The Lane & Kane Show

"Half Circle" by Ellen Kane.

Two artists in Matheny’s Arts Access Program will be featured in a special exhibition, “Lane & Kane,” which will open April 1 at the ZEBU Forno Restaurant/Café in Morristown, NJ.

The abstract artists, James Lane and Ellen Kane, both have distinct signature styles that have developed over the years. Through the unique Arts Access methodology, artists like Lane and Kane are able to pursue their creative passions, no longer feeling defined by their disabilities but rather defining themselves by their achievements.

An opening reception will be held from 4-6 p.m. on Sunday, April 1. ZEBU Forno is located at 9 South St. in Morristown.

Untitled by James Lane.

The O'Connor Clan at Miles For Matheny 2009.

Register and raise donations online for Miles for Matheny by logging onto www.milesformatheny.org. Set up your own home page, which allows you to easily reach out to your family, friends and business associates to support you. Your sponsors’ names and gift amounts will be recorded automatically for you. Monitor your fundraising activity online and watch as you reach your personal fundraising goal! Prizes are awarded for top fundraising individuals and teams.

Tips are offered online. You can also call Patricia Cats at (908) 234-0011, ext. 260, or email her at pcats@matheny.org.

Miles for Matheny is being held Sunday, April 22, at Liberty Park in downtown Peapack, NJ. All proceeds from this event will benefit the Matheny Center of Medicine and Dentistry, which provides medical, dental and therapy care to Matheny inpatients and people with disabilities in the community. Activities include five Cycling Routes, a 5K Race, Kids Fun Run and the Lu Huggins Wheelchair Walk.

Major sponsors are Poses Family Foundation; Affinity Federal Credit Union; Archer & Greiner P.C; BP Fueling Communities; WCBS-TV/WCBS Newsradio 880; Partlow Insurance Agency; Peapack-Gladstone Bank; and Porzio Bromberg & Newman P.C.

Brad at work.

Brad Goldman has never let cerebral palsy prevent him from being an artist. Using a personal computer and a head pointer, he paints and creates greeting cards. In fact, Goldman has his own greeting card company, BRADesigns.

Now 41, Goldman was enrolled in the Matheny School when he was 2 years old. He lives in the community and attends Matheny’s Adult Medical Daycare program. Although unable to speak, he communicates by using a Dynavox, an electronic augmentative communications device. And he converses by eye-gazing on a manual communications board.

Goldman began painting when he was 10 years old, and his first inspiration, “came when my father bought roses for my sister, and I painted them. My parents, artists themselves, would paint with me.” After seeing his work, someone at Matheny asked Goldman to produce a Christmas card. That blossomed into BRADesigns, which began in 1994 with the help of his parents. While Christmas is his big season, Goldman is busy right now producing Easter, Mother’s Day and Father’s Day cards.

For more information, log onto www.bradesigns.com.

Allyson Merer.

Donna and Barry Merer of Scotch Plains, NJ, have lots of friends who are “serious cyclists.” So they have a receptive audience when they promote Miles for Matheny, the annual fundraiser and community event being held April 22 at Liberty Park in downtown Peapack, NJ. The Merers have an even more compelling reason to support and fundraise for Miles. Their 20-year-old daughter Allyson is a residential student at Matheny.

“We’re thrilled with the care and love that Ally gets from everyone at Matheny,” says Donna Merer. “It fills such a need for families, providing the best care for children with disabilities. It’s a wonderful school and medical facility.”

Like most Miles participants, Merer is happy the event is moving back downtown and is looking forward to walking with her daughter in the Lu Huggins Wheelchair Walk.  She thinks it’s great to see people come out of their houses and cheer the Matheny students and patients. To help raise funds for the event, the Merers have formed a webpage, “Ally’s Allies” on the Miles for Matheny website, and they’re confident their cyclist friends will support the event. “They feel this sort of jump starts the cycling season,” Merer adds.

In addition to five Cycling Routes and the Wheelchair Walk, Miles activities include a 5K Race and a Kids Fun Run. All funds raised will help support the Matheny Center of Medicine and Dentistry, which provides medical, dental and therapy care to inpatients and people with disabilities in the community. Major sponsors are:  Poses Family Foundation; Affinity Federal Credit Union Foundation; Archer & Greiner P.C.; BP Fueling Communities; WCBS-TV/WCBS Newsradio 880; Partlow Insurance Agency; Peapack- Gladstone Bank; and Porzio Bromberg & Newman P.C.

For more information, log onto www.milesformatheny.org; to support Ally’s Allies, click on Search for Participant and type in the team name.

Team Schapiro at Miles for Matheny 2011.

