AROUND TOWN Somerset Patriots tribute game to honor Black baseball

The Stoutsburg Sourland African American Museum is partnering with the Somerset Patriots for their inaugural Negro League tribute game on Sunday, Aug. 27.

The Somerset Patriots will honor the New York Black Yankees at the TD Bank Ballpark in Bridgewater. The Patriots take on the Hartford Yard Goats (Colorado Rockies) at 1:05 p.m.

SSAAM, central New Jersey’s only museum telling the story of African Americans in this region from the time of the transatlantic slave trade to the present day, supports this event honoring the history and legacy of the New York Black Yankees: a Negro League baseball team of the 1930’s and ’40s. At a time when Major League Baseball excluded Black athletes, Negro League teams gave African Americans a path to play professional baseball.

On Aug. 27, the Somerset Patriots will play in special jerseys with the SSAAM logo as well as a newly-designed logo honoring the Black Yankees. These game-worn jerseys will be auctioned off live after the event to benefit SSAAM’s mission and educational programming.

“I’ve loved baseball since rooting for the 1986 championship-winning Mets, but my history with the sport is a bit deeper,” said SSAAM executive director Donnetta Johnson.

Johnson grew up near Ebbets Field in Brooklyn, and attended Jackie Robinson Junior High School. “Jackie Robinson was a groundbreaking sports and civil rights hero to me and I’ve always been proud that I was born the year Jackie Robinson was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame,” Johnson said.

Jackie Robinson got his professional start in baseball in the Negro Leagues, as did Black ball players from the Sourland region. SSAAM co-founder Elaine Buck’s

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Twitter: twitter.com/mercerspace cousin, Roy “Campy” Campanella, was a Hall of Fame Brooklyn Dodger who first played in the Negro Leagues and Mexican Leagues. Buck remembers Campanella visiting her childhood home in a big car with candy for all the children.

11,000 copies of the Hopewell Express are mailed or bulk-distributed to the residences and businesses of Pennington, Hopewell Township and Hopewell Borough 12 times a year.

SSAAM co-founder Beverly Mills’s father William Wallace Smith, known as “Shud,” was a player for the Pennington All-Stars in the 1940s. Board member Patricia Payne, who grew up at the True Farmstead—a historically African American Farmstead now part of the SSAAM campus in Skillman—during the 1940s and ’50s, fondly remembers watching her baseball heroes play in person.

Payne recalls attending many local, New York, and Philadelphia Negro League, American League, and National League games.

Tickets for the tribute game, supporting SSAAM and Minor League Baseball’s “The Nine” initiative, are available at so6. glitnirticketing.com/soticket/cms/view. php?id=tile_SSAAM.

For more information about the Somerset Patriots Black Yankees tribute game on August 27, visit www.milb.com/ somerset/community/black-yankees.

To learn more about the Stoutsburg Sourland African American Museum, visit ssaamuseum.org.

8th annual Full Moon Bike Ride set for September

On Saturday, Sept. 30, the Lawrence Hopewell Trail and Mercer County Park Commission will host their eighth Full Moon Bike Ride at Rosedale Lake in Mercer Meadows.

The six-mile loop ride on the LHT and other Mercer Meadow trails is intended to offer a “magical experience,” with twinkling lights under a tree canopy, live music along the trail, glow-in-the-dark features, and a campfire with s’mores near Rosedale Lake. There is also a bike decorating contest, offering participants a chance to win prizes.

The Full Moon Bike Ride begins at 7:30 p.m. with a sendoff near the Rosedale Lake parking area, though participants can arrive later. Registration will open at 7 p.m., as will the campfire and music. Participants are welcome to arrive early and bring a picnic dinner.

Adults and children of all ages are welcome at the activities around Rosedale Lake, with the expectation that adults supervise children at all times. The Full Moon Bike Ride itself is open to adults and children aged 12 and above.

Registration for riders is $20 for adults (18 and over) and $15 for youth (12 to

See NEWS, Page 4

17). Adult registration is $25 at the event. Details and registration at- lhtrail.org/ annual-fullmoonride. The 2023 Full Moon Bike Ride T-shirt will be available for pre-purchase.

Nonprofits can email the LHT (info@ lhtrail.org) for group rates. There is no fee for nonriders. The event is a fundraiser for the Lawrence Hopewell Trail, a nonprofit corporation.

For riders under 18, helmets are required by law. The LHT encourages helmets for all riders for safety reasons, and also highly recommends the use of front and rear bike lights. Moonlight, even on a clear night, will not fully light the trail in the woods.

Participants should use the park entrance on Federal City Road between Blackwell Road and Old Mill Road in Hopewell Township. The rain date is Sunday, Oct. 1, but if rain forces the change, the program will be limited to the ride.

County, LHT hoping to establish ‘Johnson Trolley Trail Corridor’

The Lawrence Hopewell Trail Corporation is joining Mercer County to assess the feasibility of a walking and biking route that could one day connect Trenton, Ewing, Lawrence and Princeton.

The Lawrence Hopewell Trail Corporation says that connecting the almostcompleted 22-mile LHT to neighbor- ing communities is a top priority for the organization.

The $175,000 award to Mercer County comes from the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission, the Metropolitan

Planning Organization for the Greater Philadelphia region that includes Mercer County. It is one of six grants made to New Jersey applicants this year.

The grant will allow Mercer County to hire consultants who will work with its planning department, the Lawrence Hopewell Trail Corporation, and officials in Trenton, Ewing, Lawrence, and Princeton to assess what is being called the Johnson Trolley Trail Corridor.

