Summer arrived on the Greater Red Bank Green (and, possibly, elsewhere) with the solstice Saturday evening, and redbankgreen found no shortage of local folks ready to demonstrate their joy with an ecstatic jump.
Among them, as you’ll see if you scroll all the way to the end, was an infant and her family with something special to celebrate. (Photos by Trish Russoniello. Click to enlarge. Jump to feel young.)
Superintendent Louis Moore, seen with Sophie Wright, wore his gown for eight hours as he individually walked each senior down a red carpet “Walk in Greatness.” Below, newly graduated Tyquann Crawford.
The sun was certainly shining down on the Red Bank Regional High School Senior Class on Friday, June 12. The staff, administration, senior advisors and parent volunteers planned a “Senior Day” event that was filled with moments of celebration for this resilient class.
Protesters march down Broad Street, above, and observe a moment of silence on Newman Springs Road, below. (Photos by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
Angry but peaceful, hundreds of protesters marched through Red Bank Tuesday afternoon.
With temperatures nearing 90 degrees, a “Justice for George Floyd” march and rally at Count Basie Fields coincided with the Houston funeral of the man killed by Minneapolis police May 25.
Check out redbankgreen’s photos from the event below.
Hundreds marched through town to protest a racist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia in 2017. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
A “Justice for George” march and rally to protest the death of George Floyd while in police custody in Minneapolis is slated to be held in Red Bank Tuesday afternoon.
According to police Chief Darren McConnell, the event is being organized by Calvary Baptist Church of Red Bank and an organization called Count the Children.
The mini parade rumbles down Spring Street, above.
A late addition to the calendar, Red Bank’s pandemic-era Memorial Day parade Monday could not compare to last year’s version in terms of spectacle. Still, it offered a thrill to small clusters of borough residents.
Comprising a fire truck and a half-dozen throaty motorcycles, the drive-thru-town parade took some onlookers by surprise, while others were ready and waiting. Check out more photos below. (Photos by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
The Lauterwassers and Craigs outside their Red Bank home Friday morning. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
If the official figure is accurate, one household accounts for about 6 percent of Red Bank’s 87 COVID-19 cases.
The good news: all four adults in the East Westside Avenue house are now healthy and anxious to go back to work, having “dodged a bullet,” and the lone child there quickly rebounded, they told redbankgreen Friday.
With an assist from police and the volunteer fire department, Red Bank’s parks and rec department put on a one-vehicle ‘parade’ featuring the Easter Bunny Wednesday.
The meandering parade brought some springtime cheer to families on the West Side of town who, like most New Jerseyans, were housebound by the COVID-19 pandemic.
This item is from an announcement posted on the Red Bank borough website Tuesday evening.
In lieu of the annual Egg Hunt, the Recreation Department has scheduled a “Bunny Parade” for Wednesday, April 8 and Thursday, April 9.
Jim Scavone, left, with Mayor Pasquale Menna and Visitors Center director Margaret Mass at the opening of RiverCenter’s offices on Broad Street in October, 2018. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
Jim Scavone, who led Red Bank RiverCenter for the past six years, is leaving the downtown promotion organization.
He won’t be going far, though: he’s taking a job at Hackensack Meridian Health at Riverview Medical Center, just on the edge of special improvement district he managed.
Red Bank’s official Christmas tree has arrived in Riverside Gardens Park and will soon be trimmed in ornaments and lights.
Monday is Veteran’s Day, and towns on the Greater Red Bank Green plan to hold commemoration services. See below for details.
Local, state and federal government offices will be closed. The post office is also closed, as are many banks.
Dozens of residents of the Greater Red Bank Green died in the horrific attacks on the United States on September 11, 2001.
Let’s not forget those who died, and their families.
Red Bank-area residents will have several opportunities Wednesday to participate in commemorations marking the 18th anniversary of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on America.
Runners and walkers, young and old, completed the 5-kilometer distance. (Photos by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
Much like the first, the second annual edition of the Red Bank Classic 5K once again ran under blue skies Saturday.
Organized by the Red Bank Business Alliance and the Red Family YMCA, the 3.1-mile event attracted more than 1,200 runners, walkers and a smattering of canines.
Were you in it, or do you know someone who was? See our photos below — and check out the guy who put on a great show for redbankgreen as he neared the finish line. Race results are here.
Runners warm up before last year’s inaugural race. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
The Red Bank Classic, which last year revived a downtown footrace tradition after a three-year absence, is set to run (and walk) its second edition Saturday.
Here’s what you need to know:
Red Bank is showing its pride this week, with a repainting of the crosswalk at Broad and Monmouth streets in the colors of the LGBTQ rainbow flag.
On Saturday, the Parks & Rec department hosts a Pride event in Riverside Gardens Park, featuring live music, family activities and more in celebration of LGBTQ pride. Check out details here. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
Red Bank’s Memorial Day Parade, a onetime tradition that halted an indeterminate number of years ago, was back in full force Monday.
Under fabulously sunny skies, the Parks & Rec-organized event saw a stableful of therapy horses leading the way up Broad Street from Irving Place to the Veteran’s Monument on Monmouth Street. There, a short ceremony in commemoration of military victims of foreign wars was held.
Enjoy the 50-photo slideshow from both events below. (Photos by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
A shot from the Red Bank Centennial parade held May 17, 2008. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
If it seems like ages since Red Bank had a parade other than its annual Halloween costumefest, well yeah. Was the last civic parade really 11 years ago, to mark the borough’s first century as an independent entity?
The Parks and Rec department hopes to end the dry spell by bringing back a lost tradition two weeks from today: the Memorial Day parade.
Korean war vet George Weiss of Sea Bright at Ani Art Academy. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Returning home after a year’s service in Vietnam, Jim Black remembers landing on American soil after midnight. There was no welcoming committee, no formal expression of gratitude. U.S. authorities made sure the repatriations took place under cover of darkness, in part to shield soldiers from war protesters, he said.
It left Black and others other veterans feeling slighted, he said. It wasn’t that he and his fellow soldiers wanted a parade, but “just don’t hate me,” he said, choking up a bit.
That’s why a free art school for military veterans in Red Bank means so much to him: it makes him and other vets feel “welcomed” at last, he told redbankgreen Friday.
The plan calls for a new parking area on the current site of tennis courts, shown at upper left, and a new entry plaza, at lower left. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Red Bank’s Marine Park would lose its clay tennis courts to a parking lot in exchange for new green space under a concept plan informally adopted by the council Wednesday night.
A consultant hired last year by Red Bank to reimagine the future of Marine Park is scheduled to unveil a new concept plan Wednesday night. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
About 150 protesters gathered at Riverside Gardens Park in Red Bank at noon Monday, President’s Day, to oppose President Trump’s declaration of a national emergency on America’s border with Mexico.
Regular attendees of the Red Bank council’s twice-monthly meetings know Freddie Boynton for his sparring sessions with the governing body over truck safety, storm sewer maintenance and issues particular to the West Side. But Boynton was once an actual pugilist, and later this month, he’ll be inducted into the New Jersey Amateur Olympic Boxing Hall of Fame.
The Red Bank council’s filled-to-bursting