PARSIPPANY — Mr. Stephen J. Roman Sr. of Parsippany is pleased to announce the Engagement of his son Dr. Stephen J. Roman, Jr., of Ewing, to Miss Natalia Shubitidze, of Brooklyn, New York.
Miss Shubitidze is a Professional Model appearing in many magazines, commercials and fashions shows in both Europe and New York City, currently she is an instructor at the Barbizon School in New York City.
Dr. Roman is a triple board certified medical doctor, he attended Seton Hall University for his undergraduate degree, University of Medicine of New Jersey for his MD, and Emory University, where he undertook his fellowship training, he is currently studying for a fourth Board Certification from the Harvard Medical School. He is a senior partner in The Trenton Orthopedic Group.
PARSIPPANY — An Eagle Scout Court of Honor was held on March 25 at Parsippany PAL Youth Center for Rishi Sai Konkesa for achieving the highest rank by the Boy Scouts of America, that of Eagle Scout.
The pathway to Eagle can be described as a steep trail leading up to three peaks, the highest being that of Eagle Scout. Officially, the trail starts with the Tenderfoot rank and continues through Second and First Class ranks. Then, the mountain climbing begins. The path is marked with merit badges, leadership responsibilities, service projects, and the practice of Scouting skills and ideals. The first peak reached is that of Star Scout, the second is Life Scout, and, finally, Eagle Scout.
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Boy Scout Troop 173
Rishi's Scout Journey
Rishi Konkesa and his grandparents
Mayor James Barberio presenting Rishi with a proclamation
Councilman Michael dePierro, Robert Peluso and Louis Valori presenting on behalf of the Council Members
Karen DeChristopher and Greg Elbin presenting on behalf of Kiwanis Club
Bruce Michels presenting on behalf of Parsippanong Post 249 American Legion
Robert Peluso presenting on behalf of Parsippany Area Chamber of Commerce
Carol Dadaian, Fishawack District Unit Commander presenting Rishi with a certificate
Keith Porcelli congratulating Rishi
Rishi pinning his father with the Eagle Dad's Pin
Rishi pinning his mother with the Eagle Scout Mom Pin
Rishi pinning Shane Moravsik with the Eagle Mentor's pin
Rishi Konkesa
Shane Moravski and Rishi Konkesa reciting "The Eagle Scout Charge"
Friends with Rishi Konkesa
Shane Moravsik, Karen DeChristopher, Rishi and Carol Dadaian
Council Vice President Robert Peluso, Satya Konkesa (father), Rishi and his mom Anuradha Konkesa
Parents, Grandparents and Rishi cutting the celebration cake
The celebration cake. Congratulations Rishi!
Eagle Scout is the highest advancement rank in Boy Scouting. Since 1912 more than two million Boy Scouts have earned the Eagle Scout rank. In the words of the Eagle Scout Promise, Eagles do their best each day to make their training an example, their rank and their influence count strongly for better Scouting and for better citizenship in their troop, in their community, and in their contacts with other people. To this they pledge their sacred honor.
In Parsippany, there have been 68 other boys receiving such honor since 1957. Since its introduction in 1911, the Eagle Scout rank has been earned by more than two million young men. Only 4% of the Boy Scouts actually earn this rank.
Rishi began his Scouting experience in Cub Scout Pack 5 joining as a Webelos 2 Cub Scout. Following his time in Pack 5, Rishi joined Troop 173 in fifth grade and quickly advanced through the first few ranks through special guidance of Robert Ebel, Danny Metcalf, and Scoutmasters John Worthington and Les Wu.
As a member of Troop 173, Rishi held a variety of leadership positions including Scribe, Troop Guide, Assistant Senior Patrol Leader, Patrol Leader, and Senior Patrol Leader. His most valuable experience in his Scouting experience is his time as Patrol Leader where he learned invaluable communication, organization, and leadership skills.
Boy Scout Troop 173
In addition, Rishi accumulated over 127 Scouting related service hours and participated in both the National Youth Leadership Training Conference and the Woodsman Thong leadership training programs.
For his Eagle Project, Rishi designed and marked three walking trails around Lake Parsippany Park. He also constructed a kiosk containing a map of the park along with contact information for town officials and town resources for parks and recreation. Along with the trail system, Rishi constructed a 45-foot walking path along with a small garden in order to reduce foot traffic on a grassy area. He thanks his Eagle Scout coach, Shane Moravsik, for helping him complete his project in a timely manner.
Rishi is a senior at the Morris County School of Technology in the Academy for Healthcare Sciences. In school he participates in the National Honors/Technical Honors Society and serves as treasurer for the Health Occupations Students of America Club, Robotics Club, and Student Council.
