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FLORENCE: Township honors hometown heroes

By Amy Batista, Special Writer
   FLORENCE — The township celebrated the 141st anniversary of its incorporation by honoring and recognizing key figures in the community during its council meeting March 6.
   Officially, it is March 7 when the township was incorporated.
   ”We ought to do something special every year,” Mayor Craig Wilkie said. “Last year, ironically, Steve Fazekas, we celebrated his retirement. We also honored two longtime community servants.”
   Mayor Wilkie presented retired Police Chief Stephen “Fuzzy” Fazekas with a proclamation for saving a young child. The former chief was returning home with his family from a February vacation in Florida.
   Police Chief Alvin Scully and Florence Township Fire Department Fire Chief Keith Scully stood by Mr. Fazekas’ side as he was presented the proclamation and thanked by the township for his “commitment and continued service to others.”
   Despite being retired from the Police Department, Mr. Fazekas sprung in action during his vacation when the time came and someone needed help.
   While on a flight home from Florida, a flight attendant asked if there was a doctor, nurse or anyone with medical training on board, and Mr. Fazekas was the only one who raised his hand.
   ”Fuzzy saw the girl was having a full body seizure,” Mayor Wilkie said as he read the proclamation. “The family informed him she had never had a seizure before. Fuzzy took the girl and placed her on the empty seats in the emergency row, squeezing himself between the seats to keep her from falling.”
   Mr. Fazekas asked the flight attendant for any available medical supplies on the plane, managing with adult-size supplies the best he could under the circumstances. He monitored her vital signs and gathered medical history from the family.
   During this time, another passenger stepped forward, a state trooper, to assist Mr. Fazekas, offering to assist however he could with his limited training.
   The plane made an emergency landing in Jacksonville.
   ”As the plane taxied to the terminal, Fuzzy carried the girl to the front of the plane to meet EMS while the trooper assisted the family off the plane,” Mayor Wilkie said.
   However, the child was not Mr. Fazekas’ only patient that evening. During the emergency landing, a female passenger in the back of the plane had an asthma attack due to the “rapid descent.”
   ”Fuzzy started to the back of the plane and saw there was a firefighter with the passenger,” Mayor Wilkie said. “She was signing a refusal. With a sigh of relief, Fuzzy returned to his seat.”
   ”Thank you very much, mayor, council, for this,” Mr. Fazekas said. “My family, who was on the plane, all in the back, they got used to me getting up and leaving for squad calls and fire calls so they had to get used to me getting up on the plane and leaving them for awhile so they were very supportive.”
   Mr. Fazekas was able to meet the child he saved during the Fire Department dinner Feb. 23 when he received a Meritorious Service Award for his “exceptional professional and performance.”
   Members from the Fire Department showed up at the council meeting to see him recognized again for his quick thinking and heroic actions.
   ”One of the nice things that came out of this was I got to meet the young child,” Mr. Fazekas said. “We were wondering what happened. The girl is doing fine.”
   He added, “I’m just glad I had the training, and I could provide the help.”
   Mayor Wilkie then took a few minutes to recognize a longtime municipal employee, Butch Reed.
   Mr. Reed served the township for almost 29 years in the Department of Public Works. He started in June 6, 1983, retiring Dec. 31, 2012.
   ”Wow, that is a long time,” Mayor Wilkie said. “We wish you best wishes for good health, happiness, prosperity in your retirement.”
   Mr. Reed took a moment to thank the council and for giving him the “opportunity to work.” He also thanked the Public Works Department and his family.
   ”I would like to thank council for working here,” Mr. Reed said. “Good people.”
   Public Works Superintendent Rich Pendle took a few minutes to share some stories and comments.
   ”Thank you for your many years of good service,” Mr. Pendle said.
   Mr. Pendle recalled the first day he worked with Mr. Reed — April 11, 1994 — when Mr. Reed started training him.
