Dear Editor:
The American Cancer Society’s “Relay for Life – Secaucus” was held last weekend and I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate our community for its outstanding efforts. More than 250 participants from 32 teams raised over $50,000! This year’s Relay was held on Clarendon School’s grounds, so first of all we would like to thank the Secaucus Board of Education for their cooperation and use of the school’s grounds which worked out very, very well. Thank you to Mayor Mike Gonnelli and the Town Council for their support of this event. The town provided us with all the tents, tables, chairs, a dumpster, light towers, and a power generator, so thank you also to the DPW staff who helped set up and take down the site! Also the County of Hudson in conjunction with the Town of North Bergen deserves a special thank you for the use of their mobile stage, wobble lights, power generator, and donation of bottled water and cartons of fresh fruit.
Our local restaurants came through as in past years with donations of food for our event so a huge thank you goes out to Natoli’s/Steve Natoli and Family for the pasta and bread donation and The Bonefish Grill for their Bang Bang Shrimp appetizers for our survivor dinner. Frankie B’s donated a large tray of sandwiches for the volunteers who helped set up the grounds on Friday. iL Forno, La Mia Cuccina and Pizza Stop each donated 10 pizzas throughout the evening and Cheeseburger in Paradise donated a gift certificate. Bagel Buffet donated bagels for our Saturday morning breakfast and Mazur’s Bakery/Spiekermann family donated Danish pastries. A huge thank you to Diva Dogs/Helene Agathos, Chet, and Anthony who donated 300 hotdogs and rolls for our event and to Tommy’s Electric, who donated four large tubs of Italian Ice and the use of his cart. Thanks also to the Secaucus Volunteer Fire Department who conducted a “Boot Drive” near Walmart that evening with all proceeds donated to the American Cancer Society!
The stage had non-stop entertainment going on until midnight so a special thank you to those who performed that evening. Thanks to Sean Sonnett and the Clarendon Rock Band, Secaucus High School’s “Jersey Boys,” Dara & Frank, the duo Elle-oquence and DJ Anthony Frost of Pandemic Entertainment.
Finally, thank you to the “Relay for Life – Secaucus” 2010 Chairman Ryan Carbone for a job well done and to all the participants who worked so hard to make this year’s Relay the success it was! It was very heartwarming to see the hundreds of residents from our community come together for such a worthy cause and is proof yet again of what a wonderful town we live in!
Thank you,
Susan Pirro