The Hammonton Gazette 10/07/15 Edition | Page 5

Third Thursdays help make downtown area fun Page 4 • Wednesday, October 7, 2015 • The Hammonton Gazette THURSDAY, from Page 1 celebrate the roaring days of the 1920s in the downtown area. the Noyes Museum was involved in the evening and offered 25 percent discounts to anyone who came inside wearing a costume. “third thursday” not only provides cheap, fun entertainment for the whole family, it also attracts business into local stores. Mainstreet Hammonton’s executive Director, Cassie iacovelli, assists with much of the planning for the “third thursday” events. “We plan to continue this monthly event with themes. We have the rest of the year planned and will begin focusing on 2016 in the next couple of months. at this time, we’re solidifying our sponsorships which provide us the resources to offer entertainment and promotional materials … i am very happy with the buy-in from the downtown businesses. When we first started this event, most downtown stores were closed. Over the years, we have seen a tremendous improvement,” iacovelli said. One of those downtown business owners is Linda Cashan. Cashan owns Casciano Coffee Bar and Sweetery. “there is always a mix of regular customers as well as new ones, which is good for any retail event. Stores and restaurants can really count on it as a business booster. My business is always very busy during the event, so it works for me … We try to keep the dollars spent that evening focusing on the stores and restaurants that work so hard each day to provide the beautiful shopping district we now have … as a committee, we are happy with the merchant-initiated retail promotions that have been successful this past year or two. We have Boutique Week, touch a truck and our latest to roll out, Stay open ‘til 8 p.m. all of these were initiated by downtown businesses with almost Kramer Hall to offer program on cooking healthy foods on Oct. 15 HaMMONtON—Kramer Hall, Stockton University’s instructional site, will present “food for thought: Healthy foods to Savor” on Oct. 15, part of Hammonton’s third thursday theme of “Savor the Season.” Laura engelmann, a health educator with atlantiCare, and Chef Christina Martin of Kitchen 19, a Hammonton culinary school, will offer a free program at 6 p.m. at Kramer Hall, 30 front St. in downtown Hammonton. Kitchen 19 is involved in atlantiCare’s Growing Green Chef Council and works with atlantiCare in providing healthy demonstrations at local schools and community groups. atlantiCare’s Growing Green initiative is designed to build healthy communities and address root causes of chronic diseases by increasing the consumption of healthy foods through creating more access points for fresh, local produce. engelmann is a health educator for atlantiCare’s Healthy Schools, Healthy Children program. She is presently the community health and wellness manager. engelmann received her B.S. in Social Work from Stockton University and her Master’s in Health administration from University of Phoenix. Martin is a Philadelphia-based vegan chef and healthy food advocate. She has degrees in both Business and Culinary arts from rowan University and the academy of Culinary arts at atlantic Cape Community College, respectively. She enjoys sharing her love for cooking through educating and has taught community education classes as well as being a guest chef instructor at Drexel University. Martin will offer a cooking demonstration to promote her plantbased cooking style and her upcom- Halloween Parade set for Oct. 28 HaMMONtON—the Kiwanis Club of Hammonton will sponsor the 40th annual Halloween Parade on Wednesday, October 28 at 7 p.m. the raindate will be thursday, October 29. Miss New Jersey Lindsey Giannini will be the grand marshal of the parade. the parade will originate at Orchard Street and egg Harbor road and then proceed up Bellevue avenue to the atlantic County Human Services building. three marching bands are expected to participate in addition to several floats. ing classes at Kitchen 19 this fall. She will be making a butternu