Rotary Club supports Englewood organizations
BY JANET SHARMA
PRESIDENT, ENGLEWOOD ROTARY CLUB
Englewood Rotary Club announces that it
has awarded grants to several organizations
that provide important services to residents
of Englewood. Utilizing funds donated and
raised through its annual Community Awards
Dinner, which this year honored 15 Englewood
civic leaders in their 90s, Rotary has presented
the following local grants:
n Bergen Family Center’s HIPPY Program
(Home Instruction for Parents of Pre-School
Youngsters): $5,250 to help parents help their
young children with school readiness.
n Bergen Volunteer Medical Initiative:
$3,000 to support free medical services to low-
income, working Englewood residents who
lack health insurance.
n Community Chest: $3,000 to support a
series of Professional Development workshops
for staff of local nonprofit organizations.
n Friends of the John T. Wright Arena in
Mackay Park: $2,980 for the Skating Scholars
program, which provides after-school skating
sessions and lessons for middle school students.
n JCC on the Palisades Thurnauer Music
School: $3,000 to support Englewood students’
participation in music programming.
In addition to these grants to local nonprofit
organizations, Englewood Rotary is supporting
the following projects this year:
n Distribution of Dictionaries to third-grade
students at all schools in Englewood.
n “Senior Prom” in which students at Dwight
Morrow High School/Academies@Englewood
and members of the Interact Club entertain local
older adults at a festive dance party.
Englewood Rotary also contributed funds to
four international projects: Freedom from Fis-
tula ($2,500); the Hanover Educational Institute
in Lucea, Jamaica ($2,000), which the Engle-
wood Rotary has supported for several years;
Polio Plus ($250), an initiative of Rotary Inter-
national whose funds are matched by the Bill
and Melinda Gates Foundation; and Alliance
for Smiles ($1,000), in which teams of doctors
and volunteers provide life-changing surgery
for children and adults born with cleft-palate.
Englewood Rotary also supports the Eli
Katsaros Rotary Scholarship which annually
is given to graduating seniors at DMHS/A@E.
This year and last year, four students were
each awarded a $1,000 scholarship given in
memory of Eli Katsaros, son of former Engle-
wood Rotary president Jennie Katsaros.
“The motto of Rotary is ‘service above self,’”
says Janet Sharma, president of Englewood
Rotary for the 2018-19 year ending June 30.
“And we are proud to support local organiza-
tions as well as important international proj-
ects. Funds that we raise in the community are
returned to the community.”
For more information about Englewood
Rotary, call 201-591-5162 or email englewoodn-
[email protected].
Renew Englewood
BY MICHAEL WILDES
ENGLEWOOD MAYOR
When I was running for Mayor this time last
year, a common concern among residents was
the degradation of the business climate here in
Englewood in recent years. Our Central Busi-
ness District, once a bustling commercial cen-
ter and the envy of other Bergen County towns,
was marked with far too many empty store-
fronts and vacancies. There was little energy
and a pronounced lack of optimism, both of
which I believe are essential components for
making our city work. The situation didn’t
just harm our business owners, but the lack of
consistent commercial tax revenue growth only
increased the burden on our residential taxpay-
ers and contributed to our budgetary problems.
I knew that when I took office, revitalizing
our business climate would have to be a top
priority. My mantra became two simple words
— Renew Englewood — that together said so
much about what we needed to do to get our
community moving again. I’m proud to say that
while we are nowhere near the finish line, we’re
seeing real progress in that mission to renew
our community as a prime location to open a
business, expand an existing operation and con-
tribute to our community.
Some of the progress we have seen has been
truly remarkable. We’ve cut ribbons at several
new businesses opening up in our city, includ-
ing interesting new concepts like Playa Bowls,
Andrade Shoe Repair and Casa Hispanola Cigar
CFA celebrates
volunteers
Lounge. We have also seen major new entrants
to our city, like the fantastic new Land Rover
and Jaguar of Englewood, which will be a sig-
nificant new taxpaying entity. New businesses
breathe new life into our community, provide
employment opportunities for residents and tax
revenue for local government.
We’re working to bring our community
together to inspire that sense of optimism and
togetherness. I’m proud of the work our Cultur-
al Affairs committee has done in expanding our
programs and offerings to residents, and I’m
excited for the return of treasured traditions
like Englewood Day.
All of these actions together will continue to
push our city in the forward direction that we
all believe it must go in. Englewood’s greatest
resource is our wonderful, diverse, involved
residents — people who truly care about each
other and about our city. I pledge to do what-
ever I can as Mayor to harness that energy and
work to Renew Englewood.
More than 100 volunteers from the Engle-
wood-based Center for Food Action (CFA)’s six
sites were celebrated for their role in helping
vulnerable members of our community.
Executive Director Patricia Espy thanked
them for their service. “In 2018 our volunteers
donated more than 37,000 hours to help CFA
achieve its mission of fighting hunger and
homeless,” said Espy. “The care, dedication
and generosity of our volunteers help feed
thousands across northern New Jersey and are
an integral part of our organization. Together,
we distributed more than $5,000,000 worth of
food to neighbors in need.”
The program included a brief history of
CFA, and Espy shared the organization’s plans
for growth into 2020 and beyond.
The program included awards for all vol-
unteers and the organization bestowed a CFA
Hero award to Smadar Shemmesh, CFA’s
Master Gardener, for her dedication to the CFA
community garden.
MYENGLEWOOD
JUNE 2019
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