Members of the Interfaith Community Builders (ICB) attended the Juneteenth Jubilee. Pictured are Chris Bond (left), Ralph Hendrickson, Annette Scott, John Enz, Dr. Angela Robinson and Robert Joe Lee.

Annette Scott of Neptune was honored by Interfaith Community Builders (ICB) with the Spark of Inspiration award for expanding voting rights in New Jersey and inspiring public service. Photo Credit: Courtesy of Annette Scott

Photo Credit: Courtesy of Annette Scott

Annette Scott of Neptune was honored by Interfaith Community Builders (ICB) with the Spark of Inspiration award for expanding voting rights in New Jersey and inspiring public service. Photo Credit: Courtesy of Annette Scott

By Alissa Deleo

Last UpdatedJune 19, 2023 at 7:08 PM

ASBURY PARK, NJ — Juneteenth is a federal holiday in the United States commemorating the emancipation of enslaved African Americans.

The name "Juneteenth" references the date of the holiday, combining the words "June" and "nineteenth."

It is celebrated on the anniversary of the order by Major General Gordon Granger, proclaiming freedom for enslaved people in Texas on June 19, 1865.

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In recent years, Juneteenth has gained increased recognition and support, with efforts to make it a nationally recognized holiday.

On June 17, 2021, it was signed into law by President Joe Biden, designating Juneteenth as a federal holiday, highlighting the importance of this historic moment in the fabric of American history.

Annette Scott of Neptune was recently honored by Interfaith Community Builders (ICB) with the Spark of Inspiration award for expanding voting rights in New Jersey and inspiring public service.

Scott, a registered nurse, received the award during ICB's annual Juneteenth Jubilee celebration on Saturday, June 17 in Burlington County.

"It was awe-inspiring," Scott said of receiving the award.

"It was such an honor and greatly appreciated — I am very grateful just to be recognized for what I do," Scott said, adding, "I'm glad I inspire others, but it was very inspirational for me also."

In March 2018, Scott formed a partnership between the League of Women Voters of Monmouth County (LWVSMC) and the Monmouth County chapter of the New Jersey Reentry Corporation to launch the Reenter-Register-Vote (RRV) initiative, which makes the voter registration process a regular part of a citizen's reentry into society once their sentence is complete.

Each Wednesday, Scott conducts a one-hour course at NJ Reentry's office, 72 Morris Ave., Neptune City, where those on parole or probation in New Jersey are given the opportunity to register to vote and decide if they would like to become poll workers.

During the weekly classes, Scott, assisted by Donna Lembo, helps formerly incarcerated citizens in their registration process by reviewing and mailing each application.

While Scott was growing the RRV initiative, the New Jersey Institute for Social Justice and its partners launched the "1844 No More" campaign, which sought to restore voting rights for New Jerseyans on parole and probation who were unable to vote before the completion of their sentence.

Scott's work culminated with Gov. Phil Murphy signing a law in December 2019 that restored voting rights for 83,000 people on parole or probation.

The League of Women Voters is a 102-year-old nationwide, nonpartisan organization that originally encouraged women's suffrage and assisted women with the voting process.

NEPTUNE - Widley "Laura" Joseph, 13, could hardly believe it when she won the regional spelling bee representing Neptune Middle School.

"When they gave me the word, I was like, 'Oh my God, I know how to spell this!'" she said.

Her winning word was "Vadan," a Persian word for the mouth, face and/or countenance.

Now, thanks to that win, the eighth grader is preparing for her next challenge - the Scripps National Spelling Bee.

So is she nervous about competing on a national stage? "Not really," she said. "I always dreamed of winning the nationals."

The Scripps National Spelling Bee will take place at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center in National Harbor, Maryland with preliminary competition starting May 30 and finals on June 1.

"I can't describe (winning). I would just be like so happy. I don't even know how to put it into words," Joseph said, adding she plans to compete in other academic competitions with any prize money going to her mother.

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According to Scripps National Spelling Bee records, New Jersey has had two national champions since the competition began in 1925. They are Katharine Close of Asbury Park, who won in 2006, and Shruthika Padhy of Cherry Hill, who won in 2019.

This year, about 230-235 students will compete at nationals.

"We are very proud of her hard work and her tenacity," said Dr. Tami Crader, Superintendent of Schools.