With about 45 days to go before Miles for Matheny, three fundraising teams were pacing the field. As of March 8, the top spot belonged to That’s How Scott Rolls, a team formed by Andrew and Julie Gordon of New Providence, NJ, whose 12-year-old son, Scott, is a student in the Matheny School. That’s How Scott Rolls had raised $2,048.

Second place belonged to Team Schapiro, which had generated $1,275 in contributions, followed closely by Jack’s Team with $1,015. Team Schapiro was formed by the Schapiro family of Basking Ridge, NJ, and Jack’s Team members are Doug, Katie, Meghan and Caroline Harter of Madison, NJ, parents and sisters of five-year-old Matheny student Jack Harter.

To start your own team, log onto www.milesformatheny.org and look for Team Fundraising Tips. If you need further help, email Patricia Cats at pcats@matheny.org or call her at (908) 234-0011, ext. 260. All funds raised at Miles for Matheny will help support the Matheny Center of Medicine and Dentistry, which provides medical, dental and therapy care to Matheny inpatients and people with disabilities in the community.

On a recent Monday afternoon, MBS students Blake Kernan, left, of Short Hills, NJ, and Tatiana James of Basking Ridge visited with Matheny student Aaron Turovlin.

The relationship between the Morristown-Beard School in Morristown and Matheny goes back longer than anyone can remember. Every Monday afternoon, a group of eight or nine students from Mo-Beard, a coeducational independent school for grades 6-12, visit Matheny to participate in a wide variety of activities, from card games and crafts to adaptive sports and computer games.

In all, about 50 middle and upper school MBS students take part in the Matheny visits, an activity the school is very pleased about, as it says on its website: “The students and faculty of the MBS community are proud to acknowledge themselves as some of Matheny’s most consistent, proactive volunteers.”

In addition to the weekly visits, Morristown-Beard students raise money every year to support Miles for Matheny, the annual fundraiser and community event being held this year on April 22 at Liberty Park in downtown Peapack, NJ. Last year, Mo-Beard students raised $2,600. Fundraising activities for this year’s Miles are just getting underway.

At last year’s Miles for Matheny, Mo-Beard student Neil Gadde presented Matheny president Steve Proctor with a check for $2,600 while classmates and faculty members looked on.

Susan Casarez arranges items in a toy display while Josephson Badger looks on.

Josephine Badger and Susan Casarez couldn’t have led more different lives. Badger retired 10 years ago from the Peapack, NJ, Post Office. Casarez spent three years in the CIA and 20 years in the US Marine Corps. Badger has lived in Gladstone, NJ, for several years. Casarez grew up in Peapack-Gladstone but just moved back to Peapack this past September, after an absence of 33 1⁄2 years, to be closer to her mother.

They do, however, share one common commitment: volunteering at the Second Chance Shop, the thrift shop in Gladstone managed by The Friends of Matheny to raise funds for Matheny. Badger has been working at Second Chance for about seven years, mostly on Friday mornings, although she substitutes when needed. Casarez works every Monday and every fourth and fifth Friday. Badger “enjoys the camaraderie and talking to the people who come in to shop.” Casarez says working at the shop, “just makes me feel good. It’s all for a good cause.”

Through the week of March 3, 2012, the Second Chance Shop had earned more than $79,604 since opening after Labor Day. For the entire 2010-2011 season the shop had earned $88,000. The Friends of Matheny has raised more than $3 million for Matheny since its inception in 1983.

Spectators will once again be able to line the streets and cheer on the wheelchair participants.

Anyone who would like to participate should contact Patricia Cats in Matheny’s Development Office at 908 234-0011, ext. 260, or email her at pcats@matheny.org. Matheny sincerely appreciates the community partnership and support we receive. This support helps make Miles for Matheny a success.

This year’s Miles for Matheny will be held Sunday, April 22. Activities include a 5K Race, five different Cycling Rides, a Kids Fun Run and the Lu Huggins Wheelchair Walk in which more than 100 children and adults in wheelchairs, with walking partners, travel 1.5 miles around town. All funds raised at the event help support the Matheny Center of Medicine and Dentistry, which provides medical, dental and therapy care to Matheny’s inpatients and to people with disabilities in the community.

Major Miles for Matheny sponsors include: The Poses Family Foundation; Affinity Federal Credit Union Foundation; Archer & Greiner P.C.; BP Fueling Communities; WCBS-TV and WCBS Newsradio 880; Partlow Insurance Agency; Peapack-Gladstone Bank; and Porzio Bromberg & Newman P.C.

Speech-language pathologist Brynna Cunningham assists Matheny student Yasin Reddick in a game of adapted basketball.

National Wear Red Day, to support heart health wellness among women, was February 3, but, at Matheny we celebrated healthy heart awareness all month.

Special informational tables promoted healthy eating and cholesterol control plus managing blood pressure and stress. In addition, there were tips on quitting smoking, losing weight and managing blood sugar.

