Big Brothers Big Sisters deliver holiday cheer

Big Brothers Big Sisters of Ocean County brought bundles of holiday spirit to more than 200 children and their families during a recent special event.

Jackson Township Councilman Scott Martin chaired the event for the seventh year on behalf of the Ocean County Young Republicans.

"This is a children's holiday celebration for the kids in Big Brothers Big Sisters of Ocean County. We raised over $6,500 to purchase gifts for the children this year to be able to meet the demand for this wonderful children's program. For many of these children this will be the only Christmas or Hanukkah celebration they will have."

Held on Dec. 20 at La Bove Grande, Circle Landmark, Lakehurst, the event brought smiles to the faces of children and parents alike as clowns made holiday balloon sculptures and artists painted holiday tattoos on the smiling faces of some very happy children.

Martin said the children turned in their wish lists to Big Brothers Big Sisters of Ocean County in November.

"Based on that list, we knew how much we were going to need to raise. We purchased the sporting goods gifts at Sports Authority, which gives us a 25 percent discount, a savings of a little over $225," he said.

After that, the managers of Target, Toms River, opened the store an hour early so the Big Brothers Big Sisters volunteers could have the run of the store, Martin said.

"About 20 volunteers showed up early to help pick out the gifts for the kids. We delivered the gifts to Big Brothers Big Sisters in Lakewood, where they were wrapped by the Ocean County Board of Realtors," he said.

Jerry Bove, the owner of La Bove Grande, donated the use of his facility's banquet hall and all of the food for the Dec. 20 party, as he has done for the past seven years.

Major corporate donations were received from R.C. Shea and Associates; CMX Engineering; Cardinale Enterprises; Quality Medical; Glory's Market; Remington Vernick and Vena; Kelaher, Garvey, Ballou and Van Dyke; John Russo, Esq.; Juan Bellu and Associates; T&M Associates; and Design 446.

Explaining how he became involved with Big Brothers Big Sisters, Martin said, "It started for me about seven years ago when I met Sue Sedevic, who is now the executive director. She told me she had lost their sponsor for the holiday party. At the time, I was the secretary of the executive board of the Ocean County Young Republicans."

Martin said together they had agreed to take over sponsorship of the event. At that time there were 50 children in the program, and the list was divided among the executive board members of the Ocean County Young Republicans. They did the same thing the following year.

In the third year, the program started to grow and it became impossible to fund the event by themselves, so the organizers began raising money, he said.

"The event now has over 200 children and next year we are expecting there will be more," Martin said. "Jerry Bove and I were making plans to add additional tables to include more kids at the event."

He said it is a joy to see the looks on the faces of the children when they open their gifts.

Big Brothers Big Sisters is a private nonprofit agency affiliated with Big Brothers Big Sisters of America.

"We provide community mentoring and site-based mentoring programs to children ages 5 to 17 throughout Ocean County," Sedevic said.

For more information about Big Brothers Big Sisters, or to help with fundraising, volunteering, making a donation or becoming a mentor, call Sue Sedevic at 732- 905-5349.