Weekend volunteers

St. Thomas Syro Malabar volunteer Amal Benny of Basking Ridge with adult resident William McGrory.

Weekend mornings and afternoons at Matheny are always filled with a variety of activities for our students and patients, provided by Matheny’s music and recreation therapy staffs. And those activities are always enhanced by the presence of volunteers from the community.

On a recent Saturday, two different church youth groups participated in recreation and music programs. In the morning, volunteers from St. Thomas Syro-Malabar Catholic Church in Somerset helped Matheny students and patients with a variety of activities. In the afternoon, volunteers from Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church in Bernardsville participated in a game of musical chairs.

Volunteers are needed at Matheny during weekdays and evenings and on weekends. Individuals can serve as recreation assistants, classroom aides, tutors or just friendly visitors.

Our Lady of Perpetual Church volunteer Lisa Lamaire of Bernardsville with student Katherine Gaudio.

Ceramics celebration

From left, Chara Rodriguera, a resident of Bridgewater, Jodi Miguel, an Adult Services instructor, and ceramics artist Dion Alston. Miguel coordinated the ceramics project.

Functional pottery and sculptural works created by students in Matheny’s Adult Services program are currently on display in the Bridgewater Public Library in Bridgewater, NJ, and an opening reception on June 16 drew an enthusiastic crowd of families, Matheny staff members and friends from the community.

Matheny’s adult education programs are designed to instill a sense of self-respect and foster self-expression for adult residents and adult day health services patients, and the ceramics program teaches them the fundamentals of working in clay, incorporating the elements of design and principles of art. The pottery and sculptural works are created through hand building techniques of pinching, coiling and slab building. Students also produce works thrown on the wheel with the use of adaptive equipment. Working processes also include communication books and hand-over-hand methods.

Hand-built stoneware by Dion Alston.

‘Community partners’

Megan Hanson, a volunteer from Goldman Sachs’ Parsippany, NJ, office, shares a laugh with Matheny student India Jones.

Investment banking firm Goldman Sachs has a global volunteer initiative called Community TeamWorks, which enables its employees to take a day out of the office and spend it volunteering with local nonprofit organizations. Last year, 50 Goldman Sachs offices linked up with more than 900 nonprofit “community partners” worldwide.

On Friday, June 6, several volunteers from Goldman Sachs offices in the New Jersey-New York area visited Matheny to spruce up the grounds and help out Matheny School students who were planting vegetable gardens as part of a science project. Last year, the students planted corn; this spring they are expanding the project to include several other vegetables.

Swing shift

Student Bianca Mathis listens to a trumpet solo from band member Ed Beales.

The music of Fats Waller, Duke Ellington and Glenn Miller was written before the students and patients at Matheny were born. But the children’s dining room was swinging when members of the Chatham Community Band Jazz Ensemble visited on a recent Thursday evening and presented a concert of tunes from the 1930s and ’40s. The band has been playing throughout northern New Jersey since its formation in 2007.

Programs such as this are coordinated through Matheny’s music therapy program, which employs various types of music to help develop students’ and patients’ cognitive, physical, emotional and social skills. In addition to inviting musical groups such as the CCB Jazz Ensemble to present musical programs at Matheny, the music therapy program also makes it possible for students and patients to attend outside concerts and theatre presentations.

The front line, from left, saxophonists George Estes and Peter Grice and trumpeter Ed Beales.

‘Pursue your dreams’

Vraj Desai celebrates with the help of physical therapist Glenn Stackhouse and teaching assistant Holly Staul.

After 47 years in the packaging and display industry, Larry Thornton was wondering how he would fill up his days when he retired in 2008. He no longer has such worries. After moving to Peapack-Gladstone, NJ, in 2011, he discovered Matheny and started volunteering one day a week in a Matheny School science class. He now volunteers three days a week and serves on Matheny’s Board of Trustees and its Community Advisory committee.

For these reasons, there was no more appropriate keynote speaker for The Matheny School’s graduation ceremony June 12. Thornton’s affection for Matheny and its students was evident. Volunteering in the school, he said, “is inspiring to me.” As he relived his first tour of Matheny through a symbolic tour he gave the graduating students, he urged the graduates to “work hard and pursue your dreams. Never give up.”  Matheny, he added, “is an exceptional school and a model for the state and the nation.”

Sean Murphy, Matheny School principal, said the graduation ceremony “celebrates the achievements of the entire Matheny community. Their dreams and the dreams of their parents are our goal.” Other speakers included Chris King, Matheny vice president of operations; Daniel McLaughlin, chair of the Matheny Board of Trustees; Thomas Belding, president of the Matheny School Board; and William Horton, mayor of Peapack-Gladstone. The graduates were Catherine Aragona, Christopher Asbell, Bruno Correia, Vraj Desai, Mark O’Connell, Tasha Santiago-O’Keefe and Aaron Turovlin.

Larry Thornton congratulates Ana Correia and her son Bruno.

3 decades of ‘Friendship’

Past presidents, from left, Nancy Kalaher, Karen Thompson, Dorothy Carpenter and Linda Horton, and current president Liz Geraghty.

