By Dave Fried
This year I wanted to do something different and decidedly more special for my annual State of the Township Address. I want to pay it forward and encourage others in Robbinsville Township and everywhere to continue doing the same.
On April 1 at the Hilton Garden Inn on Route 130 South from 6-9 p.m., I will be recognizing our township’s long and generous history of charitable service while honoring Pond Road Middle School student Immanuel “Trey’’ Shepherd and his amazing family.
In 2014, Trey was a semifinalist in a contest that awarded the winner a handicap accessible van as part of National Mobility Awareness Month. Despite an aggressive public relations effort and more than 7,000 votes from Robbinsville and surrounding communities, he came up a little short.
Since birth, Trey has battled Spina Bifida, a condition that causes the spine to not form correctly and leads to neurological damage to other areas of the body. He primarily uses a wheelchair for mobility, however the Shepherd family has experienced considerable financial hardship and do not have a vehicle capable of safely transporting him. The family’s numerous attempts to obtain such a vehicle on their own have proven unsuccessful.
Once we found out he was no longer in the running in the contest, I realized we needed to do more, and I have every confidence the Robbinsville business community, along with our residents will step up in a big, big way. Our new goal is to raise $40,000 in order to help this family get a van outfitted for Trey’s needs. The cost to attend my address is $100 per person with tables of 10 available for $1,000. The public can begin donating now to help the Shepherd family by visiting gofundme.com/treysstory.
Helping us coordinate what is sure to be a wonderful event is ONE Project, a Robbinsville-based non-profit, which raised more than $14,000 and packaged 40,000 meals as part of its Hunger Project last summer. The organization’s February literacy campaign collected over 2,200 books.
ONE Project is a faith and community coalition that seeks to efficiently and effectively address social needs and concerns in a way that brings different races, religions and cultures together as one to better the community. It is a very special organization that we are very proud of.
I also wanted to give special thanks to Chris Vernon and wonderful staff at the Hilton Garden Inn, which has been so generous in making their venue, personnel, food and beverage available to us at a cost that will allow us to maximize our charitable return for this event.
In addition to recognizing another year of service and encouraging others to “Pay it Forward,’’ I will discuss the 2015 budget, our continued effort to keep municipal taxes flat, the future development of Town Center South and the Gordon Road recreation fields, the many challenges faced in redeveloping the Foxmoor Plaza, along with the successful re-launch of the Keep it Local Robbinsville campaign, among other topics.
The state of Robbinsville Township remains strong. We have all worked extremely hard through some very trying times economically over the past seven years to put this government, this community and our businesses, large and small, on a path to future success. This dinner is a way for us to give something back by paying it forward.
Dave Fried is the Mayor of Robbinsville.
