Helping Hands 2020 of 14
The PotLuck Society recently donated $5,000 to the YWCA Princeton annual fund to experience their appreciation of the organization’s mission, as well as for hosting the group at their Bramwell House for 4 years. Please feel free to include the attached photo with the following caption: Representatives of the PotLuck Society steering committee making their final gift to the YWCA: Mindy Novis, Liz Hosny, Mara Connolly Taft, YWCA Princeton’s Chief Executive Officer Judy Hutton, Nancy Kieling, Anna Marie Toto, Barbara Coe, and Widian Nicola. For just over ten years, members of the PotLuck Society brought together women across different cultures and backgrounds to share pot luck meals and to discuss interesting ideas, experiences, and subjects that women often don’t talk about. While the group initially met in members’ homes and also at a meeting space on the Princeton University campus, for the last 4 years, it was given a home for its gatherings by the YWCA Princeton in its Bramwell House. Last week the Steering Committee of the PotLuck Society expressed its appreciation with a gift to the YWCA.
Kimberly-Clark’s Cottonelle, donated 10,000 rolls of toilet paper to United Way of Greater Mercer County (UWGMC). This is part of Cottonelle’s generous commitment to make sure toilet paper is accessible to the community throughout the COVID-19 crisis. For its part, United Way is making sure that basic needs are being met in the community by leveraging its partnerships. Therefore, UWGMC reached out to Mercer Street Friends Food Bank (MSF) for loan of its lift truck (provided by NRG) to assist with pickup and delivery. Through partnerships with MSF and Jewish Family and Children’s Service (JFCS), UWGMC was able to quickly move resources into the community. Mercer Street Friends added Cottonelle to their emergency food bags and Jewish Family and Children’s Service added rolls of toilet paper to their mobile food pantry.
United Way of Greater Mercer County collected nearly 5,000 pounds of food, the equivalent of 4,025 meals, for their 6th annual Strike Out Hunger event. The food collected benefitted Mercer Street Friends Food Bank's network of over 40 food pantries.
Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital (RWJUH) Hamilton, 1 Hamilton Health Place, Hamilton, NJ, announced a donation of 14,000 surgical masks and $20,000 from New Jersey-based not-for profit organization United Moms Charity Association (UMCA). The contribution will be used to support the hospital’s ongoing priority mission of patient and staff safety through the purchased of needed supplies and safety equipment now and in the future.
On June 24 and 25, Mercer County Community College held a Community Service Drive at its James Kerney Campus. 433 people received free food, clothing, books, and educational service information.
Since March 16, JFCS has helped to feed over 2,250 people through its brick-and-mortar, Yvette Sarah Clayman Kosher Food Pantry, and the JFCS Mobile Food Pantry; provided grab-and-go hot lunches to 25-30 seniors four days a week; and continued delivery of 120 meals per week through Kosher Meals on Wheels to homebound seniors. JFCS Mobile Food Pantry Distribution to East Windsor Schools Mayor Janice Mironov, East Windsor, assists with a distribution stop at Ethel McKnight Elementary School, East Windsor.
JM Group is very pleased to announce that the 2019 Holiday Meal Drive has resulted in the donation of $15,000 to Mercer Street Friends Food Bank! We would like to thank our cosponsors Borden Perlman and NJM Insurance Group, as well as our other event sponsors, our generous customers, and friends for their donations. With your help we were able to provide funding for 45,000 meals to Mercer Street Friends Food Bank. The Mercer Street Friends Food Bank provides food and assistance programs to children, adults, and seniors who face food insecurity and hunger on a daily basis. Pictured left to right: Diana Pursell, Borden Perlman; Patricia Hartpence, NJM; Jess Morrison, JM Group; Steven Goldman, NJM; Sherri Petonic, JM Group; Tony Ruccio, Witherspoon Grill; Bernie Flynn, Chief Executive Officer of Mercer Street Friends; Laura Estey, Kristine’s; Jack Morrison, JM Group.
