Please enjoy the latest issue of Matheny Matters! Sincere thanks to all who helped put this beautiful issue together.

Matheny Matters Summer/Fall 2024 – We Are the Advocates

Halloween is an extra special time of year at Matheny! Trunk or Treat, the Halloween Parade, and a special “Cabinet of Curiosities” were all full of creativity, joy, and community in 2023.

As usual, our staff went above and beyond to make this variety of activities possible, and our community enthusiastically supported our patients as they celebrated and showed off their unique costumes.

Thank you to all who made this beautiful (and spooky) season possible. We can’t wait until next year!

Enjoy the full photo album of this year’s activities below!

Halloween landed on a Monday in 2022, but that certainly didn’t dampen the spirits of those participating in our Matheny Halloween parade!

Highly anticipated by Matheny students and patients, the Halloween parade is an amazing reflection of our community’s passion and creativity. We were blown away by many of the costumes this year, including pirates, Ken and Barbie, Catwoman, and characters from Stranger Things, Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, and many other shows and movies. Which costume is your favorite?

We’re grateful to our Recreation Therapy team for their hard work coordinating this event. We can’t wait until next year!

On Thursday, October 13th, we were thrilled to be joined up on the hill by parents, supporters, and community members to celebrate 75 years of Matheny magic! It was wonderful to reconnect with old friends, see some new faces, and share both our history and the exciting plans on the horizon.

Thank you for your support! We cannot wait to continue telling the Matheny story – for the next 75 years, and beyond!

If you were able to join us on Thursday, we hope you had as much fun as we did! If you were unable to attend, we hope you enjoy these video and photo highlights!

75th Anniversary Video

75th Anniversary Slideshow

Event Photo Album

Check out our full Miles for Matheny 2022 Photo Album! Thanks to everyone who helped make this wonderful event happen! It was great to gather with our community and supporters.

*All photos by Keith Bratcher. Thank you, Keith!

Did you attend Miles for Matheny 2022? If so, did you stop by for a picture in our special 25th Anniversary picture frame?

Find your photo here, and be on the lookout for even more snapshots from this awesome event next week. Thank you for being there, supporting us, and helping us capture these beautiful moments.

Saturday, June 4th was the 25th Annual Miles for Matheny!

We couldn’t have asked for a better day. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts to everyone who showed up this weekend to show love and support to our amazing students, patients, and families! For this special Faces of Matheny feature, we are showing you some of our favorite moments from this beautiful Miles celebration. More photos to come later this week.

Special thanks to the Bernardsville News for their coverage, and to CBS 2 News New York and meteorologist John Elliott for their live broadcast from Miles at the Far Hills Fairgrounds! Check out the videos below.

Less than a month until our 25th Annual Miles for Matheny!

This exciting event wouldn’t be possible without sponsorships from families, supporters, and businesses in our community. Please join us in thanking:

• The Lavine and Gordon Families, one of our devoted and enthusiastic Matheny families.
• The Poses Family Foundation, which is dedicated to bringing about significant positive impact in five focus areas, the largest being learning disabilities, through a combination of business disciplines, nonprofit expertise, funding and passion.
• Pfizer, one of the world’s premier biopharmaceutical companies who pursues breakthroughs that change patients’ lives.

Thank you to these incredible people and organizations for supporting us as we work to enrich the lives and nurture the unique abilities of our students and patients.

There’s still time to register! Join us on Saturday, June 4th!

In the spirit of excitement and optimism, you are invited to join us on Saturday, June 4th for the 25th annual Miles for Matheny event.

Miles is an uplifting day that allows our residents to interact with, and be celebrated by, the surrounding community. Especially on this milestone anniversary, this year’s event is sure to be a joyful day for our patients, students, residents, families, and friends. At Miles, absolutely everyone is welcome to participate and free to be themselves.

In 2022, we are planning to hold all events in person and everything will be done with the health and safety of the people we serve in mind. We are hopeful and excited to bring back the Lu Huggins Wheelchair Walk to the park. The day’s events include 12.5, 25, 35, and 50-mile, and “Hills of Attrition” cycle rides, a 5K Run, Kids Fun Run, and of course the beloved Wheelchair Walk.**

We’re thrilled that this year’s Miles for Matheny will be held at the J. Malcolm Belcher Fairgrounds in Far Hills. It is only fitting that we celebrate our 75th anniversary in the same town where it all began when Matheny was known as the Burnt Mills School for Paralysis Correction. Walter and Marguerite only had a dream and a GI loan of $3,000 to create this amazing organization. Today, Matheny is a comprehensive non-profit organization offering life-saving and life-enriching services that touch the lives of hundreds of people with special needs every day.

