1-23 HP

The Delaware: a national success story

By SUe FeRRaRa

In 2020, while we navigated the pandemic, a 50-year-old nonprofit called American Rivers named the Delaware River its River of the Year for “momentous progress for water quality, river restoration and community revitalization.”

With the announcement, Bob Irvin, president and CEO of American Rivers, called the Delaware River “a national success story” thanks to “the hard work of many local advocates who understand that a healthy Delaware River is vital to the health of millions of people.”

According to American Rivers, more than 17 million people get their drinking water from the Delaware River basin, including New York City and Philadelphia. The Delaware river begins in Hancock, New York, and flows through five states on its way to the Atlantic Ocean.

Adding to that continued success, in 2020, the Bordentown Township Committee agreed to acquire 72 acres of land along the Delaware, paying a developer $4.6

See RiVER, Page 16

Wiggs finds his passion with Playmaker Athletics

By RiCH FisHeR

What do iconic high school wide receivers do after their playing days are over?

Well, the ones who appreciate what football did for them make a conscientious choice to give back to the game and the area where they grew up.

Consider Robert Wiggs one of those guys.

The 29-year-old graduated in 2011 as Nottingham’s all-time leader in pass receptions and passing yards and was also Mercer County’s career receptions leader (although the county record has since been broken). He was one of the area’s most electrifying players and was also a track & field standout.

Wiggs took both talents to Wesley College and had some impres-

sive moments with the nowdefunct Division III powerhouse program that was bought out by the University of Delaware.

Wiggs now works full time for the New Jersey State Police, but coaching younger players has gotten into his system in a big way. He now runs Playmaker Athletics in Ewing, which provides footballspecific training and 7-on-7 AAU

See WiGGS, Page 14

Family’s tradition honors departed heroes

By THomas KeLLy

Jack Bell has deep Hamilton roots.

A Hamilton High West graduate and one-time Hamilton Councilman, he has also been a varsity soccer coach at all three Hamilton public high schools. He has athletic accolades and enough varsity letters to cover three jackets. He is well known in his hometown.

What people may not know is that every December for the last 18 years, he has been doing some quieter, heartwarming work. He lays wreaths on the bronze and granite markers of veterans interred at the Brigadier General William C. Doyle Veterans Memorial Cemetery on Provinceline Road in Wrightstown, for the holidays.

Advent and Christmas wreaths can be made of evergreens to represent everlasting life and can symbolize a higher being with the circular shape having no beginning and no end. Wreaths date back to ancient Greece and Rome and may have symbol-

See WREATHS, Page 18

Nottingham High School grad Robert Wiggs (in cap) works with young football players at Playmaker Athletics on Spruce Street in Ewing.

AROUND TOWN Boy scouts, hydroponic farm gets township green awards

Two civic minded organizations, Scouts BSA Troop 91 and GeoGreens, were recognized by Mayor Jeff Martin and the Hamilton Township Environmental Advisory Commission with the 2022 Environmental Award, which recognizes those implementing sustainable actions to improve and protect Hamilton Township’s environment.

“GeoGreens and Scout Troop 91 have surpassed their expectations…[and] helped Hamilton be a better sustainable and environmentally friendly community through education and action and deserves to be recognized for their achievements.” Martin said in a media release.

GeoGreens, owned and operated by Desmond Hayes, is a hydroponics vertical farm. It is a modernized-style farmers’ market where members tour, are educated on indoor growing, and buy fresh produce and dozens of herbs, leafy greens, micro greens, and other items all year long. Hydroponic farms seek to con-

serve both energy and water.

Scout Troop 91 and its members and leaders, like scoutmaster Jeff Weber, have long acted to beautify the Township. They perform volunteer services on mostly conservation projects, and have spent over 550 hours at Veterans Park, adding mulch, removing trash and debris, and building bat boxes.

At Morgan Elementary School, they created an outdoor classroom to improve students’ physical and mental health. At Sayen Gardens, they built kiosks to educate the public about native plants and how to help them thrive amid invasive species.

“Everyone should be proud of these offerings and many services to make Hamilton a better place. Both showed clear leadership in their actions, and both are dedicated to continuing to benefit the community,” said John Balletto, chair of the Hamilton Township Environmental Advisory Commission.

See NEWS, Page 6

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Superintendent receives public service award

Hamilton Township School District superintendent Scott Rocco has been recognized by the organization Building One New Jersey as its 2022 Public Servant of the Year.

The award recognized Rocco for his leadership and service and his “commitment to inclusive, integrated and high-quality public education.”

The award was bestowed at Building One New Jersey’s annual dinner on Dec. 15, celebrating the achievements of eight individuals. The event also included a special tribute to state Sen. Ronald Rice, who stepped away from his position in August for health reasons.

In his acceptance remarks, Rocco spoke about how his work and vision moves forward because of the support he receives from people around him, including the board of education, his district and building administrative team and district staff.

For information about Building One New Jersey, visit buildingoneamerica.org.

RWJUH Hamilton holds open house at newly renovated Cancer Center

Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital Hamilton, an RWJBarnabas Health facility, hosted a ribbon cutting and open house on Nov. 16 to unveil the newly renovated medical oncology exam rooms at its Cancer Center.

The evening included guided tours from the healthcare professionals at the cancer center who educated guests about the cancer services and technology available to patients at RWJUH Hamilton, in partnership with Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey, the state’s only National Cancer Institute-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center.

The event marked the final stage of a six-year renovation plan, including the construction of a new radiation oncology suite, updates to the infusion center, and a makeover for the conference room and main lobby.

Rocco

“We started this journey back in 2016 to ultimately change the face of cancer care for our communities in Mercer County and within central New Jersey,” says Richard Freeman, chief executive officer and president, RWJUH Hamilton, said in a media release. “Six years later, I believe we have done that.”

Guests were also invited to engage in a special interactive paint-by-numbers art piece, which when complete will be displayed in one of the medical oncology exam rooms. The project was intended

Corrections: In our story, “From Trash to Treasure,” we wrote that Maurice Rossi was a former mayor of Hamilton. Rossi was never the mayor, but rather a mayor’s aide in the 1990’s.

The article stated that the township paid Britton Industries $95,000 a year to run the facility, and decided to deprivatize the operation when Britton demanded $150,000 a year. In fact, Britton was originally paying the township $95,000 a year to operate the facility.

In our feature story, “Victor’s Meat Market a family affair,” we printed the incorrect hours of operation. The correct hours of operation are Tuesday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. and Sunday 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

In our story, “Byrne, Thornton, McSheene elected to board of education,” we erroneously reported that top vote-getter Stacy Byrne’s children did not attend Hamilton public schools. In fact, some of Byrne’s children did attend Hamilton schools.

to showcase one of the many complimentary holistic services and programs available to RWJUH Hamilton’s cancer patients, their loved ones and their families. The holistic services and programs are funded in part by the generous support of We vs. C, The Bruce Bux Endowment, I Believe in Pink Foundation, and the Cannon Cancer Fund. We vs C was created by the Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital Hamilton Foundation to inspire and engage the local community in the fight against cancer, encouraging screenings that lead to early detection, genetic testing to know one’s risk, and support for community based cancer services.

Freeman presented proclamations, issued by the State of New Jersey Senate and General Assembly, to representatives of The Joshua Harr Shane Foundation and the Young Professionals Group of RWJUH Hamilton, who provided financial support for the renovations.

Educational Foundation awards $8,000 in grants

The Hamilton Education Foundation has recently awarded $8,000 worth of educational grants to teachers in the Hamilton Township School District.

Each year, the HEF supports classroom projects through grant funding. Its mission is to assist and provide supplemental assets to HTSD administrators, teachers, and students to enhance their educational experience.

HEF president Debra Von Gonten congratulated the recipients of the grants

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NEWS continued from Page 7

“Congratulations to all of the HEF Grant winners! The HEF Grants are an annual event, and we encourage every teacher to apply. HEF Grant applications can be found on our website at hamiltonedfoundation.org,” expressed Debra Von Gonten, HEF President.

The HEF proudly celebrates 26 years of service to the district, having donated more than $430,000 to HTSD through grants, scholarships, and special projects. The HEF recognizes the need to establish mutually beneficial relationships amongst our local business community, political leaders, private citizens, school administrators, teachers, staff, parents, and students. As an independent entity, the HEF is a conduit for public education funding.

“The Hamilton Educational Foundation has always been generous with their teacher grant program. Over the last 26 years, they have donated $430,000 in grants to our faculty and staff. This year was no different. We appreciate them awarding nine grants for a total of $7,995 to faculty across six schools,” stated Dr. Scott Rocco, HTSD Superintendent.

The following HTSD teachers have received grants for the 2022-2023 school year: Wendy Balent, Erin Thein, Mark Pienciak, Matthew Koppenhaver, Stephanie Giunta, Jessica Willever, William Leonardo, Jennifer Barker, and L. Giulia Vallucci.

For more information about the HEF

and how you can support their mission, contact: HEF Grant Committee Chair, Angie Belmont via email HamiltonEdFoundation@htsdnj.org.

Klockner School provides food baskets in support of school community

Under the leadership of Linda Sheehan and Kalyn Vizzoni, community engagement teacher leaders, Klockner Elementary School collected canned and dry goods to benefit over 90 Klockner families.

In addition, Klocker secured donations of turkeys and hams to add to the food baskets. Hamilton Mayor Jeff Martin stopped by to show his support and thanked Klockner Elementary School for supporting its community. The school was happy to show him the outpouring of support received from so many this holiday season.

Collection boxes were located at Klockner, as well as various places in Hamilton that offered to collect food items. The CYO Bromley Center offered a donation to the food drive and provided freezer space for Klockner to store frozen turkeys. Shoprite of Hamilton donated several gift cards in support of the cause, which were added to the food baskets.

The St. Mark’s Cooperative Nursery School, Thunder N Lightning Gym, and

See NEWS, Page 10

Prior Nami Business Systems team won the Over-60 Mercer County Softball Championships for 2022. Manager Tom “Bliz” Bliznawicz and sponsor Tony Nami hold the trophy.

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NEWS continued from Page 9 Dealer Web Address

Saul’s Funeral Home graciously placed a food donation box at their locations. Klockner also received a donation of 25 turkeys from the Encouraging Kids organization.

On Saturday, Nov. 19, the community engagement team was joined by MAJ Thomas B. McGuire Composite Squadron Civil Air Patrol, who assisted our school community with preparing the food baskets for delivery. In addition, 15 cadets and 2 senior members were on hand to sort food to be distributed in each basket.

Wawa opens on White Horse Circle

Wawa, Inc. opened its store located at 3157 Broad St., Hamilton, on Thursday, Dec. 1. To mark the occasion, Wawa hosted a grand opening celebration and outdoor ribbon cutting.

The Hamilton location was the 36th to open this year out of the 41 total Wawa stores projected to open in 2022.

CYO receives $25K grant from Princeton Area Community Foundation

photo.) Complimentary New Customers Only. Cannot be combined with other offers. With Coupon. Expires 1.31.23.

See NEWS, Page 12 DEALER PHONE DEALER LOGO

grant funds to help purchase a new bus for the organization’s Vehicle Replacement capital program.

“Transportation is essential to CYO’s programs, providing vital link to schools, as well as for off-site programming trips and excursions. These funds will provide much help,” he said.

New Year’s at Noon event to benefit Spread the Joy Foundation

Sky Zone, part of the CircusTrix family of brands was to host a New Years at Noon event on Dec. 31 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. The event was to feature a confetti countdown, a “toast” to the New Year, and a live DJ.

Sky Zone Hamilton says it will be donate a portion of each ticket sold to the Spread The Joy Foundation. Spread the Joy is a Princeton-based charity that provides hospitalized children with Joy Boxes that are designed to entertain, educate, and spark joy. Spread the Joy strives to alleviate some of the stress associated with a pediatric health diagnosis by creating memorable moments in the hospital room.

Catholic Youth Organization of Mercer County has been awarded $25K from Princeton Area Community Foundation’s Community Impact Grant Program.

“We sincerely thank PACF for this generous award,” CYO executive director Tom Mladenetz said in a media release. “CYO is grateful for our ongoing partnership with the Community Foundation, and is especially appreciative for their support during these challenging times.” Mladenetz said the CYO would use

“New Years at Noon is a sellout event year after year.” said Josh Harry, General Manager of Sky Zone Hamilton, “Sky Zone Hamilton is proud to give portions of each ticket back to such a great, local charity that will directly impact the hospitals in our area.”

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Foundation.

Event goers are encouraged to purchase their tickets ahead of time.skyzone.com/ hamilton. On the web: spreadthejoy.org.

Transition of St. Francis to Capital Health approved

Capital Health, St. Francis Medical Center, and Trinity Health have obtained key approvals for Capital Health to take over services from St. Francis. To ensure there is no disruption of services to the community, the organizations planned for a Dec. 21 completion of the transaction and services transition. At that time, St. Francis was to no longer operate as an acute care hospital; however the site will remain the location for an emergency department and several outpatient services. Other services will be relocated.

The approvals came after regulatory reviews by the New Jersey Department of Health of Certificate of Need applications submitted by Capital Health, and approval by the New Jersey Superior Court of the transaction as part of the CHAPA process which included review by the NJ Attorney General’s Office.

The definitive agreement was reached after a nonbinding letter of intent was signed in the spring of 2021 and a sub-

UNDER NEW OWNERSHiP: Primo Hoagies in Hamilton is under new ownership in 2023. Pictured are the owner-management team of Mary Senft, John Senft and Frank Ragazzo.

sequent due diligence period. The due diligence process evaluated how to best enhance capabilities and fulfill the organizations’ shared mission to serve the City of Trenton, surrounding communities, and their residents.

Hamilton Township McManimon Building

320 Scully Avenue, Hamilton, NJ

Hamilton Township McManimon Building 320 Scully Avenue, Hamilton, NJ

teams, student-athlete educational programs, personal training and weight loss.

Along with that, he coaches youth football, guiding the Ewing Junior Blue Devils 10-11 varsity and JV teams to the championship game of the South Jersey Independent Youth Football Association.

Hamilton Township McManimon Building 320 Scully Avenue, Hamilton, NJ

Hamilton Township McManimon Building

Township McManimon Building Scully Avenue, Hamilton, NJ

Must schedule an appointment —call 609-890-3550 Clinic is for Hamilton Twp. residents only.

IMPORTANT NOTES

Must

schedule an appointment —call 609-890-3550

“I went to school for multimedia communications, cameras and things like that. That was kind of my passion at first. Now I love just giving back to the youth and giving the youth some lessons. Coaching them is something that’s very passionate with me,” Wiggs said. “I want to be an offensive coordinator somewhere in Mercer County for a high school team. Maybe about two or three years somewhere down the line, after I get a chance to get better at it.”

Clinic is for Hamilton Twp. residents only.

The Hamilton Township Division of Health offers rabies immunizations for residents' dogs and cats as a courtesy and is free of charge.

