WESTWOOD HOPS TO IT Families get artistic for ‘front door’ egg hunt
Emerson • Hillsdale • Montvale • Park Ridge • River Vale • Township of Washington • Westwood • Woodcliff Lake VOLUME 24 ISSUE 4
FUN WITH MEAL KITS
PA S C AC K VA L L E Y ’ S BEST H O M E TO W N N E W S PA P E R
Families are finding ways to support our local businesses and keep the kids active as well. SEE PAGE 9
PASCACK VALLEY
LIGHTS
Police departments are doing birthday drive-bys
AND SIRENS
For a young child, having a birthday fall during the COVID19 pandemic can be a huge letdown. There are no pizza parties, no bounce houses, no groups of friends singing “Happy Birthday” and watching you blow out your candles. And while you canʼt replace those beloved birthday traditions, local police departments have been going out of their way to try to make the day a little more special. In many of our Pascack Valley towns, you can now schedule a birthday drive-by for your child. At an arranged date and time, officers will drive past in their police cruisers, with their lights and sirens activated. They might even wish your little one a happy birthday over their PA speaker.
See BIRTHDAY on page 214
PHOTOS COURTESY WESTWOOD RECREATION DEPARTMENT
CHEERS FOR HEROES
Have you heard? Something very special has been happening in Westwood on Monday nights.
SEE PAGE 11
APRIL 13, 2020
Due to restrictions surrounding social gatherings, public Easter celebrations of all kinds were canceled this year. Because the usual townsponsored egg hunt in Veterans Park could not take place, the Westwood Recreation Department decided to get creative. Recreation staffers hatched a plan to have a Front Door Egg Hunt, and all the children in the borough were invited to participate (many adults did, too!). Kids had until Easter Sunday to create their own egg decor—but most wanted to complete the project before the Easter Bunny made an appearance atop a Westwood Fire Department truck and toured the town the day before Easter, on Saturday, April 11. “All you need to do is create a colorful egg (or two, or a dozen) and place it on your front door or window,” the recreation department advised. “Then, when you are out for your appropriately physically distanced walk or even a drive around town, you can enjoy spotting eggs!” Families were encouraged to share photos of their kids with their creations by sending them to the Westwood Recreation Department, which in turn posted them on social media. Pictured at left are some of the children and their “egg”cellent artwork.
B ck in time... We continue our journey through the Pascack Valley’s old schoolhouses. Next stop: Hillsdale.
SEE PAGE 4