"Apparently, Laura was studying 30 minutes every night to prepare for the competition, and that in the life of an adolescent is hard. It is really difficult to manage your activities, your homework and family responsibilities," Crader said.

"Now, she is trying to carve out an hour now so she can study," Crader said.

"She is going to have all kinds of educational experiences and she is going to be with her family, and she is going to compete against people from all over the world and she already won against 12 other kids in the region. So, this is just a win-win for everybody."

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Board of Education President Chanta L. Jackson, an alumnus of the Neptune School District, added, "We are Scarlet Flier proud of Laura's accomplishments."

"This is just one example of the phenomenal things that are happening in our school district," Jackson said. "We are really excited."

Charles Daye is the metro reporter for Asbury Park and Neptune, with a focus on diversity, equity and inclusion. @CharlesDayeAPP Contact him: CDaye@gannettnj.com

NEPTUNE, N.J. (AP) — Coastal communities around the world are adding a tropical twist to shoreline protection, courtesy of the humble coconut.

From the sands of the Jersey Shore to the islands of Indonesia, strands of coconut husk, known as coir, are being incorporated into shoreline protection projects.

Often used in conjunction with other measures, the coconut material is seen as a cost-effective, readily available and sustainable option. This is particularly true in developing countries. But the material is also popular in wealthy nations, where it’s seen as an important part of so-called “living shorelines” that use natural elements rather than hard barriers of wood, steel or concrete.

One such project is being installed along a section of eroded river bank in Neptune, New Jersey, about a mile from the ocean on the Shark River. Using a mix of a federal grant and local funds, the American Littoral Society, a coastal conservation group, is carrying out the $1.3 million project that has already added significantly to what was previously a severely eroded shoreline in an area that was pummeled by Superstorm Sandy in 2012.

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“We’re always trying to reduce wave energy while shielding the shoreline, and whenever we can, we like to employ nature-based solutions,” said Tim Dillingham, the group’s executive director. “This material is readily available, particularly in developing countries and it’s relatively inexpensive compared with harder materials.”

Coir is made of the stringy fibers of coconut shells, and spun into mats or logs, often held together with netting. In developing areas, discarded or ripped fishing nets can be incorporated.

Its flexibility allows it to be molded and contoured as needed on uneven areas of shoreline, held in place by wooden stakes.

The coconut-based material biodegrades over time, by design. But before it does, it is sometimes pre-seeded with shoreline plants and grasses, or those plants are placed in holes that can be punched into the coir logs.

The logs hold the plants in place as they take root and grow, eventually breaking down and leaving the established plants and sediment around them in place to stabilize the shoreline.

Coconut-based materials are being used around the world for erosion control projects.

One of them is in Boston, where Julia Hopkins, an assistant professor at Northeastern University, is using coconut fibers, wood chips and other material to create floating mats to blunt the force of waves, and encourage growth of aquatic vegetation. A pilot project has four such mats in waterways around Boston. Hopkins envisions a network of hundreds or even thousands of mats linked together to protect wider areas.

She’s pleased with what she’s seen so far.

“Coconut fiber is organic material, it’s relatively cheap and it’s a discard,” she said. “It’s actually recycling something that was going to be discarded.”

Two projects in East Providence, Rhode Island, used coconut logs in 2020, and 2,400 feet (731 meters) of shoreline in New York’s Jamaica Bay that were eroded during Superstorm Sandy were stabilized in 2021 by a project that also included coconut coir logs.

Cape Cod, Massachusetts, did a similar project last year, and the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control is offering funding to help landowners, homeowner associations and others install living shorelines made of materials that can include coconut fibers.

A project in Austin, Texas, stabilized part of the Lake Austin shoreline; monitoring from 2009 to 2014 showed decreased erosion and the healthy growth of native plants at the water’s edge.

Indonesia is the world’s largest coconut producer, with more than 17 million metric tons in 2021. Scientists from the Oceanography Program of Bandung Institute of Technology used coconut husk material to help build a sea wall in the Karangjaladri village of Pangandaran Regency in 2018.

Residents of Diogue Island in Senegal are using wooden structures and coconut fronds and sticks to reclaim eroded sections of beach.

It doesn’t always work, however.

In 2016, the Felix Neck Wildlife Refuge in Edgartown, Massachusetts, on Martha’s Vineyard installed it at the Sengekontacket Pond, where a salt marsh had eroded by several feet in previous years. While it did help reduce erosion for a while, the husks did not last long due to strong wave action.