IMPORTANT NOTES

January, 7th 2023 9am - 1pm

appointment —call 609-890-3550

1. All (human) attendees are required to WEAR A MASK.

1. All (human) attendees are required to WEAR A MASK.

2. One human per animal.

2. One human per animal.

IMPORTANT NOTES

3. Cats and dogs must be at least 3 months of age to be vaccinated.

320 Scully Avenue, Hamilton, NJ Must schedule an appointment call 609-890-3550

Hamilton Twp. residents only.

3. Cats and dogs must be at least 3 months of age to be vaccinated.

4. Dogs must be on a leash (no longer than 6’).

4. Dogs must be on a leash (no longer than 6’).

5. Cats must be in a carrier.

1. All (human) attendees are required to WEAR A MASK.

Former Northstars coach Jon “Big Dawg” Adams said he is not surprised at how Wiggs has embraced his new role. During the time Wiggs played, Adams had a shortage of position coaches and decided to put Wiggs in charge of receivers. He also brought him back to talk to younger players when he was on break from college.

10U to 18U. Those squads take on teams from other areas during the high school off-season.

Health offers rabies immunizations for residents' dogs and cats as a

5. Cats must be in a carrier.

Clinic is for Hamilton Twp. residents only.

2. One human per animal.

6. Please bring proof of any prior rabies shot to receive a 3-year certificate; without proof a 1-year certificate will be issued.

6. Please bring proof of any prior rabies shot to receive a 3-year certificate; without proof a 1-year certificate will be issued.

3. Cats and dogs must be at least 3 months of age to be vaccinated.

“He’s done a phenomenal job,” Adams said. “His program’s record speaks for itself from what he’s accomplished this year. He’s always had a great way with younger kids and having that desire to work with the kids.

“Football has become a 24-hour, yearround thing,” Wiggs said. “In Texas now, they actually have spring football. It’s like college. What we have is seven-on-seven passing with quarterbacks, receivers, defensive backs and linebackers.”

The Hamilton Township Division of Health offers rabies immuniza�ons for residents’ dogs and cats as a courtesy and is free of charge.

WEAR A MASK.

4. Dogs must be on a leash (no longer than 6’).

7. NJ State Department of Health’s Policy states no dog license can be issued if their rabies immunization expires before November 2021. The state requests a one (1) year overlap in the three (3) year rabies immunization. As a reminder, all dogs living in Hamilton must be licensed: $18 spayed/neutered or $21.00 non-spayed/non-neutered, Senior Citizen fee for spayed/ neutered $2.00, Senior Citizen fee for non-spayed/non-neutered $5.00. Your annual dog license supports Hamilton's free Rabies clinics.

7. NJ State Department of Health’s Policy states no dog license can be issued if their rabies immunization expires before November 2021. The state requests a one (1) year overlap in the three (3) year rabies immunization. As a reminder, all dogs living in Hamilton must be licensed: $18 spayed/neutered or $21.00 non-spayed/non-neutered, Senior Citizen fee for spayed/ neutered $2.00, Senior Citizen fee for non-spayed/non-neutered $5.00. Your annual dog license supports Hamilton's free Rabies clinics.

5. Cats must be in a carrier.

6. Please bring proof of any prior rabies shot to receive a 3-year certificate; without proof a 1-year certificate will be issued.

Important Notes

of age to be vaccinated. 6’).

The clinics are held at the Hamilton Township McManimon Building, located at 320 Scully Avenue (just off of Olden Avenue, between Liberty Street and Cedar Lane, opposite the Olden Pharmacy).

1. One human per animal.

The clinics are held at the Hamilton Township McManimon Building, located at 320 Scully Avenue (just off of Olden Avenue, between Liberty Street and Cedar Lane, opposite the Olden Pharmacy).

2. Cats and dogs must be at least 3 months of age to be vaccinated.

7. NJ State Department of Health’s Policy states no dog license can be issued if their rabies immunization expires before November 2021. The state requests a one (1) year overlap in the three (3) year rabies immunization. As a reminder, all dogs living in Hamilton must be licensed: $18 spayed/neutered or $21.00 non-spayed/non-neutered, Senior Citizen fee for spayed/ neutered $2.00, Senior Citizen fee for non -spayed/non-neutered $5.00. Your annual dog license supports Hamilton's free Rabies clinics.

3. Dogs must be on a leash (no longer than 6’).

4. Cats must be in a carrier.

shot to receive a 3-year certificate; without proof a 1-year certificate will be states no dog license can be issued if their rabies immunization expires requests a one (1) year overlap in the three (3) year rabies immunization. must be licensed: $18 spayed/neutered or $21.00 non-spayed/non-neutered, Senior Citizen fee for non -spayed/non-neutered $5.00. Your annual dog license supports

The clinics are held at the Hamilton Township McManimon Building, located at 320 Scully Avenue (just off of Olden Avenue, between Liberty Street and Cedar Lane, opposite the Olden Pharmacy).

5. Please bring proof of any prior rabies shot to receive a 3-year cer�ficate; without proof a 1-year cer�ficate will be issued.

Township McManimon Building, located at 320 Scully Avenue (just Street and Cedar Lane, opposite the Olden Pharmacy).

6. NJ State Department of Health’s Policy states no dog license can be issued if their rabies immuniza�on expires before November 2021. The state requests a one (1) year overlap in the three (3) year rabies immuniza�on.

As a reminder, all dogs living in Hamilton must be licensed: $18 spayed/ neutered or $21.00 non-spayed/non-neutered, Senior Ci�zen fee for spayed/ neutered $2.00, Senior Ci�zen fee for non-spayed/non-neutered $5.00. Your annual dog license supports Hamilton’s free Rabies clinics.

The clinics are held at the Hamilton Township McManimon Building, located at 320 Scully Avenue (just off of Olden Avenue, between Liberty Street and Cedar Lane, opposite the Olden Pharmacy).

***FUTURE Clinic Dates 2023

“He’s always been an energetic kid. He wants to give back to the community. He’s not afraid to roll up his sleeves. He reached out to quite a few former Nottingham and Mercer County studs. (Former Northstars) Kendrick Williams and Esayah Obado and quite a few other guys have gotten involved. He’s such an energetic and magnetic personality, it’s hard to say no to him. He’s a great recruiter. I’m really proud and happy and pleased he’s doing so well.”

Wiggs began his journey four years ago when his good friend, the late philanthropist Darvin “Dinky” Henderson, founded Playmaker Athletics as a way to help young football players not only learn the game, but learn other facets important to playing football, such as training and academics.

After the Ewing High graduate died in November 2021, Wiggs stepped up to run the program.

“When he passed, we didn’t know what we were gonna do,” Wiggs said. “So, we continued to push the league along. We know that’s what he would have wanted us to do. Over time I fell into the position and have been running the whole program. I like kids, I’m the youngest one here, so I’ve got more time than some of the other coaches.”

This past year PMA had four different age groups of 7-on-7 teams from ages

There is not much contact, as the program is designed to work on skills. Wiggs noted that some of Notre Dame High School’s top players have come through the system, including quarterback AJ Surace, running back Rasheen Young, receivers Wyatt Moore and Michael “Cooper Kupp” Quinn and linebacker Cam Bailey.

“We have a lot of guys on that team where, as you watch them play in high school, they look in sync with each other because they play with each other all season in our program,” Wiggs said. “A lot of kids in PMA are in my Ewing program. That’s how I try to implement everything. You take what you’re trained in 7 on 7 and as the season starts your receiver-quarterback relationship should be a lot better.”

The program is expanding this year to where it is forming its own league. There will be tryouts in the Robbinsville Bubble in January, followed by practices and preseason tournaments.

“We basically enter the tournaments as a preseason warm-up,” Wiggs said. “For our league, we’re going to do it at TCA (Trenton Catholic Preparatory Academy). We’ll have it like flag football, where the teams play each other within the league and then play for a championship. From there we’re looking to take the best kids from each team and create a national team and submit that for a national tournament.

Nottingham High School graduate Robert Wiggs took over as the leader of Playmaker Athletics after the death of founder Darvin “Dinky” Henderson.

The Hamilton Township Division of Health offers rabies immunizations for residents' dogs and cats as a courtesy and is free of charge.

“My thing is just to keep Mercer County talent in Mercer County and try to develop it. We do accept kids from out of the county, but I’m really looking to develop Mercer talent.”

In doing so, Wiggs has collected a strong core of coaches. He is the offensive coordinator and works with the receivers. His former quarterback at Nottingham, Esayah Obado, is the QB coach. Former Hightstown and Lehigh standout Jamil Robinson handles the defensive backs. Former high school assistant Amir Siddiqu is defensive coordinator, and Florence grad Jordan “JT” Stockton, now a Hamilton West assistant, coaches running backs.

And while it is an impressive lineup of instructors, PMA goes beyond just football education.

Henderson’s close friend, Ebony Semmon, took over ownership of the franchise after Henderson’s death. Semmon, an 8th grade language arts teacher at Village Charter School in Trenton, is in charge of the PMA Learning Center based in Ewing.

“If kids in our program need tutoring, they can just contact us and we’ll have one-on-one tutoring sessions with them,” Wiggs said. “Ebony is one of the lead tutors, and she has a few friends that teach as well. We use her connections to find who needs whatever. If they need help in math and we’re not too strong in the math suit, we’ll find somebody in teaching who teaches math.”

Wiggs feels the learning center is an absolute must if he is trying to ready young players for high school football and beyond.

“Of course you want to get them prepared for the next game, but I’m thinking about five or ten years down the line,” he said. “I feel if they’re able to be implemented with tutoring and feeling comfortable asking for help and things like that they’ll be fine. When I was in college I kind of felt uncomfortable going to the tutoring center just the way they would talk to me, the way the environment was. I know if I felt like that, then there are kids who feel like that, So I want them to feel comfortable and to understand it’s OK to ask for help.”

Wiggs also wants his players to be ready for their seasons by being in the best shape possible. As the godson of former San Francisco 49ers strength & conditioning coach Duane Carlisle, who is now the fitness coach for NFL officials, Wiggs knew the importance of off-season training and spent the summers before his junior and senior years at Nottingham working out with Carlisle in California.

The impact those workouts had on Wiggs were never forgotten, which is why he has started the fitness program at Nonstop Fitness Gym in Lawrenceville.

“One of my good friends, (former

Ewing player) Alex Bailey, is one of the trainers there,” Wiggs said. ‘He’ll be our head strength and conditioning coach. One thing we struggle with in Mercer County is training all years round. If you’re part of PMA, you’ll get a yearround discounted training price over there. I just know that when I did those off-season workouts I had the best two years of my career.”

In essence, Wiggs is providing the complete package for youth players, and his former coach could not be more impressed.

“To see him thriving with what he’s doing makes me feel really good,” Adams said. “I worked a camp with him this summer and I intend to work that camp as long as he has it. I have some ideas. I’d like to sit down with him and try to get more people involved and more kids involved.”

Adams is Nottingham’s athletic director, but will be leaving that post this year.

“I want to get back in coaching and who knows, I may be working with him,” Adams said. “He’s doing an amazing job. He was always one of my leaders when he was in the program, and a guy I would go to. I’d especially want him working with guys with potential. He had that amazing ability to change direction and things like that, and he would teach them how to do that.”

Wiggs feels that because of his youth, he is able to easily communicate with younger players. “As long as you’re able to relate and understand where they’re coming from — saying certain things and speaking a certain way — I feel like it becomes rather easy,” he said. “We listen to the same music, we play the same video games. I feel that makes it easier to coach them and to relate to each other.”

And in the process, it allows Wiggs to give back to the sport and community that has helped him become a solid citizen and fast-rising community leader.

January Events

Notary Oath Night

Thursday, January 5th, 3:00 - 7:00 PM

The Mercer County Clerk’s office will administer the oath to newly commissioned and renewing Notaries. Please call the Mercer County Clerk’s office to schedule (609) 989-6466 or email epagano@mercercounty.org

Foreclosure Counseling

Monday, January 9th, 11:00AM – 1:00 PM

Having trouble with your mortgage, you can meet with a HUD certified counselor to find out your options. Contact Affordable Housing Alliance to schedule an appointment 732389-2958 or walk in the first Monday of the month

FREE 15-Minutes with an Attorney

Thursday, January 12th, 5:00 PM - 6:30 PM

The Public Education Committee of the Mercer County Bar Association and the Mer cer County Executive present!

LAWYERS C.A.R.E*

FREE 15-minute consultation with an Attorney (virtually) All Lawyers C.A.R.E meetings will take place virtually. Advanced registration is required. For more information please call (609) 585-6200 or visit website: www.mercerbar.com

Stroke and Your Heart

Thursday, January 19th, 4:30PM – 5:30 PM

Learn the early warning signs of a stroke, when to seek medical attention and prevention methods, as well as which heart conditions can lead to a stroke. Join the invaluable program led by Stroke Coordinator with Princeton Medical Center (PMC). PMC is a state-designed Primary Stroke Center.

Preparing Heart Healthy Foods (Nutrition)

Tuesday, January 24th, 1:00PM – 2:00 PM

Heart disease remains the leading cause of death in the United States, and a heart-healthy diet is important for good cardiovascular health. Join the Community Wellness Dietitian at Penn Medicine Princeton Medical Center, to learn easy and delicious ways to eat heart healthy.

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million, thus saving the property from redevelopment for housing. According to Bordentown Township administrator Mike Theokas, “the township committee saw the value of leaving the area as an open space.”

At a meeting in October 2022, the Bordentown Township Committee reviewed a conceptual presentation for a waterfront park which contains mainland property on the west side of the railroad tracks which run along Rte. 130, and property on the eastern end of Newbold Island. Theokas said that while the township is excited about the land acquisition and conceptual plan, it’s going to take time” to get the park to where it can be enjoyed by people.

The new waterfront park will allow for hiking, kayaking and canoeing. Motorized vehicles will be prohibited. There will be swaths of land preserved for the native wildlife and flora on the property, especially on the portion of Newbold island where eagles nest.

Theokas stressed the development of the park will take place over time, beginning with the construction of a parking lot, trails, and educational signage. A portion of the property is contaminated and will need remediation.

The Bordentown Township acquisition

came on the heels of Bordentown City’s purchase of property at the confluence of Crosswicks Creek and the Delaware River in conjunction with the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection and D&R Greenway. The property, once owned by Divine Word Missionaries, was the remaining 60 acres of land which once belonged to Joseph Bonaparte, Napoleon’s brother.

But while we celebrate the continued efforts to protect the river, we can’t forget that the river’s tributaries play an important role in the life of the river, as do the marshes in the area. Of the 3,000 acres of preserved wetlands in this area, 1,200 of those acres are marshland. And the majority of the marshlands are within the boundary of Hamilton Township.

Collectively, the marshlands in Hamilton, Trenton, and Bordentown are referred to as the Abbott Marshlands in order to align the area with the Abbott Farm National Historic Landmark. The Department of the Interior placed the farm on the National Historic Register in 1976.

Charles Conrad Abbott, an early archeologist and naturalist who grew up in Trenton, lived along the marshlands in Hamilton. He trained at the University of Pennsylvania to become a physician.

