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Florham Park Public Library Children’s Area Being Renovated
BY STEVE SEARS STAFF WRITER
FLORHAM PARK - On May 20, the Florham Park Public Library began renovations of its Children’s Room. The library is working with Soyka Smith Design Studios on the project, and anticipated completion is sometime in July. The
renovation budget is $310,000, which comes partly from an increase in the library’s operating budget for this year, and partly from a bequest savings account. The Borough of Florham Park has also contributed $10,000 towards the project.
Historical Society Spring 2024 Luncheon
FLORHAM PARK - Many Florham Park residents and neighbors enjoy the four annual free and interesting presentations offed to the general public by the Historical Society of Florham Park. Additionally, the Historical Society also schedules 2-3 enjoyable events annually which are Members-only. On Friday, May 10, members attended the Historical Society’s Spring Luncheon at the Florham Park Diner. As is the custom, two local residents were invited to share the spotlight to reminisce about their enjoyment of living in Florham Park. Annemarie Naughright Landishman and Stephanie Dalena Akers were the Spring Luncheon honored guests. Seated facing the 30 members in the back meeting room of the Florham Park Diner, each shared memories of good times and laughter, and even a bit of melancholy as they recalled favorite businesses that were no longer there. Annemarie has been in the same home since 1959 and Stephanie moved into town in 1960, took a small break from 1983-1992 and returned. Both went to Holy Family Catholic School and then Bayley Ellard High School. Annemarie’s favorite spots included the Florham Park pool and the Center, which included the bowling alley. Stephanie also enjoyed hanging out at the Center, and at Ridgedale School, and of course, at everyone’s favorite - Stan Beck’s on Ridgedale Avenue. At the Florham Park Diner, in addition to a choice of five tasty menu options, each attendee also received an Independence Day Mug, each filled with chocolates such as Twix, Almond Joy, M&Ms,
and Snickers bars. This extra something was in acknowledgement of Florham Park’s 125th Anniversary this year. The luncheon kicked off with Peter Nicolas, a Historical Society vp, welcoming Annemarie and Stephanie and acknowledging the two honored guests from last year who were in attendance – Dave Kramer and Mike Renahan. He also acknowledged David Setzer as the new president of the Historical Society. Nicolas then talked about the two highly successful Spring presentations held at the Florham Park Library and the healthy growth in membership in the past year. Board member Michele Newhouse presented Phyllis Botticelli with flowers from the Historical Society in appreciation of many years working as Hospitality Chair behind the scenes at the four annual presentations and many other events. Related to membership, the Board is asking readers to consider taking on a role on the Board or in a Committee. Save the Date for the next two presentations sponsored by the Historical Society, both scheduled at the Florham Park Library: October 8, 2024, 7pm – “Presidential Visits to the Garden State” to be presented by local favorite, Peter Zablocki November 12, 2024, 7pm – History of the Vanderbilt Family – a 125 Anniversary acknowledgement of Florence Vanderbilt Twombly and Hamilton Twombly, from which the borough received its name. To learn more about The Historical Society of Florham Park contact Peter Nicolas at pnicolas@optimum.net or call his volunteer office landline at 973-520-8654.
Winner from May’s “Find Hank the Hornet Mascot” Contest
AREA - The winners from May’s “Find Hank the Hornet Mascot” are Joseph Taylor; Florham Park, Amanda Restaino; East Hanover, Gerri Daggett; Florham Park and Mike Schum; East Hanover. The ads that “Hank the
Hornet” were in: Tracey Franco Realtor, Handcliff Funeral, East Hanover Community Partnership, Jag Paving, Gloria LaForge Realtor and 200 Club. Thanks to everyone who enter and congratulations to our winners!
Nancy Aravecz Shah, Florham Park Library Director, said, “The work being done is mainly cosmetic, so construction is projected to last four to six weeks. We will be replacing the carpeting, converting a closet into a computer room, and adding a small walled-in playroom. We are getting all new furniture, including shelving, and moving the librarian’s desk to a more optimal location in the room.” During the renovation, the Children’s Room will be closed to the public, and a temporary browsing collection for children and teens will be in the current library teen area. The project officially commenced in 2022 with a community survey submitted to Florham Park library patrons, asking them for suggestions as to how the children’s area could be improved. Shah said, “The feedback we received was that the community was looking for more comfortable seating, more play options, an interactive play space that would cater to young ones and special needs kids, and a layout that made it easier for parents and kids to find read-
ing materials that are age and reading-level appropriate. Our shelving and carpeting in that area of the library has seen quite a bit of wear-and-tear and is at the end of its life, so it was also time to start looking at updating them.” Shah and Youth Services Librarian, Kate Dinneny, performed a study to identify ways to re-organize the shelving in a way that made more sense to library users, and produced a plan to improve the layout of the room. Shah presented that plan to the Florham Park Public Library Board of Trustees, who tasked her to reach out to interior designers, architects, and furniture vendors and get quotes for the project. Providing community meeting space has always been a big component of the library’s service to Florham Park, but it has become more important since the COVID - 19 pandemic. 2022 and 2023 were two of the busiest years on record for the Florham Park Public Library when considering circulation, patron visitation, program attendance, and community meeting rooms usage. The Children’s
Image courtesy of Soyka Smith Design Studio
Room itself accounts for about 25% of the library’s public space, and nearly half of overall circulation. Also, the library has added more storytimes to its weekly schedule to meet demand, and regularly has 30 - 40 children and their caregivers in attendance. Dinneny added, “Our Children’s Room usage has really exploded in the post- COVID world, and it has been thrilling to see so many Florham Park families learn about their town and form new relationships with each other in our space. This is really what sparked the idea
that we could make the space more functional and welcoming, the fact that so many new families were spending time with us. Even though they already love the space, everyone I have spoken with is excited to see what we have planned. I am most looking forward to the reactions from families as they explore the space and see the fun surprises we have in store for them!” The Florham Park Public Library is located at 107 Ridgedale Avenue. Visit www. florhamparklib.org for more information.
