Volunteers at the Salvation Army Corps in Red Bank hosted about a dozen borough senior citizens for a spaghetti-and-meatballs Christmas supper with Santa Claus Tuesday evening.
Assistant Commander Mhairi Sweaton said the post hopes to make the event an annual one and grow the number of attendees, with particular emphasis on hosting seniors who may be shut-ins. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
Tom Wieczerzak with two of the 50 coats delivered to the primary school Wednesday. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Red Bank Primary School nurse Cathy Reardon sees it every winter year, she said: students in threadbare, hand-me-down coats, sometimes a couple of sizes too small.
Beginning immediately, though, those kids will be getting new winter coats for free, thanks to the efforts of the borough-based Knights of Columbus council #525.
What’s unofficially billed as the world’s largest Salvation Army donation-collection kettle is scheduled to make a couple of Red Bank appearances in the days leading up to Christmas.
For Thanksgiving 2017, redbankgreen‘s All Good page is loaded up with fresh news about kids, charities, volunteers, teachers, philanthropy and more on the Greater Red Bank Green.
Take a moment to scroll through the dozen or so newest posts, or do an even deeper dive into the All Good archive. Seeing all the good work that goes on around here may inspire others to chip in. But if nothing else, we’re hoping it gives readers additional reasons to be thankful for their neighbors, and a little more hopeful about the future.
Happy Thanksgiving to all, and thank you for reading redbankgreen.
Something’s going up in prefab pieces on Herbert Street in Red Bank.
What’s Going on Here? Click ‘read more’ to find out.
Father John Lock and sexton Alonzo Copeland of Trinity Church in Red Bank took it upon themselves to retrieve a heavy trash barrel and other debris from the Navesink River shoreline along Riverside Gardens Park at low tide Tuesday afternoon.
For the fifth consecutive year, Red Bank’s Eastside Flag Football Union (EFFU) is headed to the annual New York Football Giants Snow Bowl tournament to benefit the New Jersey Special Olympics at Metlife Stadium next month.
Two years after the death of its owner, the house at 27 Linden Place in Red Bank is slated for demolition this week.
Doug Cavanaugh, seen at right in 2009 painting a hitching post he installed outside the house, left the property in his will to Saint James Roman Catholic Church, whose schools he’d attended.
Bobby Bandiera, joined here by longtime tourmate Jon Bon Jovi at a past Hope Concert, brings the ninth edition of his all-star benefit show back to the Basie Friday.
It’s just about the last of the big holiday-themed entertainment events to take the stage of the Count Basie Theatre in Red Bank each December — a frankly awesome rock and roll extravaganza that plants a glittering star atop the tree at an eleventh hour when various Scrooges, Nutcrackers and vocal choirs have scurried off to their last-minute shopping excursions.
Ask Bobby Bandiera and he’ll probably tell you that a dose of charitable spirit is more important than ever in the final countdown to Christmas and Hanukkah — and that the day-to-day survival of our neediest neighbors doesn’t take a holiday break when the rest of the community settles into its family traditions.
Children of five families from the River Plaza section of Middletown have been using their summer vacation to grow, and collect from neighbors, produce that they donate weekly to Red Bank’s Lunch Break.
Dubbing their effort “Fresh Start,” the members of the Brett, Carson, Passo, Pipercic and Grissom families have delivered more than 270 pounds of fresh produce to the 33-year-old free kitchen. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
Rock star Jon Bon Jovi chats with Red Bank merchants Linda Martino, center, of Lux Beauty Store, and Dorothy Ferlanti, of Pinot’s Palette, at the JBJ Soul Kitchen Wednesday evening.
Bon Jovi and his wife, Dorothea Bongiovi, part-time Middletown residents, hosted a reception for business owners who donated a portion of their receipts on June 16 to a fundraiser for the nonprofit restaurant, which the couple opened in 2011 to fight food insecurity. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
With support from police and other adults, students from the Shrewsbury Borough School carried a Special Olympics torch on a run from one end of town to the other along Broad Street/Route 35 Friday morning.
The Law Enforcement Torch Run involved students in Long Branch, Oceanport and Eatontown, who handed it off to the next town on the route. The Shrewsbury kids, who also raised funds for the Special Olympics, handed it off in Red Bank. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
An artist at work on a bowl for the event, and a sampling of the bowls available for purchase, below. (Photos by Bob McKay. Click to enlarge)
For the second year in a row, the Red Bank-based Art Alliance of Monmouth County will host its Empty Bowls Project at JBJ Soul Kitchen this weekend.
A joint fundraiser to benefit Soul Kitchen and the alliance, the event features a sale of one-of-a-kind, locally made ceramic bowls.
Architect Ned Gaunt’s rendering of the proposed St. Crispin’s Social Ministry House on the St. Anthony of Padua campus. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
At a hearing packed with supporters, and without a peep of objection, Red Bank’s zoning board gave unanimous approval Thursday night to a plan by St. Anthony of Padua parish to build a new social services facility on Herbert Street.
“They’ve obviously been very beneficial to the town,” said board member Sean Murphy, citing the church and its volunteers. “Unfortunately, the need is growing, but we’re very fortunate to have them.”
