MORRIS COUNTY — Assemblyman Anthony M. Bucco, Morris County Sheriff James M. Gannon, the New Jersey State PBA and the Morris County Police Chiefs Association came together today to celebrate the collection of hundreds of stuffed bears for juveniles that law enforcement personnel encounter in the line of duty.

The “Feel Better Bears“ program helps children feel better during emergencies, giving them brand-new toys to hug during a time of need.

“It seems most fitting that it is today, on National Law Enforcement Appreciation Day, that we celebrate such a special program,” said Bucco (R-Morris). “In addition to the daily acts of heroism our police officers perform, they also comfort these innocent children in very difficult situations. It really helps underscore what makes these men and women so special.”

NJ State PBA President Patrick Colligan is enthusiastic over the difference the donations will make on the lives of children that receive them. “When dealing with emergency situations where a child is involved, having these toys will help an officer make a child feel safe. I couldn’t be more proud to be involved with the program.”

“The community support for this project was tremendous,” said Gannon. “I want to thank all the people that contributed to the program. I’m sure these bears will make a difference in the lives of a lot of children.”

“In situations like these, our officers are aware that there’s more to being a public servant than upholding laws. We are a part of the community, and always strive to make a difficult situation easier on children,” said Rockaway Police Chief Conrad Pepperman.

“As president of the Morris County Chiefs of Police Association, I am honored that Assemblyman Bucco has chosen to partner with our organization and our endeavors to support the Feel Better Bear Program,” said Chief Ciro Chimento. “Since this program directly affects our most innocent little ones, we appreciate Assemblyman Bucco’s compassion. We are happy to collaborate and know that this program will provide comfort to the children of Morris County.”

MORRIS COUNTY — The Morris County Library is offering new Pop-Up Libraries that will offer folks in waiting rooms at four county government locations and at a homeless shelter for families a chance to access the library’s e-book collection on their smartphones or tablets.

Visitors to the Morris County Jail, Juvenile Detention Center, Youth Shelter, Family Justice Center and the Homeless Solutions shelter will be the first in line to be able to access and download library e-books, even if they are not card-carrying County Library members.

With the support of the Morris County Board of Freeholders, the County Library has invested $13,000 in the small mobile devices that are being installed at these five locations, allowing for access to a portion of the County Library’s e-book collection.

Morris County is the first library system in the state to employ Pop-Up Libraries, using innovative technology provided Baker & Taylor publishing company, which is the product distributor.

“This is an interesting use of new technology that can benefit our residents and visitors to county government by allowing them to read while they wait,’’ said Freeholder Heather Darling, the county governing board’s liaison to the County Library. “I commend our library team for their efforts to bring this technology to our county.’’

“The modern library is no longer constrained by brick and mortar.  The idea of ‘bringing the books to the people’ – instead of the other way around – is the best way to foster a lifelong love of reading while emphasizing the social need for public library services,” said Morris County Assistant Library Director Darren O’Neill.

The Pop-Up Library system allows individuals to access e-books within direct proximity, or about 40-feet, of a small device (about the size of a deck of playing cards) that generates its own Wi-Fi signal. Once connected, smart phone users can visit a website, which serves as the catalog, and download the e-content.

Not to worry, once a user leaves one of the connected Pop-Up Library locations she or he can continue to read the book. The e-content can be saved in the user’s cache for access outside the perimeter of the Pop-Up Library device for a period of about two weeks

The Morris County Library, in partnering with Baker & Taylor, initially will make about 335 titles (in English and Spanish) available for sharing. The e-content periodically will be refreshed.

For security reasons, the Wi-Fi signal generated by the device can only access the website for the e-content. It cannot connect to sites such as Google or others. Also, these devices will not interfere with any of the other Wi-Fi connections supported by the Morris County Office of Information Technology.

In connection with this new initiative, the County Library has purchased ten easy to use Kindle Fires for on-site use at the five initial Pop-Up Library locations for persons without smartphones or tablets.

EAST HANOVER — As reported in Morris Focus, East Hanover Police Department was dispatched to the Exxon, 349 Route 10 just before 12:30 a.m. on reports of an armed robbery. A black handgun was shown and the suspect is believed to be a male around 5’10’ wearing a black ski mask, gray hoodie and black gym pants with checkers down the side and black sneakers.

The Morris County Sheriff’s Department responded to the scene with a K9 but was unable to track the suspect.

