Santa Paws 2009

I was just reading some articles in mycentraljersey.com when I ran across one entitled, “Santa Paws 2009” which piqued my curiosity. To tell you the truth, I had no idea what it was either at first. As it turns out, Santa Paws 2009 is an interesting event to benefit Second Chance for Animals. For $15, you can get two framed 4”x6” digital pictures of your pets with Santa Claus. For a small extra fee, they will print additional pictures and you can also purchase a CD with the images so you can print as many more as you like. Those who bring a donation of pet food will also receive a free gift.

Santa paws will take place on three different Saturdays, December 5, 12 and 19, from 10:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Sampson G. Smith School. The Sampson G. Smith School is located at 1649 Amwell Road in Somerset.

Due to safety reasons, you must keep smaller pets in carriers and dogs must be on leashes. According to this article, most people bring their pet dogs and/or cats, but all pets are welcome including birds and reptiles.

All proceeds from this event will go to benefit the Franklin Township Animal Shelter in Somerset. If you would like more information, please contact Second Chance for Animals at 732-728-SCFA or you can send them an email at scfa1998@secondchanceforanimals.org .

If you have pets, I urge you to attend this benefit and help raise money for the Franklin Township Animal Shelter. I will be taking my little ones to get a few pictures taken, that way I can print them and send them to family and friends along with a Christmas card.

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Wet and Wild Tubing for Uganda

I saw an article earlier today at NJ.com entitle, “Tubing in the Delaware will help orphans in Uganda” that caught my attention. According to this article, this event is scheduled to take off in the Delaware River from Kingwood Township on Saturday September 5, or in the event of rain, Sunday, September 6. There will be a stop on an island so participants can enjoy a barbecue lunch courtesy of The Famous River hot Dog Man. Kids over the age of 5 are welcome to participate. The cost of this even is $30 per person and all proceeds will go to help finance the construction and staffing of a pediatric health clinic at the Awegys School in Kigo, Uganda. The Awegys School is a school for Ugandan orphans. Those who would like more information, or who wish to register to participate in this charitable event should send an e-mail to tubing4uganda@yahoo.com or visit the Outside the Dream foundation’s website.

The Outside the Dream Foundation will oversee the construction of this clinic. Outside the Dream is a registered NGO that plans, coordinates and funds the development of this and other projects that are implemented by Ugandan communities. This organization does not dictate which projects will be undertaken, but instead allows communities to decide which projects they will choose to undertake and the most effective methods to complete these projects.

If you enjoy tubing down the Delaware, I encourage you to participate in this fun activity for the whole family and, at the same time, help to benefit former child soldiers, orphans, the homeless and other vulnerable children in Uganda.

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Women’s Health & Counseling Center garage sale

I don’t know about you, but I love a good garage sale. There’s something about being able to get a great deal on a very rare or unique item, is something that drives many fans of garage sale. And what could be better than being able to help benefit a good cause just by attending a garage sale? Well, while reading NJ.com earlier, I ran across an article about an interesting garage sale that is coming soon. According to this article entitled, “Women’s Health & Counseling Center fund-raising garage sale” there will be a fund-raising garage sale to benefit the Women’s Health and Counseling Center from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday June 19 and from 9 a.m. to 12 noon on Saturday June 20. This garage sale will take place at the WHCC Center located at 71 Fourth Street in Somerville New Jersey.

The Women’s Health and Counseling Center is a non-profit healthcare provider that offers high-quality healthcare services to women who face monetary, cultural, linguistic or other obstacles. Aside from family planning and primary care services, this organization, which is now into its 36 year of serving women in this area of New Jersey, also helps provide sexual assault support services and cancer screenings for eligible men and women as well as educational and counseling services for at-risk adolescent. The WHCC offers services based on a sliding rule, how much a patient pays is determined by how much they can afford to pay and no patient is refused services because they cannot afford them. Please click the link if you would like to find out more about the Women’s Health and Counseling Center.  

Those who decide to go to this fund-raising garage sale can expect to see items such as books, CDs, DVDs, tools, house wares, home décor items, furniture, clothes, electronic games, children’s toys and much more for sale. There will be also be cookies, brownies pies and other baked goods for those who attend this fund-raising garage sale. Garage and bake sales have helped the WHCC to stay in business in the past and hopefully this one will help generate enough funds to help them continue to serve those who cannot afford healthcare.

