Current Bordentown
All hands on deck for The Sea Dogs
Anchor House riders pedal 500 miles
Sunset at the beach
By lISA ZolA-delIBero
By AleXAndrA SeyMoUr For the past 10 years, the songs and stories of pirates have been kept alive along the shores of the Delaware River. The Sea Dogs, a Fieldsborobased pirate reenactment group and band, this year celebrates a decade of performing and educating people of all ages. The group has grown and gained local notoriety by playing traditional sea shanties and Celtic tunes, as well as engaging in pirate and Revolutionary War battle reenactments. “The idea behind the group is to keep shanties alive, and that’s what we do,” member Stu Carkeek, 59, said. Sea shanties are work songs pirates sang aboard their ships to accompany their labor. “We’re not glorifying [pirates], we’re trying to educate,” member Eileen Eggert, 45, said. “We’ll make no bones about it, pirates were bad people.” But as bad as the pirates might be, the Sea Dogs recognize pirates’ significance in history and strive to allow others this appreciation as well. The 13-member group performs about 20 times a year and puts a strong emphasis on being inclusive and family-oriented. They also welcome short-term members of any age, the youngest currently See SEA DOGS, Page 4 N
Family of field archers finding success By Kyle Kondor When Greg Mancini was 3 years old, he’d watch his dad Vincent repeatedly shoot arrows out of his compound bow at a target in the backyard of their house in South Amboy, practicing for his next tournament. When Vincent was done shooting, he would set up a chair and watch his son do the same. At the time, Greg had no idea he
was doing something he hopes to continue for the rest of his life. Now 22, the Bordentown resident has become one of the most accomplished young field archers in the state of New Jersey, having finished in third place among 200 competitors at the Bigfoot Open at the Black Knight Bowbenders in Jackson. The Bigfoot Open, which took place on July 12, is the state’s largest outdoor archery event. The event takes place outdoors,
which isn’t quite as popular as an indoor archery event, though the two are extremely similar. (The argument can also be made that outdoor archery is a lot more complex due to the distance of the shot and the amount of targets.) The outdoor course at the Black Knight Bowbenders consists of 28 targets that range from 15 to 80 yards away from the shooting point. Each archer shoots four See MANCINI, Page 6
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Bella and Andrew Hernandez, of Bordentown, toss a few stones in the water at Bordentown Beach July 16, 2014. (Photo by Albert Rende.)
It’s for the kids. Plain and simple. This is why the Anchor House Ride for Runaways participants ride their bikes almost 500 miles in a 7-day span from Lexington, Virginia to a warm welcoming celebration at Quaker Bridge Mall in Lawrence, making a difference with every mile and raising more than $517,000. The annual ride, which first began 36 years ago, raises money for Anchor House, a shelter in Trenton for runaway and/or abused teenagers. This year, seven participants hailed from Bordentown, each riding for a different reason and setting their own paces along the way. Bordentown City resident Mikki Quinn, a 61-year-old grandmother and retired Trenton art teacher, saw firsthand what Anchor House has done for many of her students who needed a safe place to go to when in distress. “I know the home situation that many of my students came from,” Quinn said. “They knew that they were always welcome at Anchor House, even if it was just for counseling. No one is ever turned away. Lots of the teens may just be dealing with the typical angst. Some cases are much more serious, and DYFS needs to be called. No matter what the situation, Anchor See RIDERS, Page 8
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