Good knights

From left: Fred Dziurzinski of Far Hills, Chris Ryan, Ray Goger of Far Hills and Matheny president Steve Proctor.

Matheny adult patient Chris Ryan was inducted into the Knights of Columbus of the St. Elizabeth Far Hills and St. Brigid Peapack parish community chapter last year. So it was only natural that he would be on hand to greet representatives of the Knights when they visited Matheny recently to make their annual contribution, which this year totaled $2,000.

Rabbi Jaffe and adult patient Teddy Dobrich.

It has become a tradition every fall for Rabbi Evan Jaffe of the Flemington, NJ, Jewish Community Center to visit with Jewish students and patients at Matheny a few days before Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur to conduct pre-holiday services. This year was no exception as the energetic rabbi explained the meaning of the Jewish New Year and led his guest congregants in song and prayer.

An added attraction was his coaching of music therapist Alissa West, who did an admirable job of blowing the shofar, the ram’s horn that is an integral part of the High Holy Day services.

The FJCC is a conservative synagogue providing the Jewish community of Hunterdon County with religious, educational and social programs.

Alissa West blowing the shofar.

Adult patient Lyndsay Sims and her father Ken.

Family Day at Matheny is an annual outdoor celebration that enables parents and other relatives of students and patients to not only visit with their children but to mingle with other families in an informal, unstructured atmosphere.

There is plenty of food, an opportunity to swim in the outdoor pool and a chance to visit with Matheny staff members as well.

This year the weather on Sunday, September 9 – in the 70s with very little humidity – made it close to a perfect day.

From left, Jack Conrad; his sister Savannah, a Matheny student; and father Kurtis Conrad

“Japanese Beauty”

Hsiao-lin “Pearl” Chiang, RN, is a nurse at Matheny and a professional artist. From October 1-31, her paintings will be on display at the Bridgewater, NJ, Public Library. The exhibit, “Life Is Beautiful,” contains 30 paintings, but since the space available will only hold 10, Chiang will be changing the paintings twice during the month.

Chiang moved to the United States from her native Taiwan in 1990. She has enjoyed painting since she was a child, and, while it was originally mostly an escape for her, it has turned into much more than that. Last fall, she had a 38-painting exhibit at the Art Yards Café in Taipei. For the past eight years, she has been teaching art to students, and recently she recruited a group of high school students to help her finish a mural, “Paradise,” in the Matheny children’s dining room. She also has her own website, www.pearlchiangarts.com.

“Chinese Beauty”

“I love to paint,” she says, “and I want to meet others who also love to paint or who might enjoy my colorful and happy paintings.” The Bridgewater Public Library is located at 1 Vogt Drive. Hours are Monday-Thursday, 9 a.m.-9 p.m.; Friday-Saturday, 9 a.m.-5 p.m.; Sunday, 1-5 p.m. For more information, call (908) 526-4016.

Sandra Van Nest.

Matheny social worker Sandra Van Nest will be giving a special presentation on “Parenting Your Preschooler” at 7 p.m. on October 4 at the Peapack-Gladstone, NJ, Library. She will be speaking to parents in the community about the joys and challenges of living with a preschool child. Typical developmental milestones will be reviewed, and parents will learn how to turn the “terrible twos,” “theatrical threes” and “floundering fours” into “terrific twos,” “the best threes” and “fabulous fours.”

Van Nest, a licensed clinical social worker, is a field supervisor in Matheny’s Community Services department. She works in the community providing developmental and behavioral therapy to children 0-3 years old with developmental delays. Van Nest has a wide variety of experience with children from infancy through their teenage years. She believes that families are always the “expert on their own children,” and she strives to empower families to know a variety of parenting and discipline techniques.

Centenary student Chelsea Qualliu of Westwood, NJ, pushes Matheny student Scott Gordon in a wheelchair race.

Every fall, incoming freshmen at Centenary College in Hackettstown, NJ, participate in Community Plunge, a mandatory community service requirement in which students volunteer at a variety of community organizations. Matheny is fortunate to be on Centenary’s list every year, and on Monday, August 27, several students from the liberal arts college participated in a variety of Olympics-style events that included wheelchair races and obstacle courses.

Josh Ecochard, Centenary’s coordinator of community service, told The Star-Ledger that the students visiting Matheny found the day unexpectedly moving. “It’s very emotional,” he said. The college believes the event offers its students “a unique opportunity to focus on a particular area of the community by providing them with the choice of several different locations to volunteer at for the day.” In 1990, Centenary became the first college in New Jersey to introduce community service as a required part of its curriculum.

State Senator Michael J. Doherty.

New Jersey State Senator Michael J. Doherty (R-23rd District) has congratulated Matheny’s Arts Access Program for receiving a $31,152 grant from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts. In a letter to Matheny president Steve Proctor, Senator Doherty said, “I commend you for your efforts in maintaining and preserving our cultural heritage while using innovative means to finance these ventures.”

Arts Access enables people with disabilities to create fine art, assisted by professional artist-facilitators. The NJSCA grant was given for “general program support.” It was one of nearly 800 grants given to arts organizations throughout the state in July.

