Despite politics, people should stay involved

If hyper-politicking in the local newspapers and at the dais this campaign season has made some residents turn a deaf ear to Millstone matters, there’s a means to stay involved in the community other than writing letters to the editor and attending township meetings.

Those who may temporarily or even permanently prefer to keep away from the podium can actually party instead while contributing to township progress. Residents can attend the Millstone Charity Gala from 7 p.m. to midnight on Nov. 12 at the Battleground Country Club in Manalapan. The annual event eclipses economic, social and political lines for the good of the township.

The gala is a community-building event that provides a way for new and longtime township residents — and even those who may not meet eye to eye on some township issues — to realize that everyone wants the same thing. They want to make Millstone the best it can be.

Not only does the gala help raise funding for a cause the whole community can support, but it also amps awareness of the many nonprofits at work in Millstone.

This year, the Millstone Charity Gala, a nonprofit organization that has put the annual gala together for the past few years, created www.millstonegala.org, a Web site dedicated to the various charitable organizations in the township. The site relates information about and ways to join the Millstone Township Women’s Organization (MTWO), Pop Warner Football, the Millstone-Roosevelt Little League and the Millstone Township Hospital Auxiliary at CentraState Medical Center, Freehold Township. The site also provides information on how to help and/or join the Millstone Charity Gala Inc., which has given out $139,000 to local nonprofits in its four years of existence.

Tickets for this year’s gala cost $125 apiece. All proceeds from the event will benefit the youth programs of the Perrineville Jewish Center, the United Presbyterian Church of Millstone and St. Joseph’s Roman Catholic Church in Perrineville.

People should always take the time to nurture the community so that when politicians blight it during campaign season with attacks on one another, the total population still has an outstanding collective identity.