Based on the findings of this feasibility study, funding could then be sought to do detailed design and engineering work, followed eventually by construction.

“We are very grateful to the DVRPC, Mercer County, the City of Trenton, Ewing and Lawrence Townships, and the Municipality of Princeton as partners in this endeavor,” Lawrence Hopewell Trail Corporation chair David Sandahl said in a media release. “Working together, we will make the vision of reconnecting our communities a reality.”

“This grant is a crucial step in helping the LHT connect to these communities,” said Lisa Serieyssol, the LHT’s executive director. “Trails and active transportation networks are essential infrastructure to address equitably the most pressing issues facing our region--from economic development, to climate resiliency, mobility, and bicyclist and pedestrian safety.”

Township resident since 1998 and married to Tracy Vogler, with three children (all CHS graduates) and two Labrador Retrievers.

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Dedicated volunteer: Hopewell Valley Education Foundation. Chair, St. James Finance Council, American Red Cross, NJ Conservation Foundation, Former Watershed trustee.

New in Town: Enzene Biosciences

Enzene Biosciences, Ltd., a Pune, Indiabased biotech company is planning to open a manufacturing plant at the Princeton West Innovation Campus in Hopewell. The announcement was made last month by Choose New Jersey, a nonprofit economic development organization.

Enzene Biosciences, a subsidiary of Alkem Laboratories, Ltd., provides services to global pharmaceutical companies, partnering with them in their drug development and manufacturing processes. According to the announcement, the company will initially hire 50 employees and grow to 300 employees at its New Jersey facility.

“The strong relationship between New Jersey and India has gained increasing momentum since we opened the New Jersey India Center to cultivate economic opportunities during our trip to the country in 2019,” said Gov. Phil Murphy. “I am proud to welcome Enzene Biosciences and their expanding global presence to New Jersey’s flourishing life sciences industry. New Jersey’s favorable business environment, skilled workforce, strategic location, supportive ecosystem for growth, and deep cultural ties are why Indian companies thrive in our state.

Enzene Biosciences’ state-of-the-art manufacturing facility will bring hundreds of jobs and generate $50 million in economic investments in our state, further solidifying New Jersey’s position as an innovation economy leader.”

Choose New Jersey met representatives from Enzene during a business attraction mission to India in 2022. Enzene’s successful expansion was supported by Choose New Jersey, the New Jersey India Center, Reed Smith, and JLL Capital Markets. Enzene, with assistance from Choose New Jersey, connected with in-state partners, including construction firms, human resources and payroll services, business insurance providers, township leadership, and universities.

Enzene says that its local manufacturing capabilities will provide North American biopharmaceutical companies with “streamlined supply chains, fast turnaround times, enhanced communication, and greater control over the manufacturing process. By providing comprehensive manufacturing capabilities under one roof, Enzene is well-positioned to support the development and production of a diverse range of biologics, contributing to the advancement of global healthcare and positively impacting patients’ lives worldwide.”

More information: enzene.com.

“Creativity should be part of our daily life,” says the Pennington resident. “I believe that everyone is creative, but they just don’t recognize this characteristic in themselves. That doesn’t just include art; it’s how a person dresses or gardens, or even does math. The way in which we process life is, in fact, a form of creativity.”

When life is going well, our spirits and freedom can blossom through creativity in exponential ways, Zamost says. “When life is challenging, creativity offers us a respite from the day and the ability to find our flow. In my opinion, it’s a necessity in our lives, no different from nourishing ourselves well and staying fit.”

The former Healing Arts Program Coordinator for Capital Health in Hopewell, Zamost says it’s physically and psychologically healing for people to recognize their special gifts and adds that artistic enjoyment encourages our innate optimism.

“I am continually amazed by the restorative impact that art holds for both its maker and audience,” she says in her artist’s statement. “The heart slows, the mind focuses, and the room transforms.”

About a year ago, Zamost needed to apply what she advises, and remember the “glass half-full” attitude that normally carries her through life. In March 2022, she fractured her shoulder in three places.

“I learned first-hand what I’ve been advocating for years: the power of art in healing. It was a time of great pain for me, as my dominant arm was in a sling for six weeks. I couldn’t dress, drive, sleep properly, do much for myself — in other words, I was fairly miserable.”

One day a couple of weeks post-accident, she decided to see if the power of art could offer her solace. “I gathered easy art supplies — a smallsized paint pad and watercolors. I put on my favorite music and tested myself. Would my body comply? I was amazed that when my right, dominant hand could no longer function, ‘lefty’ would come to my rescue, if I just asked,” she says. Zamost says because she was so focused on the process, she found that her pain lessened, and her frustration and depression subsided, too.

“I shocked myself and thought, ‘This is exactly what you teach,’” she says. “I had never been on this side of the situation. I forgot about my misery. Creativity quite honestly saved me.”

Indeed Zamost’s “Lefty” series, the left-handed work from her healing period, as well as other free-spirited, colorfilled creations, are on view at the Arts Council of Princeton’s exhibition, “Inspired by Optimism,” that was on display in April and May.

“The call from the Arts Council for works for ‘Optimism’ came during the pandemic,” she says, noting that simply surviving the Covid-19 years is a reason to cheer.

Zamost’s road to running her own healing-through-art workshops began with her time volunteering at Capital Health.

“I started on the ‘art cart,’ (a mobile cart filled with art supplies for the patients to play with) and managed it for a time. I loved it so much,” she says. “I saw people of all ages, with all kinds of illnesses. When you go into their rooms and see them, you try and assess what they might be able to do.”

She would see that a person was bedridden and seemed

See ZAMOST, Page 11