Photo by Chris Sykes
South Ward Councilwoman Sandy Jones stands with Omar Bilal, the most worshipful master of the Garden State Grand Lodge of Freemasons on Sanford Avenue, on Saturday, Sept. 5, at West Ward Councilman Vern Cox’s first annual West Ward Community Festival. Earlier that day, Jones and Bilal, who are also members of Friends of Irvington Park, participated in a Back-to-School Backpack and School Supplies Giveaway that his lodge brothers and their Eastern Star sister organization organized. He said they gave away 250 backpacks filled with school supplies.
IRVINGTON, NJ — South Ward Councilwoman Sandy Jones joined forces with the freemasons of the Garden State Grand Lodge on Sanford Avenue to host a Back-to-School Backpack and School Supplies Giveaway on Saturday, Sept. 5.
Afterward, Jones and Omar Bilal Beasley, the most worshipful master of Garden State Grand Lodge participated in the first West Ward Community Festival at Chancellor Avenue School, and event organized by West Ward Councilman Vern Cox.
“We had a book-bag giveaway today and then we came up here to support Vern, so I’m here,” Jones said Saturday, Sept. 5.
Jones said she was not quite sure how many book bags filled with school supplies were given away, but she knows it was a sizable amount. She also said she was glad the new school year was set to begin on Wednesday, Sept. 9.
“I don’t have any grandkids, but I’m glad they’re going back to school, because hopefully they can do something while they’re in school, because being out here in the summer is scary,” Jones said. “We had three shootings (near) me this summer — Gray Street; then we had one on Graves and Nye Avenue, and the kid got killed on Grove Street. It’s very sad because this kid on Grove Street was involved in a project with the county and he graduated and, when they gave his mother his diploma, he was dead.”
Beasley agreed with Jones that the situation was a sad one, and said the only way to counteract such tragic events is to do more positive activities in local communities.
“It was a collaborative effort between the Most Worshipful Garden State Grand Lodge and the Grand Chapter of the Garden of Paradise Order of Eastern Stars, along with the Friends of Irvington Park, and we had a book bag giveaway,” Beasley said Saturday, Sept. 5.
“My motto is that it takes a village in order to teach a child and raise a child, and we need to get our kids prepared and give them the tools that they need to start the school year off correct. Every year, me and Sandy, we come and we raise money for book bags, school supplies and we get with other organizations to make this thing great.”
According to Beasley, the giveaway was a huge success.
“We gave away almost 250 book bags, school supplies, we had hot dogs, we had a DJ and, not only that, but last Saturday I got with one of my subordinate lodges — the Widow’s Sons up at there at the Grand Lodge — and we were able to give away almost 100 book bags and school supplies to needy children down at the YMCA in Newark. They do it every year, but every year, it gets bigger and bigger.”
Beasley said the proliferation of back-to-school giveaways similar to those he and Jones went to on Saturday, Sept. 5, is proof that there is “a need and an urge to do right in our community.”
“It’s a testament to what it is that we need to do to prepare our kids,” Beasley said. “Up in upper Jersey and other suburbs, their kids have those supplies; they have those tools in order to excel — the pencils, pens, erasers. We just need to prepare our kids.”
Beasley, the son of former Essex County Freeholder and Irvington Municipal Council President D. Beasley, who is deceased, said his father had instilled the value of community in him and his siblings.
“We try to make things better for those who come after us,” Beasley said. “We’ve got a lot of things coming up. We’re going to do the toy giveaway and something for the seniors. My father always told me it has to start at home, then once you finish at home, you take it outside the home. And that’s what the community is for me — it’s home. My father spent 50 years of his life doing it, so it’s proper that me and my brothers continue that legacy.”