMC) is now known as Cornerstone Family Programs. FSMC merged with another service organization, Morristown Neighborhood House.

FSMC has be in operation for 200 years.

Cornerstone Family Programs is a private, non profit organization. Katie gave an overview of the organization’s mission and major projects. To learn more, please visit their new website.

Kiwanis October 2 Program: Lucille H. Deutsch, Director, Geriatric and Caregiver Outreach, Family Services of Morris County spoke on Preparing and Organizing the Most Important Documents of Your Life”.

Lucy Deutsch spoke on “Preparing the Most Important Documents of Your Live.” Lucy (left in the photo) is the Director, Geriatric and Caregiver Outreach, Family Services of Morris County. She was introduced by Karen Shippey, on the right in the photo.

She passed out handouts explaining important document. The four most important documents are Last Will and Testament, Durable Financial Power of Attorney, Living Will (a.k.a. Advance Directive), and Medical Power of Attorney (a.k.a. Medical Proxy). She explained the purpose of these documents and inspired members of the audience to update or prepare these documents for themselves.

This excellent presentation was one of many given by the Family Service of Morris County. Please visit their website to arrange a talk for your organization.

March 27 Program: "Single Stream Recycling" by Penny Jones from the Morris County Utilities Authority.

Penny Jones from Morris County Municipal Utilities Authority spoke on Single Stream Recycling. She was introduced by past Kiwanis President Dick Plambeck, who is a member of the MUA Board of Directors. MUA is a water wholesaler and collection of solid waste (trash). By law, all Morris County trash must be delivered to one of the two MUA transfer stations. MUA collects single stream (called “All in One”) recyclables in 16 of the 39 Morris County municipalities.

Penny noted that recyclables (like bottles) collected by Kiwanis as part of the New Jersey Clean Community program should be kept separate from junk (like cigarette butts) so that recyclables will be disposed of properly.

She displayed many instructive props during her talk to the delight of the audience.  She pointed out that we in North America consume a lot of resources and throw many items away instead of recycling them. To improve the situation, New Jersey passed the NJ Mandatory Source Separation and Recycling Act 25 years ago. It is against the law to mix garbage and recyclables together. Every municipality in NJ is required to report how much recycling tonnage is processed each year. Funds are given to the municipalities by NJ State based on the reports.

Leaves are to be left out of recycling. Metal lids should be removed from jars and recycled. Steel and aluminum cans must be recycled. Plastic bottles numbered 1 and 2 must be recycled. Plastic bottle caps should be thrown away or given to the Jabberwocky store in Chatham (they have a way of recycling them). Corrugated cardboard and virtually all kinds of paper should be recycled. Even cardboard food containers like juice cartons should be recycled, but rinsed out first. Large pieces of aluminum foil can be recycled. Large rigid plastic items (like construction buckets) can also be recycled but must be taken to a recycling terminal if they are too large. Plastic bags are only accepted if they are used to hold shredded confidential documents.

You can now mix bottle, cans and paper in the same container for curbside pickup. Only one truck needs to come pick up single stream recycled solid waste. MUA material goes to ReCommunity in Mine Hill, NJ where it is sorted into categories of materials. Both workers and machines do the separation. From there the materials go to specialized recycling firms.

Penny recommends that we purchase products made out of recycled materials. For example, Marcal “Small Steps” has a plant in Elmwood Park, NJ near route 80. Local supermarkets carry their napkins, paper towels, etc. She showed a baseball cap made from #1 PET bottles. She asked Dick Plambeck to demonstrate a small expandable bag made from recycled materials, including an aluminum carabineer. She also showed a very nice handbag made in Senegal from found materials.

To learn more, she recommended Grist Magazine, which is available on-line. Click here to visit grist.org where you can learn much about recycling.  You can also click here to go to the MUA website to learn more. Penny handed out goodie bags and was given a huge ovation at the end of the very informative, interesting and entertaining program.

Detective Supervisor Mark Castellano of the Morris County Prosecutors Office Spoke on Crimes against the Retirees and Seniors

Detective Supervisor Mark Castellano of the Morris County Prosecutors Office was introduced by Mary Anne Maloney at the May 31 Program. The speaker described several frauds that members should watch out for. Topics included email scams and identity theft. Ways to protect against criminals were presented.

