Sparta Resident Named 'Unsung Hero', Awarded $5K

Last week, a dozen New Jersey residents joined an elite group of do-gooders who have been awarded by the Russ Berrie Foundation for having a positive impact on the lives of Garden State residents over the past 17 years.

The annual Russ Berrie Awards for Making a Difference were started by the Berrie Foundation’s namesake in 1997. Berrie, who founded a stuffed animal and toy company in the 60’s, was known for his philanthropy. Since his death in 2002, Berrie’s wife Angelica and members of the Russell Berrie Foundation have continued the tradition of giving.

Inside the theater on the campus of Ramapo College that bears Berrie’s name, 12 volunteers from throughout the state were honored by the foundation for the positive impact they’ve had. Eight of the finalists were each given $5,000 awards, three were given $25,000 awards, and one award recipient – Regina Coyle of Little Ferry – left Thursday’s ceremony with a $50,000 check.

“I am just completely humbled and in awe,” Coyle said after learning at the ceremony that she was the $50K winner. “I think I’m still in shock.”

Residents from across the state are nominated each year. Members of the Foundation’s Board said they chose Coyle for the way she helped the communities of Little Ferry and Moonachie during and after Hurricane Sandy. 

Coyle, a member of the St. Margaret of Cortona Church Parish Council, and a trained Certified Emergency Response Team volunteer, organized the Parish Hall to become an emergency shelter after the storm. She and a crew of volunteers worked to serve food to 300 residents a day, and to provide clothes, shelter and other emergency needs to locals. She reached out to and received help from FEMA, the National Guard, and UPS. All the while, Coyle had lost her own car to the storm, many of her belongings had been destroyed, and her parents’ house had suffered significant damage.

Coyle and a network of volunteers are still working to help return the community to some sense of normalcy.

“We just wanted to give people a little bit of security and help,” Coyle, who said she will use her winnings to donate to the organizations that helped her relief effort right after the storm, said.

Thursday’s ceremony honored not only Coyle and the slate of 11 other award winners from this year, but all of the awards’ historic winners. Many attended Thursday’s ceremony, including Mahwah resident Dana Spett, the founder and executive director of therapeutic riding center Pony Power Therapies on Route 202. Spett, a 2007 Russ Berrie award winner who was recently named an NJ Hero by the state's First Lady Mary Pat Christie, addressed the crowd about the impact winning the award can have.

Winning “was transforming,” she said. “It was not only a gift of money…but it was a gift of validation that we were on the right track.”

Spett said that over the past six years, she has forged relationships with other Berrie Award winners, and has been able to expand her services based on the partnerships she has made within the Berrie network.

Angelica Berrie, Russell’s wife, closed the ceremony by welcoming Coyle and the other honorees into the network.

“What started as an award for individual heroes has become something that has a collective impact on the state of New Jersey,” she said. The winners’ “relationships with each other are the real lasting contributions of this award.”

The foundation's descriptions of the rest of the finalists are below. The three $25K winners are from Bayonne, Marlton, and Wyckoff:

• James Baber of Bayonne is a law clerk by day and a Super Hero by night. The 24-year-old saved the life of a 72-year-old woman who tripped and fell onto the tracks as a PATH train approached the Journal Square Station. Baber, who was on his way to classes at Seton Hall School of Law, spotted the woman from an overhead walkway above the platform. Although passengers were waving their arms to get the conductor’s attention to stop the train, it was Baber who jumped onto Track 3 and pulled the woman to safety before the train reached the station.  
• Jack Fanous of Marlton is the founder and executive director of the G.I. Go Fund. For almost seven years, this organization has helped homeless war veterans in Newark.  The vets can be found along Heroes Highway, a derisive name given to a stretch of Market Street near Newark’s Penn Station. They help war veterans secure jobs and to obtain financial assistance, benefits and shelter.  Fanous views veteran homelessness and hopelessness as an epidemic and has expanded the program to Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington, DC. Newark Mayor Cory Booker gave the G.I. Go Fund an office at City Hall. 
• Ann Wagner of Wyckoff is the founder of Oasis: A Haven for Women and Children in Paterson. With a motto of providing a “hand up, not a hand out,” Oasis is dedicated to assisting impoverished families who strive to achieve economic independence. Oasis opened its doors in 1997.  Under one roof, a woman’s basic needs are met—food, clothing, education and childcare, as well as referral services, all free of charge. Oasis also provides childcare and meals, more than 65,000 each year. 