The Black River Journal, a bi-monthly magazine that covers the Somerset Hills as well as surrounding towns such as Mendham, Chester and Tewksbury, NJ, published a list of “15 Things We Love about… Peapack Gladstone, NJ” in its late Summer 2012 issue. Among those “Things We Love” were:  “The swans at Liberty Park,” “Chocolate Mousse Mice at CocoLuxe” and “Matheny Medical and Educational Center” (boldface added by us).

Thanks to Lee and Christian Wolfe, publisher and editor, respectively, for including us in this prestigious list, which also included the lime kilns at Blairsden, live music at the Gladstone Tavern and, most importantly, the Police and Fire Department, First Aid, Rescue Squad and Public Works.

Isabell Villacis and T. J. Christian with their painting, “Healing Life.”

Amy’s Treat is a non-profit foundation that was created in December 2007 in memory of Amy Maliszewski, who died from cancer. The Dover, NH-based organization was founded by Maliszewski’s daughter Rachel O’Neill and is dedicated to providing solutions to the day-to-day difficulties of living with the disease. According to its website, www.amystreat.org, it offers “unexpected treats to renew the spirit.”

One of those “treats” is a painting called “Healing Life” created by Arts Access artists T.J. Christian and Isabell Villacis. Christian is an adult medical day patient at Matheny. Villacis participates in Arts Access twice a month as part of the Self Directed Services program of the Lakeview School in Edison, NJ. Arts Access enables people with disabilities to create fine art, assisted by professional artist-facilitators.

Coincidentally, Christian met Maliszewski’s sister Mary Beth Seaman a few years ago when she was working in the now defunct Somerville gift shop, What’s in the Icebox. Seaman is a direct support professional caring for people with developmental disabilities, and Villacis is now her client. When she brought Villacis to Arts Access for an initial visit, she was reunited with Christian, and Villacis and Christian also became friends. When they learned about Amy’s Treat, both artists wanted to do something to help cancer patients and decided to collaborate on a painting. “We wanted to give a treat to cancer patients,” says Christian. Adds Villacis: “We felt we could make a difference with our artwork.”

Jenny Pianucci works on communication skills with student Bruno Correia.

She’s not sure why, but Jenny Pianucci has wanted to be an occupational therapist ever since she was a student at Voorhees High School in Glen Gardner, NJ. “Some of my family members needed OT,” she recalls, “and I just thought it was a good fit with my personality. I wanted to help people figure out their lives.”

Pianucci, who lives in Glen Gardner, recently received her MS in occupational therapy from Boston University. She has spent the last four summers as a teaching assistant in the Matheny School, and she will begin an OT internship at Matheny on September 24.

Pianucci originally learned about Matheny from Paula Benson, retired director of social services, during a conversation after church. And the teaching assistant experience has dovetailed nicely with her long-term career goal. “So much of what happens in the classroom,” she says, “has to do with adaptive devices.”

She’s enjoyed “getting to know the kids” at Matheny, and has been impressed with “how much they can accomplish and how the staff creates so many opportunities for them.” Pianucci has floated among several classes, “so I’ve gotten to know everybody a little.” She is closest to the students she had in 2009, her first summer, and has enjoyed seeing them grow up, pointing to one student who was 16 when she first met him, but “who’s counting the days now to graduation.”

Pianucci is looking forward to the OT internship – “I’m excited to finally be doing what I’ve gone to school for.”

Linda Horton, left, and satisfied shopper Caroline Parker.

“I love to shop here because I always find something, and it’s within my budget,” said Caroline Parker of Bedminster, NJ, adding that, “I love the fact that I’m contributing to Matheny.” Parker was one of several shoppers at “First Chance at Second Chance”, the August 22nd one-day reopening of The Friends of Matheny’s Second Chance Shop, a thrift shop adjacent to the Gladstone, NJ, United Methodist Church that raises funds for Matheny.

According to Linda Horton, manager of the shop and a member of Matheny’s Board of Trustees, this year’s “First Chance” earned $3,217.79—“the best ever!” Nineteen volunteers helped at the sales counter of the shop, which was restocked and reopened for the 2012-13 season at 9:30 a.m. on Tuesday, September 4.  The Friends of Matheny has raised more than $3 million for Matheny since the auxiliary group’s inception in 1983.

The 10 a.m. volunteer sales crew. From left: Arlene Rafalko of Gillette, NJ; Marylinn Fox of Harding Twp, NJ; Gloria Radleman of Tewksbury, NJ; and Mary Creamer of Mendham, NJ.

At Full Circle 2011, actress Alexandra Hellquist read “My Pakistani Princess,” written by Mike Cornely, right.

You would never expect to see a painting by someone who cannot hold a brush, hear a poem written by someone who has never spoken a word or see a dance choreographed by a person who has never walked. Yet, that is precisely what occurs at Matheny’s Arts Access Program, where the unexpected happens every day.

The artists with disabilities at Arts Access use unique methods employed by the Arts Access Program to overcome their disabilities and express themselves in multiple artistic disciplines. Full Circle 2012: Unexpected Art, being held from 3 p.m.-6 p.m., Saturday, November 3, in the Robert Schonhorn Arts Center at Matheny, will celebrate the unlimited artistic abilities of these unexpected artists.

To order tickets, call (908) 234-0011, ext. 260, or email pcats@matheny.org.