He is also an active member of the Parsippany Hills High School tennis team and the Morris County Relay for Life event for which he has served as a team leader for two years raising over 2,000 dollars in donations for cancer research.
During the past two summers, Rishi served as an Intern at the National Cancer Institute in Frederick, MD where he conducted research in microvilli formation. During this experience he was fortunate to develop a research paper for which he earned a semifinalist position in the Siemens Science Competition in Math, Science and Technology. He currently serves as an intern at the Novartis Institute of Biomedical Research. In the future, Rishi wishes to pursue a career in medicine and would like to return to the community some of the benefits he has received from it. He also plans to remain active in Scouting after college and help younger Scouts along their Scouting journey because he recognizes the positive influence Scouting has had on him during his formative years.
During his Scouting career, Rishi accumulated 79 total camping nights earning the BSA National Outdoor Award for Camping with three gold devices. In addition Rishi earned 30 Merit Badges including:
Archery
Basketry
Camping*
Citizenship in the Community*
Citizenship in the Nation*
Citizenship in the World*
Collections
Communications
Cooking*
Emergency Preparedness*
Environmental Science*
Family Life*
Fingerprinting
Fishing
Indian Lore
Leatherwork
Model Design
Music
Nature
Personal Fitness*
Personal Management*
Pioneering
Pottery
Rowing
Small Boat Sailing
Space Exploration
Swimming*
Wilderness Survival
Wood Carving
To earn the Eagle award the Scout must complete 21* required merit badges. Rishi earned a total of 30 Merit Badges.
Boy Scouts of America Troop 173 Eagle Scout Honor Roll includes Norman Schofield, Jr., Michael Gottschalk, James Searing, Geoffrey Brown, John Chervenak, Guy Corbett, Tim Corbett, Robert Burney, Juan Correa, Richard Lauber, Tim Roche,,Christopher Callahan, Thomas Cook, Stephen Corcoran, Stephan Pirylis, Brian Stewart, Patrick Roche, Edward Chiorazzi, Brian Pomarlen, Simon Healey, Keith Henderlong, David Chezem, Alex Lin, Robert Strechay, Jr., John Oleske, Daniel Strechay, Joseph Strechay, Kevin Smithers, Joseph Stevens, James Ward, Jason Viglione, Michael DeGuarde, Michael Smith, Tim Foster, Christopher Malcolm, Mark Viglione, Gary Hwang, William Barcliffe, IV, Jonathan Cook, Daniel Aguanno, Anthony Valvano, Eric Kratz, David Kratz, Thomas Corigliano, David Kinskey-Lebeda, Ryan Diggle, Mike Fulton, Dan Fulton, Brian Galley, Shane Moravsik, Paul Rossnagel, Jesse Garbarino, Shay Grabinsky, Joseph Stretavski, Brendan Barwick, Eric Galley, Bobby Ebel, Sean Michie, Michael Ludwig, Matthew Luther, Chris Gardner, Chris Worthington, Cameron Boone, Daniel Metcalf and Rishi Konkesa. Noah Munn will be honored with a Eagle Scout Court of Honor in the upcoming weeks.
PARSIPPANY — In April, Women’s Clubs across the country support Prevent Child Abuse America in its Pinwheels for Prevention® campaign. Every year, clubwomen raise awareness of child abuse and promote healthy childhoods by planting pinwheel gardens. Prevent Child Abuse America introduced the pinwheel in 2008 as the official symbol of great childhoods.
The pinwheel reminds everyone of their own childhoods and the fact that all children deserve to be happy and healthy. Here in New Jersey, the New Jersey State Federation of Women’s Clubs of GFWC have made Prevent Child Abuse its Special State Project for the next two years. Prevent Child Abuse-New Jersey is the only statewide non-profit dedicated to preventing child abuse and neglect in all forms, for all New Jersey children. For more information on PCA-NJ click here.
The Woman’s Club of Parsippany-Troy Hills is a member of the New Jersey State Federation of Women’s Clubs of GFWC (NJSFWC), which is the largest volunteer women’s service organization in the state, providing opportunities for education, leadership training, and community service.
The April General Meeting is on Monday, April 24 at 7:00 pm, at the Lake Parsippany Rescue & Recovery Building, 100 Centerton Drive. All area women are welcome. For more information call Cathy at (973) 984-0758, e-mail the club at womansclubofpth@gmail.com, click here to view their website.
MORRIS COUNTY — The Morris County Department of Planning and Public Works, Division of Planning and Preservation, has announced that the 2017 grant application for funding of open space projects under the Morris County Preservation Trust are now available online by clicking here.