Additional reports, about an hour later a hold up alarm was received by 7-Eleven, 115 South Salem Street, Randolph, approximately ten miles away. Randolph Police arrived and confirmed a robbery took place with the description matching the East Hanover robbery.

No injuries were reported in either incident, and the suspect is still at large.

Anyone with Information should contact the East Hanover Police Department at (973) 887-0432, Randolph Police Department at  (973) 989-7010 or the Morris County Prosecutor’s Office at (973) 285-6200.

When additional details become available Morris Focus will update this article.

MORRIS COUNTY —Here’s some sound advice on how to spend a midwinter Sunday afternoon: Stop by the Morris Museum to see the exhibit called “Trumpets Weird & Wonderful: Treasures from the National Music Museum,” followed by a fabulous concert by the Hanover Wind Symphony at the museum’s Bickford Theatre at 2:00 p.m. on Sunday, February 10. The HWS concert is called “And the Trumpets Shall Sound.”

The Morris Museum, which opens at noon on Sunday, and the Bickford Theatre are located at 6 Normandy Heights Road, Morristown.

Says HWS music director and conductor Matthew Paterno of Parsippany, “This concert promises to be a wonderful complement to the museum’s ‘Trumpets, Weird and Wonderful: Treasures from the National Music Museum’ exhibit. We are proud to feature professional trumpet/cornet player Michael R. Baker as well as some great band literature that highlights the HWS trumpet section.”

The Hanover Wind Symphony “And the Trumpets Shall Sound” program will include:

• Galactic Fanfare by Randall D. Standridge
• At Morning’s First Light by David R. Gillingham
• Concerto for Trumpet and Symphonic Band by Alexander Arutiunian, with a solo by Michael R. Baker on the trumpet
• Danzon by Leonard Bernstein, with associate music director and conductor Kurt Zimmermann of Rockaway conducting
• Ride by Samuel R. Hazo, with Richard Barriers conducting
• Willow Echoes by Frank Simon, with a solo by Michael R. Baker on the cornet
• Gabriel’s Oboe by Ennio Morricone, arranged by Robert Longfield, with a solo by Michael R. Baker on the piccolo trumpet
• The Falls by Rossano Galante

HWS soloist Michael R. Baker began his studies on the cornet at the Salvation Army with Derek Smith at the age of nine. He holds both a bachelor’s and a master’s degree from the Juilliard School, where he studied trumpet with Philip Smith, Mark Gould and Edward Treutel. Besides his second trumpet position with the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, he is a busy freelance musician in the New York area, playing with the New York Philharmonic and the Metropolitan Opera. He has also performed in the orchestra of several shows on Broadway. Baker is also a member of the prestigious Brass Band of Battle Creek.

He can be heard on many recordings of the New York Philharmonic, the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, and both the Montclair Citadel Band and the New York Staff Band of the Salvation Army. The guest soloist teaches trumpet at William Paterson University in Wayne. Baker has performed as a soloist in America, Japan, Australia, the UK, Canada, Norway, Sweden, and Korea. In 2014, Baker was a guest soloist at the International Trumpet Guild Conference.

The Hanover Wind Symphony is a unique extension of the great American tradition of adult music performance. One of only a handful of outstanding community-based adult wind bands in New Jersey, the Hanover Wind Symphony delights audiences of all ages by giving a contemporary twist to traditional favorites. The large orchestra, made up exclusively of woodwind, brass and percussion instruments, embraces as its mission bringing “music to people and people to music.”

For more than 30 years, the Hanover Wind Symphony has played to enthusiastic audiences. HWS members are volunteers who share a love for music and a passion for enriching the cultural fabric of the community with the thrill of live wind band performances.

By day, HWS members are accountants, engineers, teachers and executives. They come together to connect musically with others, share the enjoyment of music with live audiences, and help mentor the next generation of wind musicians.

Tickets to “And the Trumpets Shall Sound” are $25.00 general admission; $20.00 for seniors, Morris Museum members and Theatre Guild members; and $15.00 for students (18 and under or with a valid college ID). Call (973) 971-3706 for reservations. For an additional $3, concert attendees can tour the museum’s exhibit called “Trumpets Weird & Wonderful: Treasures from the National Music Museum.”

For further information about the Hanover Wind Symphony click here.

PARSIPPANY — Today Representative Mikie Sherrill (NJ-11) announced her first co-sponsorship of legislation will be H.R. 8, a bipartisan universal background check bill.

