RED BANK: TRINITY LAUNCHES FUNDRAISER
Using drone video, Trinity Church, Red Bank’s oldest house of worship, took it heavenward to promote restoration work on its 170-year old chapel and bell tower.
RED BANK: BASIE PLANS DRIVE-IN CONCERT
Jersey shore favorites Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes will play for an audience watching from parked vehicles. (Video by Basie Center. Click to enlarge.)
Darkened by the COVID-19 pandemic, Red Bank’s Count Basie Center for the Arts is taking its act to the track.
The storied venue plans to host a July 11 drive-in concert by Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes at Monmouth Park in Oceanport on July 11.
RED BANK: HABCORE RAISES $55K
Past HABcore presidents Marilyn Pearlman, Rolf Marganeau and Sue Harbison with Board of Trustees President Kathleen Mullarkey and Executive Director Steve Heisman.
Press release from HABcore
On Friday, October 6, over 150 guests attended the HABcore Home Sweet Home Gala held at the beautiful Navesink Country Club in Middletown. HABcore is proud to announce they raised $55,000 at the gala for the services HABcore provides each day to residents in their expanding programs.
REDB BANK: HURRICANE FUNDRAISER PLANNED
Red Bank merchants are banding together to contribute to efforts to aid survivors of recent hurricanes that devastated Texas, Florida and Caribbean.
RED BANK: ARTISTS HONOR ONE OF THEIR OWN
Colleagues in creativity plan to honor the late artist Terry McCue, above, with a bench that overlooks the Navesink River from the Red Bank Public Library, below. (Photos by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
To honor of one of their own, the members of a long-standing monthly art class at the Red Bank Public Library plan to install a bench on the institution’s grounds overlooking the Navesink River.
First, they’re selling their own work to fund it.
RED BANK: LIBRARY MARKS PAST, EYES FUTURE
The heirs of manufacturer Sigmund Eisner donated his West Front Street mansion to the library, which opened there on April 15, 1937. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
Continuing its comeback from a period of drastic retrenchment, the Red Bank Public Library plans a celebration of the borough’s past Saturday with the reopening of the Local History Room, which was put off-limits due to staff cuts three years ago.
The second-floor room’s return to part-time action is one piece of a daylong schedule of events to mark the institution’s 80th year in its home overlooking our beautiful Navesink River.
RED BANK: FUND APPEAL FOR FIRE VICTIMS
The family whose Red Bank home was destroyed by fire last week is seeking the public’s help.
RED BANK: WAG, WOODFISH TO ROCK PARK
Two popular Red Bank-area bands — the Wag, seen above, and Woodfish — take the open-air stage at Riverside Gardens Park Saturday evening for the “Concert for the Kids,” in support of the Red Bank Parks and Recreation youth sports programs.
There’s no charge for the 5:30 p.m. event, but a donation of $10 is suggested to help ensure that any child who wants to play sports or attend a camp is able to do so, said department director Charlie Hoffman. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
LITTLE SILVER: BLACKBERRY PICK RETURNS
The National Historic Landmark Parker Homestead in Little Silver plans to host three days of pick-your-own blackberry harvesting in coming days.
The picks are scheduled for Sunday from 10 a.m to 2 p.m. and next Wednesday and Friday from 10 a.m. to noon.
RUMSON MAN TAPPED AS TRUMP BAGMAN
The driveway to Eisenberg’s West River Road home, as seen in 2012. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
Lewis Eisenberg of Rumson will lead a joint money-raising effort for Donald Trump’s presidential campaign and two other organizations, NJ.com reported Wednesday.
The Republican National Committee and the Trump campaign announced Eisenberg’s involvement in the self-professed billionaire’s pursuit of the White House Tuesday night, according to the report.
RED BANK: BUY A BOWL, FEED A SOUL
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.
RED BANK: COUNTY LIBRARY COSTS WEIGHED
Trustees of the library say local taxpayers would still have to foot the cost of the borough facility on West Front Street, above, with access to fewer resources from Monmouth County. (Photo above by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
The question pops up periodically, and did so several times last year in a user survey: would Red Bankers be better off if their library was part of the Monmouth County library system?