He was a surgeon during the Civil

War, but beyond that, never practiced medicine. Instead his intellect and curiosity led him to explore the natural world around him.

According to a page on the Abbott Marshlands site, in 1872, Abbott “reported finding man-made implements in the Trenton glacial gravels on his farm. This discovery sparked an international debate and 40-year controversy concerning the antiquity of man in the New World.”

And even though Twitter didn’t exist then, the debate put Abbott and his farm in the spotlight. (If you want read more, Boston University archeology professor Curtis Runnels wrote about it here: blogs. bu.edu/runnels/2022/01/02/dr-charlesconrad-abbott-and-the-curious-case-ofthe-american-palaeolithic.)

To appreciate the marshlands, one has to understand how they articulate with the river.

The marshlands in this area are tidal because the Delaware river is tidal. Therefore, twice a day, water flows in and out of the marshlands.

Mary Leck, the founder of the Friends for the Marshlands, and a member of the organization’s advisory board, has been studying this area for more than 40 years. She is an emeritus professor of biology at Rider University, and has published

extensively about her adventures in a place she loves.

“I spent many years in the marsh,” Leck said. “It’s a fascinating place. I am interested in the seeds in the soil. There’s a lot of seed movement with the tidal flow.” Leck explained, “the tidal action allows for aeration of the marsh and allows for more decay, which provides more nutrients for animals in the area.”

“That’s the fun part of our marsh,” Leck added with excitement. “The marsh has a great diversity of plants and animals.”

Pat Coleman, the president of Friends for the Marshands, noted that “historically, marshlands had no value because people couldn’t build on them, except in certain places along the river. In the 50s, before the laws changed, it was okay to build parking lots and let them drain into the marsh. There are over 50 street drains that connect with the marshland.”

Leck added: “It used to be that people would just put storm drains into marshlands. And, because of the tides, the surface becomes littered with plastic. In recent years, drainage basins have been required to prevent this problem. People are much more aware now of the importance of wetlands.”

PSE&G holds acres of land in the marshlands and along the river. For

The Hamilton Township Division of Health requires that all dogs over 6 months of age must be licensed with Hamilton Township.

2100 Sylvan Avenue or online at www.hamiltonnj.com/doglicense. For more information, please call the Hamilton Township Animal Shelter at (609) 890-3555.

The Hamilton Township Division of Health requires that all dogs over 6 months of age must be licensed with Hamilton Township.

Fees: $ 18 - Spayed or Neutered $ 21- Non-Spayed or Neutered

Dog License can be obtained the Hamilton Township Animal Shelter located at 2100 Sylvan Avenue or online at www.hamiltonnj.com/doglicense. For more information, please

Senior Citzen Fees (Age 65 and over - proof of age / ID required): $ 2 - Spayed or Neutered $ 5 - Non-Spayed or Neutered

When applying for a Dog License, you will need:

• Proof of current rabies vaccine which must be valid through November 1 2022

• Proof if dog is neutered or spayed

• ID if requestng senior discount

**If your dog does not have a current rabies vaccination please visit: www. Hamiltonnj.com/rabiesclinics for

Payment - cash, check, money order, and major credit cards are accepted

**If your dog does not have a current rabies vaccinatin please visit: www. Hamiltonnj.com/rabiesclinics for FREE RABIES information

Talking Tea with Holsome Teas and Herbs & Tea-For-All

BY REBEKAH SCHROEDER

January has few holidays after the new year, but a lighthearted observance that makes the weight of a dark winter better is the month’s national recognition of hot tea.

Stay snug with a satisfying cup of your own, or, for an experience combining the leisurely with the educational, put that kettle back on—the wisdom of these tea shops is steeped in years of creativity and care.

Holsome Teas and Herbs

The rows of colorful Chinese tea bins lining the walls at Princeton’s Holsome Teas and Herbs shine like hidden gems in this “hole-in-the-wall” establishment, each resembling vibrant jewels with their own origins, flavors and brewing customs.

Holsome, which takes its name from the word “wholesome” minus two letters, is in the rear of the building at 27 Witherspoon Street, reachable either through the brick back alley and egress or by walking straight through the storefront of Junbi, the bubble tea shop that Holsome’s owner, former chemist Paul Shu, rents the space to.

According to Shu, the longtime spot described on its website as “Princeton’s

Holsome’s rear egress at 27 Witherspoon Street in downtown Princeton.

best kept secret” was the first tea store in the downtown Princeton area, opening in 1996 at 20 Nassau Street prior to moving to its permanent home on Witherspoon. The welcoming white interior, accentuated by an emerald seating area of modest tables and a prime outside view, is a window into the scientist’s second dream.

Holsome has successfully tested Shu’s hypothesis, carrying a combination of three aspects—high-quality teas from around the world, Chinese herbal medicine, and nutritional supplements and vitamins—over 26 years of business, long before you could buy bubble tea on every block.

ext. 110 or e-mail advertise@communitynews.org

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Shu’s teas, whether traditional or flavored, come from a variety of countries, including China, Taiwan, Sri Lanka and India.

“A tea shop like this can do well because our tea’s so different, it’s really so different. You will come to a tea shop to buy tea; you can actually see it, smell it, and taste it,” Shu said. “But if you go online, that quality and service are not there.”

Shu also mentioned that relying solely on descriptions for reference raises the risk of “disappointment,” a scenario easily avoided by providing a physical, pleasant environment for perusing and purchasing tea.

Holsome is open Monday through Saturday from 1 to 5 p.m. Shu’s wife used to help, but he has since encouraged her to do all the paperwork and bookkeeping from home while he oversees the storefront.

Shu is an impressive one-man show, balancing phone calls, brewing tea, and measuring out the leaves waiting to be weighed, which can be purchased for the minimal weight of a quarter pound.

Born in China, Shu moved to Taiwan when he was about 6 years old. In 1965, he came to study in the United States, obtaining a master’s degree in chemistry from the University of Notre Dame and his Ph.D. in the same subject from the University of Michigan.

After graduating, Shu completed his postdoc at the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, then started as a research scientist with 3M, a manufacturing company based in Saint Paul, Minnesota.

ExxonMobil, then known as the Mobil Oil Corporation, used to have a research and development center based in Hopewell Township that offered Shu a position. He arrived in Mercer County in 1981, worked there for 15 years, and registered an estimated 74 patents in his name.

While he trained as a chemist, Shu rarely stuck with a single passion and “always had more than one job at one time,” leading him to found the Whitewaters Swim Team in 1983. Shu is now the acting director, but before he stepped back to focus full-time on Holsome about three years ago, Whitewaters had “the longest history of one coach and the same head coach” in the area.

In 1995, Mobil exited the area, and Shu accepted what he described as a “package deal” for early retirement from Mobil, which left him wondering about what to do next in his career.

Thinking about his family background, Shu knew that both of his paternal and maternal grandparents were “very knowledgeable in traditional Chinese medicine,” even applying what they knew to serve as healers in their hometown communities. Those who practiced Chinese medicine back then, Shu said, were not often

“formally trained in college or university,” learning instead through “self-study.”

But, “more importantly, because Chinese medicine is very closely linked to our philosophy, our Chinese philosophy tends to be [that] we are more into nature; it’s not artificial, so whatever goes harmoniously with nature, that’s the way they approach.”

Shu observed how a greater number of people in America were taking an interest in this practice so “deeply ingrained” in his culture. The supplement industry was also booming, with health stores in malls like GNC making vitamins more accessible to the general public.

Around the same time, Shu had recently discovered his affinity for tea while revisiting Taiwan, returning to America with some that he eagerly shared with friends. Back in the late ‘90s, he said that because America was such a “fast-moving” country, people tended to gravitate towards soda or coffee, consuming the latter in instant form rather than taking the time to properly prepare their morning java.

Shu envisioned a company that would be informed by both his principles and professional experiences in chemistry. Such expertise, he added, allowed him to “pick up new information”—such as how to run a business without official training—quicker.

Because of Shu’s capacity for analysis, he emphasized the importance of remembering how “nature came first; science is after that.”

“Everything is in nature. It’s already there, and we just don’t know enough. We gradually learn more and more about it, but people think we’re discovering it. You didn’t discover it; it was already there. You bumped into it.”

Shu wanted to improve his clients’ quality of life and health under the belief that he could “fundamentally help people’s overall wellbeing” in an informed, practical manner. Now, he sells organic ingredients such as burdock root, goji berries, rosehips, lavender flowers, and peppermint.

By bringing products and tea to an American audience not nearly as familiar with such a market back at the beginning of the 21st century, Shu capitalized on a niche that has since been embraced in the public sphere.

This change can be visibly seen just in Princeton alone, which is now bustling with various shops to buy, try and enjoy tea. Many of these places also sell bubble tea, a sweet, Taiwanese tea-based drink that typically features boba—chewy balls of tapioca “pearls” with a divisive texture—as well as milk, sweetened red bean, coconut-based flavored jellies, and other additions.

“When I first moved to Princeton, Princeton was a sleepy small town, essentially,” Shu said, remembering a time when the shops were scattered solely from Nassau through Witherspoon, as well as in Palmer Square. One of the only businesses still operating, he added, is Small World Coffee, which he believes was the first coffee spot when it opened three years before Holsome in December 1993.

“I’ve seen so many businesses come and go,” Shu said. “Fortunately, I’m still here,” with the owner attributing that to the fact that his “original formula seems to be working.”

Back then, there were numerous banks and a few restaurants in Princeton, but only one chain: a single Burger King. Similar fare was seen as unbefitting of the town’s atmosphere, so when industry giants like Starbucks came along, “that was a shock at the time,” Shu said.

This attitude of wanting the town to “have its own distinct status and reputation,” Shu continued, has now fallen by the wayside in favor of more chain stores.

Shu was pleased that Holsome had been successful “from day one,” and when Urken Supply Co., a family-owned hardware store on Witherspoon, closed in 2002, Shu’s enterprise had the chance to expand into a larger location.

Once he acquired the building, Shu ran

his tea shop in the front, while a multipurpose space in the back served as an art gallery where, “every two months,” a new, local creative would showcase an exhibit of their works.

When a yoga studio on Spring Street closed, Shu gave the equipment, as well as some of the teachers, a new home at Holsome Teas and Herbs. The “Holsome Yoga”’ program ran for years until instructor Gemma Farrell took over and moved the group, now known as “Gratitude Yoga,” to the second floor of 86 Nassau Street in 2018.

Shu acknowledged that although Holsome was able to incorporate more of a holistic flair, the 2008 financial crisis had a significant impact on the company.

Eventually, Shu made the decision to begin renting out the front of the building, which turned out to be a “very valuable” source of income, as Holsome carried on in the rear. To do so, he redid most of the interior, carving out a corridor and a second egress for additional room.

Shu said that Junbi, which means “preparation” in Japanese, opened in March 2021 with a lineup of matcha-forward drinks, bubble teas, coffees and more. Junbi is “very popular for young people,” he added, with bubble tea frequently serving as “the first step” toward regular tea consumption for these generations. Holsome even sold healthier, “unconventional” bubble tea back when they were in the front area, yet now that Shu is without a kitchen of his own, his recommendation is to take full advantage of Junbi’s menu.

The revamped layout at Holsome is still used for a zen meditation class, but Shu is considering converting the old gallery into a place where people can come to sit, study, and learn while drinking tea.

Shu noted that he is more than “happy here” at Holsome’s spot, gesturing to the wide window, a personal request of his, which fills the room with light as it looks out onto the courtyard area. “This is almost like my own backyard. When you sit here, it’s almost like they let me share their garden,” Shu said with a sincere smile.

Throughout times of uncertainty, Holsome Teas and Herbs has remained true to its roots—and name—by inviting customers to pause and savor the simple things in life. “People just come to talk to me for any health advice. If I know, I’m more than happy to provide it,” Shu explained. “My philosophy here is, I like to provide knowledge.”

Shu insisted that he is not interested in any products with unproven abilities or hypes, and everything he does retail has been vetted in terms of efficacy and safety.

Shu has built trust in his relationship with customers over the years, meaning that if someone asks about a particular problem or product, he will be “very hon-

For the past 26 years, Paul Shu, the owner of Holsome Teas and Herbs, has been running a shop that combines his love of tea with Chinese herbal remedies influenced by his family. background.

est” in letting them know the truth, even going so far as to refuse to sell it to them.

Shu said people he has known for years regularly call him for questions and conversations, becoming like his old friends. Many of them have since moved away, but despite the distance, he arranges for products to be delivered to them wherever they are now.

The owner maintained that because such a feature had always been an integral part of Holsome’s business model from the start, he did not notice a dramatic increase in the sale of “natural alternatives” during the pandemic. The modest storefront, which only accepts in-person or phone orders, does not have an online store.

Just as simply, with green tea being the least oxidized and black tea being the most oxidized, Shu’s favorite tea, oolong, is semioxidized and falls somewhere in the middle. Shu said that depending on how much air the leaves are exposed to in production, the color will fluctuate, giving a “different taste and flavor” to the tea.

His recommendations, however, revolve around each person’s individual tea experiences, as a match must “depend on their interest, state, and appreciation level.”

Everyone “has a different value system,” Shu explained, meaning that there are differences between the palates of beginners and those who have dedicated time to honing their taste preferences. He believes that rather than selecting the most expensive tea, an introduction to tea should begin with sampling and exploring flavor profiles through more affordable options.

Shu equated the experience to that of wine, stating that college students are likely to opt for a cheaper option that works for their roommates at the time. But once they develop a discerning palate, those same people might buy “a particular year or variety” at a higher price.

“Tea drinking is very similar to that,” Shu said. With thousands of years of customs and history behind it, the craft has “evolved continuously” throughout time to the point where drinking tea, according to Holsome’s owner, “is almost like an art” in and of itself.

“You can brew a nice cup of tea your way, [with] your knowledge, and then you can appreciate the result,” he said. Shu explained that although manipulating the climate, and temperature can influence the overall flavor of a tea, the maker has a level of control over the final product that far exceeds that of coffee, where the definitions of a dark or medium roast differ from shop to shop.

“If you understand the tea brewing process,” he said, “a good cup of tea is very easy.” While he referred to tea as “more subtle,” Shu also drinks coffee, brewing it with the same care as his tea. Customers who enter Holsome with a cup of java in hand, though, always seem to apologize

Browse the beautiful displays of teas, left, while taking in the charming courtyard view at Holsome, right.

to the owner as if he would look down on them for their choice; when this happens, he reassures them that there is no need to worry over such a trivial detail.

“Coffee and tea—they all can improve our lives, so what’s the big deal?” Shu said.

Since tea is organic, Shu acknowledged that there is no surefire way to ensure the exact consistency of each tea from batch to batch, but he has long established a rapport with producers that allows him to get as close to the same result as possible every time. Despite coming from “the same tea garden, the same facility, the same teamaking master, every year’s different,” he explained, comparing those variations to the harvest from a vegetable garden.

As shops across Princeton may go about tea in a “different style,” Shu shared, he is glad to see the shift in attitudes about what can be savored as a beautifully understated selection, one that is less ubiquitous in America.

