Dear Editor:
I am a taxing paying resident of Hudson County, and I live in the city of Bayonne, NJ. I have attended a great number of Community Awareness Series Programs over the past decades. As a wife, a mother, and a grandmother, I find the CAS a very family-friendly and inspiring program. I have been reading in the newspapers of the struggle over the CAS budget, and I felt compelled to add my support for the CAS. Their commitment and dedication to community-based programming and to elevating the cultural, educational and informational awareness of the residents of the city is resolute. I know and can give evidence to the importance because I have both experienced and utilized these services.
As a member of the African American community, I find the level of programming that the Community Awareness Series provides second to none. I wish I could find the services that they provide in Bayonne, but my city does not offer these types of quality and varied programs. I want to go on record by saying “It would be a tragedy for Community Awareness Series not to be provided with the $90,000 operating budget to continue on with the community outreach and programming, considering it is really a very small amount.”
Also, as a member of the Veteran’s of Foreign War Post 7470 – as a Ladies Auxiliary, the Community Awareness Series has helped us to produce cultural programs for our country’s veterans. They have provided edutainment for the city’s school-aged children throughout the county.
These invaluable services that the Community Awareness Series provide must be supported and funded. I agree with the statement that writer Earl Morgan made in his news column: “We must make sure funding is found to continue one of city’s cultural jewels! Countless workshops and presentations have made the students in Jersey City ‘and beyond’ a part of the program’s outreach component. CAS has proven over decades that it’s a net plus for Jersey City. It would be a travesty for it to disappear.”
Along with many other citizens I call upon you, the city council of Jersey City, to make sure funding is provided for the time-honored and necessary programs of the Community Awareness Series.
Cynthia Porch