Elaine Harmon of Lawrence will be honored Nov. 15 by Contact of Mercer County during its annual gala celebrating its 32 years of service Nov. 15 at the Chauncey Conference Center of Educational Testing Service.
The event, with the theme, “A Night of Magic,” will be held from 6 to 11:30 p.m.
The mistress of ceremony will be Jill Whelan, star of the hit television series “Love Boat” and host of 1210 WPHT radio’s, “The Dirt.”
The event will conclude with cocktails, a surf-and-turf dinner and dancing. In addition silent and live auctions will include a wide range of items including a week in a luxury condo in Mexico and Morocco and a golf outing at TPC Jasna Polana golf club.
Joining Ms. Harmon as an honoree is Jeri Bogan Zielinski.
Ms. Harmon is an Adopt-A-Platoon Mom, bringing comfort to countless servicemen and servicewomen overseas. Ms. Zielinski is president of Families in Crisis Foundation.
Ms. Harmon retired from Lawrenceville Elementary School, where she taught for 24 years.
While she was teaching during the Gulf War, she wrote to Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf who attended Lawrenceville Elementary School. He wrote back to her and this was the beginning of her efforts to support the military serving overseas.
Ms.Harmon began to write letters to “Any Soldier” which was allowed until soldiers were sent to Kosovo. She mailed letters to Bosnia and received many responses.
She was also determined which soldiers never received any mail in Bosnia and wrote to them specifically. She was informed about Adopt-A-Platoon in 1999 when she adopted her first platoon, writing and sending packages to individual soldiers. Ms. Harmon’s packages were reported to be the first ones the soldiers received in Kosovo.
She has continued to adopt platoons, one of them headed by Gen. David Petraeus when he was stationed in Mosul, Iraq. Gen. Petraeus later made Ms. Harmon an honorary member of the 82nd Airborne Division.
Ms. Harmon recently returned from Tampa, Fla., where she was invited to attend Oct. 31 ceremonies marking Gen. Petraeus’ elevation to commander of the U.S. Central Command.
Contact of Mercer County is a 24-hour, seven-day-a-week crises and suicide prevention hotline, handling an average of over 18,000 calls a year. Callers range from children to lonely and despondent elders.
This Year Contact Launched “It’s About Hope” an outreach to veterans and their families designed to provide hope and support in dealing with the increase in depression and suicide among veterans.
It is only through the funds raised at the yearly gala that contact is able to stay in business.
Black tie tickets are $200. Corporate sponsorships start at $2,500.
For reservations and information contact Debra McKee at [email protected] or 609-683-2163; Lauren Kuik at [email protected] or 609-683-2413.
Contact of Mercer County may be contacted at [email protected] or 609-883-2880.

