Volume LXIX, Number 19
Food Is the Star for Ruth Reichl . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 PHS Sophomore Bringing Dental Supplies to Peru . . . 9 In NYC With Samuel Beckett and the Dogs of Tompkins Square . . . 16 Rachel Bonds’s Five Mile Lake at McCarter’s Berlind Theatre . . . . . 19 Princeton Pro Musica Closes Season with Rachmaninoff's Choral Vigil . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 Tiger Women’s Lax Advances to NCAA Quarters . . . . . . . . . . 28 PDS Girls’ Lax Tops Pennington for Prep B Crown . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
James McCloskey, Founder and Executive Director of Centurion Ministries, Retiring After 35 Years . . . . . . . . . . 26 Art . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 Books . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 Calendar . . . . . . . . . . 14 Cinema . . . . . . . . . . . 24 Classified Ads. . . . . . . 38 Music/Theater . . . . . . 19 Mailbox . . . . . . . . . . . 13 Obituaries . . . . . . . . . 36 Police . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Real Estate . . . . . . . . 37 Religion . . . . . . . . . . . 36 PSO Topics Cover box Sports . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 Topics of the Town . . . . 5 Town Talk . . . . . . . . . . . 6
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American Boychoir School Raises Enough Money To Close Out School Year After mounting an emergency fundraising campaign, the American Boychoir School (ABS) has exceeded its goal of $350,000 to keep the financially ailing institution open until the end of the current term. The school has raised $359,096, according to an email sent to donors and school supporters. As of Tuesday, ABS had received $269,021 in gifts and $90,075 in pledges. “The $30,000 challenge grant succeeded in closing the final gap, so ABS will have the necessary resources to complete this school year,” the email reads. “Thank you for your part in making these events a reality,” it continues after listing a series of activities this coming weekend, including a screening of the film Boychoir at the Princeton Garden Theatre on Friday, a gala concert and auction on Saturday at the school in Plainsboro, and the annual graduation ceremony on Sunday. The school filed for bankruptcy last month. The academic year was curtailed from the normal, mid-June ending to this Sunday. Founded in Columbus, Ohio in 1937 and moved to Princeton in 1950, the school for boys in grades four to eight was located on Lambert Drive until relocating to Plainsboro in 2013. With an international reputation, the school’s choirs have performed with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Philadelphia Orchestra, and the New York Philharmonic, among others. The school was the inspiration for the film Boychoir starting Dustin Hoffman, Debra Winger and Kathy Bates. The Friday screening of the film is a fundraiser for the school. It is unclear how the school will proceed in its efforts to stay in business after this term ends. “As we proceed, our singular focus will turn toward determining what will come next for the American Boychoir School. Opportunities for the institution abound, although considerable funds will be needed to build a plan going forward,” the email from Rob D’Avanzo, chairman of the Board of Trustees, reads. “We thank you again for your generosity through this phase of the campaign, and we hope that we can count on your help in keeping this exceptional mission a reality.” —Anne Levin
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Council Weighs In On Overnight Parking
Last July, Princeton Council created a task force to review and help harmonize existing parking ordinances from the former Borough and Township. Prominent on the task force’s list of issues is overnight parking. The topic raises hackles because the existing ordinances allow some residents to park overnight while others, who may live on the same block, need to purchase a permit in order to do so. Council, intent on creating a new ordinance that is fair and reflects a consolidated community, heard three possibilities Monday night. Assistant municipal engineer Deanna Stockton detailed the options for the governing body: Leave the boundaries as they are, adjust them slightly, or make no overnight parking a town-wide implementation. Council members concurred that more input from the public is needed before an ordinance is crafted. “First,” said Ms. Stockton, “we want to discuss what the boundaries would be. Then we would move ahead with looking at the criteria for issuing permits and creating permit areas.” In the former Borough, residents could
purchase a permit for a fee. In the former Township, there was no fee payment required. That alone created “some fundamental unfairness,” said Mayor Liz Lempert. “This is something important for us to address because obviously right now you have a situation where the former dividing line goes through the middle of some blocks. You have some neighbors having to pay for their permit and others are getting it for free.” If overnight parking were to be banned
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town-wide, “It would eliminate this idea that my neighbor has it and I don’t,” said Council member Jo Butler. Her colleague Lance Liverman spoke out against such a measure. “It would make us seem unfriendly,” he said. “There are elderly people who have caregivers who park on the street. I can understand doing it in some areas, but for the whole town, it seems like overkill.” Mr. Liverman said he favors option two, Continued on Page 12
Womanspace Barbara Boggs Sigmund Award To Honor Sex Slavery Survivor Minh Dang Human rights activist, Minh Dang, will receive the 21st annual Barbara Boggs Sigmund Award from Womanspace at a ceremony and reception Thursday, May 14, from 6 to 9 p.m. at the Hyatt Regency in Princeton. Ms. Dang is being honored for her efforts to end human trafficking, which the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services calls the fastest growing criminal industry in the world. It is one that is hard to track and hard to stop.
Ms. Dang’s own harrowing story of surviving child abuse and sexual slavery, reached the public in 2010 when MSNBC aired the documentary Sex Slaves in America: Minh’s Story. As a California schoolgirl, Ms. Dang led a secret life. Even as she excelled at academics and sports, she was being forced into sexual slavery by her own parents from the age of 10 until her first two years as a college student. Continued on Page 14
PSO Topics Cover box
CAFE SOCIETY PRINCETON STYLE: In Spring you don’t need to be a young man for your fancy to turn to thoughts of outdoor dining and socializing in one of Princeton’s most attractive corners. (Photo by Emily Reeves)
WeMoved Saturday May 16
Wednesday, May 13, 2015
38 East Broad Street Hopewell, NJ (609) 333-0610
VivaVerdi! Opera Excerpts Sunday May 17 (See ad inside)
ROSSEN MILANOV Music Director
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