CIL honors two for their efforts toward making town a better place
By: Bill Greenwood
Joan Luckhardt is no stranger to community service.
Even before she retired in 2001, Dr. Luckhardt, 64, was giving back to her community as part of her job at Rutgers University in New Brunswick. There, she partnered with the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia to construct a traveling museum for preschoolers in an old RV, among other projects.
"We had a place where the kids learned about good nutrition, and we had models where they could choose breakfast," she said. "We also put a driving wheel in for kids we knew would be crawling into the front."
Since then, Dr. Luckhardt has dedicated her time to South Brunswick, where she has lived on Georges Road for around 30 years.
Ms. Luckhard will be honored Saturday with Anne Zeman.
She helped found and is president of the Dayton Village Citizens Coalition, was instrumental in the preservation of the Slack-Carroll House in Dayton, serves on the Historic Preservation Commission, is active in both Dayton’s Garden Club and Pioneer Grange No. 1, and organizes an annual holiday celebration in December, sponsored by the Dayton Village Citizens Coalition in conjunction with Boy and Girl Scouts, among other projects.
In recognition of this work, Citizens for Independent Living, an advocacy group for adults with developmental disabilities, has awarded Dr. Luckhardt its CIL Barry Indik Memorial Award. The award honors Mr. Indik, who was a founding member of CIL, and is given to individuals who have worked hard for the betterment of South Brunswick.
Dr. Luckhardt began her volunteer service to South Brunswick around 1997, when the Dayton Village Citizens Coalition was unofficially formed. She said she handled all the paperwork for the organization, which was incorporated in 2001.
"It’s not an easy thing to do," she said. "You learn a lot about law. It’s a lot of paperwork, a lot of IRS stuff. We had to work with the Center for Nonprofits that, bless their hearts, they have a lawyer attached, and they help you, but you do all the work."
Dr. Luckhardt said the group was formed to deal with issues that arose because of South Brunswick’s transformation from a rural to suburban community.
"It was traffic issues, it was noise issues, it was lack of pedestrian right-of-ways, it was you couldn’t walk anywhere," she said. "Kids couldn’t ride their bikes anywhere. You had to pack the bikes in the car to get them to a bike path."
"Also, all our houses were getting demolished one by one, historic stuff," she said. "We hadn’t done anything to really address those problems, and we thought, well, what can we do to make a difference, and that’s what we’ve tried to do."
In 1998, Dr. Luckhardt began the fight to preserve the Slack-Carroll House, which had been the home of Clarence Slack, a naval surgeon during the Civil War, and later Edgar Wallace Carroll, who practiced medicine there in an attached office. The historic house had been put in danger because the Wawa corporation wanted to demolish it to make room for a parking lot, Dr. Luckhardt said.
However, when it was determined that the land the house stood on was not needed, Wawa subdivided the lot and turned it over to the Dayton Village Citizens Coalition, which Dr. Luckhardt helped found. She currently serves as its president.
"It was in cosmetically poor shape, which generally meant every wall had a crack in it or it had no paint in parts," she said. "It needed new floors in other areas because the floors were in bad shape."
She said the house has been cleaned out, repainted and has had its roof repaired among other fixes, adding that she hopes to open it soon as a museum dedicated to country doctors.
Dr. Luckhardt also serves on South Brunswick’s Historic Preservation Commission, which was formed in 2004. The commission makes binding recommendations regarding major architectural changes, new construction, additions, demolition and relocation to ensure that changes do not compromise the character of surrounding historical districts.
She said historic preservation is important because people today need to understand the past and protect it for the future.
"We learn a great deal about ourselves and our American character (from history) for one thing," she said. "We see the way that other people make choices and how they had to live, and I think in the appreciation of what went before us, we have a recognition not only of what we were but how we got to be what we are. I think it’s valuable to see the process of it."
In addition to historic preservation, Dr. Luckhardt said she has an interest in gardening, and is a member of South Brunswick’s Garden Club, which was restarted in 2002. She said the original organization faded away, but the current incarnation is trying to continue its mission of beautifying the township.
The group holds tours of various gardens, has a garden exchange and takes care of the gardens at the Slack-Carroll House and the Weatherill Historic Site.
She said the club also helps to beautify the township by working on gardening projects throughout South Brunswick and shares clippings of traditional plants and flowers with other residents so they can start their own garden.
"We’d like to expand so that all parts of the township have little garden projects," she said. "We’d like that very much."
Dr. Luckhardt is also active in Pioneer Grange No. 1, for which she is developing a history project to honor the 130-year-old organization.
"We’re collecting oral histories, and (we) collected photographs," she said. "We’re scanning all those to put them on CD-ROMs to make up a history of the Pioneer Grange."
She has also been instrumental in the fight to allow use of the grange’s building as a community center.
"It always was a community center," she said. "When this was a farming community, there was no other place to go as a center. It has a great dance floor, it has wonderful acoustics and it has a stage, small though it might be."
Each year, Dr. Luckhardt also organizes a celebration of the December holidays in Dayton. The event features a flag raising, a tree lighting, carol singing and plenty of refreshments. She also said there would be a surprise at this year’s event.
"What you try to do is get as many (people as possible) to celebrate each culture and make them all feel welcome," she said. "You try to get pieces of everybody’s culture top share, and that’s sort of what we’re doing."
Dr. Luckhardt said she is thankful to CIL for recognizing her. She said she has worked hard to help the community because she admires its values and the people who live there.
"I thank (CIL) very much because of all the community groups. This is the community that believes in the nurturing of their children," Dr. Luckhardt said. "They have created a space for their children to become as much as they can choose to be and help them along the way."
"I admire the kids for moving forward and becoming their own people," she said. "That’s a great community and I think South Brunswick is very fortunate to have them."

