to help fund work
of health-care facility
Show raises $36,500
to help fund work
of health-care facility
By libby kesil
Staff Writer
RYAN BARNETT Jon Bon Jovi performed at Rumson-Fair Haven High School on Thursday after getting a request from three students at the school who were putting together a benefit for the Parker Family Clinic in Red Bank.
RUMSON — They wanted to help, and they did.
Lauren Pappa, Lauren Amann and Chris Harris, the president, vice president and secretary/treasurer of the Rumson-Fair Haven High School Spanish honor society got together in late August to discuss plans for the Spanish Honor Society for the upcoming year.
Pappa said they wanted to do something that would have a big impact on the community.
The first thing they came up with, she said, was to offer translating services to the large Spanish-speaking population in the area.
RYAN BARNETT Chris Harris, Lauren Pappa and Lauren Amann stand with Dr. Eugene Cheslock after presenting him with a $36,500 donation to support the Parker Family Clinic in Red Bank.
While they were working on their ideas, according to Amann, they saw a story in The Hub about the Parker Family Clinic, a free medical center in Red Bank for people without insurance that serves many of the Latino immigrants in the county.
With that in mind, they started working on ideas to aid the clinic and, noting that Jon Bon Jovi and his wife, Dorothea, were major contributors to the center, they wrote a letter asking the couple if they would be interested in taking part in a fund-raiser for the Parker Center.
Pappa said they then asked themselves whether a rock icon would really come to their school.
She said that to their surprise, Dorothea responded to the letter, and the two have been involved ever since.
On Thursday, the students presented Dr. Eugene Cheslock, one of the founders of the clinic, with a check for $36,500, the proceeds from the sale of tickets, T-shirts and journal sales, all proceeds from a special concert performed by Bon Jovi at the school that day.
According to Pappa, more than 800 tickets to the event were sold in the school during the last week of November.
They were made available first to the students and then to the faculty.
Remaining tickets were made available to the public, but according to Pappa, were purchased mostly by students’ parents.
The audience was not disappointed.
Bon Jovi played for more than an hour in the auditorium at Rumson-Fair Haven Regional, opening with the song "Love for Sale" and ending with the ever-popular "Dead or Alive," which drew a standing ovation from the room.
Before Bon Jovi took the stage, Principal Peter Righi commended the three Spanish Honor Society members who coordinated the event — seniors Pappa of Rumson and Amann and Harris of Fair Haven — for their role in making the event a reality, and those who volunteer their time and services to the center, such as Cheslock, who joined him on stage.
Cheslock thanked the three students and told the audience, "Whatever you have raised today is making a difference in lives."
He said that proceeds will pay for insulin, vaccinations and medication.
"You are allowing our talented professionals to continue to render care. I’m asking you to remain involved as we go on," said Cheslock.
"Thank you to Jon and Dorothea. They are truly Mr. and Mrs. Santa Claus to us," he said.
Bon Jovi walked on stage and offered praise to the volunteers and emphasized the benefit of the center to the community.
"These doctors make a difference in the community one patient at a time," he said.
"These are our neighbors, our elderly, our children," he continued. "You’re not kids; you’re the future leaders. You can make a difference, like Dr. Parker, Dr. Cheslock and Lauren, Laura and Chris."
The Parker Family Health Clinic opened in July 2000, modeled after the services to those in the borough unable to afford health care who received medical assistance from Drs. James Parker Jr. and Sr.
It began in a trailer on Shrewsbury Avenue, blocks away from Parker’s office.
All services provided at the clinic are funded through donations.
A crew of doctors, translators and other staff members volunteer their time.
A new facility is currently being built near the site of the original trailer.
It will have five exam rooms, according to Director Mary Nicosia, and offer medical care and screening as well as dental screenings and health education.
She said the new clinic is expected to open in early February 2003.
According to Bon Jovi, he and his wife held a fund-raiser about a year and a half ago at their home at which they raised money to cover construction costs for the new clinic.
He said they will be holding another one at their home this weekend to raise money to cover the cost of medications dispensed by the center.
According to information released by the center, 75 percent of its patients are Latino and "face language and cultural barriers to care, in addition to financial burdens."
There are more than 100 volunteers, including doctors, dentists, psychologists, nurses, lab technician and interpreters who serve patients at the center or in their offices.
The center had more than 10,000 patient visits and 5,000 individual patients from throughout Monmouth County since opening in July 2000.
When asked what he hoped the students learned from working with him, Bon Jovi said, "I wanted them to learn to give back. I’d like to see them get involved in the community."
When asked what he learned from working with the students in planning the event, he said he was impressed by their sense of commitment and their will to take it upon themselves to make the event a reality.