Back when Teavana was in business— the now-defunct tea store and mall staple that was bought out, then dissolved by the Starbucks brand—Shu was still pleased, noting that they provided more ways “to introduce average people to tea drinking” on a larger scale.

“We’re all promoting tea drinking,” Shu said in earnest, adding that to create an art and culture of tea here, others must aid the general mission to “broadcast” the practice. Coffee might have reigned supreme at the beginning of Holsome’s journey, but now that people have a better understanding of tea or are eager to learn, the clientele’s choices have changed accordingly.

“I can see many of our customers are coming with good knowledge and taste in tea, and that’s very encouraging. My original idea is working, but it takes some time,” Shu explained.

He has no interest in moving on or elsewhere, keeping busy with over two decades’ worth of dedication and regulars. If he ever does find a successor, Shu said he would need to ensure that their interest in tea is just as strong as his—someone who can apply his scientific precision, as well as Shu’s peaceful understanding and enduring philosophy, to the business.

Tea-For-All

Tea-For-All is located in the north end of the Trenton Farmers Market at 960 Spruce Street in Lawrence, down the main corridor of permanent and rotating vendors, right by the vegan eatery Savory Leaf Cafe and Out Of Step: Offbeat Boutique & General Store.

Ran by couple Deborah “Debbie” and Michael “Mike” Raab, Tea-For-All has been

in business since 2011, opening in the Trenton Farmers Market eight years later in a spot that comes complete with a tea bar and retail space.

Just four months into this long-awaited storefront, though, the COVID-19 pandemic temporarily closed their physical location, so the Raabs, like true tea entrepreneurs, pivoted to take away teas, porch deliveries and off-hour curbside pickups.

Debbie was used to reinventing her approach as the owner and principal; after retiring from a career in corrections in 2009, she honed her business skills through pop-up markets and partnerships. First, she graduated from Trenton State College, now known as The College of New Jersey, with a bachelor’s in sociology and a minor in psychology, then worked in the field for over 30 years, starting as a state social worker before becoming a program director.

Mike joked that Debbie “was terrible at retirement,” because rather than enjoy her free time, she began studying her second interest in tea whenever and wherever she could, with the thought of starting her own, all-encompassing business.

Instead of just focusing on tea and its corresponding products, Tea-For-All centers on education by coordinating a monthly tea club membership program as well as “about 20 or 30 different lectures” that, for a fee, touch on topics from history to wellness. Tea-For-All is also a regular at places like the West Windsor Community Farmers’ Market, where the company can interact with a broader audience.

For January, Tea-For-All is expecting to host more of these educational classes and private tastings “two or three times a week,” while due to the onset of the cold weather, they have been selling more warm beverages such as tea lattes, hot chocolates and apple ciders.

Tea-For-All is currently open from Wednesdays through Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., as well as on Sundays from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. While the Trenton Farmers Market is closed on Wednesdays, several shops remain open to the public and can be entered through their respective entrances, including Tea-For-All, Out of Step, Savory Leaf, and the Lady and the Shallot.

Mike, whose background is similar to Shu’s in their shared love of science, spent 25 years in sales, complemented by his

experiences in engineering and marketing. He received his bachelor’s degree in applied mathematics with a minor in engineering from Northrop Institute of Technology, followed by his MBA from the same institution, which closed as Northrop University in 1990.

Growing up with a dad in the Navy, Mike spent his childhood in “every place that God put water” before living in California for roughly 30 years. Once in the chemical industry, he held a number of managerial, liaison, and leadership positions. Mike’s company, the Chemtura Corporation, wanted to move him to the marketing department on the east coast, so he made arrangements for his teenage son, Andrew, to come along with him.

Once in New Jersey, the plans to bring Andrew fell apart, so Mike let off steam by walking the three miles from Lawrence Square Village to the Quaker Bridge Mall. As he passed by the now-closed store called This End Up Furniture Co., Mike decided to look for a desk for Andrew in the hopes that he could still come in the future.

There, he met Debbie, who was working there as a second job. The two chatted for a long time, and Mike promised to come back once given the official go-ahead. When Mike returned a few weeks later, Debbie was not on shift, so Mike—always a salesman at heart—told her coworker that he wanted to ensure she received credit for the purchase, then passed on a note with his contact information.

The two soon became a couple, bonding over their mutual love for outdoor activities, even training all summer for the MS 150 Bike Tour in Woodstock, a cycling fundraiser for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society. But the week before the event, Mike got sick with the flu, while the facility Debbie worked at had just closed.

Both upset and physically weakened on Mike’s end, they canceled. After he recovered, Mike went out looking for condos with Debbie, having just sold his place in California. When the curious realtor asked about their relationship, Mike confessed to him that he was going to propose to Debbie at Woodstock, which unfortunately was not to be. At dinner that night, Debbie

serve “two benefits: one, it’s a revenue generator, and they’re all profitable, but they also are a major part of our promotion and advertising.”

Their new truck with the Tea-For-All name is hard to miss, and Mike is pleased at how the ruby red ride has been able to build brand recognition from just being out on the road.

“One of the, I hope, infectious things is why people do business with us—because I think we treat people the way we want to be treated. We greet everyone that walks in. We don’t overshadow them,” he said, giving patrons the space to move at their own pace while still providing “accurate knowledge” as needed.

In their travels, the Raabs have traveled to regions like China and Taiwan, but also lesser-known areas of the U.S. that produce tea, such as commercial farms in the states of Mississippi—where they picked, plucked and processed black and green tea firsthand—and South Carolina. Mike added that Tea-For-All is “probably one of the only continental US companies that have Hawaiian tea for sale,” with two visits under their belt and another planned in March.

As a “guiding principle,” Mike and Debbie also want to positively impact younger generations by providing them with opportunities for employment and customer interaction.

“We take them on as our own sons and daughters,” he said. This staff includes another family member interested in tea, the couple’s grandson, John Major IV, or “J.” Another addition to the team is the talent of Kathleen Hippeli, the former owner of One Steep at a Thyme, a Jamesburg tearoom that closed during the pandemic. On Saturdays, Hippeli steps in to help, bringing her expertise and freshly baked goods.

This welcoming atmosphere is perfect for customers who want to expand their tea horizons from the familiar to the esoteric.

“Many people just grew up with a cup of Lipton when they were sick, with some honey in it from grandmom. They don’t really know a lot about the different types of tea,” Debbie said, sharing her own example of how tea can capture the comfort of family love, much like she did with her mother, and then cultivate that into a profound appreciation for the drink.

“Whenever possible, if a customer is not sure that they would like a certain tea—as long as we have the ability to do so—we try to give them a taste so that they can experience it and make their own decision,” she added.

“It’s always amazing to me that I love watching the light bulb go off with people, first of all, when they learn that all tea comes from one plant, and secondly, when they taste five different black teas, and it’s just unbelievable to them at the difference in the flavor profiles.”

Debbie explained that British tea does have its own appeal, but she is “just so much more fascinated with the different cultures of tea” across the globe.

Mike said that they do not sell a single tea that he does not like, but Tea-For-All also counts its vendors as a “backup knowledge base” with a focus on quality control that matches the veracity of their claims.

“Left to my own devices, if I were to pull something off the shelf, it would probably be an oolong or a pu’erh,” Debbie said, the latter being “bioactive,” as Mike pointed out, with a host of health benefits.

The couple includes a good green in their winter rotation but prefers tea without flavors or sweeteners all year. Because TeaFor-All has “a marvelous selection and palate of really excellent quality teas,” according to Mike, he admitted that his tastes in tea have matured. Various additions are available based on customer preference, yet Mike does not mean to downplay the importance of flavored teas.

“Nine out of every 10 cups of tea out of this shop, or any of our pop-ups, it’s going to be a flavored tea. It’s going to be a pineapple coconut, or it’s going to be lemon souffle, or it’s going to be any of these, which are wonderful, strong flavors, and that’s much more accessible to a wider audience,” he said.

Green teas, which the Raabs prefer on the higher end, can also be polarizing if prepared improperly, turning matcha, a type of green tea ground into a powder with a vegetal, nutty, and grassy taste, “almost astringently bitter,” as Mike warned. Matcha is usually associated with either the culinary grade, which should only be used for cooking, or overly sweetened versions where any true flavor is lost amid the other ingredients.

Debbie said that if she has the time to make matcha correctly for a customer who has sworn off it after a bad experience, she will prepare both of the two grades that Tea-For-All carries: one is “very close to ceremonial grade,” or what would be utilized in Japanese tea ceremonies and made from younger tea leaves, while the other is just below it in ranking.

“Four out of five times, the person ends up buying the ceremonial,” she continued, with people able to note the differences in taste between them.

Most customers are coming in exclusively for loose teas, according to Mike. There was also a significant uptick in the purchase of caffeine-free herbal teas, or tisanes, as a byproduct of the pandemic, with many people seeking out other ways to alleviate health symptoms or boost their immune systems. One of these herbal teas, the butterfly pea flower, blooms blue and brews a drink of the same color that transforms into purple when exposed to the acidity of a lemon.

Mike said that he regularly directs custom-

ers who come to him with questions about what teas have the most or least caffeine to the herbal shelf, noting that “even decaffeinated tea has some caffeine in it,” providing an alternative for people with allergies or other concerns.

Without a proper chemical analysis, he continued, a seller cannot properly gauge those qualities in a tea, since countless factors are at play that affect the resulting levels.

“In general, certain tea types have less or more caffeine, but green teas are the perfect example. You drink matcha, and it’s probably one of the highest caffeine contents that you can imagine, as opposed to one of the other green teas that, maybe, is a late-season green tea,” Debbie added.

Since customers have been looking for and requesting more herbal options, the Raabs have been continuing their own learning to be certified in courses about this rising

YEARS

ANNIVERSARY

609-584-5252 www.priornami.com

trend in holistic health. Tea-For-All’s selections reflect the diversity of their customer base, harkening back to countless homeopathic remedies passed down through generations.

While the owners hope to better understand the nuances of products such as licorice root or raspberry leaf, Mike said that Tea-For-All lets the medical professionals study and decide what advantages such products might have.

“People should make [tea] part of their healthy diet, but it’s not going to solve people’s medical issues,” Mike said. “We don’t need to make those claims. We’re happy to tell you what we know the benefits are.”

It’s this everlasting meeting of artistry and philanthropy that encouraged Mike to tell the story about the “Texas bowl,” a vessel for both tea and the tale itself that took the

1666 Hamilton Ave. Hamilton, NJ 08629

RWJUH Hamilton

Scoring Top Nursing Honors: Achieveing Magnet Status Recognizes the Highest Quality Care for Patients

Nurses have been called the backbone of healthcare. At Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital Hamilton (RWJUH Hamilton), an RWJBarnabas Health facility, they provide vital care at the bedside but also promote teamwork, enhance safety, improve patient outcomes, nurture community health, educate staff, provide leadership and more.

As a result of such efforts, RWJUH Hamilton has earned Magnet recognition for nursing excellence from the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC). The designation is the nation’s most prestigious nursing honor—one that only 9 percent of hospitals across the country have achieved. “At RWJUH Hamilton, our nursing team continuously strives to provide excellent care to our patients in an authentic, compassionate way. “We were very excited about being designated for the first time as a Magnet hospital,” says Lisa Breza,

Pieces repaired using Kintsugi, left, and the “Texas bowl,” right.

RN, MSN, NEABC, Senior Vice President and Chief Nursing Officer at RWJUH Hamilton. “It’s not something you just get by applying. “You need to prove that your nursing is consistently exemplary through data, surveys and outcomes for eight consecutive quarters, or two years,” Breza says.

RWJUH Hamilton’s 400-plus nurses excelled even while facing the peak of an unprecedented pandemic. “I’m so proud of our nurses.” “They all work very hard, and our programs are truly outstanding,” says Richard Freeman, President and Chief Executive Officer at RWJUH Hamilton.

Standards of Excellence.

The ANCC considers a number of key criteria that reflect not only best clinical practices but also organizational factors such as leadership structure, shared decisionmaking and education. “Achieving Magnet designation has been years in the making,” Breza says. “We did an analysis of existing practices and executed plans to make sure we met standards for providing exemplary nursing.”

“These honors testify to the outstanding care and compassion our nurses bring to their patients,”

says Dawn Hutchinson, MSN, RN, PCCN-K, and Assistant Vice President of Nursing at RWJUH Hamilton.

Colleagues in Quality. Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital Hamilton is one of six Magnetrecognized hospitals in RWJBarnabas Health (RWJBH), the state’s largest healthcare system. To learn more about Magnet recognition, visit rwjbh. org/magnet

To discover what awaits you or someone you know in a nursing career at RWJBarnabas Health, including Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital Hamilton, visit rwjbh.org/nursing

Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital Hamilton also recently achieved a Leapfrog ‘A’ Hospital Safety Grade for the 13th time underscoring RWJUH Hamilton’s commitment as a High Reliability Organization (HRO). Through the concerted effort of RWJUH Hamilton’s physicians, nurses, staff, volunteers and leadership, patients and families benefit from the highest level of quality care and the safest hospital experience.

To learn more about Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital Hamilton, visit rwjbh.org/Hamilton or call 609586-7900. See ad, page 13.

couple back to about five or six years ago to a Dallas tea festival. One of the seminars featured students from a nearby school district with two of their tea-loving teachers, who had started an after-school tea club for the children.

During this experience, the students were encouraged to go over to a potter’s table, where the sculptor had created matcha bowls of varying structure and size. “If you notice, this one is not perfectly round,” Mike explained, showing the piece in his hand but refraining to call those aspects “imperfections,” calling them the work of an artist.

“This one little girl picked up this bowl, and she said, ‘You see how it’s murky down here and it’s not clear? That’s the early part of my life. I don’t see that. But it gets up here, closer to the top,’” Mike recalled, visibly moved by the memory of her words that day.

“‘It becomes much more clear, and how much more perfectly rounded it is, and how it had these indentations and imperfections at the bottom, but…’” Mike stopped where he was in the story with tears in his eyes.

“We like to see kids succeed, and needless

to say, I bought her bowl,” he finished with a laugh, just in awe at how the children “developed this marvelous relationship over tea because they could all relate to that.”

This theme was reminiscent of the Japanese concept of “wabi-sabi,” which Debbie defined as about “how life’s not always perfect, but learn to find the beauty in imperfection…people aren’t in our lives forever, but accept that and celebrate them for when they are there.”

When someone accidentally broke a bowl at Tea-For-All, another customer, Steve, took it upon himself to practice kintsugi, a Japanese art that breathes new life into fragments by adhreing them again with a golden line of lacquer. Kintsugi, which translates to “golden joinery,” embraces any perceived flaws as part of an improved, more elegant piece of pottery.

For Mike, this built on his resounding message of “Yes, it’s imperfect, but so what? It’s beautiful.” Just as time might need to pass for a bowl to become its most colorful itera-

tion yet, he conveyed that younger people deserve to be given the proper space to heal and process.

As the Raabs aim to help from the heart, Tea-For-All has also been making strides to be more sustainable, whether that is in their packaging or products. Customers are also encouraged to bring their own cups for a discount or tins for refills, as long as they call ahead for the latter so that the owners can ensure the tea is in stock.