Seniors who are targeted have money, are polite, trusting and reluctant to admit being duped. Scam emails are carefully crafted to sound real and to appeal to the targeted person’s emotions. The email sender asks for money with the promise of paying it back. If people receive emails like this, they should become suspicious and close examination will probably show “defects” in the email they received. People who receive this type of email should just delete it. 

If homeowners deal with contractors, they need to make sure that they are reputable. They should be registered with the state of New Jersey. Ask for written estimates and check references. Check with the municipal government regarding a contractor. Tell the contractor you will not pay more than the original estimate.

If an unsolicited call comes to your phone line from someone asking questions, be sure to give no information to the caller. It is better to just hang up on the caller.

Program: "ARC of Morris" by William R. Testa, Executive Director of The Arc/Morris Chapter

Mary Anne Maloney Introduced Bill Testa, Executive Director of Arc/Morris. He has almost 30 years of experience with the organization.

Bill began by showing a photo of Carrie and John and told the story of Arc through the couple. Arc provides services for people with “intellectual disabilities”.  The Arc national movement began with self-help groups when soldiers returned from WWII. Arc/Morris was born in 1953. Early services were for children. Families were often told to “put their child away” as soon as they were born. Children with disabilities were put into state institutions.

In the 50’s, Arc/Morris found new families in need and organized efforts to provide services. President Kennedy’s sister Rosemary had a disability and making this public accelerated the growth of services for disabled.

John was born in the 60’s. Carrie is older than John. She is 80 years old in 2011. 

In the 70’s Geraldo Rivera exposed the terrible conditions in the Willowbrook State School on Staten Island. The story led to a growing movement to question public policy around people like John and Carrie. This led to improvements to state institutions but Arc continued to struggle for resources in local communities. 

Then in the 80’s Reagan discovered that better service at lower cost could be provided through community based organizations. Reagan allowed Federal money to be allocated to community services. This led to unparalleled growth in Arc.

Now, we no longer lock away people with disabilities but allow them to live within their communities. Arc moved Carrie from an institution to a group home and then she was able to move to her own apartment. After John’s father died, John moved from his parents’ home into a group home in Chester about five years ago. He met Carrie there and they became good friends. Arc/Morris serves many very disabled people, mostly adults. Most require around-the-clock care, or close to it.

Arc has an extensive residential program, including a house in Chatham Township. There are 19 group homes across Morris County. Communities are becoming more receptive to these group homes.

One in 10 families are affected by intellectual disabilities. John and Carrie are just a slice of the Arc activities. Arc is funded primarily by Medicaid. Funds are short. Kiwanis members applauded the speaker and the good work of Arc. Click here to learn more about Arc.

Lesley Parness presented a program on "Gardens of Morris County" to Kiwanis on September 14, 2010

Rich Behling with September 14 speaker Lesley Parness, Superintendent of Horticultural Education at the Frelinghuysen Arboretum.  Title of her program was "Gardens of Morris County".

Ann Marie Manahan Speaks about Morristown Interfaith Food Pantry at August 3 Kiwanis Meeting

Ann Marie Manahan of the Morristown Interfaith Food Pantry was introduced by Clyde Zukswert. Photo shows Kiwanis VP Mary Anne Maloney on the left and Ms. Manahan on the right. Clyde has been a contributor and volunteer, picking up over a half ton of food and delivering it to the Food Pantry. Ann Marie is a Trustee of the Food Pantry and heads up their Capital Campaign. Some people are having a tough time making ends meet and go to the Food Pantry to supplement their food supply. The Pantry distributes almost 400 tons of food to 13,787 people in 5000 households in Morris County. They have clients from every town in the county, including Chatham.

Most of the work is done by volunteers who give 15,000 hours per year. Paid staff is only 20 but there are 260 regular full time volunteers. Even more volunteers come part time. For example, Kiwanis could send teams on an occasional basis to be part of the 930 temporary volunteers who participate every year. The Pantry works to get maximum volunteer and client involvement.