Any of Morris County’s 39 municipalities and qualified charitable conservancies are eligible to apply for grant funding, said Barbara Murray, open space program coordinator.
Funding for the grants comes from the county’s Preservation Trust Fund, which generates revenues through a voter-approved special county tax.
The tax, set at 7/8 of a cent per $100 of tax assessment, should generate about $8 million this year. Of that money, the county allocates 2/8 of a cent to the Park Improvement Trust used by the Park Commission to restore facilities and 5/8 of a cent is allocated to the other Preservation Trust Programs.
Freeholder Christine Myers
In addition to open space projects, the county’s preservation fund also helps finance farmland and historic preservation, county parkland acquisition, recreational trails project, and the purchase of residential properties prone to flooding.
“Preserving our natural areas is vitally important to maintaining our great quality of life in Morris County,’’ said Freeholder Christine Myers, who is the county governing board’s liaison on preservation issues. “Our parks, trails, and nature areas offer a great variety of recreational opportunities for our residents, sometimes just giving us a place to breathe and think, so it is vital to ensure that we have green spaces in each of our towns.’’
The freeholders in 2016 approved funding for six preservation projects at a cost of nearly $3.75 million and totaling more than 270 acres in five Morris County towns. Included were two projects in Denville, and one each in Parsippany, Kinnelon, Randolph, and the first-ever grant award to Mt. Arlington.
They ranged from six-acres in a heavily populated section of Parsippany — and one of the last remaining undeveloped large open spaces in town, to 179-acres of forested land in Kinnelon that is contiguous to a county greenway and a local park in neighboring Pequannock.
Puzio Farm, is located east of Knoll Road, south of the Knollwood School within a densely populated section of the township. The property was a former tree farm and is one of the few remaining large open space tracts left in the township. The level property is contiguous to preserved open space and located across the street from watershed lands surrounding the Jersey City Reservoir. Preservation will create a greenway of close to 35 acres in the region and protect water quality. The grant amount approved in 2016 was $772,500.
More than 13,750 acres of open space have been preserved with the assistance of grant funding from the county program since its inception in 1993, according to Murray.
The deadline for submitting 2017 open space applications and appraisals is Friday, June 16. The Morris County Open Space Trust Fund Committee will visit proposed sites in September, with final presentations made in October, and recommendations made to the freeholder board in early November.
You can obtain additional information by contacting the Morris County Division of Planning and Preservation at (973) 829-8120.
DENVILLE — Morris County Vocational School District English Teacher and 2014 Morris County Teacher of the Year, Lisa Adams, served as the New Jersey State teacher representative at the State Teacher Leadership Convening on February 13-14 in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Given the increased flexibility from the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), state education agencies are able to advance their approaches to teacher leadership. The Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) in collaboration with Leading Educators convened states interested in further refining their teacher leadership strategies. Adams joined a vertical team of five people from the state to refine their theory of action for teacher leadership with supported, specific, tested strategies. Adams joined Chelsea Collins, Program Manager, New Jersey Department of Education (NJDOE); Debra Gulick, Director of Curriculum and Instruction, East Brunswick Public School District; Peter Mazzagatti, Policy Analyst, NJDOE Office of Evaluation; and Charles Rowan, Assistant Principal, North Plainfield High School.
The state team had the opportunity to create and adapt a variety of resources from other states and collaborated through extensive, facilitated time to engage in strategic conversations as a team. The team left the convening with a clear action plan to guide their work over the course of 2017 – 2018 as it relates to the New Jersey Teacher Leader Endorsement.
The Teacher Leader Endorsement will be available to teachers who are eligible and complete an approved program of study and will recognize educators who take on leadership positions in their schools while maintaining their roles as teachers.
The Morris County Vocational School District (www.mcvts.org) offers programs for Morris County high school students, including Career Academies, Share Time Programs, and Continuing Education programs. For additional information, call the Morris County School of Technology at (973) 627-4600 ext. 277.
CEDAR KNOLLS — Clothing and fashion accessories for men, women and children will be collected as Employment Horizons holds its annual spring clothing drive April 19 to 21. The clothing drives offers an opportunity to spring into spring while benefiting area residents with disabilities.
Items to be collected also include stuffed animals and hard toys, such as dolls and action figures (must be below 14” in size), as well as household linens (blankets, sheets, curtains, etc – no fabric scraps or carpet). All items should be placed in well-tied plastic bags. Shoes, boots, and sneakers are also accepted. No single shoes, winter coats, or winter boots, please. All donated items will be distributed to needy families overseas. The clothing will be turned over to a company that will in turn pay Employment Horizons for each pound collected. Their goal is to collect 5,000 pounds.