“It got blown out multiple times,” said Suzan Bellincampi, the sanctuary’s director. “We had it in place for a few years and we decided not to reinstall it.

“The project was really interesting in terms of what we wanted to do and how we adapted it,” she said. “It’s not for every site; it has to be site-specific. It works in some places; it doesn’t work in all places.”

Similarly, coconut fiber mats and logs were used recently on Chapel Island in Nova Scotia, Canada, but they were damaged by bad weather.

Another Canadian site, Lac des Battures, a lake on Montreal’s Nuns’ Island, uses coconut mats to control the growth of invasive reeds along the shoreline.

At the New Jersey site, a few miles south of the musical hotbed of Asbury Park, trucked-in sand has joined with sediment accruing from the tides to create a beach that is noticeably wider than what used to be there.

“Underneath your feet right now are hibernating fiddler crabs,” said Capt. Al Modjeski, a restoration specialist with the Littoral Society. “They’ll be excited about this new habitat.”

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NEPTUNE - Resistance is good.

That's the message organizers hope to share at the township's annual Black History Month celebration.

Good Trouble: Black Resistance in Neptune and the Jersey Shore is the theme for the event, which runs from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday at the Michael T. Lake Performing Art Center, Neptune High School on Neptune Boulevard.

"There was resistance in Neptune. People don't think there was a whole lot of resistance down here, but there is," said Dianna Harris, chair of the Neptune Black History Month Planning Committee.

Following the legacy of civil rights icon John Lewis, encouraging all to “Speak Up, Speak Out, Get in the Way, Get in Good Trouble, Necessary Trouble,” the program booklet includes articles about Black resistance and the fights against slavery, segregation and discrimination. It also provides accounts of the 1969 Neptune High School sit-in and the 1970 Springwood Avenue Uprising.

"People have to understand what resistance is, and resistance is really just standing up and speaking out, but speaking out for positive change. Because there can be negative things that happen when you resist but what we want to emphasize is the positive changes that have come out of resistance," Harris said.

"You can't let it go. You have to stay on it until you get the results that you need in the community. That is the most important message .... is the fact that you can speak out. There are ways to speak out without being angry," Harris said.

The event will include videos featuring local residents, and performances by the award-winning a cappella group Scarlett Sounds, Asbury Park Technical Academy of Dance and students from Asbury Park Martin Luther King Jr. Upper Elementary School and Neptune Summerfield middle and high schools.

The keynote speaker is Newark Mayor Ras J. Baraka.

"I am sure he will bring history to the table that probably a lot of people in Neptune don't even know about," Harris said.

Charles Daye is the metro reporter for Asbury Park and Neptune, with a focus on diversity, equity and inclusion. @CharlesDayeAPP Contact him: CDaye@gannettnj.com

Two Neptune residents have been charged with animal cruelty after leaving their dog alone in the cold for several days over Christmas, according to the Monmouth County SPCA.

Iquan Carson and Shonquel Lindsey are charged with two counts, including animal cruelty and failing to provide necessary care, said the shelter's executive director, Ross Licitra.

Coco — a 10-year-old Rottweiler — was discovered by a good Samaritan on Dec. 28, four days after her owners left her at their Fisher Avenue apartment on Christmas Eve, Licitra said.

Licitra said they chained Coco with a four-foot leash to a pipe railing that left her sitting on the concrete without food, water or protection. When they brought her in, she was dehydrated, "extraordinarily frightened" and her eyes were sunken in from being exposed to extremely low temperatures.

"She was just beside herself," he said.

She would have had a better chance if her owners — who left the home because of a heating problem — had let her run free, according to Licitra.

"At leave she'd have been able to fend for herself to some degree," he said. "It gave her absolutely zero chance."

Now, Coco is staying at the shelter in Eatontown while she recovers and awaits an adoption, Licitra said.

Since taking over as the executive director in 2015, Licitra said they have pursued vigorously cases like these, seeing an overall decrease in animal cruelty across Monmouth County.

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"We've made it known to the public that we will absolutely, positively not tolerate any of this," he said. "None, whatsoever."

Jenna Calderón covers breaking news and cold cases in Monmouth and Ocean counties. Before coming to the Press, she covered The Queen City for Cincinnati Magazine in Ohio. Contact her at 330-590-3903; jcalderon@gannettnj.com