SPOTSWOOD–Recognizing decades of educational and community service, resident and former Kindergarten teacher Emma Jane Decker received a proclamation of celebration from Mayor Edward Seely.
Council President Larry Kraemer read the proclamation on March 2 during the Spotswood Borough Council meeting.
“Emma Jane Decker has been a Spotswood resident for nearly 60 years, having raised her family in the home she still owns on Burlington Avenue and whereas this longtime resident has an equally long history of service to our community,” Kraemer said.
Kraemer said Decker was a Kindergarten teacher at both E. Raymond Appleby Elementary School and G. Austin Schoenly School for three decades and is still remembered and greeted by name by former students when she shops in town.
“It’s nice to be recognized as far as that goes and when people do come up to [me], immediately I can’t remember everyone’s name,” Decker said. “So I ask to see a picture and sure enough, they pull out their phone and they will show me pictures of what their children are doing now, how many children they have, because I have been around for a long time but that’s a great way to keeping touch with people.”
Decker said she went back to work when her children went back to school and started off as a homeroom mother, a substitute teacher, and then as a part-time teacher’s aide.
“It just kind of grew from that, once one of the kindergarten teachers were leaving for good [they] came to her and said ‘just apply for the job’ and it was kind of mine because I had been there for a few years before,” Decker said. “. … It’s wonderful your right in the same town as [my children] were and if anything ever happened you were there…”
Kraemer said Decker has volunteered for a number of community organizations over the years including having served as Girl Scout leader, a library volunteer and in 2002 a member of the library’s board of Trustees, a position she still holds.
“In the larger community has served as a volunteer at Hackensack Meridian Health, Raritan Bay Medical Center and whereas continuing the tradition of her various contributions to our community, today Decker runs the thrift shop at Saint Peter’s Episcopal Church, an iconic institution in our borough,” Kraemer said.
Saint Peter’s Episcopal Church Rector Rev. Marchall Shelly said Decker is always giving so much to help other people.
“I always look to folks who carry wisdom and carry experience and [Decker] is one of those,” Shelly said. “If I have a question or if I have a concern I know I can turn to her because she is always going to be honest with me, she’s always going to put me in my place, and she is also going to do everything she can to make sure that everybody looks better.”
Always thinking about the good of the community, Shelly said, “The piece that [Decker] is always deflecting is how much she just pours out and offers herself to people.”
To commemorate Decker’s 85th birthday, Kraemer said Seely declared March 14 Emma Jane Decker Day.
“It’s nice to be recognized. I say the same thing when I’m in a store or even people who come [into the church] and as soon as they say, ‘Ms. Decker’ I know it’s someone I had in school – otherwise it’s Emma or Emma Jane. … So it’s nice people still remember and it’s a good feeling,” Decker said.
“Decker is a shining example of the best of the Borough of Spotswood living long in our town for the last six decades,” Kraemer said.
Contact Vashti Harris at [email protected].