Bags may be dropped off at Employment Horizons, 10 Ridgedale Avenue, Cedar Knolls from April 19 to 21, between the hours of 8:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m. Donations are to be placed in the box truck marked “Clothing Drive” located in the Employment Horizons rear parking lot. Items may not be dropped off prior to these dates.
Don’t forget, Employment Horizons also has an on-site book bin where you can drop off books, textbooks, CDs, DVDs, and video games. Please no encyclopedias, magazines, VHS tapes, or water damaged items.
Employment Horizons is a local not-for-profit organization which serves individuals with disabilities, empowering them to earn a paycheck and live as productive citizens in the greater Morris County area. For more information, contact Maria Florio, Director of Community Relations at (973) 538-8822 ext. 240 or at mariaflorio@ehorizons.org.
PARSIPPANY — Jaya Minhas, an Albright College senior French/Spanish major/women’s and gender studies minor will present at the 2017 National Conference on Undergraduate Research (NCUR). The scholarly gathering, marking its 31st year, will be held at the University of Memphis, April 6 to 8. Minhas is a graduate of Parsippany Hills High School, Class of 2012.
Minhas will present “The Condition of Indigenous Women in the Andean Region.”
Established in 1987, the National Conferences on Undergraduate Research promotes undergraduate research, scholarship and creative activity in all fields of study by sponsoring an annual conference for students. Unlike meetings of academic professional organizations, this gathering of young scholars welcomes presenters from all institutions of higher learning and from all corners of the academic curriculum, creating a unique environment for the celebration and promotion of undergraduate student achievement, providing models of exemplary research and scholarship, and helping to improve the state of undergraduate education.
Founded in 1856, Albright College educates creative, curious students to become adaptable, global citizens who discover and reach their full potential. The College’s flexible interdisciplinary curriculum encourages students to combine majors and disciplines to create individualized academic programs. Close faculty mentorship, numerous experiential learning options, and a diverse, supportive and nurturing community of scholars and learners help students exceed their own expectations and graduate with a commitment to a lifetime of service and learning. Located in Reading, Pennsylvania, Albright enrolls more than 1,800 full-time undergraduates and 700 adult learners and graduate students.
PARSIPPANY — Faculty and Staff from Central Middle School and teachers from Eastlake Elementary School purchased t-shirts that have the quote “Be The Change You Wish To See In The World.”
The t-shirts also had the school name on them. Proceeds from this fundraiser went to the students in the National History Day Club at Central Middle School and at Eastlake Elementary School, the funds went to help students purchase books at their school book fair.
MOUNTAIN LAKES — The Y believes that all kids have the potential to grow up and change the world if they’re nurtured properly and supported along the way. With that in mind, the Lakeland Hills Family YMCA kicked off their annual GIVE A KID THE Y campaign on Saturday, April 1.
This annual effort primarily supports financial aid scholarships for childcare, after school care, and summer day camp, providing dollars of financial assistance to those in the local area who are less fortunate. Last year the Y provided almost $185,000 in financial aid scholarships for membership and specifically toward these areas: $53,905 Early Childhood Learning Center, $85,475 Day Camp, $23,688 After School Childcare, $6,059 Aquatics, and $1,765 Youth Fitness.
The Y invites you to become a part of GIVE A KID THE Y by supporting this vital cause. Your gift will provide programs and services that give all kids what they need to succeed from childhood and beyond – regardless of their financial circumstances. Please pledge (payable by 12/31/17) your support when one of their volunteers contacts you or pledge/donate online at www.lakelandhillsymca.com
PARSIPPANY — The EastLake School PTA will be holding a Tricky-Tray on Friday, April 21. The event will be held at Parsippany PAL Youth Center, 33 Baldwin Road. Pre-sale ticket check in is at 5:30 p.m. and general admission (if tickets remain available) starts at 6:00 p.m.
Click here to down load a pre-sale ticket form. Pre-sale tickets are due by April 14. Admission ticket is $20.00 which includes admission, coffee, dessert and three sheets of level 1 tickets. Advanced Admission Ticket bundles is $40.00 includes admission, coffee, dessert, three sheets level 1 tickets, 5 level 2 tickets and 1 level 3 ticket.
Night of the event, Admission is $20.00, which includes coffee and dessert (while tickets last). Ticket sales are $5.00 for level 1 tickets, $2.00 for level 2 tickets and $5.00 for level 3 tickets.
Print out the attached form and mail it to Eastlake Elementary School, 40 Eba Road, Parsippany, New Jersey 07054 in a sealed envelope, attention 5th Grade Committee or contact eastlake5thgrade17@gmail.com. Make all checks payable to Eastlake PTA.