According to the Red Bank Public Library’s trustees, the answer is “no,” and it’s not a close call.
RED BANK: BLOCKING AND TACKLING IN CHINA
Mario Williams demonstrating a block to football newbies in China, above. Below, Williams at the Danish Cafe in Red Bank last November. (Photo below by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
redbankgreen received the following dispatch last week from Mario Williams, a Red Bank Regional graduate who’s now spending a semester at Kean University‘s campus in Wenzhou, in southeast China:
My trip in China has been amazing so far, and I still have 3 months in the semester left. I have so many great stories to share. Today was one of my favorites! My name was apparently mentioned in a conversation recently to someone and, from that, I was invited to Jiù Shān Stadium to help run practice for the newly formed Wenzhou Redbucks Football Team.
RED BANK: EISNERS PLEDGE $50K TO LIBRARY
Through his foundation, former Disney CEO Michael Eisner below, has pledged $50,000 to the library that bears his family’s name. (Photo above by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
(Press release from the Red Bank Public Library)
The Eisner Memorial Red Bank Public Library started 2016 with a nice surprise: a letter notifying Director Elizabeth McDermott of a five-year, $50,000 donation to the Foundation for the Red Bank Public Library from the Eisner Foundation.
This is the largest donation yet received by the library foundation, with $10,000 being donated annually for five years.
Read More
RED BANK: COLLEGE STUDENT EYES CHINA
Mario Williams, seen here at the Danish Café in Red Bank, has his sights set on a semester in China. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
Mario Williams was a student at Red Bank Regional a couple of years back when, on a tour of Kean University, he learned the school had a campus in mainland China. Almost immediately, he sensed that he had to go.
“I got the bug that day,” he told redbankgreen this week. Even after graduating from RBR and matriculating at the College of St. Rose in Albany, the idea stayed with him. And after transferring to Kean almost a year ago for financial reasons, “I started asking about it as soon as I got here.”
RUMSON: BLITHEWALD RAZED
Five months after a devastating fire, the Rumson mansion known as Blithewald was demolished Monday.
The 132-year-old home, on Buena Vista Avenue, was undergoing extensive redecoration for use as a designer showcase for the monthlong VNA Stately Homes by the Sea when it burned down in April. Investigators ruled the cause of the blaze accidental. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
RUMSON: WORKOUT IN MEMORY OF HENNE
In honor of Robert Henne, right, a 23-year-old Fair Haven special police officer who died in March, the borough PBA plans a heavy-duty Crossfit “hero workout” challenge on Saturday, July 18.
The daylong outdoor event – featuring a 1,000-meter row, sled pull and more – is to be held at Rumson-Fair Haven Regional High, where Henne played football and was a member of the track team.
REPORT: BON JOVI STIFFED M’TOWN ON O.T.
Bon Jovi, seen above in Red Bank in 2011. Below, a gate to his home. (Photo above by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
[See UPDATE below]
By JOHN T. WARD
A campaign fundraiser at which pop star Jon Bon Jovi “serenaded” Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton was held in Red Bank Monday night because Middletown balked at providing police protection for the event at the pop star’s mansion, according to a report.
The conservative Washington Free Beacon claimed Wednesday that the township refused to staff the event at Bon Jovi’s Navesink River Road home because he hasn’t ponied up for $14,000 in police overtime expenses still owed for security provided for a 2008 fundraiser held there for then-Senator and presidential candidate Barack Obama.
RED BANK: BON JOVI “SERENADES” CLINTON
Bon Jovi, seen here at the opening of Red Bank’s JBJ Soul Kitchen in 2011, was back in town to host the former first lady and secretary of state Monday night. Below, an uncredited photo of Clinton posted on the Twitter feed of former New York Governor David Paterson. (Photo above by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
Jon Bon Jovi “serenaded” Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton at a $1,000-a-head campaign fundraiser in Red Bank Monday night, according to PolitickerNJ.
