Chambers’ Carousel Awards Honors ‘City Champions’

Asbury Park

Chambers’ Carousel Awards Honors ‘City Champions’

Giberson: The bottom line is old school Asbury and new school Asbury need each other

By Michelle Gladden

The Asbury Park Chamber of Commerce paid homage Friday night to what Executive Director Sylvia Sylvia-Cioffi calls ‘champions of our beloved city’ during the annual Carousel Award event at Convention Hall, located on the AP Boardwalk.

This year’s event included video presentations by John Kaplow of NJ Media Works.

The award recipients were given proclamations of acknowledgements by Sen Vin Gopal, Assemblyman Eric Houghtaling and Assemblywoman Joann Downey, as well as from the Monmouth County Freeholders.

In receiving the Asbury Park Humanitarian Award, Asbury Park native and School District College and Career Readiness Coordinator Genise Hughes said her position affords support the students through partnerships with community stakeholders and the City, particularly through the summer camp program.

“This has been an amazing journey for me because I got my start as one of those campers over 40 years ago,” she said. “Now I get to manage and continue to create programs for the children of Asbury Park to have a safe, educational and enjoyable summer.”

Hughes credited a long friendship with Mayor John Moor, who urged her to seek a teaching certification.

“John Moor saw something in me back in 1992 and I’ve been flying ever since,” Hughes said. “I could not do this alone. Just like it took a village to raise me and create the person that I am, it still takes that village to keep our children safe and to provide them with opportunities where they can live and be happy in this world.”

In presenting Mayor John Moor with the Lifetime Achievement Award, Sylvia-Cioffi said, “This is a man of few words but everyone of them have a very deep impact.”

Moor credited those who helped him achieve his successes, not only as a City employee in the Department of Public Works but on the Board of Education and Asbury Park Housing Authority. He gave a special thanks to his fellow governing body members and to City employees Cassandra Dickerson and Leesha Floyd and Caroline O’Toole for making the Mayor’s Rodeo For Recreation a continued success before thanking his wife Vera and daughter Christa for their unending support.

“I would not be standing on this stage tonight, nor would I be the man that I am today without their unending love, support and encouragement,” he said. “They have rearranged schedules, dropped everything to do something that I needed, and waited patiently while I have taken many phone calls.”

The Asbury Park Visionary Award went to Asbury Festhalle & Biergarten owner Jennifer Lampert gave a nod to former Chamber Director Jackie Pappas for bringing her into the member only non profit that works in advancement of the business community. She also thanked the city.

“I don’t just mean Mayor John Moor and the City Council,..” Lampert said. “I mean the entire city of Asbury Park for making our business what it is.”

Lampert also thanked members of her staff who were with her from day one, her HVAC purveyor, plumber and electrician, all of whom were in attendance.

The Asbury Park Public Official Award went to Freeholder Tom Arnone, whose family has long standing ties in the community as former business owners when he was a child to his daughter, who teaches in the school district.

“People say public service of the year but that’s our job,” Arnone said. “That’s what we are elected to do. It’s not just to run for those situations where we’re just here to cut ribbons and have good times. We are here to help people in bad times, in tough times; to make them good times and that’s where Asubry is now.”

City native Garrett Giberson Jr, in accepting the Joan Flatley Spirit of Asbury Park Award, told her, “It’s an honor to accept this award in your name.”

Giberson, the Asbury Park Fire Department spokesman and inspector, is also a former Planning Board member who founded the annual St. Patrick’s Day Parade.

“It’s so great to be a part of this and the honorees,” he said. “We have old school Asbury Park and we have new school Asbury Park; some new classmates have come into the school. The bottom line is this – old school Asbury and new school Asbury, we need each other. The only way we are going to make this city work is to work together.”

The Kenneth T. Roth Landmark Business Award went to The Asbury, the city’s newest hotel and entertainment venue.

“I fell in love with Asbury Park the first time I came [here], which was about 9 years ago now, and everything that it stood for” said hotelier David Bowd said. “When we created The Asbury hotel it was about creating a hotel that truly represented Asbury Park, not just bringing another hotel to Asbury Park.”

Bowd, who acknowledged the iStar and The Asbury teams for the countless hours of work, said the greatest thing they did was to create the Salt School, which has allowed them to employ almost 200 Asbury Park residents.

“We are going to continue to focus on locals and making sure that everything that we create is based around Asbury Park,” Bowd said.

The President’s Choice Award went to City Councilwoman Eileen Chapman, a former famed record store owner and Stone Pony manager, who also accepted the award on behalf of the collective.

“It’s the people who beautify this city and take care of its people,” she said. “It’s the crazy people who rally to save our current buildings and open spaces. It’s everything everyone does to make this city great and important.

“We’ve had some collateral damage along the way,” she said. “I have a friend here who while we were trying to save the Stone Pony was fired from his job and another woman who was told she would never work in this town again for trying to do the same thing. But you know we do what we know is right.

Chapman also recounted the nascent stages of developing the Stone Pony Summer Stage.

“My husband sent me out to buy a new car and when I went to work managing the Stone Pony, I realized we had an empty lot next door,” she said. “I thought wouldn’t it be nice to have a stage on that lot; wouldn’t be nice to have outdoor concerts. And so with my car money, I purchased the first stage for the Stone Pony and when my husband recovered from his shock, he built the first bar.”