Millstone Charity Gala hands out $49,500
Trailblazers, Lacrosse Club, scholarship fund benefit from charity event
BY JENNIFER KOHLHEPP
Staff Writer

MILLSTONE - One night made three nonprofit organizations in town $16,500 richer.

Each year, the Millstone Charity Gala Committee selects three different nonprofit community organizations to benefit from its charity event. Last year's Millstone Charity Gala recipients were the Millstone Trailblazers Organization, the Millstone Lacrosse Club, and The John W. Petrella Jr. Scholarship Fund.

Millstone Charity Gala Chairman Gary Mangino presented each of the three organizations chosen to benefit from last year's gala with $16,500 each at the Township Committee meeting on Feb. 21.

"The event and the success of the event does not happen without the interest and leadership of these groups," Mangino said. "It's their hard work that allows these types of checks to funnel back into the community."

Rob Obusek, the president of the Millstone Trailblazers Organization, explained that since its inception five years ago, the organization has worked with municipal, county and state officials to identify, develop and preserve a network of multiuse recreational trails in Millstone.

He said the Trailblazers have to secure the easements for the trails, put the trails in, and mark and maintain the paths used for hiking, running, horse riding and other activities. He said the organization will work with the $16,500 from the gala to finish a 10.5-mile trail that extends from Wagner Farm Park to the Charleston Springs Golf Course.

The second gala beneficiary was the Millstone Lacrosse Club. Founded in 2005 to support the Millstone recreation lacrosse boys and girls teams, the club raises funds to help defray tournament costs, both home and away.

The lacrosse program allows more than 150 boys and girls to participate in the New Jersey Junior Lacrosse League and compete against programs in central and southern New Jersey.

Lacrosse Club President Matt Deiner said the club will use the funding from the gala to provide indoor practices at a facility with turf to lacrosse participants during winter months. He also said the funding could help pay for guest speakers and guest coaches to attend practices with the kids.

The third recipient, The John W. Petrella Jr. Scholarship Fund, was established in 2003 by Millstone's Petrella family in memory of their son, John Jr., who passed away unexpectedly in October 2003 at the age of 16.

The scholarship fund seeks to assist classified students who have graduated from high school and would like to continue on to either college or trade school.

Shirley Petrella thanked the gala committee for the funding and said it would be put toward offering more scholarships to students in the area.

Mangino explained the charity gala, which took place last year on Saturday, Nov. 11, at the Forsgate Country Club in Monroe, as a fun community event that also served as a tool for the Millstone community and nonprofit organizations to work together.

"Our 2006 awards of just under $50,000 was the biggest single-year success to date," he said.

With its 2006 honorees included, the Millstone Charity Gala has worked in partnership with 17 Millstone-based nonprofit organizations that all work to better Millstone's quality of life, according to Mangino.

"To date, the gala has partnered with local nonprofits to raise and distribute over $228,000 in six years," Mangino said.

The gala committee selects the organizations it will work to fundraise with in a given year from nomination letters it receives from the community.

The gala committee is currently soliciting letters of recommendation for its 2007 event.

The gala fell on the second weekend in November, which is also a teachers convention weekend, the last three years in a row, according to Mangino.

"This posed travel conflict problems for many in Millstone, yet in all three years the event was supported at sold out levels," Mangino said.

Taking note that some could not attend the gala due to scheduling conflicts, Mangino said the committee has decided to hold the charity event on a different weekend this year.

"We have a totally cleared weekend of Oct. 13, 2007, and as a result expect this seventh annual event to present the earliest dated sell-out in the event's history," he said.

The next Millstone Charity Gala will take place on Oct. 13 at the Forsgate Country Club.

Letters of recommendation about nonprofit organizations in the community that could benefit from the gala must be submitted to the gala committee prior to April 15 via the committee's address: P.O. Box 125, Perrineville 08535.