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State Museum marks 130 years
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Fast break Chris LaBelle earns plaudits in second season as a head coach at Centenary University
Special anniversary celebration set for April 17
BY RICH FISHER It’s pretty impressive what Chris LaBelle can accomplish when he has time to map it all out. One game into the 2023-24 season, the Hamilton native was abruptly promoted from assistant to head coach of the Centenary University men’s basketball team after the head man stepped down. While happy for the opportunity at age 24, it was also a precarious situation. LaBelle was learning on the fly, with no margin for error, since every game mattered. His system was not ingrained, and the result was a 2-23 record and an 0-12 Atlantic East Conference mark. But LaBelle did enough good things coaching his alma mater to be hired full time, and took complete advantage this year. After having a full summer and preseason to mold his kind See LaBELLE, Page 28
BY JOE EMANSKI
Jessica Irilli, Tim Bauersachs, Noah Bauersachs, Eliza Bauersachs, Ann Bauersachs and Owen Bauersachs outside The Cross and Shamrock shop in Hamilton. (Photo by Thomas Kelly.)
The Cross and Shamrock: 40 years of family, faith and Irish traditions BY THOMAS KELLY Businesses that flourish for 40 years offer goods and services that people value. They are also well run, nimble and are customer focused. These attributes describe the Cross and Shamrock Gift Shop in Hamilton Square. Opened in April 1985, the store has been a mainstay in Hamilton, offering Irish and religious goods. Begun as the idea
of two nurses on a lunchbreak, the store has been run by the same family, encompassing three generations. Ann Bauersachs and her friend Anne Alloway were on lunch break from their work as nurses at Saint Francis Medical Center in Trenton, when the idea came to open a store offering Irish and goods tied to spiritual needs. They pooled together a small nest egg and opened the Cross
and Shamrock in a small storefront, nestled in between Evans Pharmacy and the Nottingham Tavern in the heart of Hamilton Square. “It was a crazy idea, but my husband, Len, went along with it, well, because he had to!” laughs Ann Bauersachs. Len was a truck driver who ended up being a partner a few years later, when Alloway got married and stepped away from the business. See SHAMROCK, Page 22
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The staff of the New Jersey State Museum was all set to host a 125th anniversary celebration in 2020 when the pandemic put the kibosh on those plans. And since “126th anniversary” or “127th anniversary” just doesn’t have much of a ring, executive director Margaret O’Reilly and her staff had to be content to wait until another round number came along — which is why the museum is finally celebrating this month with party marking its 130 years in existence. On Thursday, April 17 from 6 to 8 p.m., the New Jersey State Museum Foundation plans to commemorate the museum’s anniversary with a celebration that will include an exclusive preview of the museum’s newest exhibition, “Ecosystems at Risk: Threatened and Endangered in See NJSM, Page 10
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