Business Briefs

Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation has been named the official corporate charity for Rita's Water Ice Franchise Co. LLC, which is based in Bensalem, Pa., and has a number of stores in the local area.

During July, the more than 300 Rita's locations nationwide will be selling special paper lemons for $1. All of the proceeds will be donated to Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation. The paper lemons will have the purchaser's name on it and will be posted on their local Rita's "Wall of Hope." The goal is to raise $100,000, of which Rita's Water Ice Franchise Co. LLC, the brand's parent company, has already pledged $15,000.

And, in honor of the late Alexandra "Alex" Scott, Rita's is permanently renaming one of its classic Italian ices. Beginning July 3, lemon ice will be known officially as "Alex's Lemonade."

Four-year-old Alex Scott, who had been diagnosed with neuroblastoma, and her brother, Patrick set up a lemonade stand on the front lawn of their family home in the Philadelphia suburb of Wynnewood to raise money to help find a cure for childhood cancer. The stand drew consideration attention and inspired thousands of lemonade stands in her honor nationwide. Alex died in August 2004.

New Jersey Gov. Jon S. Corzine has submitted to the state Senate the nominations of two local residents to be appointed to the Fort Monmouth Economic Revitalization Planning Authority: Joseph A. Colfer of Howell and Rosemarie D. Estephan of Colts Neck.

Stuart A. Hoberman, a Marlboro resident and Woodbridge attorney, has been appointed as a trustee of the New Jersey State Bar Foundation, an organization dedicated to promoting law-related education and giving New Jersey residents a basic understanding of the legal system.

A shareholder and director of the Woodbridge law firm of Wilentz, Goldman & Spitzer, Hoberman is chair of the firm's Business Law and Financial Services Department. Immediate past president of the New Jersey State Bar Association, he has been a member of that organization for 28 years and served on the board of trustees from 1990 to 1994, and again from 1997 until his installation as secretary in 2001. Current chair of the NJSBA's ad hoc committee on multi-disciplinary practice, Hoberman is a former chair of the General Council Executive and Program committees and the Corporate and Business and Banking Law sections.

Hoberman is a fellow of the American Bar Foundation and served on the New Jersey Supreme Court Special Committee on Surrogates' Intermingled Trust Funds. He has been a lecturer for the New Jersey Institute for Continuing Legal Education since 1979 and is the author of numerous articles published in several publications, including New Jersey Lawyer Magazine and American Banker. He is a member of the Middlesex County and American Bar associations and is a delegate to the ABA House of Delegates, the governing body of the ABA.

Hoberman is a 1969 graduate of the Baruch Business School, City University of New York, and received his law degree from Brooklyn Law School, Brooklyn and a master of laws degree from New York University Law School.

Daniel J. Messina, senior vice president and chief operating officer of CentraState Healthcare System, Freehold Township, has been named New Jersey Regents Senior Healthcare Executive of the Year by the American College of Healthcare Executives (ACHE).

ACHE is an international professional society of health care executives who lead hospitals, health systems and other health care organizations.

Since joining CentraState in 2001, Messina has helped the nonprofit health care provider become one of the top health systems in New Jersey in financial stability, quality ratings, and patient and resident satisfaction on a national level, according to a press release from CentraState.

Messina earned a master of public administration degree in health care administration from C.W. Post College, Long Island University, New York, and a doctor of philosophy degree in health care leadership from Seton Hall University, South Orange.

Vincent J. Scanelli of Colts Neck, an exclusive agent with Allstate New Jersey Insurance Co., has been recognized by Allstate Insurance Co. for high standards in customer satisfaction, customer retention and profitability.

As a result, Scanelli has earned an invitation to attend Allstate's national conference in Chicago, where the top officers of the company will recognize him. His Allstate New Jersey agency is one of only 10 percent of insurance agencies and financial specialists for Allstate Insurance nationwide to reach this level of achievement.

Scanelli's office - the Colts Neck Agency - is located at 37 Route 537 in Colts Neck.

Robert A. Hersh, D.D.S., a Freehold dentist, was sworn in as president-elect of the New Jersey Dental Association during the association's 136th annual convention held recently in Atlantic City. He is now next in line to lead the NJDA in 2007 as its 137th president.

Hersh earned his bachelor's degree from Fairleigh Dickinson University and his dental degree from Temple University School of Dentistry, Philadelphia. He completed a dental internship at Hackensack Hospital and received postdoctoral training in periodontics and oral medicine at the Fairleigh Dickinson University School of Dental Medicine.

He has served as president of the New Jersey Society of Periodontists, the Monmouth-Ocean County Dental Society, and the American Academy of Oral Medicine - New Jersey Section. He has held faculty positions at New York University's School of Dentistry, has been a consultant to the Veterans Administration Hospital in East Orange, and is currently an attending dentist at CentraState Medical Center, Freehold Township. He is also a consultant to the New Jersey State Board of Dentistry.

Hersh and his wife, Marcia, live in Freehold and have two grown children.