For as long as schools nationwide are closed, Audible is open. That’s the intention of Bob Carrigan, Audible’s CEO. The company is the largest audiobook listening platform in the country and the fastest-growing private employer in Newark. Monthly membership fees usually cost $14.95, which gives users access to an unprecedented library of more than 525,000 titles. more
The National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), the nation’s largest grassroots mental health organization, has released a guideto answer frequently asked questions regarding the intersection between coronavirus (COVID-19), and people affected by mental illness, their caregivers, and loved ones. more
Discover a World of Difference! Join Purnell School for our virtual Spring Open House, Sunday, April 5, 2020, at 11am.
You’re invited to take an online tour of our campus, participate in a Q&A with members of the community, and hear about what makes Purnell special from Student Ambassadors. more
On January 15, 2015, a few weeks after completing his memoir, writer and neurologist Oliver Sacks learned that the rare form of cancer for which he had been treated seven years earlier had returned, and that he only had a few months left to live. more
This year marks the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, which granted women the right to vote — although many voting struggles persisted for marginalized groups following its ratification. The long road to women’s suffrage, spanning the 19th and 20th centuries, played out very differently from political movements of today. In the absence of televised and digital media, the suffragists spread their message through magazines, political cartoons, posters, plays, parades, and even through fashion. more
Summer Programs at Princeton Day School (PDS) features flexible programming for eight weeks each summer. Most programs are grouped into Athletics, Enrichment, Outdoor Adventure, S.T.E.M., and Creative & Culinary Arts. Additionally, PDS offers a Panther Mini Camp for children in Pre-K or entering kindergarten next fall, as well as a traditional camp program – Pretty Brook Farm Day Camp for children entering grades 1-5. Campers can also explore and discover the school’s beautiful 106-acre campus and the state-of-the-art facilities. more
By Taylor Smith
Russell Juleg, a land steward and educator for the New Jersey Conservation Foundation, will explore the surprising diversity of plant communities in the Pine Barrens region of New Jersey, including historical and current attempts to categorize the various communities, at Bowman’s Hill Wildflower Preserve on Sunday, February 23 at 2 p.m. more
By Taylor Smith
Oak Crest Day Camp in Somerset will host an Open House for prospective parents and families on Sunday, February 23 from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. At the event, attendees will learn how to save up to $600 off tuition, and find out why the Oak Crest experience is so exceptional. more
Launched in 1988 by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and National Audubon Society, the Great Backyard Bird Count was the first online citizen-science project to collect data on wild birds and to display results in near real-time.
Now, more than 160,000 people of all ages worldwide join the four-day count each February to create an annual snapshot of the distribution and abundance of birds. more
By Taylor Smith
Produced in partnership with the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, the New York Public Library (NYPL) at 476 Fifth Avenue (at 42nd Street) presents an evening of performances and conversations centered around Toni Morrison, the American icon, writer, and intellectual, on Wednesday, March 18 at 7 p.m. more
Princeton University’s New Director of Creative Writing
By Wendy Greenberg | Photography by Andrew Wilkinson
Jhumpa Lahiri takes a framed sketch from her office wall. It is a drawing of a library in her Rhode Island hometown. “This made me a writer, being around books,” she says. “It was so crucial. I believe that reading was the most important thing.”
In addition to being an ardent reader and celebrated author, Lahiri is a teacher, lover of languages, translator, and now college administrator. In her life and in her writing, which seem to be inseparable, she straddles different worlds.
Born in London and raised in Rhode Island by Bengali-born parents, she now divides her time between Rome, where she does most of her writing, and Princeton, where she was named director of the Princeton University Program in Creative Writing in the Lewis Center for the Arts in August.
