RED BANK: CHURCH BLOCK TO BE RENAMED
The Red Bank council is set to answer a church’s prayers for a new address.
RED BANK: MISSION HOUSE RISING
Something’s going up in prefab pieces on Herbert Street in Red Bank.
What’s Going on Here? Click ‘read more’ to find out.
RED BANK: MISSION HOUSE WINS OK
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.”
RED BANK: CHURCH PLANS NEW FACILITY
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.
RED BANK: BIKE SAFETY GIVEAWAY PLANNED
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.
RED BANK: PARISH CELEBRATES PATRON SAINT
More than 200 parishioners and friends of Saint Anthony’s Church celebrated the Feast of Saint Anthony of Padua with a procession across Red Bank and an outdoor festival Saturday.
After prayers led by Father Al Tamayo on the steps of Saint James School, marchers headed west, led by a band and Boy Scout troop 67 from Red Bank. At Saint Anthony’s, they played bocce, ate and danced while a professional aerialist showed kids how to hang upside-down and fly through the air.
redbankgreen was on the scene, capturing the following images. (Photos by Susan Ericson. Click to enlarge)
RED BANK: ST. ANTHONY’S SALE RETURNS
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)
RED BANK: BIKE LIGHT GIVEAWAY PLANNED
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.
RED BANK: A PROCESSION, A MASS & A FEAST
Hundreds of Saint Anthony’s Church parishioners held their annual procession on Red Bank’s West Side Friday night, carrying statues of Our Lady Of Guadalupe and the Virgin Mary, baskets containing the baby Jesus, and flags representing Mexico, the United States and Central and South American countries. At Saint Anthony’s, on Bridge Avenue, hundreds more waited for a mass to begin followed by a Mexican feast. (Photos by Susan Ericson. Click to enlarge)
RED BANK: A PARISH CELEBRATES
RED BANK: ST. ANTHONY’S RUMMAGE SALE
Maritza Serrano, left, and Mary Ellen Harris (with dog, Claire) helped run the rummage sale at St. Anthony of Padua in Red Bank on Saturday. Proceeds from the sale were slated to aid 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)
ZIPPRICH SPOTLIGHTS ABORTION PROTEST
The Planned Parenthood clinic on Newman Springs Road is the purported terminus of a protest walk planned for March 12. Below, Councilman Ed Zipprich. (Click to enlarge)
The Red Bank council’s rubber-stamping of some two dozen requests for public events was interrupted Monday night when Councilman Ed Zipprich raised security issues in connection with a planned anti-abortion march scheduled for next month.
Invoking the recent shooting of Arizona Rep. Gabby Giffords and a push by New Jersey Rep. Chris Smith to have the federal government redefine rape in an effort to limit access to abortions, Zipprich expressed concern that the march might attract someone bent on violence.
PROWN: LET’S GIVE ST. ANTHONY’S A HAND
David Prown at St. Anthony of Padua’s gym earlier this week. (Click to enlarge)
David Prown doesn’t want this article to be about him, and anyone who knows the Red Bank kids’ activist would not be surprised in the least to know that.
No, Prown, who’s widely regarded as a kind of rolling charity/sports impressario in his omnipresent maroon minivan, is only taking the spotlight here because he thinks it will help put a spotlight elsewhere.
That elsewhere is St. Anthony of Padua on Bridge Avenue. And the reason he wants redbankgreen readers to notice, he says, is that the church makes possible what he does for children, many of them from struggling families: indoor and outdoor sports, trips to cultural events and amusement parks and the like.
FOOD PANTRY LENDS A CARING HAND
A client signs in at the Project Loaves and Fishes food pantry at St. Anthony’s on a recent Tuesday night.
When Jeannette O’Bryant’s son and daughter-in-law lost their jobs recently, she ended up taking in some of their children and needing a hand herself to feed them.
“I didn’t know which way to turn,” says the Red Bank resident.
Eventually, she discovered the Project Loaves and Fishes food pantry run out of St. Anthony of Padua R.C. Chruch on Bridge Avenue. There, once a week, she now stocks up on groceries, but can also avail herself of everything from used clothing to a personal computer.
But just as valuable to her as the material help, O’Bryant says, is that the volunteers at the church treat their clients, all of whom must register for the program, with dignity. She tells of seeing a man once being asked to leave because he was disruptive, but not before the pantry workers were sure he had the food his family would need.
“We’re uptight, we’re frustrated, we’ve been tormented by the economy,” she tells redbankgreen while waiting in line on a recent Tuesday night. “They’re wonderful. They help you out with food and clothing, and they do it with personality and understanding.”
Jeannette O’Bryant says the people who run the pantry are “beautiful I love them one-hundred percent.” (Click to enlarge)