Of course, on February 23, everyone was encouraged to wear red, and red dress pins were available for a $5 donation to the American Heart Association. We raised a total of $263. And Matheny students participated all day in adapted versions of Jump Rope and Hoops 4 Heart activities.

Bill Simpson.

Bill Simpson has a message for all those planning to ride the Hills of Attrition cycling route at this year’s Miles for Matheny fundraiser and community event. Enjoy an “easy ride” this year, because next year, the course will be longer and harder.

Simpson, a Gladstone resident who has been designing this route for several years, reasons that, “We already have a 50-mile route. Next year the Hills of Attrition is going to be 66 miles. It will continue further west, and there will be no rest stops.”

Simpson has cycled all over the country and the world, including such places as California, Colorado, Ireland and Switzerland. “In this part of New Jersey,” he says, “the hills are small but challenging. This is great, great cycling country.”

Simpson has lived in Gladstone since June 2004 and, before that, lived in Pottersville. He remembers that in the early days of Miles for Matheny the Bedminster Flyers, a local riding group that he belongs to, was asked to design all the cycling routes, and he was specifically tagged for the Hills of Attrition. Asked if he has any advice for those tackling the Hills of Attrition, he says: “Most guys who ride it know what they’re up against. But remember, if you go up, you also get to go down.”

Miles for Matheny will be held Sunday, April 22, at Liberty Park in downtown Peapack. All funds raised will help support the Matheny Center of Medicine and Dentistry, which provides medical, dental and therapy care to Matheny inpatients and people with disabilities in the community. Activities include five different Cycling Routes, a 5K Race, a Kids Fun Run and the Lu Huggins Wheelchair Walk in which more than 100 participants in wheelchairs, with walking partners, travel 1.5 miles around town. Peapack-Gladstone Bank is the Cycling sponsor, and its Whitehouse Station branch will be used as a rest stop.

For more information about Miles for Matheny, or to register, log onto www.milesformatheny.org or call (908) 234-0011, ext. 260.

Cyclists line up in 2009, the last year Miles for Matheny was held in downtown Peapack.

Organizers of T.E.A.M. KIDS, from left, Ridge High School students Karly Koelmel, Katherine Winter and Hannah Broos.

Ridge High School student Hannah Broos has been volunteering regularly at Matheny. She’s also a member of the girls’ track team at the Bernards Township, NJ, high school. She and some of her teammates have been planning to run in the 5K Race at Miles for Matheny, but they’re going the extra mile, so to speak. They’ve decided to train elementary school children to either run or walk in the 5K and help raise money for the event.

In a special flyer they’re distributing to promote this project they are identifying themselves as T.E.A.M. KIDS: Teaching Exercise and Awareness for Matheny. Children are invited to be part of a winning team, the flyer says, and to:

• Have FUN

• Train to run or walk 5K

• Learn about the Matheny School

• Raise money to help kids at Matheny.

To prepare the elementary school kids for the 5K, Broos and her teammates will hold training sessions at the Ridge High School track on March 10, March 18, April 7 and April 14, from 1-2 p.m. They are encouraging families to sign up and participate together. At least one adult will be present at every training session, and parents are welcome but not required to attend.

Anyone interested in participating should contact Hannah at hbroos@optonline.net, Karly Koelmel at karlybellk@gmail.com, Katie Winter at katie19@gmail.com or log onto the T.E.A.M. KIDS Facebook page.

Miles for Matheny will be held Sunday, April 22, at Liberty Park in downtown Peapack. For more information or to register, log onto www.milesformatheny.org or call (908) 234-0011, ext. 260.

Major Miles for Matheny sponsors are:  The Poses Family Foundation, Affinity Federal Credit Union Foundation, Archer & Greiner P.C., BP Fueling Communities, WCBS-TV/WCBS Newsradio 880, Partlow Insurance Agency, Peapack-Gladstone Bank and Porzio Bromberg & Newman P.C.

Otis Livingston.

Otis Livingston, weekday sports anchor for WCBS-TV, will emcee the Lu Huggins Wheelchair Walk at the 15th annual Miles for Matheny event to be held Sunday, April 22, at Liberty Park in downtown Peapack. A multi-Emmy Award winner, Livingston lives in New Jersey with his wife and five children.

WCBS-TV, along with its sister station, WCBS Newsradio 880, will again be a broadcast media sponsor of Miles for Matheny, which will be returning to downtown Peapack after two years at Natirar Park.

All funds raised at Miles for Matheny will help support the Matheny Center of Medicine and Dentistry, which provides medical, dental and therapy care for Matheny inpatients and for people with disabilities in the community.

For more information, or to register, log onto www.milesformatheny.org or call (908) 234-0011, ext. 260.