PARSIPPANY — Susan G. Komen North Jersey celebrated its new headquarters in Parsippany on Thursday, October 11.
“The stars sort of aligned,” Komen North Jersey Executive Director Kelly Nagle said during the ribbon cutting event. “Gosh, it was overwhelming. They made such a generous offer. But we had a need, and they had a way to help, and it worked.”
She said a Komen partner connected them with Mack-Cali leadership just as they were looking to relocate from Summit, as their lease was expiring.
“[Mack-Cali] saw an opportunity that they would be able to help and said, ‘Do you want some space rent-free?’,” Nagle said. “We’ll be saving about a quarter of a million dollars over the next five years.”
Since its founding in 1997, the Affiliate has called Summit its home; they started in the basement of their founder and grew so fast that a move to a small office in downtown Summit followed quickly. Not very long afterwards, they moved into the famous gray-and-pink-shuttered Komen House on Springfield Avenue. In 2012, the North Jersey Affiliate moved to their current location at 44 Middle Avenue. They made their new home at 4 Campus Drive in the Mack-Cali campus.
“We are deeply grateful for all the support and friendship that everyone in Summit—town officials, retailers and individuals—has given us over the years,” says Kelly E. Nagle, Executive Director of Komen North Jersey. “We couldn’t have achieved what we did without their help. But since our lease here was ending, we began to explore how and where we could continue to best meet the needs of the nine North Jersey counties that we serve. We started searching for a location that would be more centrally located, and then a wonderful thing happened. Mack-Cali learned of our quest and offered to help us by providing office space at their Parsippany campus. This incredible gesture of generosity will reduce our annual operating costs and allow us to ultimately direct more money to mission-related initiatives that will benefit our communities.”
Susan G. Komen North Jersey’s mission is to save lives by meeting the most critical needs in our communities and investing in breakthrough research to prevent and cure breast cancer. Through the annual Race for the Cure®, Pink Tie Party and other events and activities, Komen North Jersey raises funds to support local community non-profit organizations that provide screening and diagnostic services, breast health/breast cancer education, treatment support, and survivorship programs for underserved women and men in Bergen, Essex, Hudson, Morris, Passaic, Somerset, Sussex, Union and Warren counties. Since its founding, Komen North Jersey has awarded nearly $19 million in local community grants and has directed more than $7 million to national research programs in pursuit of new breast cancer screening techniques, better and more effective treatment options, and ultimately, the causes and cures to eradicate breast cancer forever.
Phone number (908) 277-2904 and email (cure@komennorthjersey.org) will stay the same. For more information click here.
