LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

From the issue of Nov. 23, 2006.

Heartfelt thanks from Joey’s family
To the editor:
   To all our family and friends, along with so many of you whom we have never even met, from Hillsborough, Bridgewater, Montgomery, Raritan, Somerville and most of New Jersey, as well as Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Maryland and much of the country, please accept our sincere and heartfelt thanks for your inspiring support throughout our son Joey’s illness, hospitalization and recovery.
   Your kindness, concern, visits, calls, gifts and donations, cards, food, prayers, and everything in between helped us get through each and every day. We always knew that we lived in a wonderful community, but we were truly stunned by the depth of compassion and support we received from so many, many people.
   After living with a heart condition for 10 months, then becoming dangerously ill for three more, Joey finally received a heart transplant on July 8. He has been working very hard ever since and is now doing very well. He just started back to school part time this month and continues to get stronger every day. Joey really is a living miracle, and we are honored to say that all of you played a big role in it.
   There are so many people to thank that we could take up several pages, so we’ll name just a few, but please know that we are grateful beyond words to all of you who were there for us in our time of need. Thanks to Mrs. Newman, Team 6C and everyone at Auten Road Intermediate School for all your help, and thanks to Hillsborough Middle School for your warm welcome and wonderful teachers and tutors.
   Thanks to Rabbi Mo, Rabbi Gluck and all our friends at Temple Beth-El, Beth and everyone at Mary Mother of God Church, and of course the Pool People for providing physical, spiritual and emotional support. Thank you to Amy, Chele, Angela and all the organizers, volunteers, supporters and donors of the enormously successful blood drive for Joey and to the Metro New Jersey Chapter of the Appraisal Institute for its generous donation to the Children’s Cardiomyopathy Foundation.
   To the Somerville Elks, Girls Scouts, Boy Scouts, Janine’s Run, Hillsborough Senior Citizens, the sheriff’s office, friends at Chubb, Joey’s and Laura’s friends and their families, neighbors and those who held car washes, flower sales and bake sales, we thank you.
   Special thanks to Debra and Barbara, Neal, Brianne and Amalie, Dianne, Donna at Amour Bagel, and Russ and Carol for going "above and beyond the call." To our amazing family and close friends, we could not have made it through without you all. And to the "Friends of Joey" founders — Ryan, Neil, Chris, Alec, and Shawn — the spirit of caring and friendship you created and represent is truly overwhelming. We are grateful to all the "Friends of Joey" supporters; we continue to wear our blue bracelets with pride. We know there are so many more, and to all of you, your outpouring of concern and caring touched us to the very core and we thank you from the bottom of our hearts.
   Extra special thanks to true miracle workers, Joey’s doctors and nurses, who saved his life several times over, cared for him day and night, and continue to support us now.
   Finally, to the donor and donor family, thank you for the ultimate gift. Know that your loss was not in vain and will never ever be forgotten.
   As you sit around your Thanksgiving tables, feel our sincere thanks surrounding you. We will be thinking of all of you and of how fortunate we are to live in such a giving and caring community of family, friends and supporters. You gave us strength and hope and love when we needed it most. We hold all of you in our hearts today and always.
Victor, Patti, Laura and Joey

The DiSanto Family

Woodville Terrace

Gaffney thanks voters for support
To the editor:
   I wanted to take this opportunity to say it was an incredible honor to serve as a candidate for Hillsborough Township Committee.
   I am very proud of the campaign we ran. We got so many new people involved and created so much energy. That energy will not be lost.
   We will continue to work for accountability and transparency in government. Our campaign insisted all along on honesty and integrity, and we stuck to the high road.
   As I’ve said all along, I would rather take the high road and lose than take the low road and win. I know there will be a day when we can take the high road and win as well.
   As the election showed, the country is clearly ready for a change, and I have faith that Hillsborough will be ready for a change soon.
Karen Gaffney

