#b#Starting Young#/b#
Benjamin Chairnoff of West Windsor visited Maple Stream Road Preschool in East Windsor to begin a recycling program at the school in preparation for his April, 2013, bar mitzvah. As a Maple Stream Preschool alumnus, he observed the amount of paper that gets sent away to dumps around East Windsor from the school.
Chairnoff read the books “Michael Recycle” and the sequel, “Michael Recycle Meets Litterbug Doug” to educate the children on the importance of recycling. They also created a recycle monster craft to learn to recycle scraps of paper at home.
“The preschoolers have recycled a lot of paper and plastic, which helps the earth and the students become greener,” says Chairnoff, who often visits the school to monitor the students’ progress. The children receive stickers as a reward for recycling.
#b#Literati#/b#
Bart Jackson, a Plainsboro resident, has written a new book. “Behind Every Successful Woman is Herself” was launched at Hopewell Valley Vineyards in May. “The book is dedicated to those women seeking business success and satisfaction,” says Jackson. “From Career launching to finding your seat in the board room or taking your own firm global, experienced experts point the way to what works and what blunders to avoid.”
His “Garden State Wineries Guide,” reflects his hobby of growing and making wine. A business writer for close to 30 years, he has created BartsBooks.com, his latest division of Prometheus Publishing, to focus on solutions for businesses. Jackson is a frequent contributor to U.S.1 newspaper. Visit www.bartsbooks.com.
#b#It Takes a Village#/b#
Julie Greener of West Windsor has been battling cancer of an unknown primary for more than a year. “There is very little research in this area and it is extremely difficult to treat because the origin and type of cancer is unknown,” she writes on her website, www.gofundme.com. “It becomes a guessing game of different chemotherapy drugs combined with the knowledge of experienced doctors along with the patient to see what works.” Greener has been on more than seven different types of chemotherapy treatments and she will always be on treatments.
Insurance will not cover many of the labs, tests, clinical trials, and travel. “I am reaching out to you to assist me and my family during the uphill battle that we are fighting against,” Julie writes on the website. To donate visit www.gofundme.com and search on “Help Julie in the Race Against Cancer.”
The family moved from Chappaqua to West Windsor in 2006. Her husband, Robert, is an attorney. Children Josh, Jeremy, and Alana are busy with soccer, ice hockey, baseball, and performing arts.
Melissa Magid, a West Windsor resident, a friend of Julie, and owner and director of Black Bear Lake Day Camp, set up Julie Greener’s Village at www.lotsahelpinghands.com when Julie received her diagnosis last year to organize meals and rides for her family. “I can also send messages about other needs her family might have — like an SOS for help if there is day that the family needs extra help,” says Magid. “In addition, Julie posts updates about her treatment and progress that goes out to everyone who is a member of her Village. Members can also leaves Well Wishes and other notes to lift Julie’s spirits.”
“I’m overwhelmed with people in the community,” says Julie. “People I’ve not met have supported me with love.” There are close to 60 people in the Lots of Helping Hands group. They have brought meals to the family, driven the kids to events, and helped in many ways. E-mail support@lotsahelpinghands.com.
#b#New Super Lawyer#/b#
Thomas Carroll of West Windsor, a partner at Hill Wallack LLP in Carnegie Center, has been named to the 2012 New Jersey Super Lawyers list. He is partner-in-charge of the land use division.
Carroll is land use counsel to the New Jersey Builders Association. As past-chairman of the New Jersey State Bar Association’s land use law section, he has written numerous articles and presented many seminars concerning land use issues. Carroll also routinely provides his fellow attorneys with updated information on land use law when speaking on panels offered by the New Jersey Institute for Continuing Legal Education.
#b#Scholarship#/b#
Matthew Rexroad of West Windsor is a winner in the Terumo Medical Corporation scholarship program. A senior at High School North, he will major in biology and pre-med at Rutgers. His activities include Boy Scouts, science club, and marching band.
#b#Donate Please#/b#
Eva Boal, a sophomore at High School North, is working on her Girl Scout Gold Award with UrbanPromise, an organization that provides recreational and academic activities for youth through afterschool and summer programs in Camden since 1988. Their Trenton site opened last year at Trinity Cathedral on State Street. “There is a lot of developmental work left to finish, and I will be leading several projects within their summer program to help them out,” says Boal.
