FEBRUARY 2024 FREE
COMMUNITYNEWS.ORG
From pilot to guru
sports
Vlasac rises to the challenge for HoVal hoops
Cabinet painter Kevin Casey’s professional career has taken several interesting turns
bY RICH fISHER The Colonial Valley Conference’s surprise basketball team through the season’s first month was Hopewell Valley Central High. But a key player in the Bulldogs success was not at all surprised by the close-knit team’s 9-1 start. “We have so much chemistry and it affects how we play together,” junior forward John Michael “JM” Vlasac said. “We’re a group of friends playing basketball and football. If you can play basketball with your friends, it’s the best thing. We hang out every Sunday and watch football. We play football in the backyard. We do everything together. We play basketball on weekends. That’s the biggest part of it. We know we always have each other’s backs and we always play for each other.” That wasn’t just Vlasac paying lip service to his friends. Coach See VLaSaC, Page 10
bY JOE EMANSKI
Pennington resident Rowan John in the Himalayan Mountains, where he spent five days last fall.
Hopewell teen makes trek of a lifetime through the Himalayas bY aVA SARIC “With each step taken on this Trek, came an even greater sense of reward,” says Rowan John, the 18-year-old trailblazing traveler and fundraiser. “This experience was absolutely incredible, but it was the cause that made it all the more meaningful.”
A May 2023 graduate of The Hun School of Princeton, Rowan began his first semester in early January of 2024, studying Applied Mathematics at Boston University. Prior to this, he aimed to take full advantage of the fleeting time before college — seeking an opportunity that was not only challenging, but fulfilling.
Following graduation, Rowan spent time in the summer of 2023 volunteering at the nonprofit Jewish Family and Children Services Mercer County, serving as a mobile food pantry for the greater Trenton area. For Rowan, this experience solidified that whatever he did in the upcoming months, it needed See TREK, Page 4
Medical test salesman. Internet pioneer. Pilot and a captain in the U.S. Air Force. Kevin Casey has held many jobs in a very varied career. No matter what the job, Casey says, he takes pride in the level of attention to detail he pays to whatever he is doing. These days, he applies that focus to the business of painting kitchen cabinets. He goes by the name Cabinet Painting Guru. A native of Smithtown, New York, Casey flew B-52s for the USAF in the 80’s. After his honorable discharge in 1990, he took a job seling screening tests for prostate cancer. In 1999, he started up a new internet company designed to make photo sharing easier online. The venture was successful, but not the market See GURU, Page 8
See our ad on page 13
PRSRT STD U.S. POSTAGE PAID SPRINGFIELD,1179 MA NEWARK, NJ PERMIT NO. 142