Hillsborough

Hunters vital to deer control
To the editor:
   Having carefully read Ester Shields rebuttal (in the Oct. 5 issue of the Hillsborough Beacon), what was deafeningly silent was her failure to provide a concise answer to the critical question of whether or not she is a vegan or just an anti hunter who consumes meat and animal products but chastise others who do the same through hunting.
   Regarding hunting and deer population control, apparently the historical significance and documentation that over hunting resulted in a low deer population in New Jersey about 100 years ago is not valid in Ms. Shields mind because there was no known study conducted of this event. Does this mean that it didn’t occur?
   Similarly, Ms. Shields argument that culling animals from a population causes the population to increase can be disproved by many another historical examples.
   Specifically, passenger pigeons were killed in greater numbers than they could reproduce themselves. The amount of food and habitat available for the survivors was certainly more extensive with a lower pigeon population and less competition, but this obviously had no affect because they were over hunted into extinction.
   If one were to believe Ms. Shields theory, their population should have risen with more available food and habitat (compensatory rebound).
   The principle of removing numbers of a species beyond the maximum sustained yield or ability to make up for lost numbers is scientifically and historically documented to result in the decline of a given population.
   Deer are no exception.
   In most parts of New Jersey due to over development and the resulting ample food supply, deer have little problem finding enough food to build adequate fat reserves to allow them to reproduce at a maximum rate every year … hunting and the removal of animals from the population can only serve to reduce the population and can do nothing to increase it as these animals are already reproducing at the maximum rate.
   Ms. Shields believes that that regulated hunting is the culprit for the deer population surge. Just imagine what numbers the deer population would have reached to date with no control by hunting as she advocates!
   Last year 70,000 deer were removed from the population and similar numbers in years past.
   If each of those deer were kept in the gene pool to produce two or three fawns per year for 7-10 years and their off spring did the same, the numbers would increase exponentially.
   If that scenario had been allowed to occur and after the carrying capacity of the land had been depleted, the deer would have inevitably become sick as a result of insufficient nutrition. It is at this juncture when horrific suffering would be unleashed by nature via starvation and disease in an attempt to reduce the population commensurate with the available food supply.
   This is what occurred in the great swamp many years ago due to the lack of hunting. Once hunted and the herd thinned, the deer enjoyed good health again.
   It is ironic that Ms. Shields would inadvertently advocate allowing such a scenario to develop.
   And perhaps there are not as many hunters as there once were in New Jersey, but there will be hunters keeping the deer population in check for the foreseeable future as my son and his friends will all be taking their safety courses this coming summer and will be doing their part in the future for conservation while feeding their families.
Jack McDonald

Hillsborough

Thanks for helping HES fundraiser
To the editor:
   Thank you to all of the Hillsborough families that dropped off clothes, shoes and other household items at the Hillsborough Elementary School fall clothing drive!
   With your help, over 6,000 pounds of clothes were collected.
   The Hillsborough Elementary School Home & School association would like to thank everyone who participated for their help in making this important fundraiser a success!
Michelle DeLuca

HES Home & School Association

Public Relations Chairwoman

Charter candidates thank voters
To the editor:
   We would like to thank the wonderful residents of Hillsborough for their support in our candidacies for the Charter Study Commission.
   From our three-person slate of potential commissioners, the voters elected Chris Jensen and Glenn van Lier to the Charter Study Commission and although Bill Page narrowly missed membership, he has volunteered to provide technical and research assistance as we embark on the mission to determine what form of government will help lead Hillsborough Township into the best future possible.
   An excellent informational Web site can be found at www.hillsborough-charterstudy.com that contains either direct material access or links to data that outlines charter study planning, procedures and recommendations including complete descriptions of applicable optional forms of government.
   Over the next nine months, the Charter Study Commission will be meeting, investigating and deliberating many critical aspects of how our government runs currently, how it might be improved, and how to get us to where we want to be.
   We will be expending a great deal of energy to keep the residents of Hillsborough informed via public meetings, tape replays of the meetings on Channel 25, the Hillsborough Beacon and much more.
   This commission must have public input to be effective and so you, the residents of Hillsborough, will have every opportunity to make your voices heard despite the efforts of some in this community to silence you. Please stay tuned in to the commission’s progress.
   Thank you for your support in this very important effort to create a more effective and more responsive form of government for our town.
Chris Jensen

Bill Page

Glenn van Lier

Hillsborough