Little League Softball Team

Headed For Regionals

By Chris Lundy

TOMS RIVER – It was the bottom of the 9 th inning – the score was tied – it was now or never.

This is the kind of setup that happens at the end of a sports movie. But this was real, and the Toms River Little League Softball Majors

All Stars were the heroes of the story.

This 12U team is made up of 11 kids. Most of them are from Toms River but four are from Berkeley. They’ll be competing in the Mi- dAtlantic Regional Tournament next week. You can watch it on ESPN+.

They earned their spot in that tourney thanks to their 5-4 win over Hanover Township, said manager Derick DeLima. The game was tied

4-4 at the bottom of the ninth, and all they needed was one point to put them over the edge. Hailey Craddock’s walk off single was the game winner.

“It was the craziest game I ever coached,”

(Softball - See Page 5)

Manitou: Continued From Page 1 barbecue. The day involved food, games and giveaways. People still came out this year despite the rain.

Robert Taylor has run the neighborhood basketball program and Unity Pride for decades. Despite the racial tensions in the world today, he encouraged people to look around.

“This is the real world,” he said. “We had every nationality here. When you come in, we’re family.”

“We have differences but the solution is to come together,” he said.

As one of Parker’s son’s said, “Stay together and stay strong, as my father would have wanted.”

Parker called 3rd Avenue home. That road will be extended and new houses built. People moving into those homes will be living on “Charles Parker, Sr. Avenue.”

The new name was proclaimed during a ceremony by local officials attended by Mayor Carmen Amato and Council President John Bacchione from Berkeley and Councilman Samuel Fennell from South Toms River.

The road work will be done this year, said Glen McDonald, Executive Director of Homes For All. This is the company that is working with the town to revitalize this area.

The houses will be started in summer of 2024. There will be 51 homes on extended streets in the back of Manitou, and five in the front, on First Street, between 4th and 5th Avenue. There are four different models,

Relay for Life:

Continued From Page 1 support of families. It got its start in 1985, when Dr. Gordon Klatt walked and ran for 24 hours around a track in Tacoma, Washington, raising money to help the American Cancer Society. The walk was about 83.6 miles and he raised $27,000. The next year, the Relay for Life was born. It has continually been an overnight event since then. No one walks for 24 hours straight, though. They take turns, and that’s why it’s a relay.

Last year was feared to be the last Berkeley-Lacey relay, the event’s leaders said at the time. It is a huge undertaking and COVID-19 made gatherings of cancer survivors and caretakers a dangerous idea. However, there was clearly desire from locals because the event raised about $42,000, more than twice their initial goal.

Students at Howell High School raised all four or three bedroom.

“The town’s been fantastic to make sure the neighborhood has been affordable for all,” he said. “You can’t find a new house under $400,000 in Ocean County.” over $77,000 at their Relay for Life event this year, achieving the eighth highest amount in the nation.

The new Manitou homes will be in the high $100,000s to mid-$200,000s, he said. They will be called Autumn Ridge at Manitou.

Towns are required by law to have a certain amount of affordable housing set aside. Many towns have cases where they are fighting the court on that number.

Berkeley doesn’t currently have a court case, so they are able to invoke a preference for Berkeley residents, he said. The town gave five $100,000 grants to make five of the homes even more affordable.

“We bought some land from the town and that money is going to remediate the school,” McDonald said. The historic schoolhouse will be a community center.

Homes For All has a history working with the township. They built 80 homes over a decade ago. Some were on extended streets. Some were on lots that had abandoned homes that needed to be demolished. In paving the streets they also brought water and sewer into the community that was on wells and septic tanks.

The township provided money for them from the Affordable Housing Trust Fund which comes from a permit surcharge on all development – not taxes. When a developer comes in to build homes that are not deemed affordable housing, the town is able to give money to either Homes for All or Habitat for Humanity to help people with financial challenges get a new house.

Relays are still popular as we start to rebuild from COVID-19. It’s an outdoor event, so social distancing is possible. However, since there are cancer survivors with compromised immune systems and caretakers who are close with people who are currently fighting the disease, caution is urged.

In 2021, the event was supposed to be held in the summer, but COVID numbers were too high so it got pushed to the fall. But in fall, the numbers were still high in the county so the group changed the walk to a drive-by celebration.

How To Join

The relay can be found by visiting Cancer.org . Click “Relay For Life” toward the bottom of the page, and then click “Join A Relay.”

You can also visit secure.acsevents. org/site/STR?pg=entry&fr_id=104890