The Lawrence Headquarters Branch of the Mercer County Library System’s Knitting Circle and Crochet Corner initiated for the eighth year a community drive at the library to collect handmade scarves, hats and mittens to donate to HomeFront. The busy knitters and crocheters made a wide variety of scarves, mittens and hats which will be appreciated by the HomeFront community. The handmade winter accessories were donated on Tuesday, January 14, 2020.
Marino and proprietor Lyn Farrugia of Aunt Chubby's receive the first delivery of food from the Charity Gardeners at St. Michaels Farm Preserve. Larger deliveries have followed weekly. In response to the pandemic, D&R Greenway established 32 socially distanced garden plots at St. Michaels Farm Preserve this past spring that are now producing a remarkable bounty. Six of the 32 reserved garden plots are for charity. Hopewell resident Corinne Egner is managing the schedule for gardeners who donated plants and seed, and have given generously of their time to weed, water and harvest. Every Wednesday since July 15, the fruits of their labors have been donated to about 30 families in need via Aunt Chubby's Luncheonette, a Hopewell nonprofit. The Victory Garden donations are part of a broader effort by Aunt Chubby's to operate an outdoor free food pantry to provide nourishment to the Hopewell Valley community.
Staci Siconolfi-Lymperopoulos of compuscore, laura wall of casa.
Javier Columbie, general sales manager, and Bill McDonagh, principal at Route 18 Chrysler Jeep Dodge Ram in East Brunswick, present a check in the amount of $6,750 to Michael Loch, director of the Hackensack Meridian Carrier Clinic fund development office, in support of Carrier Clinic’s capital improvement projects across campus that will aid individuals battling mental illness and substance abuse. Route 18 made a donation for every car sold in the month of September to Carrier, located in Belle Mead, N.J. The charitable fund-raiser took place during September’s World Suicide Prevention Month and National Recovery Month as a virtual event because of crowd restrictions posed by COVID-19. A total of more than $26,000 was raised and donations are still coming in.
From left to right are NAAMI-Mercer staff members Danita Saunders-Davis, Director of Operations, Janet Haag, Executive Director and Dawn Dannebrink, Director of Development and Allstate’s Andy Heinz, Exclusive Financial Specialist, Ron Bansky, Exclusive Agent and Jon Castaneda Agency Manager. Allstate agency owner, Ron Bansky led a virtual volunteer team that supported the NAMIWalks Your Way event for the Mercer County chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Health (NAMI). The Walk supports NAMI's mission and celebrates mental health for all during this demanding year of challenges and changes. In honor of the team’s volunteerism, and recognizing that community-based organizations have become essential lifelines, The Allstate Foundation awarded NAMI of Mercer County a $5000 Helping Hands® Grant.
The Thomas Edison State University Foundation has entered into a partnership with the Ammon Foundation to provide scholarship opportunities for individuals in recovery from substance use disorder. Thurber, Sizemore, Hufnagel Ammon helps individuals in addiction recovery to access and sustain long-term recovery through recovering addicts to access and sustain long-term recovery through the Ammon Recovery Scholars Program. Sizemore, 26, who aspires to become a Drug and Alcohol counselor, says “My life and my story is a message of hope for other individuals in recovery because I have overdosed, have lost both my parents to drugs and have spent five years in prison, which is where I finally got clean and sober. I want to make a difference in the lives of adolescents, teens and young adults. I hope to help these individuals enter and sustain recovery.
Fox & Roach/Trident Charities, the charitable arm of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Fox & Roach, REALTORS®, is celebrating their 25th anniversary of giving to the communities they serve and holding their 25th Annual Community Service Day. Sales associates and employees of BHHS Fox & Roach's Robbinsville Office spent the day volunteering for Be Kind Joy of Giving. (Pictured here) Groups from the Robbinsville Office raised funds and spent the day packing meals for local food pantries at an event with the organization, while observing the strict protocols in place during the COVID -19 pandemic, making sure to wear masks and social distance.