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June 2009 Events for Somerset and Middlesex County, New Jersey

• June 9, 2009 – Linden Farmers Market – Located at the Raymond Wood Bauer Promenade Amphitheatre in Linden.  Call 908.474.8493 for more information on this event.  If you enjoy fresh-grown vegetables, sauces, cheeses, pickles, olives and much more.
• June 9, 2009 –Cats the musical will be playing at Villagers Theatre in Somerset.  For more information on this event call 732.247.1655
• June 12, 2009 –The Scent of the Sea, located at Swain Galleries in Plainfield, for more information on this great exhibit call 908.756.1707.
• June 9- 13, 2009 – Carnival, located at St. Matthew’s R C Church on Edison.  Come out and enjoy, rides, food, raffles and much more.  For more information call 732.985.5063
• June 12 and 13, 2009 – Rummage Sale, located at Mt. Horeb United Methodist Church in Warren, call 908.647.4383 for times and for donation information.
• June 5 – 25, 2009 – Junebug ArtFest in Metuchen on Main Street, for more information on this even you can visit the Metuchen Chamber of Commerce website or call 732.906.4137.
• June 11, 2009 – New Jersey Quilt Convention located at the New Jersey Convention and Expo Center in Edison.  For more information on this great event visit the New Jersey Quilts website or call 732.761.1709.
• June 12 – 26, 2009 – Rutgers Gardens Farmers Market located at Rutgers Gardens in New Brunswick.  For more information on this event call 732.932.8451 or visit the Rutgers Garden website.
• June 13, 2009 – 35^th Annual Rose Day located at Rudolf W. van der Goot Rose Garden in Somerset.  Call 732.873.2459 or visit the Somerset County Parks website for information on lectures and demonstrations.
• June 14, 2009 – Union Street Fair and Craft Show in Union, for more information on crafters, vendors, live music, rides and games call 908.654.1400 or visit the Street Fairs website.
• June 16, 2009 – Huey Lewis and the News at the Community Theater in Morristown, visit the Mayo Arts website or call 973.539.8008 for tickets.
• June 21, 2009 – Father’s Day at the Fire House, located at the Liberty Hall Museum in Union.  Come and pick a unique gift for Father’s day. Call 908.527.0400 or visit the Liberty Hall Museum website for more details.
• June 27, 2009 – Funkmaster Flex Celebrity Car Show located the New Jersey Convention and Expo Center in Edison.  Celebrity car show, visit the Funkmaster Flex website for more information or call 732.417.1400.

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Schools try to compensate for reduced budgets

Thanks to our national economic crisis, many school districts across the US are being forced to make some cutbacks and New Jersey public schools are no exception. However, I did notice something encouraging while reading an article in nj.com entitled, “Public schools join hunt as programs budgets are trimmed”. According to this article, New Jersey public schools will be looking for grants from the private sector in order  to help salvage some important programs that are slated to be cut such as physical education programs service learning programs and American History programs to name a few. Some schools will be forced to eliminate some of these and other programs due to the need to reduce their budgets.

This is becoming a common trend across the nation. The national economy has not been this bad in quite some time and many states are trying to cut their operating budgets wherever they can in order to weather this storm. Hopefully, New Jersey exhausted every other option they had available before deciding to cut back on our public schools’ budgets.

I wonder whether some parents who are feeling the effects of this economic crisis will find themselves having to take their children out of private schools and enrolling them in public schools. I also wonder how this will further affect our public school system here in New Jersey. With public schools already being forced to make cutbacks, how much worse would an increase in enrollment make their financial situations?

The only bright side is that New Jersey was spending more money per pupil ($9,180 per pupil) than the national average ($6,058 per pupil). That is considerably more than most of the schools in the US spend and.

I for one, hope that they will be successful in finding the public grants to help maintain these programs because I really cannot see any positive long term effects from reducing the amount of money that our schools have to educate our children and young adults.