There were eight $5,000 winners from across the state:

• Robert Clark founded YouthBuild Newark in 2003 and is the organization’s executive director. It is modeled after a national program of the same name.  Clark is the first YouthBuild graduate to start a YouthBuild program. From a storefront in downtown Newark, YouthBuild Newark gives youth ages 16 to 24 a second chance. This intensive yearlong program helps them earn a high school equivalency diploma, teaches important life skills and the value of hard work. 
• James Credle of Newark has led a life of activism and advocacy. He is a leader within the gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, queer and questioning communities since 1980. In 1987, 25 percent of men living with HIV/AIDS were gay. Credle assisted in creating the National Task Force on AIDS Prevention, the first national HIV prevention program directed at black men and men of color. Continuing to work and serve where he lives, Credle cofounded the Newark Pride Alliance in 2003 in the aftermath of the murder of Sakia Gunn, a 14-year-old lesbian who spoke back to a street harasser. He’s also embarked on an anti-bullying campaign, Stop Hate, Report Bullying that focuses on community groups. 
• Estelle Goldsmith of East Brunswick is president of the East Brunswick Arts Commission. She strives to foster awareness and appreciation of the arts in the community and enrich the lives of her neighbors.  Through the East Brunswick Arts Council, Goldsmith has brought world-renowned music and dance artists to the community. Later she worked with the mayor to establish the East Brunswick Arts Commission, of which she has served as president since the 1970s. And, she also sought to engage young people and worked with public schools to create the Young Musicians Project, now in its 29th year.  
• Adele Katz of Glen Ridge founded and is executive director of the Sister to Sister Teen Mentoring Program. With the motto “saving the selves of adolescent girls,” Sister to Sister is a source of support, nurturing, guidance, enrichment and development for young women. Students are matched with trained mentors and programs include guest speakers, organized educational, cultural and recreational activities and ongoing support for educational pursuits. Sister to Sister was created to serve students at Montclair High School.  It has since been expanded to Montclair’s three middle schools and two elementary schools. 
• Jennifer Papa of Ringwood founded City Green in Clifton in 2004 with $2,500 of her own money. City Green established urban farms and gardens in northern New Jersey to provide enrichment and education. After one year of operation, Papa created a vegetable garden in Paterson that was tended by 30 women and also served as a learning garden for 50 children enrolled in a summer day camp. Now, more than eight years later, she has expanded her efforts to Passaic, Newark and Jersey City where she teaches adults and children to grow their own gardens. They also learn what it means to eat fresh, healthy food.  City Green touches the lives of more than 7,000 people a year.
• In 1992 Richard Pompelio of Sparta left his law practice and established the New Jersey Crime Victims’ Law Center in Parsippany after his 17-year-old son, Tony, was murdered. A high school senior, Tony was killed when he helped a girl who was being threatened. Pompelio and his family were distraught over the harsh treatment victims of violent crime encountered in the criminal justice system. The lawyer also wrote a book that he does not charge for used as a reference tool for judges, prosecutors, attorneys, advocates and victim service providers. Pompelio has impacted the lives of over 10,000 people in the Center’s 20 years of existence and helped draft the state’s Victim’s Bill of Rights. 
• Five years ago at the age of 12, Alec Silverman of Fort Lee collided with another player on the baseball field. He was taken to Hackensack University Medical Center.  He suffered a skull fracture, orbit fracture, multiple facial fractures and a brain bleed, injuries that needed to be closely monitored.  Silverman survived his injuries and the summer following the incident he visited the Emergency Room and the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit with a pile of wrapped Curious George stuffed animals and a note of encouragement to be given to children who had been injured.  He calls his efforts 22K--his favorite number and baseball reference.  His mission is to pair his donations and speeches into a program that educates youngsters and their parents about the severity of concussions and second impact syndrome.  He is a spokesperson for The Brain Injury Alliance of NJ.
• Suzanne Stigers of Andover works with food pantries to buy discounted food products to stock their shelves and teaches clients how to budget their money by using coupons. Stigers’ organization, Coupons for the Community, was established in 2009. Twenty-five volunteers use donated manufacturer coupons and shop for 27 food pantries, soup kitchens, homeless shelters and local service agencies in five counties. In 2011 Cooking with Coupons was started to teach families in a homeless shelter how to shop with coupons, budget their money and cook healthy meals.