Dorothy Carpenter remembers when she was a “newcomer” in Bernardsville, NJ, 30 years ago. “We ran an auction to raise money for the Matheny School,” she recalls, “and it went extremely well. So we asked Matheny, ‘Would you like to have a friends group?’” That was the genesis of The Friends of Matheny, an auxiliary organization that has raised more than $3 million for the students and patients at Matheny since its founding in 1983.

Carpenter now lives in Westport, CT, but she returned to New Jersey on June 11 to help The Friends of Matheny celebrate its 30th anniversary at its annual meeting, held at the Roxiticus Golf Club in Mendham, NJ. Speaking to the group, Carpenter said: “I’ve always had a special place in my heart for Matheny. I’m just so proud of what you all have done.”

Matheny President Steve Proctor thanked The Friends for everything the organization has given to Matheny, and The Friends presented Proctor with a check for $100,000, which will be used in the coming year to acquire equipment, technology and other gifts that directly benefit the students and patients. Liz Geraghty, Friends president, also revealed that a major project in the coming year will be the construction of a garden in front of the main entrance where families can gather and relax when the weather is warm.

The Friends also elected its slate of officers for the coming year:  Liz Geraghty, president; Kathy Sisto, vice president, allocations; Helen Fallone, recording secretary; and Karen Thompson, treasurer.

Linda Horton, left, manager of The Friends’ Second Chance Shop, and Liz Geraghty present Steve Proctor with a symbolic check for $100,000.

Hometown volunteer

Roseanne Schwab on t-shirt duty at Miles for Matheny.

Rosanne Schwab currently lives in Bridgewater, NJ, but she considers Peapack-Gladstone her hometown. She grew up on Main Street and attended the Peapack-Gladstone Grammar School. “Our Girl Scouts leader arranged a volunteer effort at Matheny,” she recalls, “and, after that experience, I would occasionally walk from my home up the hill to Matheny to volunteer independently.”

She’s still at it. As a marketing/public relations officer for Peapack-Gladstone Bank in Bedminster, NJ, Schwab was part of the team of P-G Bank volunteers who coordinated rest stops for the cyclists during Miles for Matheny. “Traditionally, over the years, Peapack-Gladstone Bank has participated as the Cycling sponsor,” she says. “This year, bank volunteers manned rest stops at the Whitehouse branch and at a cycling route location in Mendham where riders were given the chance to stop and enjoy a snack and beverage, compliments of the bank.”

Schwab accompanies P-G Bank volunteers when they visit Matheny for special activities, and last Christmas she sang as a member of the St. Elizabeth-St. Brigid Church choir at a special mass for Matheny students and patients. One of the students, Katherine Gaudio, asked her if she would come back and visit, and that visit has become a regular weekend activity, during which Schwab does arts and crafts, reads, draws and listens to music with Katherine and other Matheny students. “I have now become a familiar face to other students and Matheny staff members,” she says.

Walter and Mary Gronwald, Schwab’s parents, were longtime Peapack-Gladstone residents, having met after World War II at St. Brigid Church, where Walter Gronwald volunteered for 50 years. As a result, Schwab is familiar with many of the twin boroughs’  elderly residents. “They were friends of my parents, and I attended school with their children,” she says. She remembers when “Blairsden was St. Joseph’s Villa, where the Sisters of St. John the Baptist encouraged families to wander the grounds and the children would play at the reflecting pool. A typical wintertime gym class at Peapack-Gladstone was to cross the street to skate on the pond at Liberty Park.”

Bringing home the gold

Matheny Special Olympics athletes Shaleena Tomassini, left, Misty Hockenbury, center, and Amanda Kochell were greeted by Rutgers defensive linemen Darius Hamilton, left, and Julian Pinnix Odrick.

Matheny athletes won 14 gold medals at the New Jersey Special Olympics, held May 30–June 1 at The College of New Jersey in Ewing. Shaleena Tomassini, who will also be competing in the Special Olympics USA Games, which begin tomorrow (June 14), won four of the gold medals: 100-meter, 200-meter, 400-meter and shot put.

Other Matheny gold medals were won by Lee Lubin, 30-meter slalom and 50-meter slalom; Yasin Reddick, 30-meter slalom and 50-meter slalom; Jamier Warren Treadwell, 25-meter dash and tennis ball throw; Misty Hockenbury, 30-meter slalom and 50-meter slalom; and Bari-Kim Goldrosen, deadlift and bench press.

Participation in Special Olympics is part of Matheny’s recreation therapy program, which provides our students and patients with a variety of recreational opportunities and resources to improve their physical, emotional, cognitive and social well-being.

From the heart

Raven was visited by Bedwell School principal Amy Phelan.

The idea behind Ability Day, held at the Bedwell Elementary School in Bernardsville, NJ, on May 30, was to “Take the ‘Dis’ Out of Disability.” Fourth graders, said tech and design teacher Allen Thurlow, developed inventions to help people overcome disabilities and displayed them in the gymnasium for students from the other grades to see.

Bedwell also invited The Matheny School to have a small table display at which we distributed information. The main attraction at the Matheny table, though, was 20-year-old student Raven Bennett, who has written a book called Heart Attack that tells the story of a relationship through poetry. The poems reflect different stages of a typical relationship and the journey a person takes through a relationship.