Teaching has helped Lahiri explore new worlds, and new words. “When I teach, it inspires me to re-read an author, like Kafka,” she says. “I read the familiar and the unfamiliar. Reading is ongoing, infinite. I like being in environments where reading leads to conversations.” more
By Taylor Smith
Images Courtesy of Morristown-Beard School
Morristown-Beard School (MBS) is an independent, coeducational day school serving nine counties and more than 85 communities in northern New Jersey. The school motto, Ad Astra Per Aspera, can be translated as “To the Stars Through Adversity,” a phrase that embodies the essence of the MBS experience. more
By Taylor Smith
Images courtesy of Agnes Irwin School
Following a nationwide search, the board of trustees of The Agnes Irwin School, a private girls school in Rosemont, Pa., recently announced the appointment of Sally B. Keidel as the school’s 14th head, effective July 1, 2020. more
Students at Hopewell Elementary School display bags they helped pack for underpriviledged children.
Helping Children in Need One Smile at a Time
By Laurie Pellichero | Photography Courtesy of Christine’s Hope for Kids
Christine Marie Gianacaci
Every child deserves the chance to be a kid, regardless of their circumstances. That’s the philosophy behind Christine’s Hope for Kids, a nonprofit organization founded in 2010 by John and Jean Gianacaci of Hopewell in honor of their late daughter, Christine.
In January of 2010, 22-year-old Christine Gianacaci and several of her classmates from Lynn University in Florida were in Haiti on a mission to help children in need and feed the poor. It was a cause to which Christine was deeply devoted, especially after a transformative first trip to Jamaica in her sophomore year where she had seen the poorest of the poor and helped to build houses, feed sick children, and deliver clothes and toys.
She was doing the same in Haiti when a catastrophic earthquake struck on January 12. The Hotel Montana in Port-Au-Prince collapsed and Christine, along with three other Lynn students and two professors, was killed.
In the wake of this tragedy, Christine’s Hope for Kids was created to continue the legacy and generous spirit of Christine, and her desire to help underprivileged children and kids with difference.
Through raising money, collecting item donations, and working closely with other area nonprofit organizations, Christine’s Hope is dedicated to giving disadvantaged children in the community a better life. They are also helping to create the next generation of community leaders by teachings kids how to help other kids. more
By Taylor Smith
The Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts (PAFA) in Philadelphia, founded in 1805, is the first and oldest art museum and school in the United States. In a unique partnership with area medical schools, PAFA provides humanities-based training for medical students, nursing students, university faculty members, and practicing physicians. more
By Taylor Smith
This year’s gala benefit for the Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation took place on Thursday, November 14 at Cipriani South Street in New York City.
The Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation grew out of the community-driven Stifel Paralysis Research Foundation, which was founded in 1982 when Henry Stifel, a New Jersey high school student, was involved in a car accident that left him paralyzed at age 17. The organization evolved into the American Paralysis Association (APA). When actor Christopher Reeve was injured in a horseback riding accident in 1995, the APA was one of the first places that Reeve and his wife, Dana, sought support. By 1999, the APA and Christopher’s foundation united as the Christopher Reeve Foundation (Dana’s name was added to the moniker after her death in 2006). more
By Taylor Smith
Winter often signifies a challenging time of year for birds to find adequate food and sustenance. Decorating an outdoor tree with edible ornaments is a way to attract winter birds, providing them with shelter and a wide range of foods. more
By Taylor Smith
Registration is underway for winter art classes for adults, teens, and children at The Center for Contemporary Art in Bedminster. With more than 35 offerings to choose from, classes begin in January 2020. more
By Taylor Smith
Ecology concerns the analysis and examination of the varied systems of interaction between humans and their environment. The trans-disciplinary subject matter relates to topics of anthropology, psychology, environmental management, engineering, biology, animal science, agricultural economics, geography, and sociology, among others. more
By Taylor Smith
American poet Walt Whitman has been honored with a new United States stamp.
The stamp is intended for domestic first-class mail weighing up to 3 ounces, and is priced at 85 cents. USPS Art Director Greg Breeding designed the stamp with artwork by Sam Weber, who previously illustrated the Flannery O’Connor stamp in 2015 and the Henry David Thoreau stamp in 2017. more
