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MANVILLE: Friday dinner to help family with ill child

   A spaghetti dinner on Friday, April 11, from 4-8 p.m. at Manville firehouse No. 1 on South Third Avenue will help Jim and Kim Monto with paying medical expenses for their three-month-old son, Alexander.
   The dinner will cost $9 for adults, $5 for children and free for children younger than 3.
   Jim Monto is a Company No. 1 firefighter and rescue squad member.
   Immediately after birth on Dec. 20, Alexander James (AJ) Monto was taken to the Newborn Intensive Care Unit (NICU) at St. Peter’s University Hospital because he was born with both a clubbed right foot and heart defects.
   To fix the foot, on Jan. 2, Alexander began to have his foot casted every week for eight weeks. After the time, a surgical procedure was performed to lengthen the heel cord. He will be fitted with shoes and a brace he will have for two years.
   ’On March 9, Alexander was readmitted to St. Peter’s and diagnosed with pyloric stenosis, a disease of the stomach and intestine. ’On March 12, surgery was performed and went well.
   Alexander will still need heart surgery in order to fix the acyanotic congenital heart defects with which he was born.
   ”Around the rescue squad, we call each other a family,” said Robyn Barb, a fellow firefighter, squad member and friend. “That is why when one of our members is affected by something, we as an organization are affected, too. . . We respond because just like it is our duty to do so for complete strangers.”
   Rescue Squad President Sheila Lessing and Chief Dave Kohler agreed to work for a fundraiser to help the Monto family.
   ”I believe that sometimes a difficult situation can be made less difficult with support of good friends and family,” Ms. Barb said.