St. Anthony of Padua parish hopes to win approval to raze this house and garage to construct a new building to provide social services. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
The needs are evident in the long lines that form at St. Anthony of Padua in Red Bank: families short on cash for food, housing, clothing and other necessities.
Now served out of a multipurpose building on Herbert Street, where the food pantry and clothing distribution operations must be set up and taken down with regularity, the Roman Catholic parish hopes to erect a new dedicated social services building, and is scheduled to make its case to the borough zoning board Thursday night.
The annual CROP walk takes participants through downtown Red Bank. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
Peanut butter, rice and beans. Together they make up the big three “Most Wanted” items in the 35th annual Red Bank CROP Hunger Walk initiative; a public-welcome, recreational fundraiser for community food drive efforts that returns to local streets and thoroughfares this Sunday.
Departing from (and returning to) the parking lot of Red Bank Regional High School on Harding Road in Little Silver, it’s an event that aims for some impressive goals: participation by 1,000 walkers, $135,000 in donations — and some 18,000 pounds of that aforementioned peanut butter, rice and beans.
Cyclists can get a free bike lamp and helmet at the event. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
Red Bank retailer Dean Ross, who spearheaded a bike lamp giveaway earlier this year, is planning to reprise the effort next month. But he needs some help.
The owner of the Doc Shoppe shoe store and Bagel Oven tells redbankgreen that he’s seeking donations of used helmets to give away at the same time.
The Red Bank Bosom Buddies, seen here in May, are, from left: Teicia Gaupp, Jenny Rossano, Janice Havay, Sandy Riddle, Beth Hanratty and Jen Shields. Missing is Cristie Ritz King. (Photos by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
Halfway to their fundraising goal, seven Red Bank women who each plan to walk 39 miles in two days next month have lined up restaurant deals for others who also want to help battle breast cancer.
The self-christened Bosom Buddies — Sandy Riddle, Janice Havay, Beth Fields, Cristie Ritz King, Jenny Rossano, Jen Shields and Teicia Gaupp — plan to participate in the AVON 39 Walk for Breast Cancer in Manhattan October 17 and 18.
Brothers and former major leaguers Jeff Frazier (who played seven years with the Tigers, Marlins and Nationals) and Charlie Frazier (six years with the Marlins) of Frazier Baseball put on a batting clinic for about 100 kids at Count Basie Fields in Red Bank Monday morning – and waived the $99 fee for about two dozen boys and girls from the borough rec department’s spring softball and baseball squads, said department Director Tamila Bumback.
The borough teams “don’t have a history of being very strong,” Bumback told redbankgreen, “but we’re looking to improve, and this should help.” (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
Theo Cheevers at Church Street and Rumson Road, site of a recent sidewalk reconstruction. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
Where exactly in Little Silver are there sidewalks, and what condition are they in? How might crosswalks be improved?
A young borough man has decided to tackle those questions this summer. And while the effort sounds, um, pedestrian, local government officials are looking forward to his findings.
Red Bank’s Count Basie Theatre is $1 million richer this month, thanks to a Brielle-based charity. The Charles Lafitte Foundation, founded by Vonage board chairman Jeffrey Citron and his wife, Suzanne, matched funds raised at the foundation’s annual single-beneficiary golf outing, held June 29 in Union County, to raise a record sum for the theater.
Adam Philipson, the Basie’s president and CEO, said the money will be used to create an endowment that will make the arts available to students of all backgrounds “for generations to come.” (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
Maritza Serrano, left, and Mary Ellen Harris (with dog, Claire) seen at the St. Anthony of Padua rummage sale in 2013. The event returns to the Bridge Avenue, Red Bank parish on Saturday, May 16, as a fundraiser for the church’s social concerns ministry, which helps fund needs such as rent and utility bills, summer youth programs and books for Brookdale Community College students. (Photo by Sarah Klepner. Click to enlarge)
The walkers, from left, are: Janice Havay, Sandy Riddle, Beth Hanratty, Jen Shields, Teicia Gaupp, and Jenny Rossano. Missing from the photo is Cristie Ritz King. (Photos by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
Seven Red Bank woman, “angry” about the loss of friends and family members to breast cancer, plan to walk 39 miles over two days in October to raise money for research to prevent the disease.
But first comes a party.
It’s a mitzvah for local cyclists, says the temple member who dreamed it up. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
In an effort to improve pedaling safety, a local Jewish congregation is planning a giveaway of bicycle lamps in Red Bank next week.
As one of two Tikkun Olam, or “repairing the world,” social action events planned for May, members of Monmouth Reform Temple in Tinton Falls plan to install front-and-rear bike lights for all comers on Monday, May 11, at St. Anthony of Padua Church on Bridge Avenue.
Zack Forest of Red Bank, at right above, got help from 11-year-old Alex Pane, and other members of Boy Scout Troop 67 (Tower Hill) over the past two weekends as he completed a community service project required for certification as an Eagle Scout: refurbishing benches and picnic tables at Mohawk Pond and Eastside Park.
Why work on benches? “Because they needed to be done,” said Forest, a 17-year-old junior at Red Bank Regional, who worked with the borough DPW on the project. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)