Wednesday, 29 July 2020
www.TheObserver.com
Vol. CXXXIII, No. 12
MORE ON THE INSIDE Belleville High School seniors finally get an outdoor graduation ceremony See Page 8
BELLEVILLE • BLOOMFIELD • EAST NEWARK • HARRISON • KEARNY • LYNDHURST • NORTH ARLINGTON • NUTLEY
RETIRING OLD GLORY
Because of Eagle Scout’s project, Marine Detachment properly disposes of old American Flag last week
By Kevin Canessa kc@theobserver.com
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Photo courtesy of Adam Tegge
Eagle Scout Lucas Tegge, center saluting, created this fire pit and memorial in Kearny to a World War II & Korean War veteran who served in the United States Marines. On Friday, July 24, a flag was ‘retired’ properly for the first time at Tegge’s pit. It will be used in the future for more flag-retirement ceremonies.
very hot July night got even hotter after an Eagle Scout’s project finally got put to good use last week. Lucas Tegge, 15, who attends Bergen County Academy, designed his project to make a stone fire pit for the West Hudson Detachment of the Marine Corps League in memory of Thomas DeFrancisci, a recently deceased World War II and Korean War veteran.
It included paving stones around the fire pit for flag burning and for visitors to relax by — and a memorial on the side of the fire pit to the fallen Marine. The project was completely financed by the single event, a bake sale at Corpus Christi Church in Hasbrouck Heights. Troop 17 raised $1,406 and Scouts invested nearly 100 service hours building the fire pit and memorial. See PIT, Page 19
Stafford receives truckload of food donations for 25 groups Despite tremendous outpouring, non-profit director says food insecurity has never been worse
By Kevin Canessa kc@theobserver.com
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hil Stafford has run NJ Food & Clothing Rescue for many years. If you’re a regular reader of this newspaper, you know exactly who we mean. He’s long been a partner with the Kearny
Board of Health and has been there in the best of times and the worst of times — just ask Nelly Albizu if there’s any doubt. But for all the years he’s been bringing clothing and food to people who have fallen on bad times, Stafford says nothing — not Super Storm Sandy, not any fire, no other disaster
— has compared to the hard times befallen on people than what has happened since March and the onset of the Coronavirus. Nothing. “It’s not even close. Not even Hurricane Floyd, which caused me to start this all in the first place,” Stafford says, referring the major 1999
storm that took almost everything he had. So when Stafford learned of a clearing house organization that, from time to time, would team up with his own non-profit, and offer him the opportunity to claim a tracSee DONATIONS, Page 16
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