Parents’ Day activist and radio performer Robert Spere, “that both parents should be loved and respected together.” That one day of togetherness didn’t appeal to some of the divorced or separated men, and women. Paradoxically, however, the Great Depression derailed this effort to combine and de-commercialize the holiday. Struggling retailers and advertisers redoubled their efforts to make Father’s Day a “second Christmas” for men, promoting goods such as guns, neckties, hats, socks, pipes and tobacco, and greeting cards. When World War II began, advertisers began to argue that celebrating Father’s Day was a way to honor American troops and support the war effort. By the end of the war, Father’s Day may not have been a federal holiday, but it had become a national institution. In 1972, in the middle of a nasty presidential re-election campaign, Richard Nixon signed a proclamation making Father’s Day a federal holiday. Today, economists estimate that Americans spend more than $1 billion each year on Father’s Day gifts. The first official Mother’s Day services in 1909 were held at Sonora’s church in Spokane, Washington, when she had an epiphany—if mothers deserved a day in honor of their loving service, why not fathers? When Sonora was 16, her mother Ellen died, leaving William as a single father to Sonora and her five younger
brothers. And by Sonora’s account, he performed brilliantly. “I remember everything about him,” Sonora said many years later to the Spokane Daily Chronicle. “He was both father and mother to me and my brothers and sisters.” Sonora’s mother Ellen, herself a widow, had three children from a previous marriage. On top of that, William had also been married and widowed before he met Sonora’s mother. William had five children with his first wife, Elizabeth, who were already grown when William became a widower for the second time. In 1910, Sonora brought a petition before the Spokane Ministerial Alliance to recognize the courage and devotion of all fathers like William on June 5, her dad’s birthday. The local clergy liked the idea of a special Father’s Day service, but couldn’t pull something together so quickly. So they settled for June 19, the third Sunday in June. On that first Father’s Day in 1910, church sermons across Spokane were dedicated to dear old dad, red and white roses were passed out in honor of living and deceased fathers. The mayor of Spokane and governor of Washington issued proclamations, and Sonora found her calling. She would spend much of the next 60 years pushing for the official recognition of Father’s Day as a national holiday.
June 16, Father’s Day – A Salute to Dear Old Dad
BY HENRY M. HOLDEN STAFF WRITER
AREA - On June 16th let us be thankful for the fathers we’ve had in our lives, who made positive outcomes for us and celebrate their contributions to the fathers of tomorrow. On July 5, 1908, a West Virginia church sponsored the nation’s first event explicitly in honor of fathers. It was a Sunday sermon in memory of the 362 men who had died in an explosion at the Fairmont Coal Company mines, in Monongah. But it was a one-time commemoration and not an annual holiday. The following year, a Spokane, Washington, woman named Sonora Smart Dodd, one of six children raised by a widower, tried to establish an official equivalent to Mother’s Day for male parents. She went to local churches, and shopkeepers to solicit support for her idea., The campaign to celebrate the nation’s fathers did not meet with the same gusto as Mother’s ’s Day–perhaps because, as one florist explained, “Fathers haven’t the same sentimental appeal that mothers have.” Eventually Sonora was successful: Washington State celebrated the nation’s first statewide Father’s Day on June 19, 1910. However, it was not until 1972—58 years after President Woodrow Wilson made Mother’s Day official—that the day honoring fathers became a nationwide holiday in the United States. Father’s Day 2024 will occur on Sunday, June 16.
William Jackson Smart was a twice-married, twice-widowed Civil War veteran and father of 14 children. One of his children would dedicate her life to the creation of Father’s Day in honor of her devoted and selfless father. The idea slowly caught on and the holiday spread. In 1916, President Wilson honored the day by using telegraph signals to unfurl a flag in Spokane, when he pressed a button in Washington, D.C. In 1924, President Calvin Coolidge urged state governments to observe Father’s Day. Today, the day honoring fathers is celebrated in the United States on the third Sunday of June. In other countries, especially in Europe and Latin America, fathers are honored on St. Joseph’s Day, a traditional Catholic holiday that falls on March 19. Many men, however, continued an indifference to the day. As one historian writes’ They scoffed at the holiday’s soppy attempts to domesticate manliness with flowers and gift-giving, or they derided the proliferation of such holidays as a commercial gimmick to sell more products–often paid for by the fatherf.” During the 1920s and 1930s, a movement arose to scrap Mother’s Day and Father’s Day altogether in favor of a single holiday, Parents’ Day. Every year on Mother’s Day, pro-Parents’ Day groups rallied in New York City’s Central Park a public reminder, said
PLEASE SEE FATHER’S DAY PAGE 2
Your Chance to Win a $25 Gift Card with the “Find Hank The Hornet Mascot” Contest
AREA - Check out our mascot... Hank the Hornet. Look for him in the ads in this issue and enter (no purchase necessary) to win
a $25.00 gift card (4 winners). It is easy to enter. Look through the paper and read the ads and look for “Hank” in the ads. He
will be located throughout the paper in 6 random ads. Then go to https://www.mypaperonline. com/find-hank-contest.html
scroll down and fill out the form to be entered. Winners will be notified and printed in the next issue.