It’s an expensive endeavor to be more environmentally conscious, Debbie acknowledged, but one they prioritize given its match with both their values and the aesthetic of the farmers’ market. Trips to the World Tea Expo and possibly Japan are scheduled for the new year, but each endeavor shares the same resounding mission statement that Tea-For-All has always echoed from the two who know it the best.

“I think ours is a story of adaptation and teamwork,” Mike said. “We treat people the way we want to be treated. We try to always

speak with knowledge and understanding of where the customer is, always willing to share what knowledge we have. We’re also willing to be told we’re wrong, or we need to know more, and we charge a fair price for a cup of tea—and a quality cup of tea.”

“We’re having more and more people that are coming in, too, that are saying, ‘we like to come here and get the tea, because we always get an education with it,’” Debbie said, with that love of endless intellectual exploration forming a mutual bond between owners and customers.

“We continually learn about tea. It’s not an endpoint, it’s a journey; that’s one of the things we pride ourselves on,” Mike added.

Shu and the Raabs continue to cultivate their crafts and curious minds with a ceaseless resolve—retiring has never stopped them before—and there is always more tea to pour, more kettles to fill, and more knowledge to impart with an equal helping of smiles.

But if you take anything in your tea, let it be the lesson that these two businesses in Mercer County are serving up cups of endless enthusiasm to ease the brunt of the cold winter season.

Read the full story online at the CNS website, communitynews.org.

AllCure Spine and Sports Medicine

Helping seniors find the right diagnosis and right treatment

AllCure Spine and Sports Medicine is a multidisciplinary family practice that has been in business for over 10 years. Over the past decade, the senior community has been a big portion of our patient demographic. We hear many different complaints week to week, but one of the biggest complaints we see with our seniors is balance and gait dysfunction. As our bodies get older, degenerative changes take place, which can lead to a host of symptoms taking away from your quality of life. This can lead to loss of balance, decreased range of motion, decreased strength, trouble with gait mechanics, and much more. Here at AllCure, we provide the proper imaging and testing to help us diagnose these common complaints before they become debilitating. We always say that a small problem will remain small if it’s treated early enough. We strive to get ahead of each patient’s chief complaints and provide a comprehensive plan of care.

One of the major issues seniors face is getting a proper diagnosis early enough to find effective treatments. In many cases we see that patients are given a prescription for medication that will only treat the symptoms, but not the root cause.

This will lead to worsening symptoms over time and keep patients from an active and independent lifestyle. We pride ourselves in making tailored treatment plans to fit each patient’s individual needs and impairments. There is no one-size-fits-

all approach to healthcare and each patient should be treated with that mindset.

We strongly feel that a multidisciplinary approach is the best way to get patients the care they need and the relief they deserve in a safe, fast, and efficient manner. Our experienced team of providers consisting of chiropractors, physical therapists and acupuncturists collaborate on each case to get the patient the best plan possible to achieve their goals.

We do accept Medicare! We find that most of our Medicare patients don’t have to pay a dime out of their pocket, rather just commit the time and effort.

Please give us a call today and we would be happy to hold a free 10 minute consultation for you or a family member to make sure that you are comfortable and get the correct information to make an important decision for improving your health and quality of life. We look forward to hearing from you!

AllCure Spine & Sports Medicine, 140 Cabot Drive, Suite A, Hamilton. 609-528-4417. www. allcurespineandsports.com. See ad, page 9.

Brothers Anthony Alfieri, DC, left, and Victor Alfieri, DPT.

Hamilton Dental Associates

New Year, New Smile

Smile, it’s a new year! A time that for many means resolutions, and a renewed commitment to health and improvement. A healthy smile is a big part of that, and now you can care for your and your family’s teeth all in one place. When families come to HDA, they are happy because they can take care of their own dental needs while everyone in their family’s oral health is being looked after at the same time. “It’s a win-win,” commented Dr. Irving Djeng, pediatric dentist, “kids get attentive, gentle treatment by a dedicated, specialist team that works only with kids, while parents and adult patients are cared for by our experienced adult staff right down the hall.” Dr. Lauren Levine, pediatric dentist, also commented, “We go to great lengths to make the children feel comfortable because we know that teaching children good oral hygiene at a very young age prepares them for a lifetime of healthy smiles.”

You may have heard the term 6-Month Dental Recall, but what does that mean? A “recall” or “dental recall” visit is a regularly scheduled checkup appointment to help dentists have an ongoing knowledge of the status of their patients’ oral health. These visits are vital to both practice and patients. The more often a patient can meet with their dentist, the better care that doctor can provide. The frequency of appointments is determined by each dentist and usually coincides with a hygienist visit, usually every 6 months or twice a year. A recurring 6 month recall to your dentist is so important to supporting oral and overall bodily health, that many insurance companies outright cover many of

recall services included in the visit!

The basic components of the preventive dental appointment consist of:

• Review and update medical and dental history

• Blood pressure screening

• Oral cancer examination

•Examination of the teeth and periodontal tissues (i.e. gum tissue and supporting bone). This includes a visual examination for signs of dental caries (cavities), other problems with the teeth (chips, broken fillings, etc.), looking for signs of inflammation and infection, and periodontal probing, which measures the depth of the gum pocket.

• Radiographic exam. The content and timing of dental x-rays can vary and are customized to the needs and disease susceptibility of the patient. The dental team weighs risk vs.

benefits when taking dental x-rays, keeping radiation exposure to a minimum

•An actual prophylaxis (cleaning) to mechanically remove any build up or plaque from tooth surfaces.

•Application of a topical fluoride

agent, when indicated.

Usually at the end of the appointment, the dentist will review all the findings and radiographs, make any necessary diagnoses, and recommend treatment, if indicated.

Hamilton Dental Associates (HDA) has been serving Hamilton and the Greater Central New Jersey area for over 50 years. While HDA’s roots are in pediatric dentistry, they also specialize in adult and cosmetic dentistry, orthodontics, oral surgery, periodontics, and endodontics. Patients are treated by specialists in their field. For example, orthodontic treatment is done by an orthodontic specialist, and patients requiring a root canal will be treated by an endodontist — a dentist who specializes in root canals. It’s all done under one roof which is time saving and eliminates the need for multiple referrals.

Come see what all the smiling is about! To request an appointment, call 609-586-6603 or visit

HamiltonDental.com. Locations are 2929 Klockner Road and 2501 Kuser Road, Hamilton, New Jersey.

Happy New Year! We look forward to seeing your smile! See ad, page 12

Physical Therapy

Nutritional Services

Caruso PTRD offers a unique, patient-centered physical therapy approach that offers patients the chance to work closely with a Doctor of Physical Therapy. Our therapists' main goals are to listen to each of your needs and provide individualized care to treat your condition. We want you to get back to being you; whether it's getting you back on the field, back at the office, or back to running around with your children or grandkids! Treating pain is only the first step!

performance, or weight loss goals through an approach that is anything but “cookie cutter”. Our Nutrition Experts, RDN’s,are the ONLY medical professionals qualified to give you nutrition advice. We don’t believe in quick fixes or the latest craze. We believe in life long change without having to sacrifice ANYTHING that makes your life unique!

Pilates Reformer

The most recognized and effective form of safe and successful exercise. Pilates can be tailored to the specific needs of the client to provide injury prevention, rehabilitation and muscle stability work. We offer Private and Semi Private Sessions.

Pelvic Floor Physical Therapy

ATTENTION ALL AGES: Achieve your body composition, sport's performance, nutrition or weight loss goals through an approach that is anything but "cookie cutter". We take the time to learn about you, any medical conditions you may have and tailor to your individual needs. Our Nutrition Experts, RDN's,are the ONLY medical professionals qualified to give you nutrition advice. We don't believe in quick fixes or the latest craze. We believe in life long change without having to sacrifice ANYTHING that makes your life unique! Relax and unplug in our new Salt Room! Offering numerous health benefits such as; providing relief for respiratory

THERAPY

Regenerative Spine and Pain Institute

Treating Pain with PRP and Stem Cell Therapy

Pain.

It gnaws at you. It drains you. It becomes the focus of your life.

Experiencing a few pain-free moments can be euphoric; it makes you realize how long you’ve been living with aches and pain. You might wonder how you can find a solution to relieve the pain and regain your freedom from discomfort.

Dr. Ronak Patel at Regenerative Spine and Pain Institute wants you to know there are two new revolutionary answers to pain relief.

Both platelet-rich therapy — otherwise known as PRP — and stem cell therapy give patients new hope by using the body’s powerful healing power to accelerate the battle against pain. Dr. Patel has seen incredible success implementing these cuttingedge treatments on hundreds of patients suffering from pain-related issues.

So if you are suffering from any of the ailments below, there’s a lifeline.

• Osteoarthritis

• Rotator cuff tear

• Back pain

• Meniscus tears

• Tennis elbow

• Disc herniations

• Tendonitis

• Neck pain

Here’s the best news: Neither PRP or stem cell therapy involves drug use with side effects or any surgical procedures.

Both PRP and stem cell treatments use the body’s own healing resources to repair diseased or damaged tissue — and the results are quite remarkable.

PRP therapy involves injecting concentrated platelets and growth factors into damaged tissue to

stimulate the faster growth of new healthy cells. Platelets are cells that prevent and stop bleeding. If a blood vessel is damaged, the body sends signals to our platelets to get on the job and start the healing. Some call platelets the body’s natural bandage.

So how does PRP therapy work? It’s basically drawing a one small vial of blood from the patient and then using a centrifuge to turn it into a potent and concentrated form of platelets. It is then injected back into the patient. Think of it as a boost of your own blood — only superpowered.

Recovery time for PRP therapy is far shorter than for surgery. Patients usually experience soreness for a week or so, but the gradual improvement soon begins. Unlike

a steroid shot, which gives you immediate relief and quickly wears off, a PRP patient will see pain symptoms improve over a period of months, and up to 80 percent of patients will see relief for up to two years.

Stem cell therapy can be an even more powerful way to harness the body’s healing power. Stem cells are the building blocks for every cell in our body. These powerful cells can be harvested to produce powerful new cells to fight inflammation and disease.

For those suffering from osteoarthritis, stem cell therapy has proven very effective. That’s because the stem cells may help develop new cartilage cells and suppress inflammation. Stem cells can be harvested through a sample of body fat or bone marrow or be harvested from donated umbilical cord tissue.

And yes, you can even augment PRP therapy with stem cell therapy for an even bigger boost!

Stop wondering if you’ll have to live with your pain forever. Contact Regenerative Spine and Pain Institute today at 609-269-4451 or go to www.njpaindoc.com to book an an appointment and learn more. See ad, page 3

Dr. Deolinda Reverendo

I’ve got breast cancer

but I also have an expert team on my side.

RWJBarnabas Health, together with Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey, the state’s only National Cancer Institute-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center, offers the most advanced, patient-centric cancer care for adults and children. Our multidisciplinary teams of nationally renowned oncologists, nurses, oncology nurse navigators, and support professionals ensure a compassionate, comprehensive approach, creating an individualized plan to treat your type of cancer. Our patients have access to innovative clinical trials, precision medicine, immunotherapy, advanced surgical procedures and sophisticated radiation therapy techniques. Visit rwjbh.org/beatcancer or call 844-CANCERNJ.

NCI

Designated Comprehensive Cancer Center

To book a classified ad in this section, please email your text and any other information to mdurelli@communitynews.org. Classifieds run at 75 cents per word with a $20 minimum per month. For more information, call 609-396-1511, ext. 105.

SERVICES

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WANTED TO BUY

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COMMERCIAL SPACE space available in the ewing Professional Park. Comfortable suite currently used by mental health professionals. Waiting room, kitchenette and restrooms in suite. Well-lighted parking lot. Available Jan 1st. For more details, email suppsoln27@ yahoo.com or call Supportive Solutions at 609-635-3751.

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parking. 305-968-7308

Princeton Commercial retail spaces for lease: Various Locations in Town. Please Contact: Weinberg Management. WMC@ collegetown. Text 609-7311630

VACATION RENTALS

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example, the company owns the remaining portion of Newbold Island, located in Burlington County. In the midseventies, the company had intended to build nuclear power facilities there, but was forced to move those operations further south to Salem and Hope Creek. Currently, PSE&G is negotiating with NJDEP to sell its Newbold Island holding to the state under the Green Acres program.

Recently, Chicago-based Hilco Redevelopment Partners purchased 132 acres on Duck Island from PSE&G. The site used to contain two coal-fired power plants. According to a 2019 story in NJ Spotlight, PSE&G reviewed two dozen proposals, finally selecting HRP.

The story said the utility company based its decision on HRP’s “strong environmental track record and success in managing complex redevelopment projects.” HRP has done similar conversions in Boston and Chicago.

The site has been redeveloped into a regional warehouse-distribution hub. Called the HRP Mercer Logistics Park (hrpmercer.com/), the company notes “this state-of-the-art development will access over one-third of the nation’s population and has near proximity to the region’s significant seaport and airport infrastructure.”

How the site and the enhanced traffic will impact the marshlands remains to be seen.

At the moment, Coleman and Leck are more focused on climate change.

“Climate change can increase water levels due to the melting of glaciers. As that water rises in the Delaware Bay and

river, it affects the water in the wetlands,” Leck said.

Many people think the marshlands are salty or brackish because of the tidal action; but Leck said the salt line is below Philadelphia. But, climate change could change all that.

“The saltwater line could move up,” Leck said. And she noted Philadelphia gets its drinking water from the Delaware River.

“If the salt water moves up river,” Leck said, “then Philadelphia would not have the same access to drinking water.”

Coleman observed that a lot of the marsh in the winter, at low tide, looks like mud flats. “In the summer, the marsh is rich with plant life. Change the water level and some plants could disappear,” Coleman said.

And so members of the Friends for the Marsh continue their stewardship of these important marsh areas in concert with many other groups who take care of the river and the tributaries.

“Our role is to increase public awareness of the importance of this resource,” Coleman said. “For example, we recruit stewardship volunteers to help clean trails.” Currently, one of the trail projects involves rerouting a trail on the Bordentown bluffs just north of the property where the Bordentown City Offices now call home. The rerouting of the trail is designed to prevent erosion and involves raking and leveling out a new path for hikers.

People interested in learning more about the marshlands, walking along the trails within the marshlands, or wanting to volunteer, can visit abbottmarshlands.org.

NEWS TO KNOW

THE HAMILTON PARTNERSHIP ANNOUCES NEW CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD AND EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

Shop Small, Shop Local, Shop Hamilton.

As you shop this summer please remember to support our local small businesses and our neighbors and friends who own them. Visit our websites Hamilton-Strong.com and ShopHamiltonNJ.com

Jeannine Cimino Board Chairman Rachel Holland Executive Director

The Hamilton Partnership is proud to announce Jeannine Cimino, as newly elected Chaiman of the Board and Rachel Holland as the newly appointed Executive Director.

Jeannine Cimino Rachel Holland Executive Director The Hamilton Partnership is proud to announce Jeannine Cimino Board and Executive Director.