Raven had a copy of the book at the table and told visitors how they could purchase it at Amazon.com. One visitor, Bill Fosina of Gladstone, NJ, whose granddaughters attend Bedwell, said he was going to order the book and then visit Matheny so Raven could sign it. There are currently two customer reviews of Heart Attack on Amazon. One customer, Gloria J., said, “It gave insight into a young person’s life expressed through her own poetic words. One could relate and feel the inner passions of each phrase of her life as it unfolded.” Another customer reviewer, D. Dunn, added: “I can’t wait for another book from this author. The poems are very thought-provoking and mature for someone of her age.”

Thank you, Bedwell School, for making Matheny part of your Ability Day!

Bill Fosina reads one of Raven’s poems while the author looks on.

Spotlighting artists with disabilities

Noreen Gomez, left, and Eileen Murray in front of “The Good Arts are Special” by Ellen Kane.

Eleven Arts Access artists have their visual art on display at the Collaborative Art Exhibition at Rutgers University New Jersey Medical School in Newark. In addition to showcasing the work of Arts Access artists, the exhibit features the art of three other organizations for people with disabilities that have adapted the Arts Access Program and its methodology: the Arc of Mercer County in Ewing, NJ; Hattie Larlham Creative Arts Program in Twinsburg, Ohio; and WAE Center of Jewish Services for the Developmentally Disabled in West Orange, NJ.

The exhibition opened in May and runs through the end of August. It was coordinated by Noreen Gomez, the facilities program specialist at New Jersey Medical School, and was launched at a reception on Sunday, May 18.

Arts Access gives individuals with disabilities the freedom to create in the visual, literary and performing arts. The Collaborative Art Exhibition is one of three four-month shows at the New Jersey Medical School, ranging from paintings and photography to sculpture, jewelry and textiles.

Miles of love and community spirit

Neighbors at 23 Mendham Road cheer on the wheelchair participants. From left, Laura and Leah Simpson, Morgan and Debbie Infusino and Spencer Sorge.

“Finally, it’s not pouring rain or 51 degrees. You earned this.” With those words, Wayne Cabot, news anchor for WCBS Newsradio 880, sent the 5K runners on their way during the 17th annual Miles for Matheny, the Matheny Medical and Educational Center’s annual fundraiser and community event, held Sunday, June 1, at Liberty Park in Peapack-Gladstone. Matheny is a special hospital and educational facility for children and adults with medically complex developmental disabilities.

The weather, as Cabot indicated, was perfect. But so were the atmosphere and  overall sense of community spirit, highlighted by the festivities at 23 Mendham Road, located along the route of the Lu Huggins Wheelchair Walk in Peapack-Gladstone. Thanks to Heather Santoro, who lives there with her family, that stop, just before the home stretch of the 1.5-mile journey, served as an incredible rallying point for the wheelchair participants, their friends, families and caregivers when they saw signs that read, “We Love Matheny” and “Roll On, Matheny,” and heard the enthusiastic cheering and noisemaking.

The day, which also featured five cycling routes and a kids’ fun run, attracted an outpouring of supporters from  communities throughout New Jersey. And all the running, walking and cycling, as Cabot and WCBS-TV meteorologist Elise Finch reminded everyone, was being done for one purpose: to support the Matheny Center of Medicine and Dentistry, where more than 800 of New Jersey’s children, teens and adults with developmental and intellectual disabilities have access to the best possible medical, dental and therapy care.

Community resident Chet Cheesman gets some assistance from his sister Amber in the Lu Huggins Wheelchair Walk.

Vital support for healthy teeth

Jim Borelli, left, Affinity member experience officer, and Lauretta A. Farrell, assistant vice president, executive director of the AFCU Foundation, present a symbolic check to Gary E. Eddey, MD, Matheny vice president and chief medical officer, second from right, and Steve Proctor, Matheny president.

A new donation will help assure the finest possible dental care for patients at the Matheny Center of Medicine and Dentistry dental clinic.

Panoramic X-ray equipment is essential for detecting undeveloped, crowded or impacted teeth. Because these conditions and jaw deformities are more prevalent among individuals with significant disabilities, panoramic imaging is especially important in Matheny’s dental clinic. The clinic’s current Kodak Panorex machine was manufactured in 1997 and donated to Matheny more than 10 years ago.

The Affinity Federal Credit Union Foundation has donated $5,000 to Matheny to supplement a generous grant from the Delta Dental of New Jersey Foundation so that a new Vatech Pax-I digital panoramic X-ray machine can be purchased for the Matheny Center of Medicine and Dentistry. “We are delighted to be able to support such a worthy project,” says Lauretta A. Farrell, assistant vice president, executive director of the AFCU Foundation.

Dental services at the Center of Medicine and Dentistry include X rays, cleanings, cavity treatments, extractions, restorative dentistry, oral surgery, root canals, behavior management, cancer screening and biopsies. The services are provided in partnership with the Rutgers School of Dental Medicine. The AFCU Foundation was created in 2005 to enhance Affinity’s efforts to give back to its communities.

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