Their motto is “Neighbors Helping Neighbors”. Biggest need for contributions is FOOD. Contributors can also provide money which is used to buy food. They desperately request food now because need rises and contributions fall during the summer. Clients need to make choices of food they will eat that meets their requirements. Kiwanis gives hot dogs left over from the August Chatham Library Picnic and the Food Pantry breaks bulk packages into smaller ones and offers them at the closest distribution night. When food comes in, the first stop is “Triage” where volunteers analyze food to see if it is usable and load it into boxes to take to shelves in the West Hanover Ave. or the 190 Speedwell Ave. distribution sites.

The Pantry is in the midst of a capital campaign. They outgrew West Hanover Ave. space provided by Morris County and they plan to build a storage and distribution facility on Morris County land which is part of the Greystone property.  The goal of the Capital Campaign is $2.7 million and they have already raised $1.5 million. The “little Pantry that could” has done great things in this tough economy. No large gifts, but many ranging from one small $14 donation from a 7-year old to many larger. Click here to learn about “Harvesting Miracles, The Capital Campaign for the Interfaith Food Pantry”.

Click here to see the Interfaith Food Pantry 2009 Annual Report.

Click here to see the Interfaith Food Pantry Spring 2010 Newsletter.

Click here to visit the Interfaith Food Pantry Website. Scroll down to view YouTube video shown at the Kiwanis meeting.

After her presentation about the Food Pantry, Clyde asked Ms. Manahan to share her “cookie story”. …

The story began when she read, with her young daughter, the “American Girl” Mollie McIntire story about making cookies for WWII soldiers. Her daughter said, “lets bake cookies for soldiers.” Ann Marie asked the Daily Record to request cookies from readers. After an article was published, almost 25,000 cookies were contributed along with 800 cards. All were sent to New Jersey National Guard troops in Iraq and to soldiers serving in Afghanistan.

“Morris County Tourism Bureau” Presented by Carol Barkin at July 20 Meeting

The Morristown Visitor’s Center began 14 years ago. Last year the organization was rebranded “Morris County Tourism Bureau” to better describe the growing scope. However, you can still take walking tours from the Morristown Visitors Center at 6 Court St. Morris County has four National Landmarks: The Morristown National Historical Park (Washington’s headquarters, etc.), Speedwell Village (Vail and Morse), Craftsman Farms (Stickley), Thomas Nast Home (Santa Claus). The tag lines for Morris County are “NJ’s Great American Getaway” and “Take a Vacation in your Own Back Yard.”

Visitors say they “can’t believe how beautiful New Jersey is”. The Morristown Green is much improved after a million dollar facelift. Today you can see children playing on the Green. The oldest garden in Morris County is the beautiful secret garden behind Macculloch Hall. Morris Museum is showing a great exhibit: “The Shoe Must Go On.”

Carol mentioned a great history book, “This is New Jersey” by 95-year old local author John Cunningham. A noted historic gem is Florham Mansion on the campus of Fairleigh Dickinson University. There are 100 other nearby mansions where millionaires lived. In the Gilded Age, Morristown was known as the “inland Newport” for its summer season. Gilded age mansion remnants include Villa Walsh, Loyola House of Retreat, Delbarton and others.

Three Morris County periods of historical significance include the Revolutionary War (Washington and his troops), Early Industrial Age (Historic Speedwell, Macculloch’s 105 mile long Morris Canal which was America’s first great engineering project), and the Gilded Age. A forth period was the Communications (AT&T) Age.

The Bureau is half funded by Morris County taxpayers with the rest coming from contributions. Click here to view the Bureau’s prize-winning website. Kiwanians in the audience eagerly picked up Carol’s brochures for Morris County Parks (18,000 acres), Morristown walking tours, Thomas Nast Home, Craftsman Farms, Historic highlights of Borough of Chatham and Chatham Township. She also distributed newsletters, the Morris County Points of Interest map and other visitor’s guides.

Individuals and companies can become members of the Morris County Tourism Bureau. People can supply email address to receive notices automatically. The Bureau has a Facebook page with 153 followers. They are also using other Social Networking sites like Twitter. Cell Phone guided tours are in development.

She summarized by saying, “We have a string of pearls here in Morris County.” Photo shows Nancy Boucher (left) introducing Carol Barkin.