Remains of missing Jersey City native identified
Back in 2001, Patricia Viola – a Jersey City native who was living in Bogota, N.J, with her husband and two children – disappeared the day before Valentine’s Day. At the time of her disappearance Viola, 42, had left home without her keys and prescription medication. Since then, her husband, Jim Viola, has maintained a web site in hopes of finding her alive.
Apparently, some of Patricia Viola’s remains were discovered in 2002 at Rockaway Beach in New York, but were only recently identified.
Police notified Viola’s husband last week that the bones came back a match for his wife. Jim Viola had maintained for years that he thought she was still alive.
For background on this story, see the 2011 article in the Jersey City Reporter by using the search engine at hudsonreporter.com.
Hudson County Chamber of Commerce to host Henderson reception
On Tuesday, Sept. 18 the Hudson County Chamber of Commerce will host a business networking reception to welcome Dr. Sue Henderson, the new president of New Jersey City University (NJCU), to Hudson County. The reception will be held at Christ Hospital from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Henderson, a mathematician and educator, became the university’s 12th president last month. Henderson is also the school’s first female president.
The reception will be held at Christ Hospital’s Staff Room A/B. Christ Hospital is located at 176 Palisades Ave. in Jersey City. Admission to the event is free. Parking will be available. To RSVP, visit www.hudsonchamber.org.
Jersey City set to host Fashion Week
Don’t feel badly if you missed the recent Spring Fashion Week with the celebrities in New York. Jersey City is set to debut its very own inaugural Fashion Week from Sept. 21 through Sept. 28, which will showcase emerging designers, bring more attention to the blossoming city, and raise money for four charities: Dress for Success Hudson County, the York Street Project, the Boys and Girls Club of Hudson County, and Stages.
Fashion Week Events will take place at Liberty State Park. Tickets for the opening night reception are $35 and tickets for the Emerging designer show on Sept. 28 are $20. Some events during Fashion Week will be free of charge, however.
Jersey City Fashion Week is presented by DLJ Give to Live Foundation, which raises money for charity causes through fashion, sports, and entertainment events. Sponsors include Provident Bank, the County of Hudson, Genova Burns Giantomasi & Webster, PNC Bank, PSEG, Yelp, Sephora, and OPI.
For more information, visit jerseycityfashionweek.com.
Bark in the Park for Liberty Humane Society
On Saturday Sept. 29, Jersey City’s Liberty Humane Society will host Bark in the Park, a fundraising event in Hoboken’s Church Square Park. The event will begin at noon and end at 5 p.m.
The event will begin with a half-mile walk around Hoboken and will conclude with demonstrations and other events in Church Square Park. Liberty Humane Society’s Dog Agility Team, Shira the Pet Psychic, the Yankee Flyers Dog and Disc Club, and the Jersey City K-9 Unit will be participating in the post-walk demonstrations. Participants will also be able to shop at over 50 different pet vendor booths, see the Liberty Humane Society Doggie Couture Fashion Show, receive low-cost micro-chipping for their dogs, and enter dog trick contests for a chance to win prizes.
Also, participants can LHS takes in over 2,500 animals each year from Hoboken and Jersey City. The facility is partially funded by municipal contracts; however, the money generated from these partnerships only funds about a seven-day stay for the animals. Since the vast majority of the adoptable animals reside at the shelter for much longer, the fundraising generated at Bark in the Park is a necessary component to cover the medical expenses, food, and housing required to keep the animals in our care until their adopter comes along.
Bark in the Park 2012 is sponsored by Cornerstone Pets, Hound Around Dog Walking, Liberty Landing Marina, Boca’s Play-N-Stay, Freshpet, Hoboken Dog Wash, and Merck Animal Health.
To participate in the walk, visit http://libertyhumane.org/dogwalk.php. Participants can sign up to walk individually or as a team. The top fundraisers who participate in the walk will have the opportunity to win prizes, including an iPad 2. The first 100 registrants will also receive a special VIP bag.
Free child car seat inspection
Parents are making five critical, but fixable, mistakes when using car seats for their children, according to new data from Safe Kids Worldwide and the General Motors Foundation. With so many safety features now available in both cars and car seats, parents are urged to make sure their kids are getting every advantage by taking the time to do a 15-minute at-home annual checkup.
Seventy-three percent of car seats are not being used correctly. To find out why, Safe Kids analyzed data from more than 100,000 car seat inspections done by certified technicians conducted through its Buckle Up Program, a national initiative established in 1997 by Safe Kids and supported by General Motors and the General Motors Foundation. Some progress has been made since 1997. For example, 98 percent of children arrived at the car seat inspections in the back seat and 98 percent of the children were using some type of restraint.
But the date also revealed that parents and caregivers still have some work to do to ensure their children are restrained properly. Five safety steps every parent should take include keeping their children in rear-facing car seats for as long as possible, ideally until age two, selecting the correct seat for the weight, height, or age of the child, tightening the harness, and knowing the right time to let kids ride in the front seat.
For parents who want additional assistance, Safe Kids Hudson County and Jersey City Medical Center will be hold a car seat check up event on Saturday, Sept. 22 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the Target parking lot. Target is located at 100 14th St.
Inspections will take about 15 minutes and will provide important tips that will help parents ensure their car seat is used and installed properly.
Sickle Cell Disease support group at Jersey City Medical Center
The Central-Northern New Jersey Sickle Cell Network will host a support group designed for young adults and adults with Sickle Cell Disease.
The event is scheduled for Thursday, Sept. 20 from 3 to 4 p.m. at Jersey City Medical Center, 355 Grand St. in Jersey City (in conference room number 5, just off the cafeteria).
Sickle cell anemia is an inherited form of anemia, a condition in which there aren’t enough healthy red blood cells to carry adequate oxygen throughout the body. There is no cure for the disease. However, treatments can relieve pain and help prevent further problems associated with the disease. It is estimated to that as many as 100,000 Americans, or about 1 out of every 500 African Americans, are living with sickle cell anemia.
Registration is required. To register, please call (973) 926-5490.
Jersey City prepares to ‘dig it’ again
For the second year in a row, the Jersey City Parks Coalition is gearing up for Make a Difference Day with its second annual Big Dig celebration, which will be held on Saturday, Oct. 12.
The non-profit Parks Coalition, which is working closely with the several city departments, is again seeking sponsorship from local businesses, organizations, and private citizens and is actively recruiting volunteers from around the city.
Last year, “USA Weekend Magazine” awarded one of 13 prestigious national Make a Difference Day awards to the Jersey City Parks Coalition and the City of Jersey City for its collaborative Big Dig project, through which residents planted 18,000 tulip and daffodil bulbs throughout the city. The Jersey City Parks Coalition was awarded $10,000 for its efforts.
For the 2012 Big Dig, the Parks Coalition has set an even more ambitious goal for the number of bulbs to be planted. Thus, there is a need for even more community involvement.
“We are asking residents, community groups, civic organizations, and corporate teams to donate toward the bulbs and equipment that are needed and to actually come out on ‘Make A Difference Day’ to plant and be part of this amazing project,” said Big Dig Project Manager Charlene Burke, secretary of the Parks Coalition.
Started in 1990 as a national day dedicated to helping others, Make a Difference Day is an annual event sponsored by USA Weekend Magazine” on the fourth Saturday of every October. Volunteers can join a group project or come up with their own project, like spending the day at a soup kitchen or helping an elderly neighbor around the house.
For more information regarding this year’s Big Dig, or to make a donation or volunteer, please call Laura Skolar at (201) 259-1800 or Charlene Burke at (201) 344-2060. Residents can also visit www.jcparks.org.