SPOTSWOOD–The Spotswood Municipal Alliance and Spotswood Police Department, along with Husky House Animal Shelter, joined forces to create a 2018 community calendar.
The Spotswood Borough Cops and K9s 12-Month Calendar features 16 police officers from Spotswood PBA Local 225. The calendar also features rescue dogs from the Husky House Animal Shelter that are available for adoption.
“Proceeds benefit the alliance by helping them provide our school district with drug and alcohol awareness programs as well as community events that provide encouragement, increase awareness, resources and alternative activities to improve the health, safety and wellbeing of all individuals in the Spotswood community,” Alliance Coordinator Dawn Crandall said. “The calendars will also aid Husky House by bringing attention to the many four-legged friends Husky House has that greatly deserve loving forever homes.”
According to Crandall, the calendar took about two months from start to finish, from October to December, which included two photo shoots, sponsorships, layout/composition/design of the calendar, going to print and then the final product.
“By teaming up with the tremendously fun and community-oriented Chief Michael Zarro, his amazing Spotswood PBA team, and the extremely well behaved four-legged friends at Husky House, made this fundraiser a very warm-hearted loving event, in hopes that these very deserving fur babies will be able to find their forever homes,” Crandall said.
The officers featured in the calendar are Zarro, Capt. Phillip Corbisiero, Lt. Les Genovese, Sgt. Nicholas Mayo, Sgt. Edward Schapley, Detective Stephen Gallo, Detective Adam Sabatino, Ptl. Michael Gardini, Ptl. John Fedak, Ptl. Michael Genovese, Ptl. John Berlingieri, Ptl. Richard Sasso, Ptl. Dan Hoover, Ptl. Dominik Skibniewski, Ptl. Brandan Nemes and Ptl. Michael Taylor.
“We created further reasons to appreciate just how fantastic and truly caring our Spotswood Police Department is, and we want our community to feel safe, secure, supported and not afraid to come to us when they are in need. We have many resources and preventive services for all of our residents and their families,” Crandall said.
The Spotswood Municipal Alliance not only is dedicated to providing programs and services to combat issues of alcoholism and drug abuse, but also works closely with the Spotswood Police Department, the Board of Education, the mayor and council, the Spotswood Recreation Department, the Spotswood PTA, and the substance abuse counselors in the schools, according to Crandall.
“Solutions to our drug and alcohol problems have to be realistic to our current situation/environment. The number one solution is more education. Many people seem to lack a true understanding of the drugs and all of their potential negative consequences. Adults should have the right to make their own decisions but they need informed consent,” Crandall said.
Crandall said the biggest concern is with adolescent use and the developing brain. This requires more education and increased efforts at prevention, early intervention and treatment. This is why education is so important and awareness programs as well as community events are such a necessity for our community, she said.
“By creating fundraisers like this one lets our community know that we are here, gives them some insight to who we are, what we do, how we can help, and how they can reach out to us in addition to how much we are involved with our schools, police officers and community,” Crandall said.”Their support benefits many of our well-rounded programs that provide substance abuse awareness, education and prevention services to decrease the use of drug and alcohol use in our youths, and to help prevent the abuse of substances in our community.”
Residents can purchase a calendar at the newly reduced price of $5 each, which is down from its original $10, according to Crandall.
Calendars can be purchased at the Spotswood Municipal Complex at the police department’s dispatch window in the main lobby or upstairs at the municipal office window. Residents can also contact the Spotswood Municipal Alliance by messaging the organization’s Facebook page, according to Crandall.
For more information, contact Crandall at 908-208-8777 or [email protected].
Contact Vashti Harris at [email protected].