Since 1993, The Hamilton Partnership has worked with community business leaders, government officials, and private decision-makers to deliver services and employment opportunities that are essential to Hamilton Township’s continued success.

Congratulations to Jeannine and Rachel, the first females to serve in each of their roles!

THE HAMILTON PARTNERSHIP EXECUTIVE BOARD

Jeannine Cimino, Chair, William Penn Bank

Source: Unkown

Rachel Holland, Executive Director

Gregory Blair (Emeritus), Nottingham Insurance Co.

Hon. Jeff Martin, Mayor, Hamilton Township

@thehamiltonpartnership @Hamiltonnjstrong #HamiltonNJStrong

Lee Boss, The Mercadien Group

Gerard Fennelly, NAI Fennelly

Richard Freeman, Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital, Hamilton Frank Lucchesi, PSE&G

Patrick M. Ryan, First Bank

1993, The Hamilton Partnership has worked with community business leaders, government officials, and private decision-makers to deliver services and employment opportunities that are essential to Hamilton Township’s continued success. Congratulations to Jeannine and Rachel, the first females to serve in each of their roles! THE HAMILTON PARTNERSHIP EXECUTIVE BOARD

Since 1993, The Hamilton Partnership has worked with community business leaders, government o cials, and private decision-makers to deliver services and employment opportunities that are essential to Hamilton Township’s continued success.

Tom Troy, Sharbell Development Corp. January 2023 | Hamilton Post

Cimino,

FOR MORE INFORMATION LOG ON TO: WWW.THEHAMILTONPARTNERSHIP.COM

William Penn Bank Gerard Fennelly, NAI Fennelly Richard Freeman, Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital, Hamilton Frank

The Abbott Marshlands in Hamilton have some serene settings despite the intrusion of modern conveniences like powerlines and highways. (Staff photo by Joe Emanski.)

Peace of Mind.

Your insurance shouldn’t be what keeps you up at night. Whether your needs are personal or business related, Nottingham Insurance of fer s an extensive selection of insurance products W ith over 100 years of experience, we work with you to get the right coverage at an af fordable price. So that you can focus on what is impor tant. We’re t here when life happens.

Kschasar.law@gmail.com Your insurance shouldn’t be what keeps you up at night. Whether your needs are personal or business related, Nottingham Insurance of fer s an extensive selection of insurance products W ith over 100 years of experience, we work with you to get the right coverage at an af fordable price So that you can focus on what is impor tant We’re t here when life happens.

ized a person or families, social status or occupation.

In December 2004, Bell lost a close friend in Vietnam veteran Robert J. Goleniecki. His friend was buried in the veterans’ cemetery in Wrightstown.

When Bell and his wife Cathy went to put a wreath on Goleniecki’s grave, they noticed that very few graves had holiday wreaths on them. They thought that was sad, and wished to remedy it.

They promptly went out and purchased 10 more wreaths and placed them on markers around their friend’s marker.

BG William C. Doyle Veterans Memorial Cemetery covers 225 acres and resembles a well maintained park. It is a beautiful space that currently has 4,400 veterans and dependents interred, and total capacity for 171,000. The winding roads that lead to the cemetery are slow and peaceful to travel on.

The cemetery is run like clockwork by the military, and hosts more than a dozen burials on its hallowed grounds every business day. Thousands pay respects to those buried there ever year.

The cemetery was dedicated in 1986 by then Gov. Thomas J. Kean. In 1989, the cemetery was named for the principal behind its development U.S. Army Brigadier General William C. Doyle. The cemetery is managed by the Department of Military and Veterans Affairs.

It is open for burials to eligible New

Jersey Veterans and their dependents. All military veterans are offered burial at no cost including the flush to the ground bronze and granite markers.

Bell, 75, said his father Marvin Bell, was in the Navy and took part in the D-Day invasion. “Bobby Goleniecki fought in Vietnam. We wanted to do something to honor these veterans. I played ball with Bobby. I wanted to honor him,” Bell said.

Bell himself is a veteran of the Air National Guard, serving from 1970 through 1976. Bell graduated from Trenton State College, now The College of New Jersey, and taught in the Hamilton School system to 37 years. He coached soccer at all three Hamilton public schools and won state titles with the boys’ varsity soccer teams from each of them.

Bell now lives in The Villages, near Ocala, Florida. He comes up at the holidays and resides in Columbus during his time back home.

While his dad worked at Roebling Steel, Bell’s mother was a secretary at the Reynolds Junior High School in Hamilton. Jack was a terrific high school athlete, excelling at soccer, basketball and baseball. He was a 1000 point scorer at both Hamilton West and also for Trenton State College later on.

Each year since 2004, Bell visited the veteran’s cemetery and brought a few more wreaths each time. While working a post-retirement job at Saul’s Funeral

Jack Bell, center, with grandson Anthony Palagano and daughter Kristen Palagano at the Brigadier General William C. Doyle Veterans Memorial Cemetery in Wrightstown on Dec. 17, 2022, to lay wreaths on the graves of deceased veterans.

Home, and during subsequent work related trips to the cemetery, Bell noticed that many people did not pick up the wreaths that they decorated their loved ones graves with after the New Year.

The wreaths were thrown in the trash and discarded. Bell and his wife Cathy recycled these artificial wreaths and spruced them up for the following season.

“It seemed like such a shame as these wreaths were in good shape and could decorate someone else’s grave the next year,” Bell said.

When seeing Bell loading all the wreaths into his car a few years in, his neighbor, Joe Santasuosso volunteered to help. Bell’s wife of 44 years, Cathy, who died in 2015, was a big help with the wreath project, and would be sorely missed.

Some of the current helpers are Bell’s partner Bonnie Gaspari, daughter and granddaughter Kristen and Alyssa Palagano, grandson Anthony Palagano, Santasuosso, Rich Linneman, Neil Bencivengo and 20 others. They installed almost 200 wreaths this season.

Through some of the helpers, a Boy Scout troop has become involved also. Some of the Troop 24 based in Beverly help transport the wreaths and honor the veterans with a playing of Taps.

“The wreaths are not fancy. They are different sizes and used again, but we

dress them up. They look nice. It shows we are thinking of the people buried here,” Bell said.

Bell and his team will come back and

pick up the wreaths after the New Year and store them away until the next holiday season.

This year the group met at 9:30 on the

morning of Dec. 17 to install the wreaths. There are about a dozen wreaths that are placed by request on graves of loved ones, of friends of Bell’s.

Wreaths are laid on the ground near the grave markers and secured with a hook. “We are all over the cemetery with the wreaths. It is not a small place, and it is a challenge to find the graves of those requested. The first one we place is Bobby Goleniecki, then the requests and then mostly in the area surrounding Bobby,” Bell said.

Families can locate where loved ones are buried by the cemetery website or at the information center on the grounds.

Bell stores the wreaths in his attic.

“When I started this 18 years ago, I was younger and stronger. I think we are about at our limit now. Two hundred is about all I can handle,” he said.

One of the mottos in the veteran cemetery is attributed to President Abraham Lincoln: “Any nation that does not honor its heroes will not long endure.”

Jack Bell and his band of volunteers are doing just that: honoring our heroes.

“It was sad to see so many graves with no one thinking about the veterans. I wanted to do something to honor them, to honor my father, my friend Bobby and all of them. Honor all the veterans at holiday time,” Bell said.

Volunteers pause to remember departed veterans and their families on Dec. 17, 2022, at Brigadier General William C. Doyle Veterans Memorial Cemetery in Wrightstown.

Township’s free shade tree program still bearing fruit

By Joe Emanski

More than two years have passed since Mayor Jeff Martin’s administration announced that Hamilton Township would begin providing free shade trees to township residents, and the program is still going strong.

In fact, Hamilton’s Department of Public Works is still making its way through the township’s 40 square miles, finishing up the first round of plantings at residential curbsides and in township parks.

And as long as residents continue to request their free trees, Hamilton is looking to continue to provide them.

In September 2020, thanks in part to the efforts of the members of the Shade Tree Commission, Hamilton set aside more than $1 million to remove dead and dying trees and plant new ones around the township.

The township says that the program is funded by private developers who pay into an escrow fund when trees are removed from properties under construction and,

under the law, can only be used for this sort of purpose. Shade Tree Commission chair Robert C. Poppert says that the township planted 641 trees in 2022, including 416 curbside residential trees and 225 more in parks.

Poppert, who is also the township’s supervising planner, says that Hamilton has actually been providing curbside trees to residents who request them for a while. But he calls the program “enhanced” in recent years.

One reason the program has become more popular is because the township has been mailing residents in the last few years, to let them know that the program exists, how it works and to answer some of questions residents frequently ask.

To handle the higher demand, the township divided plantings into eight areas using its snow zone map. Township employees planted 490 trees in zones A through D in 2021, Poppert says.

This year, the township was only able to finish zones E and F because of a rise in the number of requests. The plan is to send mailers out to residents in zones

G and H in 2023, and get those trees planted next fall.

That said, if someone outside zones G and H requests a tree next year, the township will do what it can to fulfill the request.

Every residence is eligible for a free tree — as long as there is a place suitable for planting one. The township first looks to plant trees between curb and sidewalk. If there is no sidewalk, workers will plant the tree in a location that would not interfere with any future sidewalk, should it ever be installed.

On occasion, they have planted trees on the house side of the sidewalk, if the space between curb and sidewalk is too narrow to accommodate a healthy tree. But they will not plant trees farther up into residents’ front yards.

Some frequently asked questions include: Can I get a tree planted in my backyard instead? (No.) Will the tree

lift my sidewalk? (No, they take steps to prevent it.) Will the tree interfere with power lines? (No, when power lines are present, the township will plant a species of tree that won’t grow that tall.) What if the tree dies? (Contact the township, they will assess the situation and take necessary action.) Can I request a specific type of tree? (If possible and advisable, yes.)

Shade Tree Commission member Jim Hunter is a New Jersey-licensed tree expert. He says he was the first tree maintenance worker hired by the township, back in 1986. Today, his title is general supervisor of parks and grounds.

When it is time to assess a possible dead shade tree for removal, Hunter is the one Poppert calls. He is also involved in the process of planning new plantings in the township’s many parks — big ones like Veterans Park, Kuser Park and Sayen Gardens, as well as smaller neighborhood parks.

“We identify areas that could use tree plantings. Over the years we have had to remove quite a few trees that have died and created openings that need to be replanted,” Hunter says.

Poppert says out that the shade tree program does more than just beautify the township; there are environmental benefits as well. He said that, using a tool called the Tree Benefit Calculator, he estimates that the 416 residential trees planted this year will intercept 54,000 gallons of stormwater and sequester about 5 tons of carbon per year, and those figures will only grow as the trees do.

The Shade Tree Commission meets at 6:30 p.m. on the fourth Tuesday of each month at the Hamilton Township Municipal Building. This month’s meeting is scheduled for Jan. 24. Board members include Poppert, Hunter, township council liaison Nancy Phillips, Clint Griggs, Ed Oravsky and Patrick Nemes, and Hunter says the public is more than welcome. “It would be good to see more input from the town,” he says.

Hamilton Township planted 416 free residential shade trees in 2022. (Facebook photo.)

Callahan makes the saves for Hamilton ice hockey

By RiCH FisHeR

Troy Callahan has developed a simple creed to remain sane while playing goalie – One shot at a time.

The Steinert High senior mans the net for the Hamilton tri-op ice hockey team that includes players from Nottingham, Steinert and Hamilton West. It’s not surprising to see over 50 shots pelted at him in one game.

Most times he is up to the task, because he is not thinking about the massive number of pucks heading his way.

“I try not to worry about how many shots I’m gonna get during a game,” he said. “I just worry about the first shot and after that the next shot that comes. That just helps me not worry about if I’m getting 60 shots a game.”

Callahan faced an average of 37 shots on goal last year, and saved an average of 31. He had four games in which he saw over 50 shots and seven when over 40 came his way. The human bullseye had

six games with over 40 saves, including a season high of 51 against Lawrence.

If he were a professional athlete, one could safely say he would have earned his money.

“That’s the whole point of being a goalie; stopping the puck, making saves,” Callahan said. “I get a break when we go down and score a goal. But being a goalie, I just do what I have to do.”

He has done it well since making the Spartans varsity as a freshman. Callahan played just seven games behind the talented Trevor Malik in ninth grade, but made 170 saves on 209 shots.

When Steinert merged with its sister schools in 2020-21, Callahan again backed up Malik and stopped 64 of 71 shots in two games against Robbinsville. That was an abbreviated season due to Covid.

Last year Callahan played all but two games and helped Hamilton tri-op to a 6-13 record after it went winless the previous season.

“It’s a blessing to have a guy like that between the pipes,” coach John Patterson said. “It allows us to set up our entire system based on the fact he can handle that type of workload and handle that many shots. We obviously make a concerted effort to keep the shots coming from the outside and try to eliminate those second and third chances. But when we need him, he’s there.”

Callahan has been “there” since age 6, when he offered his services to play goalie for some mysterious reason. He began hockey at age 4 playing as a skater with IceLand. Upon his moving to the ProSkate in-house program, the team needed a goalie.

“I just said ‘All right, I’ll try it,’” Callahan recalled. “I just volunteered somehow. I don’t even remember why. But I did it.”

He apparently took to it naturally. His memory of those early days is a bit clouded, but he does recall liking the way he looked in uniform.

“I liked wearing all the pads, having these cool looking gloves and blocker and stuff like that. I was a catcher in baseball in little league. It was pretty much like the same thing — blocking the pucks, blocking the baseball,” Callahan said.

He moved on to play travel hockey for Princeton, and is still with that organization. He has tried to hone his game along the way by attending clinics and studying other goalies on YouTube.

“I’ve seen a lot of stuff online,” he said. “I’ve watched videos online, just small things you can utilize to help the way you play and make yourself better. All the small things add up.”

There is nothing better than actual game experience, of course, and Callahan got a ton of that during last year’s high school season. The workload helped him grow as a netminder.

“It just helps you get ready for when the same shots come at you again,” Troy said. “You’re already prepared on where to put the rebound out, when you should

cover the puck. It just helps your experience overall. It gives you more confidence for the next time.”

Confidence is a key weapon in a goalie’s arsenal. Should any negativity creep into the mind, it could be devastating. Which is why Callahan focuses on forgetting about any goal that is scored on him.

“You can’t worry about it too much otherwise they’ll start putting in more. You gotta put it behind you and get ready for the next shot,” he said.

Patterson feels that mindset is one of Callahan’s best attributes, and thinks it trickles down to his teammates.

“He doesn’t let a goal bother him too much,” the coach said. “Like a leader, he comes in and he’s not gonna lay blame like, ‘Oh he should have picked up that guy,’ even though a lot of times maybe they should have. He shoulders that load, he says ‘Hey I should have had that one, I’ll get it next time guys. Let’s get out there and get it back.’ That’s what a leader does.”

Callahan had a brilliant start to this season, making 31 saves in a scoreless tie with Hopewell and kicking out a careerhigh 58 shots in a 5-3 loss to Robbinsville. Despite the 0-1-1 mark as of Dec. 13, there was optimism for this season as Hamilton returns high-scoring Ashton Truelove and Zach Meseroll, along with a core of experienced players.

