The inaugural Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. “Make a Difference” Volunteer Awards ceremony brought together Plainsboro’s diverse community to celebrate the achievements of middle schoolers and octogenarians alike on Sunday, January 18. Sponsored by the township’s Human Relations Council, five awards were given out to community members, with Mayor Peter Cantu and State Senator Linda Greenstein in attendance.
Khatumu Tuchscherer was the recipient of the Youth award. An eighth grade student at Community Middle School and a top-ranked tennis player, Tuchscherer raised more than $2,500 this past summer for healthcare initiatives for girls in Sierra Leone by organizing a 10-hour “tennisthon” at High School North.
Emergency service members were recognized: Plainsboro Rescue Squad chief Brian Gould and the Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) were awarded the Individual and Social Innovator awards.
The Emerging Leader award was given to John Schafhauser, a research associate at Rutgers’ Center on Violence Against Women and Children. Schafhauser coordinates microchipping clinics for local pet owners as part of the Ewing Area Shelter Extension League (EASEL) and has volunteered at CONTACT of Mercer County since he was a psychology undergraduate at the College of New Jersey.
“Animal welfare is my most passionate issue, but I’m invested in anything people first,” says Schafhauser, who became involved in volunteer work after joining a co-ed community service fraternity at TCNJ. After graduating in 2012, with a concentration in non-profit and public management he studied for a masters in social work at Rutgers.
He and his fiance, Casey, volunteer at the Plainsboro Nature Preserve, collecting the nesting data of eastern bluebirds. They moved to Plainsboro after college because it was between New Brunswick and Trenton, where Casey works at Planned Parenthood.
“We love Plainsboro. It’s beautiful and there’s a lot to do. It has a suburb feel, and also a nature feel, but you’re never detached from the community,” says Schafhauser, who grew up in Moorestown. His father is an engineer at Lockheed Martin and his mother is a home health aide.
At the Center on Violence Against Women and Children, Schafhauser engages in social science research. One project involved evaluating a community summer program in New Brunswick that uses art to mentor children against violence.
The Rutgers Center was also commissioned by the White House to pilot a campus study on sexual assault.
Schafhauser is interested in pursuing a research career in the social sciences. He is considering applying to the PhD program at Rutgers and at other schools with similar programs, he says. “I am also interested in nonprofits, potentially management.”
Ruth Levy received the lifetime achievement award for volunteering at township events and at the Merwick Care and Rehabilitation Center.
“Grandma Ruth,” as Levy is known, started working as a physical therapist in 1949 and is still working. She drives to the Bronx and Brooklyn several times a month to train home health aides.
“I’m still working, yes, because I love what I do,” she says. “You know what trainees need most of all in their training? They need to care, they need the heart. How can they motivate someone who wants to walk, who wants to eat, if the aides themselves are not motivated to want them to?”
Levy and her husband, Julian, moved to Plainsboro in 1992. Julian also worked as a physical therapist and then as an educator in the New York City school system.
They were looking to purchase a Hovnanian house — four bedrooms, two baths, and a basement — and this drew them to Plainsboro.
“We said ‘Plainsboro? Who’s ever heard of Plainsboro?’” Levy says. “My husband selected a plot right across from the library and municipal building. I never thought in a million years that we would be in New Jersey.”
Lifelong New Yorkers, the Levys picked up on the region’s history. They were both docents at the Historical Society. Ruth in particular revels in Plainsboro’s multicultural community.
“The concert given by Community Middle School was as diverse as the community,” she says, referring to the orchestra performance at the event. “There were children of all cultures.”
She does not own a computer. At 85 she is not out of touch, preferring rather to stay in touch.
“I’m afraid of being subsumed by the computer, losing contact with the real world,” Ruth says. “I grew up without a telephone in the house. If someone wanted to contact you they called the candy store around the block, and someone came around to tell you.”
Levy’s grandparents were from Russia and came through Ellis Island. Her family settled in Brooklyn, and she recalls the boiler her grandfather, a plumber, displayed on the front lawn. Her father was a sewing machine operator who would make a pair of pants for neighborhood boys on their first birthday. Levy’s mother was a stenographer who altered her name to conceal her Jewish background, fearing discrimination in the insurance industry.
“My parents were born here, but they didn’t have an education, so they encouraged me to get one,” she says. “I applied for a scholarship at NYU; to me that was out of town.”
At NYU Ruth met Julian, a World War II veteran interested in the rehabilitation of veterans. Julian died in April, 2014, after nearly 65 years of marriage.
“We were classmates, and Julian was a great influence in my becoming involved in the healthcare field.”
Their first date was a weightlifting contest, and afterwards Julian gave Ruth a pair of eight pound dumbbells, which she still has today. Her father gave the okay after seeing Julian, a veteran, pick Ruth up in a camel hair suit.
“My father was protective. He used to tell guys, ‘Go home and come back when you grow up,’” Ruth says.
After graduating from NYU’s physical therapy program Ruth and Julian moved to Queens. Ruth worked in acute care and home care for hospitals in the city and Long Island before settling in Plainsboro.
She has two children and three grandchildren. Daughter Ilse is a retired school psychologist living in Queens, and son Kurt is an IT professional in East Brunswick.
As a volunteer at Merwick, Levy considers herself an outreach person, eager to talk and listen to people.
“People would ask me if I worked there. My standard response was they couldn’t pay me what I’m worth, so I volunteer here,” she says.
A member of the Embroiderers’ Guild, Levy can be found at the Plainsboro Library’s annual Festival of the Arts teaching residents stitching. She also runs a stitching, knitting, and crocheting support group that meets every Monday. The group, “Needle Arts Engineers from 8 to 88,” meets at the recreation center.
About her award, Levy says, “I was embarrassed that people would come out to see me. Somebody nominated me; what I would like in the future is to find out who did the nominations. It would be a nice reunion if the person who nominated you showed themselves.”
