The Teaneck Chamber of Commerce recently held its 15th Annual Community Awards Dinner on September 29 at the Teaneck Marriott at Glenpointe. The event, according to dinner co-chairs Yolanda Andrews-Jones & Jennifer Glass, was a big success, bringing together three of the largest entities in town — the Teaneck Marriott (Business of the Year), Fairleigh Dickinson University (Dr. Christopher A. Capuano, President of FDU, was awarded the Educator of the Year award) and Holy Name Medical Center (Michael Maron, CEO of HNMC received the Humanitarian of the Year award and Dr. Sharyn Lewin received the Healer of the Year award).
Among the other honorees were, for Public Service: William Broughton (Police Department), Battalion Chief Michael Weiss (Fire Department), Kevin Arahill (Department of Public Works) and Israel (Izzy) Infield (Teaneck Volunteer Ambulance Corps). Also honored were Marion Baker (on behalf of Teaneck’s Military Veterans), Valerie Johnson (Woman of the Year), Thorn Ellerbe (Man of the Year), Louis Santos and Nicholas Wilkerson (Youth Achievement) and Ray Turkin (the Presidential Award). To honor and commemorate a member of the community who showed great strength during her struggle, and with the permission of the Phillips-Parker families, the first “Mayor Lizette Phillips Parker Memorial Award” was awarded. To a standing ovation, the first recipient of this annual remembrance was Tristan Anderson.
Larry Bauer, President of the Chamber, said: “It is our hope that we were able to shine a light on these fine individuals and celebrate their accomplishments at our dinner and hope our nominees will continue doing all they do for our town. Furthermore, it was with great pleasure that we recognized our three largest entities in town: the Teaneck Marriott at Glenpoint (Business of the Year); Michael Maron (Humanitarian of the Year) and Dr. Sharyn Lewin (Healer of the Year), both from Holy Name Medical Center; and Dr. Christopher A. Capuano (President of FDU and Educator of the Year) and FDU. These three entities are resources that are oft-times taken for granted. We have strong ties and each has an effect on the other and our community. It is our hope that we will be able to continue to offer bigger and better programming to our members and to our community as a whole. It was a bittersweet moment as we honored Tristan Anderson with the ‘Mayor Lizette Phillips Parker Memorial Award’ with the hopes that our community’s youth will follow in Mayor Parker’s shoes and dream to be all they can be as they prepare to be our leaders of tomorrow.
“We’d also like to once again thank our sponsors of the evening: Fairleigh Dickinson University, Five Star Premier Residences of Teaneck, Bogota Savings Bank, Asian Women’s Christian Association and the Jewish Link of New Jersey.”
To receive additional information on the Teaneck Chamber of Commerce, its activities, programs or membership or to get on their e-mail list, please visit the Chamber’s website at http://www.teaneckchamber.org; contact the Chamber office at 201-801-0012 or e-mail [email protected]. You can also find out more by “liking” the Chamber on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/TeaneckCoC.