“My first bill co-sponsorship in Congress is a bipartisan proposal for universal background checks,” said Congresswoman Mikie Sherrill. “This is the anniversary of a tragedy that showed that no one is immune from the threat of gun violence. This common sense background check bill is a first step by our new Congress to address this country’s gun violence epidemic.”

To be introduced by Congressman Mike Thompson of California, H.R. 8 comes on the 8th anniversary of the shooting of Congresswoman Gabby Giffords of Arizona that left six individuals dead at a constituent event in Tucson, Arizona. H.R. 8 closes a loophole in current law by requiring universal background checks for gun purchases with specific exemptions for family transfers and recreational hunting.

Representative Mikie Sherrill is a member of the Gun Violence Prevention Task Force in the U.S. House of Representatives. With experience with firearms in the U.S. Navy and as a federal prosecutor that worked to keep guns off the streets of New Jersey, Sherrill has been a strong proponent of gun safety legislation.

MORRIS COUNTY — Project Help is donating six brand new bicycles to children of veterans in North Jersey.  The bikes have frame sizes of 16 and 20 inches, and one more favorable for girls and the other is fine for either gender. The difference is in the color of the bikes.

Last month, in time for Christmas, the donated bikes went to Operation Sisterhood in Morristown for two female veterans to bring smiles to the faces of their kids.

This time, we are asking all veterans wishing to have a bike, to fill out the form and give us a couple of sentences about how the bikes will be appreciated. The child can be a son or daughter, grandchild or other direct family or foster member.

If you are selected to receive a bike for your youngster, you will be giving permission to use your child’s image in Social Media and in press releases, along with name and city of residence.

The bikes are Trek valued at over $250.00 each plus a helmet valued at about $50.00.  There is no cost to the recipient, just the requirement of a couple of pictures and a thank you to Project Help as well as proof of having served in the military…military ID or DD214.  The form can be found on the Project Help website by clicking here.

“Build a Bike” is a program spearheaded by Brian Rendine of UnitedEVENTures, LLC and is sponsored by Ogden Technologies.

The event will take place on January 29 at Full Moon Resort, Big Indian, NY.  35 employees of Ogden will participate in building the bikes, under the watchful eye of Jason Zeigler. Owner of Sussex Bike and Sport on Route 23 in Wantage. All entries must be received via email or postal mail no later than January 25, 2019.  Email to Sandy@mitchellclan.com or mail to Project Help 55 Bank St., Sussex NJ  07461.

To warm them up for the big bike building challenge, there are about 6 high tech games requiring team action.  For example, toss the ping pong ball into a plastic cup, one ball in each cup wins…very high tech.

Sandy Mitchell of Project Help will be there to talk to the employees about the difficulties of veterans as they transition from the military into civilian life and how Project Help can intervene and help make life a bit easier for them.  She is also looking for a couple of people to help bring the bikes back and deliver them to the recipients by the weekend.  Please give a call if you can help that day or on the following days. If your company would like to host a build a bike day, please contact Sandy at (973) 875-2068.

MORRISTOWN — Preschool Advantage was honored once again to be the recipient of The Peck School fundraiser, “Pasta for Preschool.” Generous members of the Peck community purchased raffle and dinner tickets to attend a delicious family style pasta buffet organized by community- minded Peck seventh graders and their advisers. The fundraiser raised $11,130.71 in all — enough to send two children to preschool. Molly Dunn, executive director at Preschool Advantage, said “the commitment of all the students, faculty and parents was truly inspirational and our continued partnership with The Peck School invaluable.”

At the event, Yana, a Preschool Advantage parent, shared her daughter’s preschool experience. When Yana’s daughter entered preschool, she was not verbal, had no playmates, and knew only the Russian language. After a month in preschool, the three year old began to speak in English and is now a confident and chatty six year-old! Yana credits the preschool experience with instilling confidence in her young daughter, and she is grateful for the tuition assistance the family received from Preschool Advantage.

Preschool Advantage is a non-profit organization with the vision that all children should have access to high quality early education. Since its inception over 20 years ago, almost 1,500 tuitions have been paid, and it is the organization’s goal to fund 100 tuitions in 2019.  Applications are now available for the 2019 – 2020 academic year with priority funding given to those who apply by February 28.  To learn more about Preschool Advantage or to obtain an application call (973) 532-2501 or click here.