“We’ve got a really big senior class and a bunch of good guys,” Patterson said. “We know this is our year to make a little noise.”

Callahan agreed, noting that “Whenever you come to practice, you can feel

the chemistry and energy going around. Everyone is ready and excited for the season. That first game we played pretty good, our energy was there, our speed was there. It’s pretty obvious that we’re excited and ready for the season.”

This will be Callahan’s final campaign of scholastic ice hockey, as he will play lacrosse at Cabrini University next year. Troy began that sport in fifth grade and decided to play midfield “so I’m not stuck in the same area for the whole game.” He tallied 41 goals and eight assists last season.

When he is not playing games, Callahan is hitting the books. He is a member of the National Honor Society and has a weighted GPA of 4.08. He volunteers his time to coaching youth hockey clinics with the Mercer Bulldogs and the Devils Learn to Play organization in Princeton. And he has a paying job making sure the skaters are safe during open ice time at the Mercer rink.

Although lacrosse is Troy’s future, Patterson and Callahan are pretty sure that hockey will still be hanging around.

“I’ll probably focus on just lacrosse at school,” Troy said. “But maybe I’ll come back and play for men’s leagues in hockey, stuff like that. I won’t go too crazy, but I don’t know if I want to get rid of a sport right after high school season.”

Patterson is positive he won’t.

“I can guarantee whatever Troy does, he’s gonna be playing hockey, whether it’s a men’s league or some club team,” he said. “You don’t get a guy wired that way and then he just drops hockey after his senior year. There’s just no way.”

Steinert’s Troy Callahan defends the net for Hamilton’s tri-op ice hockey team against Lawrence High on Feb. 16, 2022. (Photo by Amanda Ruch.)

Severe respiratory illness increasing in children: what to know

Ask The Doctor

See our ads in SIX09 section pgs 5 and 7

Uzma N. Hasan, MD, division director of Pediatric Infectious Diseases at Cooperman Barnabas Medical Center, and part of the Children’s Health Network at RWJBarnabas Health, and Seth D. Rosenbaum, MD, MMM, senior vice president, chief medical officer at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital Hamilton, an RWJBarnabas Health facility, discuss symptoms and risk factors of these viruses and respiratory illness, when to seek emergency care, and how to protect your children.

What viruses are currently circulating in children?

Dr. Hasan: An increase in severe respiratory illness in children is being seen across New Jersey, caused by climbing cases of respiratory syncytial virus (commonly known as RSV), the flu, COVID-19, and other seasonal viruses.

RSV, which is being seen in record numbers, causes upper and lower respiratory tract infection, such as a common cold and pneumonia/ bronchiolitis.

Infants, in particular those who are premature, as well as children with asthma and those born with cardiac disease, weakened immune systems, and neurological deficits are at risk for severe illness.

While influenza and COVID-19 can affect various systems in the body, they commonly cause varying degrees of respiratory illness. We expect this flu season to be the worst we have seen in recent years. Going into our third winter of the pandemic, we can rely on historic knowledge to anticipate an uptick in COVID cases during the winter months as people spend more time indoors.

What are common symptoms of these viruses?

Dr. Hasan: Symptoms of RSV, the flu, COVID19, and other viruses are similar so it is difficult to identify which virus(es) is making your child sick.

Common symptoms include fever, nasal congestion, cough, sore throat, headaches, body aches, loss of appetite, and fatigue. Less common symptoms may include vomiting and diarrhea. In some cases, however, these viruses can sometimes lead to difficulty breathing, wheezing, and asthma flare.

For the most part, RSV symptoms are that of a common cold/upper respiratory tract infection. The virus, however, is also notorious for causing lower respiratory tract infection — such as bronchiolitis or pneumonia.

As the virus typically peaks at 3-5 days after the onset of symptoms, be aware that wheezing will often be a presenting symptom.

Key flu symptoms are high grade fever, severe muscle aches, vomiting, diarrhea, and feeling overall miserable. In severe cases, complications may include brain or heart inflammation, ear infection, and pneumonia.

When should I call my pediatrician or seek emergency care for my child?

Dr. Rosenbaum: You can always call your pediatrician for guidance whenever your child is ill. However, if your child is exhibiting new onset wheezing or violent coughing, you need to call your pediatrician right away. Additionally, if your child is exhibiting any sign of respiratory distress or difficulty breathing –such as rapid and shallow breathing, belly breathing, struggling to finish and the area around the lips turning blue or grey – as well as insufficient fluid or food intake, bring them to the emergency department right away or call 9-1-1.

Why is this year’s respiratory virus season much worse than in recent years?

Dr. Rosenbaum: We believe that we had a milder viral season the last couple of years because of all the preventive measures in place during the COVID pandemic. Masking, social distancing, and school closures did not allow the usual spread of viruses, which may have impacted our immunity to these viruses.

FRiDAy, JANUARy 6

Healthified Favorites (HYBRID), 1 to 2 p.m. Join in-person or from the comfort of home as we take the guilt out of guilty-pleasures.

MONDAy, JANUARy 9

Pantry Basics Deep Dive “Bread” (VIRTUAL), 10 a.m. to Noon. Let’s take a closer look at some of those pantry staples! Join us as we dive deep to uncover the history, science, and processing behind some of our go-to pantry favorites.

THURSDAy, JANUARy 12

Hearing Loss and Tinnitus, 10 to 11 a.m. It’s not uncommon for individuals to have tinnitus with hearing loss. Join Dr. Lorraine Sgarlato, Au.D, to learn about the latest in technology to help treat tinnitus and hearing loss.

FRiDAy, JANUARy 13

Jazz Up Pantry Basics “Bread,” 1 to 2 p.m. There’s more to our pantry staples than meets the eye. Learn the nutritional value of overlooked basics and how to make them stand out!

MONDAy, JANUARy 16

Cyberbullying: Dealing With the Haters, 1 to 2 p.m. Cyberbullying can harm the online reputation of anyone. There are distinctive concerns involved, since it can be persistent, permanent, and hard to notice. In this discussion, increase your digital awareness about the online world.

TUESDAy, JANUARy 17

Orthopedic Open House: Joint Replacement, 6:30 to 8 p.m. Discover the latest advances in knee and hip replacement surgery. Learn how the Center for Orthopedic & Spine Health and our rehabilitation team prepare you for a successful joint replacement. Presented by Michael R. Duch, MD, a board-certified orthopedic surgeon fellowship trained in sports medicine, along with Maureen Stevens, PT, DPT, GCS, Cert MDT, and Courtney Fluehr, PT, DPT. Dinner is included.

THURSDAy, JANUARy 19

We are a dedicated team of board certified physicians who provide high quality healthcare to newborns, children, and adolescents through college age.

Scheduled appointments and same day sick visits are available weekdays, evenings, and Saturday mornings.

To learn more about Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital Hamilton, visit rwjbh.org/Hamilton or call (609) 586-7900. For more information about children’s health, visit rwjbh.org/ childrenshealth.

Coming up this month at RWJU Hospital Hamilton

For more information, call (609) 584-5900. Registration required for all programs. To register for a program or for schedule changes go to rwjbh.org/events or call (609) 584-5900.

Clinical Culinary Nutrition: Meal Planning and Food Prep, 5 to 6:30 p.m. Get up to date on current nutrition issues, hear from other health/ culinary professionals and sample tasty new recipes with our registered dietitians. Let’s support lifestyle changes for preventive health! Come by to learn how to prepare food for a stress free week of healthy meals. Space is limited— register at least 48 hours prior to event.

Fee: $10. Taryn Krietzman, RD

TUESDAy, JANUARy 24

A Meditation Sampler for Everyone, 6:30 to 8 p.m. We will feed the body with a few simple movements to clear and ground us. Sample different meditation methods to explore which one works for you. Bring a towel or yoga mat; chairs will be available. Fee: $15. Carol Ann Meier, Reiki

Master

Dr. Rosenbaum

Dr. Hasan

Welcome to

Health.

When someone you care about is sick, you’ll do whatever it takes to make sure they get the best care. And so do we. With a collaborative structure so our doctors can craft a treatment that’s uniquely right for you. With primary care physicians who never schedule an appointment that’s less than 20 minutes. With world-renowned surgeons that are changing cancer treatment.

Because you’d go to the ends of the earth for the people you care about. And we do too.

how far would you go if they were sick?

Hamilton Township Fire Division responded to 612 incidents in November. Included in the calls were 22 building fires, 5 vehicle fires, 9 other type fires, 1 overpressure incident with no fire, 16 medical assists, 259 emergency medical service incidents, 2 lock-ins, 6 extrications/rescue incidents, 1 flammable liquid call, 15 combustible spills and leaks, 7 hazmat calls, 3 electrical wiring problems, nine service calls, 1 person in distress, 9 water problems, 10 public service assistance, 1 unauthorized burning, 4 cover assignments, 9 good intent calls, 74 calls dispatched and cancelled enroute, 14 calls wrong location, 2 calls steam mistaken for smoke, 4 hazmat investigations with no hazmat, 10 false alarms, 38 detector malfunctions, 52 unintentional system/detector operations with no fire, 2 special type incidents and 27 other type incidents.

Hamilton Fire Captains Kinte Holt and Chris Mull have been promoted to battal-

ion chief

Following are a selection of incidents covered by the fire division in November.

Nov. 1 at 7:15 p.m. Squad 12 with Capt. Michael Sanna, Truck 17, Engine 14, Engine 18 Colonial Special Services 18 and Battalion Chief Patrick Sullivan responded to Trenton Avenue where the porch was on fire next to the living room.

Arriving unit transmitted the “All Hands” assignment adding Squad 16 and Truck 13 to the response. Fire was investigated by Fire Marshal Jeff Peoples.

Nov. 2 at 1:27 a.m. Engine 15, Truck 13, Engine 14, Squad 16 and Squad 12 responded to QuickChek, South Olden Ave. for a building fire where the 9-1-1 caller reported smoke coming from the bathroom.

Nov. 3 at 9:02 a.m. Truck 17 with Capt. Shane Mull dispatched along with Lawrence units to Gordon Ave for a reported dwelling fire on the second floor.

Nov. 3 at 2:01 p.m. Squad 12 with Capt. Josue Garcia responded to Eaton Ave. and Whitehorse Mercerville Road for a person burning leaves.

Nov. 4 at 6:26 a.m. Engine 19 with Capt. Michael Danbury, Truck 13, Squad 16

and Deputy Chief Steven Kraemer dispatched to Applegate Drive, Robbinsville for a reported building fire.

Nov. 5 at 7;02 a.m. Engine 19 with Capt. Joseph Muzzillo dispatched to Banker Dr., Upper Freehold for a residential fire alarm.

Nov. 5 at 4:15 p.m. Squad 12 with Capt. Joseph Flynn and Truck 17 dispatched to Kite Ct., Lawrence Square Blvd. for an apartment fire with alarms gong off and smoke showing.

Nov. 6 at 3:39 a.m. Engine 19 with Capt. Joseph Muzzillo, Squad 12, Squad 16, Truck 13 and Battalion Chief Jason Ryan responded to 700 block of Yardville Hamilton Square Road for a dwelling fire. Back porch on fire. The “All Hands” assignment was called. Hamilton Police knocked down the fire on the exterior, firefighters checked to interior for extension. Fire Marshal was requested to the scene along with Colonials Special Services 18.

Nov. 7 at 12:29 p.m. Engine 14 with Capt. Kinte Holt, Squad 12, Truck 13, Squad 16 and Battalion Chief Timothy Sharpley Sr. dispatched to 200 block of Park Lane for a structural collapse. 911 caller reported her ceiling has caved in. Nov. 7 at 5:31 p.m. Engine 19 with Capt. Michael Sanna, Truck 13, and Deputy Chief Steven Kraemer responded to Highbridge Road, Bordentown for a residential smoke detector alarm.

Nov. 8 at 12:25 Truck 17 with Capt. Jason Bergstrom dispatched to 300 block of Marshall Ave. for an assist to Hamilton Police.

Nov. 8 at 5:56 p.m. Engine 18 with Capt. C Balog, Squad 12 and Battalion Chief Nicholas Buroczi Sr. dispatched to Warrior Way, Robbinsville for a reported dwelling fire.

Nov. 8 at 11:53 p.m. Squad 12 with Capt. Kevin McElroy disatched as Rapid Intervention Team to Tower Club, Princeton University for an interior smoke condition.

Nov. 9 at 8:46 a.m. Truck 13 with Capt. Joseph Pushman, Squad 16, Engine 15 and Battalion Chief Patrick Sullivan responded to Copperfield Dr. for an interior gas leak. Odor of gas from the stove area.

Nov. 10 at 12:28 a.m. Truck 13 with Capt. Steven Dixon, Squad 16, Squad 12, Engine 15 and Battalion Chief Jason Ryan dispatched to 300 block of Sharps Ln. for a reported dwelling fire.

Nov. 11 at 1:07 p.m. Squad 12 with Capt. Josue Garcia dispatched to Carriage Park, Colts Circle for reported apartment fire. Fire alarm, pull station on third floor. Nov. 12 at 10:40 a.m. Engine 14 with

Capt. Nicola Creo dispatched to cover Station 31, Prospects Heights Fire Co., Ewing.

Nov. 13 at 8:46 p.m. Squad 12 with Capt. Joseph Flynn responded as Rapid Intervention Team to 500 block of Brickhouse Road, Princeton for an oven fire.

Nov. 14 at 6:25 a.m. Squad 12 with Capt. Joseph Flynn responded to Alan E. Gershan Apartments for an elevator rescue.

Nov. 15 at 11:15 a.m. Squad 12 with Capt. Josue Garcia and Battalion Chief Timothy Sharpley Sr. responded to 3060 Quakerbridge Road for a vehicle with the engine compartment on fire.

Nov. 15 at 1:59 p.m. Squad 12 with Capt. Josue Garcia, Truck 17 and Battalion Chief Timothy Sharpley Sr. dispatched to 100 block of Albert Way, Princeton for a dwelling fire. Oven reported on fire. At 2:46 p.m. Truck 17 with Capt. Shane Mull responded to 1800 block of Stuart Road, Princeton for smoke detector activations.

Nov. 15 at 2:53 p.m. Engine 14 with Capt. Kinte Holt dispatched to Station 30, Ewing Twp. Fire Dept. for a cover assignment.

Nov. 17 at 8:36 a.m. Engine 15 with Capt. Andrew Kmiecik dispatched to 1400 block of Whitehorse Mercerville Road for a comerical fire alarm.

Nov. 19 at 1:04 a.m. Engine 18 with Capt. Bernard Crammer, Engine 19, Truck 17 and Battalion Chief Keith Greene responded to 1200 block of State Hwy 33 for an electrical problem.

Nov. 21 at 2:47 p.m. Squad 16 with Capt. Jarred Pierson responded to Twin Rivers, East Windsor for a hazmat assignment. Caller reports injterior gas leak, smells like cyanide.