   ”I don’t know if you remember that, but I sure do,” Mr. Pendle said. “Butchie is a wonderful person. Over all the years, through all the 100-degree weather, weed-whacking the fields, collecting the trash in them hot alleys, plowing snow in the freezing cold, I never once in the 19 years that I’ve known Butch heard him complain at all about anything he was asked to do. Not once.”
   Mr. Pendle also pointed out he never heard Mr. Reed say anything bad about any individual.
   ”He’s one of the most humble people that I know,” Mr. Pendle said. “I appreciate your example, and I hope that some day I can be as good as you.”
   ”You will,” Mr. Reed responded.
   Council President Jerry Sandusky, on behalf of the council, presented Mr. Reed’s wife, Diane, with a bouquet of flowers and asked her to “take good care of him.”
   Mr. Sandusky recognized the celebration of the 90th anniversary of Boyd’s Pharmacy, which was opened by Lardner Clark Boyd and his wife, Fredericka, on Front Street in Florence on Feb. 19, 1923.
   Their son, Lardner Clark Boyd Jr., and his wife, Constance, known as “Pop” and Mrs. “B”, took over from 1949 until 1953 when Fredericka Boyd died, and the pharmacy moved to its current location on Broad Street.
   In 1986, their sons, L. Clark Boyd III and Clinton Boyd, ran the business until 1998 when L. Clark Boyd III and his wife, Carolann, took over.
   ”The Boyd family for years has contributed to the Florence Township community by supporting local health programs, sports teams, the annual Easter egg hunt and educational programs,” Mr. Sandusky said.
   The council approved an application earlier in the evening for the Florence Township Volunteer Fire Co. No. 1 with Boyd’s Pharmacy for its annual Easter egg hunt March 30 at 10 a.m. with a rain date of April 6.
   ”Boyd’s Pharmacy is one, if not the longest, continuously operating business in our community,” Mr. Sandusky added.
   March 9 was named Boyd’s Pharmacy of Florence Township Day by the council.
   ”This means a lot to me and my family,” Mr. Boyd said. “My grandfather started all this in 1923.”
   According to Mr. Boyd, there has been a lot of changes in the pharmacy business since his grandfather started it.
   ”I remember when my grandfather started. It used to be compounding prescriptions,” Mr. Boyd said. “He was a pioneer. I think he developed the first picture profile for pictures.”
   He added, “We’ve come a long way” in how technology has changed the pharmacy business.
   ”The biggest hurdle we’ve come up with is the mail order,” Mr. Boyd said. “We don’t know how to beat them.”
   Mr. Boyd said it’s the people of Florence that keep the pharmacy in business and recognized some of the employees, past and present, who attended the meeting.
   ”The people of Florence is why Boyd’s is here today,” Mr. Boyd said. “The town has certainly supported us. We are only as good as our workers.”
   Mayor Wilkie asked former Mayor Bill Barry to do the honor of recognizing Alexis “Lexi” Carey Smith, 18, of Florence, who holds various records in field hockey. Lexi was joined by her mother and coach, Gina Smith, her father, Jeffrey Smith, and her brother, Jeffrey, 14.
   ”Lexi Smith has set many school, county and state records for field hockey, and she has helped to lead her field hockey team to three Burlington County divisional titles and four appearances in the NJSIAA Group 1 Field Hockey Tournament,” Mr. Barry said as he read the resolution presented by council.
   He continued, “Lexi Smith has set the following national scoring records — 191 career goals scored; 2.42 goals per game; and following in Lexi’s mother’s footsteps, she has appeared in the “Faces in the Crowd” column in Sports Illustrated.
   March 10 was proclaimed Lexi Smith Day by the council in recognition of her accomplishments, both academically and athletically.
   Mayor Wilkie also declared May 1, 2013, as “Paint our Township Purple Day” and encouraged the community to participate and show their support by decorating themselves, homes, storefronts, cars and trees with cancer ribbons.
   According to the resolution, read by Mayor Wilkie, the color purple has become widely known as the signature color for the American Cancer Society’s fundraising Relay for Life.