Are you looking for a country run where city life seems far away? If so, look no further than the Miles for Matheny 5K Run. Hundreds of athletes will join us on Sunday, April 22, for a day of running as well as biking, walking, food and fun.
Miles for Matheny is a fundraiser and community event that also includes several Cycling routes, a Kids Fun Run and our signature event, the Lu Huggins Wheelchair Walk. The 5K run starts at 12:15 p.m. at Liberty Park in downtown Peapack, NJ. The course is USATF-certified, traffic-free and multi-surface on a road and hard packed gravel. There will be mile clocks and a water stop. Results will be posted on www.compuscore.com.
Age groups are 5 years to 85+. Last year, 380 runners participated in the 5K. The winners were:
• Male: 17-year-old Matthew Goroff of Brookline, MA, brother of Matheny student Louise Goroff, with a time of 18:15.11
• Female: 28-year-old Jane Albright of Basking Ridge, NJ, with a time of 20:59.23.
Please join us for breakfast and our post-race lunch. When you finish the 5K, there will still be time to walk over to see the end of the Lu Huggins Wheelchair Walk and cheer for the Matheny students and patients as they cross the finish line.
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.
Looking for a great way to celebrate Mardi Gras this year? Check out the Verve Bistro Bar Lounge in Somerville, NJ, on Fat Tuesday, February 21, or on the preceding Friday or Saturday, February 17 and 18. Why? To party for a good cause—Matheny.
Verve will be holding its annual Mardi Gras-Carnivale Party with music, beads and trinkets and a special menu on those three dates. On Fat Tuesday, 10% of all proceeds will be donated to Matheny, and anyone making a reservation on February 17 and 18 and mentioning Matheny will automatically redirect 10% of the bill to Matheny as well.
A special feature of the Fat Tuesday celebration is the annual Mardi Gras silent mask auction, and a portion of the auction proceeds will also benefit Matheny. In fact, Matheny supporters are encouraged by Verve owner Rick St. Pierre to make Mardi Gras masks and drop them off at the restaurant, 18 East Main Street, by February 11. There are no rules involved in making the masks — ranging from experienced artists starting from scratch to kids and amateurs applying paper mache to plastic craft store models.
Since opening Verve in the late 1990s, St. Pierre has continually given back to the community. He was recently named Somerville’s 2011 Citizen of the Year. He is chairman of the Downtown Somerville Alliance events committee and, in addition to the Mardi Gras fundraiser, he is involved in many other activities that support nonprofit organizations around and beyond Somerset County. In 2008, he was given the Somerset County Business Partnership’s Economic Vitality Award.
To make reservations for the Mardi Gras celebration, call (908) 707-8655, and don’t forget to mention Matheny.
We are so pleased that Miles for Matheny will be returning to Liberty Park in downtown Peapack, NJ, on Sunday, April 22, 2012. This fun-packed day includes bicycling routes through rural Somerset Hills, a Kids Fun Run, a 5K race and our signature event, the Lu Huggins Wheelchair Walk.
The 5K and Wheelchair Walk will begin at 12:15 p.m. and 1 p.m., respectively, so that road closures will not disrupt services at the local houses of worship and will enable community members to join the festivities.
The full schedule of events and registration information will be available soon.
Above, participants in the 2009 Lu Huggins Wheelchair Walk on Main Street in Peapack.
Several students from Christina Carey’s class at the Matheny School visited the St. Hubert’s Animal Welfare Center in North Branch, NJ, recently to see first-hand how this non-profit organization helps alleviate the suffering and neglect of companion animals and provides services that support the human-animal bond.
The students were able to ask questions of the St. Hubert’s staff members and visit with several dogs and cats hoping to be adopted. To thank St. Hubert’s for its hospitality, the class held an animal food drive among Matheny staff members and students and dropped off the goodies at St. Hubert’s during the visit.
Above, from left, teacher Christina Carey, recreation therapist Rachel Pyke, 16-year-old student Katie Van Orden and St. Hubert’s staff member Janis Dare.
Below, 19-year-old student Mark O’Connell visits with Chriss, a pointer.
Do people with disabilities receive the same quality of healthcare as people without disabilities? The answer is “no,” says Kenneth Robey, Ph.D., director of the Matheny Institute for Research.
The reason, says Dr. Robey, at left, is simply lack of training. “Programs at medical schools, nursing schools, dental schools and pharmacy schools have done very little to prepare primary care professionals to serve people with disabilities,” he explains.
Third-year medical students at UMDNJ-New Jersey Medical School currently rotate through Matheny in an attempt to educate future doctors about how to provide this care. But Matheny realizes this isn’t enough. In 2007, Dr. Robey and Gary E. Eddey, M.D., Matheny’s chief medical officer, began exploring what else was being done around the country. That eventually resulted in the formation of the Alliance for Disability in Health Care Education, which has already raised visibility about this issue.
A major goal of the organization, according to Dr. Robey, who served as president in 2010 and 2011, is to develop “a list of things that healthcare professionals need to know or be able to do that works across all disciplines and disabilities.” A long-term goal, which Dr. Robey admits is a stretch, “is to ensure that every medical school, nursing school and medical training program in the United States has some component to address disability-specific issues.”