Learn more and register today!

Matheny residents have enjoyed several celebrations this month!

First there was A Night to Shine, a prom event for people with special needs sponsored by the Tim Tebow Foundation. The event was a virtual celebration filled with music, positive messages, and appearances by celebrities. The residents had a great time viewing the event and participating with their peers and staff. A special thanks to Bridget Rainville of Bethany Church and Andrea Szott for all of their support in making this event happen.

Matheny also held Valentine’s Day celebrations on our Peapack campus. Residents loved posing for pictures!

We’re so grateful for our Matheny community, and we love events that allow us to spend time together and make great memories.

Matheny is dedicating 2022 to celebrating an important milestone – our 75^th anniversary! 75 years of enriching lives and growing abilities for children and adults with developmental disabilities. This institution has an incredibly inspiring story that began with one family’s vision and devotion. We are proud to continue the work each and every day to help ensure that our students, patients, and residents have the medical care, education, and other services that allow them to live the active and fulfilling lives they deserve.

As part of our celebrations throughout the year, we want to highlight Matheny community members – the people who have made Matheny the place we all know and love over the last 75 years. What initially drew them to Matheny? What makes them stick around, through both the joyful and the challenging periods? What are their favorite memories and stories? What’s the first thing that comes to mind when they think of Matheny?

We hope you enjoy this new series – The Faces of Matheny!

And who better to start this story sharing than a community member who found his way back to Matheny after a period away? Meet Matheny’s new chaplain, Fr. Paul!

Fr. Paul Varchola West, more commonly known around the halls of Matheny as Paul, received a B.M. in Music Theory and completed an MFA in Music Composition in 2010. After completing his degree, he began working at Matheny as a Recreation Therapy Assistant. Paul later worked in the Education Department as a 1:1 Aide, and then as the school’s Music Teacher until 2016 when he began his seminary studies. Fr. Paul completed his M.Div. in May of 2020 and was ordained a Byzantine Catholic Priest on July 18^th of that year, at which point he was assigned as the pastor of Our Lady of Perpetual Help Byzantine Catholic Church in Levittown, PA. During seminary formation, Fr. Paul completed his Chaplaincy Internship (CPE) at UPMC Shadyside Hospital in Pittsburgh, PA. Recently, Fr. Paul caught wind of an open Chaplaincy position at Matheny and jumped at the opportunity to return to the “Matheny Family” as he always found great joy within those halls. And it’s not just him – Paul’s wife Alissa was a Music Therapist at Matheny from 2005-2009, and again from 2010-2016. Their two children have many fond memories of Matheny and are looking forward to making many more. Truly a family affair!

When asked about his favorite Matheny memory, Fr. Paul had this to say:

“Back in 2013 when I was working as the school’s music teacher, an album I had performed on years prior while living in Los Angeles was picked up for a Grammy Nomination. To my surprise, there was a rather large uproar at Matheny, which honestly rivaled the Red Carpet! Anyway, there was so much excitement that, in all honesty, I wanted to “bring home the Grammy” more for the folks at Matheny than for myself. So, my wife and I got to travel back to LA, go to several fancy parties, walk the Red Carpet, and even watch the Grammys performances from AMAZING seats! After all that…we didn’t win the Grammy. When I returned to Matheny, a whole group of students presented me with a Grammy Award they made with their art teacher, Felicia. It said “Paul West – Our Every Day Grammy Winner” on it. It was made out of a tissue box, a Styrofoam coffee cup, and some gold paint. That award still sits on a shelf in my office. My Grammy Nominee medal from the Recording Academy is in a box somewhere…I have no idea where. What Matheny (the staff and students/residents) did was demonstrate how true the phrase “the Matheny Family” really is. The unity, the love, the care, the devotion, dedication, support, pride in one another’s achievements – that’s what I will remember, always.

We’re so grateful to have Fr. Paul back at Matheny! Thanks for the wonderful story. Here’s to the many more stories we’ll create here – over the next 75 years and beyond!

Do you have any favorite Matheny stories that you would like to share? Would you like to be featured in this series (or know someone you’d like to see featured)? Get in touch at marketing@matheny.org or on social media @mathenymedical.

On December 14, 2017, our beloved Chuck Matheny passed away. Over the past four years, all of us at Matheny have worked hard to model his compassionate and joyful spirit every day. In 2022 and beyond, we will continue to be inspired and guided by Chuck’s remarkable story and legacy. Please take a moment to reflect on his life as we celebrate this season of generosity and love.

Learn more about Chuck here.