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No. 15 Vol. 1
www.themillburnshorthillsnews.com
January 2017
Students Swap Books
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n December the Millburn Middle School library hosted a Holiday Book Swap for students. Students brought in books they had already read and exchanged them for something new. It was organized by Amy Ipp, school librarian, with great assistance from the Library Squad, a dedicated group of seventh and eighth graders. In June the library will host a similar event for teachers in time for the summer break.
Donation Opens New Thrift Store To Regenerate Women’s Shelter
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By Cheryl Conway he new year is looking bright for a battered women’s shelter organization thanks to a significant donation from a Livingston business person who responded to an SOS call. This donor, and his wife, who wish to remain
anonymous recently allocated $35,000 to Strengthen Our Sisters (SOS), a grassroots, community based non-profit, program serving homeless/battered women and children for more than four decades. The funds went toward the shelter’s utility fees and to open a thrift store in Pas-
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saic. With restricted monies coming in, the organization has been in jeopardy of closing its doors to hundreds of women and children. While constant funding is needed to keep the non-profit running, the most recent donation has allowed SOS to sustain its operations for now and to cover the first three months’ rent of a new thrift store, Treasures Two, expected to open March 1 on Chestnut Street and Main Street, near Popeyes, in Passaic. “We’re struggling,” says Sandra Ramos of Ringwood, founder and executive director of SOS. “We are not in to money;
we don’t get paid. I haven’t been paid in four years. We don’t give the money to ourselves. We give money to serve the people. We do it out of love. We want to make the world a better place.” Established in 1977 as Shelter Our Sisters – Ramos began the first shelter for battered women in North America out of her three bedroom home in Hackensack. The organization changed its name to Strengthen Our Sisters and grew as big as eight houses, two day care centers, a food pantry and a thrift store. “Our shelter is the largest,” says Ramos, currently providing 155 beds to
persons needing shelter. “We have 177 beds available. We take people that we don’t get reimbursed from welfare.” The mission of SOS is to break the cycle of domestic violence, poverty and abuse by restoring balance and harmony through individual empowerment. To support her organization, Ramos receives some money from the Passaic County Dept. of Human Services, private donations, counties and social services. Ramos currently has 17 non-paid volunteers who drive shelter residents to look for jobs and attend court, doctor appointments, social services, schools; they fix
things, watch children. “We have people working who have no pay, no insurance,” says Ramos, who had to reduce her non-paid staff and is currently down to seven shelter houses located in Newfoundland, Wanaque and West Milford. A teacher of social issues and dynamics of domestic violence at Ramapo College, Ramos has been reaching out to the community for monetary support to keep her organization afloat. One man from Livingston read about her cry in the local “Livingston News,” and decided to take a closer look. continued on page 4