For more information on this subject, log onto www.matheny.org, click on “All News” and look for “Preparing Healthcare Professionals to Better Serve People with Disabilities.”
Jan B. Wollack, M.D., a pediatric neurologist, has joined Matheny’s medical consultant staff. Dr. Wollack is the division director of child neurology at Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in New Brunswick. He graduated from the Columbia University School of Medicine in New York City and completed both his internship and residency at Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center, also in New York. Beginning January 17, 2012, Dr. Wollack will be at Matheny every Tuesday.
Our medical specialists at the Matheny Center of Medicine and Dentistry not only work with our inpatients, they are also available to provide care for children and adults with disabilities in the community. In addition to neurology, we offer care and treatment in dentistry, adaptive seating and mobility evaluations, primary care, therapies, women’s health, optometry, physiatry and urology.
For more information, call (908) 234-0011, ext. 771.
The Second Chance Shop, the thrift shop operated by The Friends of Matheny, Matheny’s auxiliary group, would not be possible without the dedication of volunteers, such as Gina Kalvin.
On June 30, 2010, Kalvin retired after 21 years as the Peapack-Gladstone, NJ, police secretary. The very next day, she received a phone call from Linda Horton, a member of Matheny’s Board of Trustees and the shop’s manager. Horton asked Kalvin to volunteer as a salesperson. Kalvin, a resident of Peapack, agreed.
Kalvin, shown here trying on one of the hats at the Second Chance Shop, works the first Wednesday of every month and most enjoys “seeing all the great things that come in and go out of here.” The shop raised $88,507 last year, which helps support Matheny’s programs and services.
Located adjacent to the Gladstone United Methodist Church on Jackson Avenue in Gladstone, the shop is open Mondays, 9:30 a.m.-6 p.m.; Tuesdays-Fridays, 9:30 a.m.-4 p.m.; and Saturdays, 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Donations in good condition are accepted on Mondays only.
Anthony Galati is a Morristown-based artist who discovered Matheny through a friend who works as a facilitator in the Arts Access Program. He decided to paint a mural in one of the elementary classrooms of the Matheny School and started the project in June 2010. “I came in to paint it on weekends, when the kids weren’t in the classroom,” he says. “It took 116 hours.”
The painting, which has a rainforest theme, was completed in September 2011. The rainforest idea, he says, “seemed like a universal thing that most of the kids would get excited about. I thought it could also be used as a teaching tool. I researched the rainforest and made sure that all of the animals that I chose for the mural are found in the rainforest. Also, each of the plants is a rainforest climbing plant that actually grows on trees the way I painted it. As I was aware of the visual challenges faced by some of the children, I used a lot of contrast to make the image as clear as possible for them.”
Although Galati describes himself as “predominantly a realist,” he admits to being “increasingly attracted to the mysterious. I don’t believe there is a need to see one kind of expression as any more valid that another. They are all different languages that the artist is using to convey something; whether realism or abstract, it’s all art.”
Drawn to the idea of utilizing art as a method of healing, Galati also believes that “few things are as good at relieving stress and putting you back in touch with yourself as making some form of art. You never know how something you create may positively impact the lives of others.”
Members of the Delbarton School varsity basketball team from Morristown, NJ, made their annual visit to Matheny in December to display some of their on-court moves and compete with Matheny students and patients in adapted versions of the sport.
The adapted basketball contests, developed by Matheny School phys ed instructor Jim Hintenach and Matheny recreation therapy director Sean Bielefeldt, are designed to level the playing field so the two groups can compete meaningfully.
The annual assembly, with audience members wearing jerseys from their favorite teams, has become a much-anticipated event.
Above, Sean Bielefeldt and adult patient Amanda Kochell with, from left, Brian Hardin, Billy Carroll, Steve DeLosa and Adam Schreck.
Below, Ryan Curran shoots from a sitting position on the Matheny Arts Center stage.
The Knights of Columbus Council 12700 from Our Lady of Mt. Virgin Church in Middlesex has been a long-time supporter of Matheny.
During the holiday season, one of the Council’s members, Kevin Mazza, left, visited Matheny to present Steve Proctor, president, with a check for $1,537.
Josh Handler, an adult who lives in one of Matheny’s community residences, was recognized at Arthur & Friends’ recent Christmas party when he was presented with the organization’s Indomitable Spirit award. “He was selected by his peers,” says Wendie Blanchard, program director, “because he has the most ‘can do’ attitude we’ve ever seen. There is nothing he won’t try.”
Arthur & Friends, a program of the Northwest New Jersey Community Action Partnership (NORWESCAP), provides meaningful community employment and training opportunities for individuals with disabilities and disadvantages so they may live, work and fully participate in their communities. Through its Greenhouse Project, individuals with disabilities learn agri-business skills such as growing and selling organic produce to local wholesale, retail and online customers.
Above, from left, Frelinghuysen community resident assistant Sharon Thompson; Josh; and Josh’s close friend, Estelle Campbell of Newton, NJ.
Are you looking for a country run where city life seems far away? If so, look no further than the Miles for Matheny 5K Run. Hundreds of athletes will join us on Sunday, April 22, for a day of running as well as biking, walking, food and fun.
