Make A Wish
Celebrating the launch of an ongoing partnership between the Make-a-Wish Foundation and Gold Medal Impressions featuring the works of sports photographer Dick Druckman, West Windsor resident and wish kid Pierre-Antoine Frotte, 11, chose a photograph of cyclist Lance Armstrong winning his seventh consecutive Tour-de-France at a reception last month.
Pierre’s family was honored during the event. His mother, Nadege Frotte, is a stay-at-home mom; and his father, Gaetan Frotte, works at NRG Energy in Carnegie Center. His sister, Ann-Charlotte, 8, is a third grade student at Maurice Hawk School. The family moved to West Windsor four years ago.
Pierre-Antoine, a sixth grade student at Grover Middle School, was born in Charlottesville, Virginia. He became involved with Make-A-Wish Foundation through Children Hospital of Philadelphia, where he was treated for kidney failure. He had a kidney transplant in 2007 and is currently waiting for a second one. His wish to visit and meet the cast of the television show iCarly in Los Angeles was granted through the foundation in September, 2008.
According to his mother, he chose a photograph of Lance Armstrong at Gold Medal Gallery because of his French heritage and good memories of the Tour de France.
“It was amazing to see all of the photos from the sporting events,” says Pierre-Antoine. “I love taking pictures and it was great to meet professional photographers. I am really thankful to Make-A-Wish for inviting me.”
Elissa Teles, a fourth grade student at Village School, organized a toy drive for children in the Philippines. When she saw the news that families had lost everything during a storm in September, she wanted to do something for the kids that had lost their toys. When she was organizing her teddy bear collection she decided to donate some of them.
She shared her plan with students in her class taught by Karen Stroczynski and classmates supported her efforts. Three boxes were sent to the Rotary Club of Davao — 50 toys, 90 percent were teddy bears. She already has contacts in Costa Rica, Venezuela, and other countries and plans to have a similar drive every year.
Susan Hasmiller, a West Windsor resident and a member of the American Red Cross board of directors, led a team of elves in delivering gifts in the Red Cross Santa Run on Saturday, December 19. Gifts were presented to 36 young victims of recent house fires in Central New Jersey. Disaster relief volunteers from the American Red Cross of Central New Jersey, dressed as Santa and his Elves to help fulfill the children’s holiday wish lists provided by their parents.
Her team members included her husband, Bob Hassmiller, CEO of the National Association of College Auxiliary Services. The couple, who have two grown children, have lived in West Windsor for 12 years.
Hassmiller, the senior advisor for nursing at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation in Plainsboro, works to address the nurse and nurse faculty shortages in an effort to create a higher quality of patient care in the United States. A fellow in the American Academy of Nursing and a member of the Joint Commission Nursing Advisory Council and the New York Academy of Medicine, Hassmiller, a graduate of Florida State University with a bachelor’s degree in nursing, earned masters degrees in health education from Florida State University and community health nursing form the University of Nebraska Medical Center. She received a Ph.D. in nursing administration and health policy from George Mason University.
“I have been a volunteer for the Red Cross since my college days when the Red Cross helped me find my parents in an earthquake in Mexico City in 1975,” she says. “When they found my parents I vowed to devote my own life to the Red Cross and have been doing so now for 35 years.”
Hassmiller, who recently served a six-year term as a member of the National Board of Governors for the American Red Cross, serving in the role of chair of the Disaster and Chapter Services Committee, has been involved in Red Cross disaster relief efforts in the United States and abroad, including tornadoes in the Midwest, Hurricane Andrew, September 11th, the 2004 Florida hurricanes and Katrina, and the tsunami in Indonesia. Currently serving on the Red Cross national nursing advisory committee, and the board of the Central New Jersey Red Cross, Hassmiller is the immediate past chair of the national 9/11 Recovery Program.
The recipient of many awards, she is the 2009 recipient of the Florence Nightingale Medal, the highest international honor given to a nurse by the International Committee of the Red Cross.
“The families that we visited were all so very appreciative of the Red Cross,” she says”. I loved going to one very lovely Hispanic family with a mother and grandmother. We handed the two little girls their gifts and one by one they placed them under the tree. They were so excited, but their mother said they would open them on Christmas day and so the little girls respectfully obeyed.”
John Lim, a West Windsor resident and owner of Cheeburger Cheeburger in Lawrenceville, hosted 25 homeless children between the ages of 8 and 13 at the restaurant. One of Homefront’s goals is to take the children out for a meal for the holidays to give them a sense of normalcy in their lives.
Births
The University Medical Center at Princeton has announced the following births:
Sons were born to Plainsboro residents Subahashini and Manoj Lala, December 11; and Julie and Gregory Gonzalez, December 21.
Daughters were born to Plainsboro residents Shani French and Hasain Gorrell, December 15; Maria Perez, December 16; Joy Jordan Hernandez and Robert Hernandez, December 18; Tammy Ehrhart and Jong Bak, December 19; Surbhi and Amit Girdhar, December 23; Julia Ruffo and William Goldstein, December 24; Sumana Chandrasekhara and Ravichandra Karnam, January 4; and Sumana Chandrasekhara and Ravichandra Karnam, January 4.
Daughters were born to West Windsor residents Janice and Daniel Hillson, December 20; and Christine Jessica Martinez and Joshua Steven Jackson, December 31.
Sons were born to West Windsor residents Rong Gao and Ming Zhou, December 30.
