Congratulations and thank you to all of our PALs members and supporters.  With the Board of Education’s unanimous vote on September 14, 2009, we have officially achieved our objective of separating the lines and the children based upon the settlement agreement reached with PSE&G.

While the list of individuals and organizations deserving thanks is long, it is imperative we recognize their contributions.

To begin, thank you to the Board of Education for having the vision to create us, the strategic insight to chart the path to our success and the courage to make tough decisions and stand up for the health and safety of the children in the face of pressure.  Specific thanks to Courtney Wisinski for providing the driving force behind this effort serving both organizations (the BOE and PALs) and keeping us well coordinated at all times.

Thank you to the PALs trustees, John Niemasz and Elke Dyminski.  I am not certain anyone truly appreciates the amount of hours John invested in this effort reviewing all of the filings, testimony and interrogatories necessary to educate us all on the issues.  Elke worked tirelessly not only as the communications secretary but as our treasurer.

Thank you to original steering committee members Patti Gentile and Shannon Nelson who chaired community outreach and fundraising committees respectively.  Patti’s “Rally in the Square” in Newton was a tremendous success and really helped show the size of our organization.  Shannon’s efforts produced such winning ideas as our bracelets, PALs night at Friendly’s, our tables at Fredon Day and the State Fair among others and helped us stay financially afloat to see this through to its conclusion.

As our effort gained momentum and intensified, the steering committee was expanded to include Robin Knutelsky for media relations and Kathy Rathbone as an additional fund raising coordinator.  Robin was instrumental in our initial media outreach and secured our first television coverage.  Kathy successfully organized our Cash for Gold and Discount Card fundraisers with great success.

Thank you to Jeremy Slockbower for designing, maintaining and hosting our web site all on a volunteer basis.  Our web site received numerous complements and was critical to informing all of you what was happening.

Thank you to Scott Olson of the Byram Town Council for reaching out to us at the beginning and for his daily “Routeb_info” list keeping us abreast of the latest developments.

Thank you to John Flora and Joe Manning of the School Board for standing tough when negotiations became tense.

Thank you to Sal Constantino, our school superintendent, for putting up with all of the phone calls, emails, text messages and demands on his time as well as for simply keeping it all together when our battle become very public.

Thank you to all of our donors whose sacrifices were critical and significant, and to all of you who were interviewed by the media and did a wonderful job of outlining our predicament and showing support for our cause.

Thank you to Dave Slaperud and Tom Hill of Stop the Lines for their advice at the beginning and ongoing counsel throughout.

Thank you to Laurie Sanders, Monica Cacciaguida, the New Jersey Education Association and the Sussex County Democrats for their support.

Thank you to the Fredon Town Council for intervening on behalf of the citizens of our town, to Jim McCracken for his early support, Annette Seaman for initially spearheading the town’s efforts and to Carl Lazzaro for his work with the coalition and his incredible testimony to the BPU.  Thank you to our mayor Sandy Coltelli for providing key contacts for information when time was critical.

Thank you Kerry Erickson, Robin Knutelsky, and Oma (Hildegard Schleyer) for providing childcare at our meetings to allow many of you to attend.

Thank you to Nana and Pop-pop (Bobbi and Bernie Boyle) for countless hours of childcare with little or no notice allowing Courtney and me to direct this effort.  Without them, none of this would have been possible.

And finally, thank you to Bradley, Molly, Anny, Teagan and all of the other children in town who suffered the loss of so much time with their parents as we fought this fight on their behalf and on behalf of all of the children of Fredon, now and in the future.

Tadd

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