Nov. 22 at 10:07 a.m. Engine 19 with Capt. Nicola Creo, Truck 13 dispatched to Tekening Way for a gas leak.

Nov. 22nd at 6:35 p.m. Engine 19 with Capt. William Kohut, Truck13, and Deputy Chief Aaron Heller responded to Route 156, Yardville for a Hazmat release.

Nov. 23 at 12:40 a.m. Truck 13 with Capt. Jarad Gadsby, Engine 15, Squad 16 and Deputy Chief Aaron Heller dispatched to Stenton Court for a smoke alarm activation.

Nov. 23 at 7:02 p.m. Truck 17 with Capt. Shame Mull dispatched to 2300 block of State Hwy 33, Robbinsville for an oven fire,

Nov. 23 at 8:33 p.m. Squad 12 with Capt. Chris Mull, Engine 18, Truck 17, Squad 16 and Battalion Chief Timothy Sharpley Sr. dispatched to Tar Heels Road for a reported dwelling fire.

Nov. 24 at 2:55 a.m. Engine 14 with Capt. Kinte Holt responded to 400 block

of Atlantic Ave for an uncontrolled water leak.

Nov. 24 at 10:24 a.m. Engine 15 with Capt. Jarad Gadsby, Squad 16, Truck 13, Squad 12 and Battalion Chief Ferd Mather responded to Panfill Lane for a oven fire.

Nov. 24 at 11:27 a.m. Truck 13 with Capt. Harold Summers, Squad’s 12, 16, Engine’s 14, 15 and Battalion Chief Ferd Mather dispatched to Winding Brook Apartments for smoke coming from one of the apartments.

Nov. 24 at 5:21 p.m. Engine 14, Squad 12, Squad 16, Truck 13 and Battalion Chief Ferd Mather responded to 200 block of Nottinghill Lane for an appliance fire.

Nov. 24 at 5:35 p.m. Engine 19, Engine 18, Truck 13 and Robbinsville Squad 40 dispatched to Cracker Barrel of Hamilton for an odor of smoke.

Nov. 24 at 6:13 p.m. Squad 12 with Capt. Joseph Flynn, responded with Lawrence Township units on the first alarm to 2600 block of Princeton Pike for a dwelling fire. Heavy smoke was reported on the second floor of the dwelling.

Nov. 25 at 12:53 p.m. Squad 12 with Capt. Steven Dixon dispatched along with Princeton units to Morven Place, Princeton for an interior smoke condition in the basement.

Nov. 26 at 11:47 a.m. Engine 18 with

Capt. Bernard Crammer, Squad 12, Truck 17 Squad 16 and Battalion Chief Keith Greene dispatched to 600 block of Paxson Ave for a reported dwelling fire.

Nov. 26 at 4:29 p.m. Squad 12 with Capt. Eric DeVita, Engine 18, Truck 17 and Battalion Chief Keith Greene dispatched to first block of Tar Heels Road

for an odor of gas inside the dwelling.

Nov. 26 at 4:35 p.m. Truck 13 with Capt. Joseph Pushman, Squad 16, and Deputy Chief Aaron Heller dispatched to RWJ University Hospital for an elevator rescue.

Nov. 27 at 8:31 a.m. Engine 19 with Capt. Chris Mull, Truck 13, Squad 16 and Deputy Chief Steven Kraemer responded

to assist Bordentown Fire Department at an apartment fire in the 200 block of Farnsworth Ave.

Nov. 29 at 7:34 p.m. Engine 19 and Truck 17 dispatched to The Lofts, 2300 block of State Hwy 33, Robbinsville for a commercial fire alarm.

Nov. 29 at 7:44 p.m. Engine 15 with Capt. Nicola Creo dispatched for an uncontrolled water leak in the 300 block of Hutchinson Street.

Nov. 30 at 11:42 a.m. Squad 12 with Capt. Eric DeVita and Truck 13 responded to Lawrence Town Hall, 2207 Lawrence Road for a fall victim on the roof.

Nov. 30 at 8:22 p.m. Truck 17 with Capt. Raymond Pierce, Squads 12, 16, Engines 14, 18 responded to Alvin E. Gershan Apartments for smoke in the 4th floor hallway. Cause was determined to be careless cooking.

Nov. 30 Deputy Chief Aaron Heller completed his final shift. Retiring after 32 years of service to Hamilton Township. Heller began his career at Groveville Fire Company, HTFD#9, working his way up to chief. Upon consolidation, he was deputy chief of Hamilton Fire Division.

Bob Sherman, Jr. is an honorary chief and life member of Mercerville Volunteer Fire Company and a Hamilton resident.

Hamilton Fire Division. Engine 18 “C” Platoon Captain Christopher Conti, Firefighters Michael Lombardo and Ian Riddell. (Photo by Bob Sherman, Jr.)

Finishing up a degree in digital arts and multimedia design with a minor in art history is Kiara Santiago. The Hamilton resident has a fresh outlook, and is focused on a career in the arts.

Though art was not her original chosen path, Santiago has pursued her passion and is motivated to succeed. It is refreshing to hear a new voice and that even in this digital world, an artist’s favorite tools can still be charcoal and paper.

How did you begin going to school for art and what is your schooling focused on?

I had decided to go to school for nursing during my senior year of high school because I convinced myself it was what I wanted. I got into LaSalle University with a major in health and sciences, but as my freshman year of college progressed, I realized it wasn’t my passion.

Growing up, I was always into drawing and creating things, but told myself going that route would never lead to success. As I grew unhappy with school, I finally decided to drop health and sciences to become a digital arts major. I became extremely interested in my classes and felt like I was finally able to truly express my creativity while also striving for a professional career.

The program at LaSalle focuses on digital artistic expression and multimedia design. We were taught animation in 2D and 3D, digital photography, web scripting, and so much more. Since the moment I decided to switch majors, I knew things were going to change in a more positive way for my future.

I recently added art history as a minor, and have been obsessed with learning the background of the art we know and love today.

What media do you use, and what is your favorite?

I grew up using a pen for drawing, I really liked the way the dark bold lines made the art more pronounced. I think because I enjoyed using a pen so much, it led me to want to learn how to use graphite pencils to create more realistic art using the grayscale and shading.

Throughout college, I have also been taking courses that teach how to use charcoal and willow, which have recently grown to be my favorite form of media.

What fight/struggle do you have regarding your art?

I often feel as though I allow my personal issues in life to get in the way of my artistic process and creating more

pieces. I tend to grow very doubtful of my work and begin to question if my art is even worth noticing.

This often puts a physical and mental limitation on what I think I am capable of. I would to be able to gain confidence in my work so that I can create more things for my own pleasure, rather than for the approval of society.

I also struggle with self-marketing. I would love to get better at promoting my skillset person to person, through my social media platforms and on my website.

Which career path are you pointed toward? What are your expectations?

I have juggled many different career paths since becoming a digital arts major, from animator to web designer, but I could not decide. But when I decided to become an art history minor, I felt as though I found my professional calling. After college, I would like to earn my master’s degree and earn my way to becoming a curator.

I fell in love with learning the world’s history through artwork and would love to have the opportunity of running a gallery one day in the future.

How do you find studying art is different from other studies?

I feel as though studying art has opened me up so much more to our world and the social issues we have dealt with for centuries. I have come to better understand creativity from the artists’ perspectives and realized how much impact art truly has on the world.

Who are your artistic influences?

In my middle school art classes, we were learning about artists like Frida

Kahlo, Georgia O’Keeffe, and Pablo Picasso. Picasso always stuck with me because I was always drawn more toward his expression of abstract and color application.

I began to look further into abstract art and discovered surrealism. I immediately fell in love. I began to discover other artists like Salvador Dali, Remedios Varo, and Wilfredo Lam. Their artwork inspired me to express myself freely through my art while also understanding art does not always have to be serious.

How is your family supportive of your studies and career path?

My family has encouraged me since day one to pursue art. I am very fortunate to have such a supportive family who encourages me to continue creating things and pushes me. Ever since I was a little girl, they would buy me art supplies for Christmas and birthday because they knew how much I loved doodling.

I will never forget the day I decided to tell them I no longer wanted to become a nurse, and how proud they were of me for finally deciding to pursue my passion.

What was the most challenging class you had at college?

The most challenging class I had in college was web design using HTML and CSS language. I never considered myself to be tech savvy, so having to basically code a website from scratch was challenging.

Where can we see your work?

To see my work, I have created a website to sell prints of some of my previous drawings and paintings. I also promote my artwork on my Instagram page, which is dedicated only to my creations and the process behind a few of them.

What are you looking forward to?

Upon earning my bachelor’s degree this upcoming spring, I am planning to continue my education and attend graduate school for a master’s degree in curatorial studies. I intend to find work within the field while attending school and of course, will continue to create more art in the process.

A dream of mine is to one day have the opportunity of curating my own artwork for a gallery.

Kiara Santiago on Instagram: kvs. designs. Online store: kvskustomzdesignz. com. Email: kvskustomzdesignz@gmail. com.

Thomas Kelly is a Hamilton-based artist and member of the Hamilton Arts Council. His work can be found at thomaskellyart.com.

Left: Hamilton artist Kiara Santiago. Right: “Divinely Prosperous,” charcoal on paper by Kiara Santiago.

Thomas Kelly

Testing my resolve… with New Year’s resolutions

By the time you read this, the New Year will have arrived, or nearly so. Long ago, my wife and I resolved to write our resolutions for each New Year on a slip of paper and place them inside a Christmas ornament. The plan was that the next year, while unpacking the holiday decorations, we’d open the ornament and bask in the glow of this reminder of our successful self-improvement.

But as it turned out, we usually just had a good laugh at our failures. That ornament-stuffing resolution, like many over the years, has been forgotten—but it lasted longer than most.

Many New Year’s resolution experts—a job title that does not require a track record of successfully making and keeping resolutions, by the way—say that people often make the mistake of being too vague or too ambitious in setting goals. It’s easily seen in our monthlong usages of yearlong gym memberships, or dietary changes that last until the first temptation or stressful moment (or maybe the second, or the third).

Learning from the experts, I

decided to make several small, specific resolutions this time, instead of one big one. My new motto: “A modest goal is easily met.” Also, since one of my past goals was to stop procrastinating, I decided to take two weeks in December and get my resolutions out of the way before the New Year.

There are three skills I don’t possess that might make for good resolutions. The first, inspired by an “epic fail” escape room experience and regular episodes of Survivor, was the ability to do a slide puzzle quickly. The second, blowing a bubble with bubble gum, was something I never learned in childhood, resulting in years of secret shame whenever people popped away around me. The third, making a loud, shrill whistle using one or both hands, just seemed like something that could come in handy one day, especially if I found myself needing to quickly summon a horse, cowboy-style.

I thought unlocking the key to slide puzzles would be easy. A friend once showed me the technique for solving a Rubik’s Cube, based on the application of a series of algorithms; a 2-D slide puzzle had to be simpler than that, right?

Sure enough, there are a few step-bystep guides available to read online. After

reviewing them, I found a website that offered free slide puzzle challenges, and off I went.

There are many varieties of slide puzzles—3x3, 4x4, 5x5, each referring to the number of rows and columns— filtered down to two basic types: numbered and unnumbered. I started with numbered, which means each tile has not just a small piece of a larger picture, but also a number indicating its final position in the solved puzzle.

Bobby Fischer famously solved a “15 Puzzle” (4x4 numbered slide puzzle) in 17 seconds on The Tonight Show in 1972. My own attempts took a bit longer. I focused on 5x5 numbered puzzles, and an early effort took over 20 minutes and 1,000 moves. In 20 additional tries over the course of two weeks, I made steady improvement, topping out at 216 moves in 2 minutes, 59 seconds. This was encouraging—it wasn’t too late to teach this old dog some new tricks. It was enough of an improvement that I deemed my goal completed. (Tackling unnumbered slide puzzles would have been less enjoyable and more time consuming, so I was happy to skip past that particular rabbit hole.)

My other two resolutions would prove significantly more difficult to pursue. With the aid of that which makes all things possible—YouTube tutorial videos—I endeavored to uncover the secrets of bubble blowing and hand-aided whistling. I did learn several things, including the fact that watching close-ups of people chewing gum and sticking their fingers in their mouths isn’t very appealing. I moved on to diagrams and step-by-step written instructions instead.

Armed with a pound of individually wrapped Dubble Bubble gum (one of the gums of choice for bubble-blowing champs), I monitored my own efforts with a hand mirror, as recommended by most tutorials. Witnessing every halting bit of progress was like watching a baby deer learn to walk, except not as beautiful or as quick. If bubble blowing were as essential to survival as a fawn moving upright, I’d be easy pickings for any predator. I wanted to avoid embarrassment by conducting these exercises in private, but a bubble just wasn’t happening. With a sugary coating on my teeth, and my hat and gum in hand, I was forced to beg the consultation of two expert in-house bubble blowers: my wife and daughter.

We sat for an hour or so, chewing a modern version of modified tree bark, just as natives of Central America had centuries before. Like those natives,

we talked and laughed, though the laughing was mostly at my expense. My family members would share tips and demonstrate bubble-blowing techniques; I’d try to duplicate their actions, getting closer to success but never really arriving.

“It’s so easy!” my wife said repeatedly. First she put the emphasis on “so,” then on “easy,” then, as her patience began to falter, on both. After more practice, I managed to produce a bubble around an inch in diameter. It only existed for a brief moment, but it didn’t matter. My resolution wasn’t to set the Guinness world record for bubble blowing, just to learn how to do it. Mission accomplished. My third goal, whistling loudly with one or two hands assisting, proved to be the most challenging of all. I can puckerwhistle just fine, and even carry a tune, but in adding a hand to the mix, I might as well have slapped it over my mouth and saved a lot of time and trouble. My face turned red, veins bulging in my head as I blew forcefully over and over, to no effect. Finally, after many, many attempts, I heard a sound that resembled the loud, high-pitched one I aspired to create.

Like the bubble, it was ephemeral— quickly come and gone, and not to be repeated anytime soon. Still, it did happen once, and therefore never needs to happen again; technically, I did learn to whistle.

Self-improvement rarely comes easily. Trying to repeatedly expel air, whether through a barrier of ill-prepared gum or through a tiny opening in one’s lips, is kind of like suffocating in reverse. Between the staring at slide puzzles, the gum chewing, the lip and tongue manipulations, and the intense concentration, I had a headache throughout the entire two-week process. Was it all worth it? Probably not, but at least if the subject of New Year’s resolutions comes up—and be warned, I may be directing conversations that way for the foreseeable future—I’ll be able to say I’ve already set and achieved mine. While my friends and neighbors struggle to better themselves in more traditional ways, I’ll be lounging about, enjoying the new, improved, and self-satisfied version of myself. Happy New Year, suckers!

Peter Dabbene’s website is peterdabbene.com and his previous Hamilton Post columns can be read at communitynews.org. His latest works, the story “Farewell Tour” and the poem “The Lotus Eater” can be read at potatosoupjournal.com and blueasanorange.weebly.com/ current-issue.

Peter Dabbene