‘If you want something done ask a busy person” is not just a line with Audrey Wisotsky of West Windsor — it is how she lives and why she is being honored for her extraordinary volunteer service at Enable’s Cinco de Mayo event on Thursday, May 5, at 6 p.m., at the Masonic Temple in Trenton. The gala, featuring cocktails, dinner, auctions, and entertainment, celebrates the independence of those served by Enable on the same day as Mexico’s holiday of independence. Tickets are $100.
Wisotsky worked with Enable’s predecessor, United Cerebral Palsy of Mercer County, as both president and board member. When the national organization was closing and local chapters and volunteers were concerned that programs would be abandoned, Enable was started.
Enable is a nonprofit agency that helps people with disabilities live as independently as possible. They have close to 10 group homes in Central New Jersey but only one of them is in West Windsor. In Benford, located on the corner of Clarksville and Benford, five women live together — all doing different things and all with different needs.
Enable also provides personal assistance to individuals living independently, provides respite services for caregivers, and runs a vocational day training program. Group home members go to other programs during the day. “We focus on the individual and whatever they can do,” she says. “We make the most of that.
Born in New York, Wisotsky moved to East Brunswick when she was four years old. Her father was a CPA and her mother worked in his office, “They did a tremendous amount of volunteer work while I was growing up,” she says. “My father was in the Lions Club and they were always bringing groups in to visit a Jewish nursing home in the area,” she says. “I volunteered all throughout high school,” she said. “It was part of what we learned to do.”
During her junior year at Rutgers, Wisotsky decided to be a lawyer and there was no turning back. After graduation from Rutgers University School of Law in Camden, she was determined to find a job in an area law office and she did. “I joined a firm I never want to leave,” she says.
A partner with Pepper Hamilton’s Alexander Park office, Wisotsky has been doing pro bono legal work since 1988 in matters ranging from property to personnel issues. She met her husband, Marc, while they were students at Rutgers. A financial advisor, he was raised in Highland Park. They have lived in West Windsor for 16 years.
Their son Eric, 14, is in eighth grade at Community Middle School. An avid sports enthusiast, his Bar Mitzvah project included collecting sports equipment that he is still distributing in Trenton. His sister Stefanie, 10, is a fourth grade student at Millstone School. “Both of them volunteer with us,” she says.
Wisotsky’s involvement with Enable soon led to a board position, on which she has served for 10 years — four of them as president. Her husband is on the board of other social agencies and was very active in Enable benefit baseball games for a few years. “We’re both involved in the community. We want our children to learn to see the same thing,” says Wisotsky.
Wisotsky considers herself “lucky” to be able to balance her professional life with her volunteer activities. “I joined a law firm that believed in commitment to community and fostered the idea that we all have to give back to the community,” she says.
— Lynn Miller
Cinco de Mayo, Enable, Masonic Temple, Trenton, 609-987-5003. Cocktails, dinner, auctions, and entertainment. $100. Thursday, May 5, 6 p.m.
