JACKSON – The Township’s Commission for the Disabled and Handicapped enjoyed Valentine’s Day this year at a special party.
A Valentine’s Day event was held and Commission Secretary Karen LoCascio-Lundgren noted that “between a great season finale of our Challenger Basketball program, with Coach Don Connor, and an incredible Valentine’s Party at the Senior Center we could not be more thrilled.”
She noted that Suely Fries and Sharon Hollander the Commission’s co-chairpersons and that 83 people registered for the Valentine’s Day party with 10 volunteers helping to coordinate it.
She said other activities of the Commission include a ceramics class that takes place twice a month until June, a fitness class every Monday this month, a Helping Hands program every Thursday night and regular Commission meetings are held on the third Wednesday the month.
“Next month we’re going to have an adult game night – ages 21 plus and our Spring Fling event will be around April 27. Our Challenger Softball program runs from mid-April until May and in July we will probably hold our big prom event and bowling,” LoCascio-Lundgren added.
The Commission’s Challenger Soccer program is held in September and October “and we will be participating in Jackson Day – hopefully with a dance number some clients will do again,” she added.
Clients must be Jackson residents and registered members. Fries told The Jackson Times “we are the only agency in town that offers something in terms of recreation and leisure for people with special needs. With Jackson being so big and – in some ways, remote – it can be a pain to drive 20 or 30 minutes for something, so we do what we can with the budget we have because it all comes down to money at the end of the day.”
Fries noted that the Commission receives “an annual state grant and the township matches that grant. They wouldn’t even agree to give us the grant if the township didn’t give us a percentage back. It is called the ROID grant provided by the state of New Jersey and the township matches about 20%. That 20% comes in handy.”
Reviewing the history of the commission Fries said the entity “has been going on since back in the 1970s. Melvin Cottrell (a former local Assemblyman) was highly involved in the township and he had a disability himself.”
“He wanted to do something for the community. He was always very civic minded. There were small groups back then and they would meet at the firehouse or someplace because the senior center didn’t exist back then,” Fries added.
Jackson Township built the senior center and after that whatever the special needs group was called at the time became the mayor’s commission for disabled and handicapped.
“We brainstorm new programs. We reach out to the community who sponsor some of the programs, especially the parties that can be very expensive. The Elks Club, the Rotary Club, the Lions Club, the Knights of Columbus help us. Sometimes they sponsor events for us,” Fries added.