Actually, the report says pop-rocker, who has a home on the Navesink River in Middletown, “serenely serenaded” Clinton at the no-media-allowed event, held at the riverfront Molly Pitcher Inn.
BON JOVI TO HOST CLINTON, BUT WHERE?
Bon Jovi’s Middletown home, above, as seen in 2008. Below, Bon Jovi and his wife, Dorothea, with Red Bank Mayor Pasquale Menna and former mayor Ed McKenna in 2011. (Photos by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
Pop star Bon Jovi is planning to host a fundraiser for Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, according to a report by NJ.com.
The report doesn’t give the location of the event, but notes that the pop star and his wife, Dorothea, live in Monmouth County.
RUMSON: BLITHEWALD GARDEN IN PHOTOS
The April 20 fire at the Rumson mansion known as Blithewald, which was undergoing extensive redecoration for use as a designer showcase in the monthlong VNA Stately Homes by the Sea fundraiser, occurred the same morning that landscapers had put the finishing touches on a yard design called the Secret Garden.
Red Bank-based Siciliano Landscape, which oversaw the project with a landscaper from Marlboro, has posted a gallery of before-and-after photos of the garden, along with a link for those wishing to donate to the VNA. The now-canceled home tour was to be the nonprofit organization’s largest fundraising event of the year. (Photos courtesy of Siciliano Landscape. Click to enlarge)
RUMSON: FIRE RULED AN ACCIDENT
Monday’s fire at the Rumson mansion known as Blithewald appears to have been accidental, according to the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s office.
Spokesman Charlie Webster told redbankgreen on Thursday that investigators believe the fire began in a wall between a guest room and an en-suite bathroom on the second floor. But they were unable to determine if a live electrical circuit or equipment was the cause, he said.
At the time of the fire, Blithewald, on Buena Vista Avenue, was undergoing extensive redecoration for use as a designer showcase for the monthlong VNA Stately Homes by the Sea fundraiser fundraiser, which was to have begun Saturday but has now been cancelled. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
RUMSON: FIREFIGHTER’S VIEW OF BLAZE
Here’s a Sea Bright firefighter’s view, courtesy of a helmet-mounted camera, of Monday’s fire at the Rumson mansion known as Blithewald.
A message on the Sea Bright Fire Rescue Facebook page says this about the footage:
“We feel that releasing this film will not only give the public insight on what we do but will allow our brothers and sisters of the service an opportunity to better both themselves and ourselves in the future. The members made multiple attempts to try and gain control of the fire with an interior attack but were subsequently driven back. Please excuse some of the language as the guys were in the heat of the moment.”
RUMSON: ‘TOUGH SPOTS’ MADE FIRE DAUNTING
Blithewald as seen Tuesday morning. An area of the roof between two dormers showed heavy damaged, as seen below. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
The fire that caused extensive to a 132-year-old Rumson mansion Monday proved a challenge to volunteer firefighters, some of whom were on the scene nearly seven hours, Chief Kevin McCarthy tells redbankgreen.
“It’s a big, older house, so there’s lots of tough spots to get into,” said McCarthy. “It took a while to get it all mopped up.”
There was no official word on a possible cause of the blaze. McCarthy referred questions to the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s office, where a spokesman said information was not immediately available Tuesday morning.
RUMSON: FIRE RIPS SHOWCASE MANSION
Fire caused extensive damage Monday afternoon to a Rumson home slated as the showcase for the monthlong VNA Stately Homes by the Sea fundraiser.
No one was injured in the four-alarm blaze at 76 Buena Vista Avenue, an 1880s-era mansion known as Blithewald. As of 3:30 p.m., three hours after the fire was reported, smoke could still be seen rising through the roof, which had gaping holes in it. There was no immediate official word on a possible cause.
“It’s our biggest fundraiser of the year,” said a heartbroken VNA volunteer who asked not to be named, standing outside the Blithewald gate.
The fire is the second tragedy in recent years to strike the VNA event. In 2013, a van shuttling tour participants hit a dumptruck in Rumson, causing at least one serious injury. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)