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New Jersey in the Top 20 Safest Cities in the US

I was just browsing walletpop.com when I noticed that the results of this year’s CQ Press annual Crime State Rankings for the 20 safest states for 2009 were out.  I was very glad to see New Jersey come in at number 17 in this ranking.  That is up three places from 2008, when New Jersey came in at the number 20 spot.  I think it is important to highlight that without competent and effective law enforcement, this would not have been possible.

This ranking took several factors into consideration when deciding how states fared.  Those factors included the number of assaults, burglaries, murders, motor vehicle thefts, rapes and robberies.  All of these 6 categories carry the same weight in helping to determine each state’s position in the ranking. To see how New Jersey fared in each of these categories, please click here.

Those of us who have lived in New Jersey for years know that, overall, it is a very safe state.  Actually, there are very few places in New Jersey where residents do not feel safe throughout the course of their day-to-day lives. 

There are many things that go into making New Jersey a great place to live where residents enjoy a high standard of living and overall great quality of life.  Low crime rates and security are definitely among those things.  After all, security is one of the most important factors when determining the quality of life of an area.

Congratulations to New Jersey and all of its law enforcement personnel whose tireless efforts have helped make this one of the safest states in our Union.  The next time you see a law enforcement officer, please thank them for doing such a fine job keeping New Jersey safe.

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First Eco-Rally in Somerset County

I just read an interesting article in NJ.com entitled, “Somerset County Park Commission Environmental Education Center organizes first Eco-Rally“.  According to this article, the Somerset County Park Commission Environmental Education Center will be y holding its first annual Eco-Rally.  The point of this Eco-Rally is to help educate local residents about ways they can help to reduce their energy costs and at the same time, help the environment by reducing the size of their “carbon footprint”.

The Eco-Rally will run from April 1 to April 15, 2009.  Residents are encouraged to participate by keeping a daily log of their day-to-day energy consumption.  Other things that Somerset Residents can do to reduce their carbon footprints include using reusable bags for shopping, turning off unused lights,  riding a bicycle or walking instead of driving and planting gardens or trees. 

The Somerset County Park Commission Environmental Education Center is also asking participants to create posters or pictures to illustrate their contributions towards helping keep their environment clean.  These posters and pictures will be on display at the Environmental Education Center’s E.A.R.T.H (Environmental-Awareness-Responsibility-Teaching-Hope) celebration on April 26 at 190 Lord Stirling Road.

This is a great chance for all Somerset County residents to begin living more sustainable lifestyles and same money in the process.  This comes at a great time when we consider the fact that many Americans are looking for ways to save some of their hard-earned money.

If you are interested in participating, you can call (908) 766-2489 extension 326 or e-mail cspringer@scparks.org  for more information or to request an application.

Please click here to read this article in its entirety.

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Say cheese…

According to an article I have just read in the Home News Tribune, Jersey drivers could soon have their pictures snapped at intersections without their knowledge in an effort to improve safety conditions for motorists. The New Jersey State Legislature is meeting today to discuss the possibility of giving municipalities the power to install cameras at intersections to catch imprudent drivers. Anyone found in violation of traffic laws would get their ticket in the mail along with high-resolution digital images of the motorists in the commission of the infraction(s). Senator Joseph Coniglio is one of the bill’s sponsors and claims the cameras could help to improve traffic safety, “I feel that New Jersey needs to follow several other states and see the possible lifesaving accomplishments that this red light measure can bring”. He also cites a Philadelphia study by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, which found that the cameras along with longer yellow lights helped to reduce red light infractions by 96%. The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety estimates that more than 300 communities across the U.S. are currently utilizing this technology to help reduce traffic accidents. The proposal calls for the establishment of a five-year pilot program to see how effective this measure would be in New Jersey.

However, this proposal is not without its critics. State chapter coordinator for the National Motorists Association is quoted as saying, “Taking pictures of dangerous drivers won’t stop them”. Michigan Attorney General, Mike Cox has declared red light and speed cameras illegal and a Judge in Minnesota overruled the use of red light cameras.

In New Jersey, those ticketed for disobeying traffic signals receive two points against their licenses and a fine of $85 to $140.

So be on the lookout for what could soon be a photo opportunity at every red light.

Click here to read this article entitled, “New Jersey motorists may want to get red light smiles ready” in its entirety.

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