Stories

Brendan Bertsch , Director of Speakers of the Rotary Club of Westfield Rotary announced that Gerry Cooney will be the club's lunch time speaker on Tuesday, May 9.

Cooney, a resident of Fanwood, was the number one ranked Heavy Weight Contender in 1981 and 1982. Cooney was born in New York City and resided in Huntington Long Island, NY.

Known as "Gentleman Gerry Cooney," he was not so nice to his opponents in the ring. Cooney's Professional Boxing record was 31 total fights, 28 wins, 24 Knock Outs and 3 defeats.

Cooney boxed Larry Holmes for the Heavy Weight Crown in 1982, which Holmes won and retained his title.

At the regular Rotary meeting on Tuesday, noon, April 11, 2023, the members of the Rotary Club of Westfield heard about how a young man is making a difference to help people.

John El-Maraghy was a student at Rutgers and noticed that during covid, the men’s shelter in New Brunswick shut down the showers. He and his wife decided to do something about that to help the homeless men in New Brunswick. They started a 501c3 to provide a mobile van which offered the homeless men the ability to take showers. It also includes a barbershop. They started in New Brunswick once a week, but have expanded to include Newark once a month, and hope to expand to Hoboken and Orange. After the shower, they offer a care package including socks, T shirts and toiletries.

On Tuesday, April 4, 2023 at a regular Rotary Club meeting, Breakfast with the Bands event chair Barbara Frantz bestowed the Golden Pancake Award to Rotarian Warren Rorden.

This award is given every year to the individual who exhibits dedication above and beyond normal expectations for the annual Rotary fundraiser called Breakfast with the Bands, formerly called Rotary Pancake Day.

The proceeds of this fundraiser go to college scholarships and community grants. Musical groups form Westfield High School, Roosevelt Middle School and Edison Middle School performed. Last year the Rotary Club of Westfield awarded $117,400 in college scholarships and $26,000 in Community Grants. The Club has been running this event every year since 1967. Approximately 400 people attended the event this year.

The Rotary Club would like to especially thank the sponsors of the event: Mary Ellen O’Boyle - Prominent Properties Sotheby’s; Children’s Specialized Hospital; Fanwood Animal Hospital; Phelan, Frantz, Ohlig & Wegbreit, Esq; Dr Shruti Shukla, DDS at Great Smiles General Dentistry; Westfield Area YMCA; Raymond Kostyack, Wells Fargo Advisors; Steven Lowe; Maxwell’s Furniture Restoration; Northfield Bank; Spencer Savings Bank; Star Painting; Warren and Ginny Rorden; Westfield Financial Planning; and David & Shuang Wroe.

On Tuesday, April 4, 2023, at a regular meeting, the Rotary Club of Westfield inducted two new members: Vincent Luongo and Michael Kaufman.

Rotary is an organization of successful local business people who want to “give back” to the community. The Rotary Club of Westfield has projects to address local hunger issues, help homeless veterans, collect used bicycles for the third world, raise funds for Ukrainian refugees in eastern Europe, accept exchange students from Brazil and Australia, provide scholarships to Westfield college students and community grants to other local organizations.

On Tuesday, March 14th, 2023, at a regular Rotary Club of Westfield meeting, Westfield Fire Chief Michael Duelks and Battalion Chief Brian Piccola spoke to the members about fire safety and the various roles the fire department plays in town.

Police Chief Christopher Battiloro spoke to the Rotary Club of Westfield on Tuesday, February 14, 2023, about issues in Westfield. The number one crime issue in Westfield is car thefts. His advice is to lock your cars, take your keys inside and lock your house.

According to the chief, thieves will typically enter Westfield in a stolen car with four or five occupants, including minors. They go up and down the streets, checking door handles for unlocked vehicles. They do not break into cars, and do not “hot wire” them. When they find luxury cars open with the key fob inside, the thief does not need to find the fob - they just push the start button, start the car, and drive off. There have also been incidents where thieves used an unlocked vehicle with no fob inside, to open garage doors gaining access to the home for theft of the keys and vehicles. Due to the combination of a large concentration of luxury vehicles and easy access to highways, Westfield is the perfect place to steal cars according to the chief. He said that Newark is the center of the car thief rings, where the cars are brought and loaded onto ships to be sent overseas for sale.

Chief Battiloro says that he has taken measures to reduce car theft. First is public awareness- he asks residents to lock their cars and houses. Next, the town has mounted 15 license plate readers around town, which are able to scan the license plates and report stolen cars coming into town to the police department. Since they started this process, the car thefts have dropped by 50%.