Boal is organizing and creating a quiet area and library in one of their small classrooms. She is also tutoring several kids and running a week of summer camp from July 9 to 13. “I already met some of the kids, and they are really great — the camp should be super fun,” says Boal.
Building shelves is not an obstacle for Boals, who has been part of the stage crew at North for two years. She helped build sets for both “Beauty and the Beast” and “Peter Pan.”
She has lived in West Windsor since she was three, when the family moved from Michigan. She began Girl Scouting with Brownies in first grade. She is now in Troop 70700 led by Gina Ochs.
“I am looking for any donations or sponsorship funds to help me build the quiet corner and supply the program with necessary equipment,” she says. Donations requested include basketballs, baseballs, baseball bats, bases, soccer balls, cones, volleyballs, and a volleyball net; board games, puzzles, and books for ages 8 to 12; butterfly chairs, and a small rug. There is a collection box at the Plainsboro Municipal Building. E-mail Boal at eva_boal@hotmail.com.
#b#Musical Notes#/b#
Students from Community Middle School performed with the New Jersey All-State Intermediate Orchestra. Sixth grade students include Alexandria Zeng and Angela Huang on violin, and Graham Davies on bass. Seventh grade students include Madison Lai on violin and Ji Won Lee on viola. Eighth grade students include Victoria Xie and Raymond Zhang on violin.
“I liked how hard work contributed to our concert,” says Zhang. “It was an interesting experience, and I made friends from other schools.” All are participants in the school’s orchestra program and earned places in the New Jersey honors orchestra by audition. Their instrumental music teachers at CMS include Hanfang Zhang, Mary Schmidt, and Brian Woodward.
“I thought it was really great to play music with a lot of other great musicians and to work with an accomplished conductor,” says Lee. The orchestra performed selections by Beethoven, Ravel, Rutter, and Corigliano.
“It was fast paced and you had to be more self-directed in working out problems on your own,” says Lai. “The conductor was very meticulous about musical details, like dynamics, and very firm about rehearsal rules and being professional. And it was inspiring to see other players from other schools who are really good.”
#b#Video Games#/b#
Julia Weingaertner, 13, an eighth grade student at Stuart School and a resident of West Windsor, received a prize in the PBS KIDS Ready to Learn Category of the National STEM Video Game Challenge. The annual competition seeks to motivate interest in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) learning by tapping into students’ natural passion for playing and making video games. The Stuart team’s challenge was to program math video games for ages 4 to 8.
Weingaertner and her programming partner, Sarah Lippman of Pennington, created the winning game “Animal Inequities,” which teaches the concept of greater than and less than using animated sharks and fish. “These games are better than 90 percent of the educational games in the app store,” says Amy Kraft, one of the reviewers from wired.com.
All winners and their teacher, Alicia Testa, traveled to Washington, D.C., where they were honored at a celebration at the Smithsonian American Museum of Art on May 21.
Each winner received an AMD based laptop computer, travel to and from Washington, and subscriptions to Brain Pop magazine and Gamestar Mechanic, plus $2,000 for their school.
The girls from Stuart designed and programmed their video games as part of the required coursework in their eighth grade computer science class. “In January when we started this project, the girls had no computer programming experience,” says Testa. “They faced a steep learning curve from the beginning; not only did they rise to the occasion — they surpassed all expectations.”
The project also required skills such as collaboration, communication, planning, and problem solving. “Research tells us that these girl-centric skills are invaluable to careers in STEM fields; including developing video games, a field dominated by men,” says Patty L. Fagin, head of Stuart School.
#b#In College#/b#
Muhlenberg College: Jessica Chu of West Windsor received a bachelor of science in biology and public health. She is a graduate of High School North.
Pomona College: Matthew Hasling, a graduate of High School South, received a bachelor of arts in physics and a minor in mathematics. He was elected to Sigma Xi, the scientific research society. He was co-president of the a cappella group After School Specials. Hasling will attend UC-San Diego in the fall to pursue a PhD in physics.
Stevens Institute of Technology: Mallory Swanson of West Windsor graduated with honors in naval engineering. A Department of Defense S.M.A.R.T. scholarship recipient, she will be employed by the Army Corps of Engineers Marine Design Center in Philadelphia. She received the David Savitsky Award given to the outstanding student in naval engineering. She also received the best athlete award given to the top student-athlete.
