20221117 - Ridgewood ACCESS Committee Minutes

Ridgewood’s Community ACCESS Committee

Meeting Minutes November 17, 2022 

The ZOOM meeting opened at 2:05 pm.

Present: Ines Bunza, Robin Ritter, Ashley Loria, Surbhi Kapadia, Jesse Schwartzman, Erica Dunckley

Item 1: Welcome

Ines welcomed all to the meeting. Minutes from the October meeting were approved - motion by Robin and seconded by Ines and motion carried.

Item 2: ACCESS Weekend

We discussed moving the weekend so it doesn’t coincide with the town’s October Fest, but we decided to keep it to our traditional Columbus Day weekend.

It would be wonderful to use photos from the 2022 ACCESS Weekend in the 2023 video.

Displaying special needs artists at the Library: every month there is a rotating exhibit of local artists, craftspeople and collectors near the circulation desk. Robin presented the idea of having our special artists display their work. Life Opportunities Unlimited may already have artwork. Another group, Home Cottage Industries creates notecards. And another group, 2 Dimensional Art. Robin will email Gail and ask her if she is familiar with these or other groups.

Item 3: Treasurer’s Report

Lisa wasn’t able to attend the meeting, but the balance in our account is $4,493.34.

Item 4: New Business

Deanna had given Ines some new information. She has a grant for a program in Arts and Recreation for 12-24 year olds. It’s a crafts program beginning Dec. 6 every Thursday at 5:00. $40/mo through Community Pass. There is also a dance planned for January and Karate in Feb.

The 2023 ACCESS committee meetings will take place on the 3rd Friday of the month at 2:00 via ZOOM. Ines will let our Village Liaison know the time frame.

Jesse mentioned that he would be happy to help as another council person.

Surbhi reported that the Health Dept. will be holding 6 immunization clinics. They’ve already administered 287 Covid and 80-100 flu vaccines.

The Stigma-free and Cards of Joy campaigns are about to begin. 

In November there will be a Senior Resource Fair featuring a speaker from the County. 26-27 different organizations have reserved tables to distribute their information.

                                                                        Ridgewood’s Community ACCESS Committee

                                                                        Minutes from November 17, 2022

Outreach events include a preschool program on handwashing on Dec. 1 and the NJ Alzheimer Assn on Dec. 6. 

The Health department is happy to assist anyone with health questions.

Caroline Meier had a work meeting to attend but kindly emailed her thoughts about the fashion show during our meeting. Although a bit smaller this year, she was still very enthused about the turnout. She gratefully acknowledged the talents of Ethan Wang and Finn Ban; 2 incredible high school students, Alexandra Rupprecht and Audrey Hall as our MC’s; new models on the runway journed at 2:50 pm.

The next ZOOM meeting will be Friday, January 20 at 2 pmteam, as well as a big thank you to Jan Philips and her friend, Rachel Wilkins Blum who created a wonderful video from photos Caroline had collected. Caroline thanked our whole team for making this weekend a huge success.

The meeting ad.