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Community Corner

Mt. Olive is Awesome

The Become Awesome Foundation is a non-profit organization founded and run by the D’Amico-Novaky families in memory of Nick Novaky and in celebration of all young lives.  The Foundation’s mission is to promote the self-confidence to cope with hardship as well as social consciousness and tolerance among our region’s youth and young adults.  We have been a presence at the Mt. Olive Baseball Memorial Weekend Tournament and our town’s carnival.  The “Nick, This is Your Mother Speaking” blog provides an inspirational and, hopefully, thought provoking monologue about life and living.  We hosted an intergenerational party in December, 2012 at the Budd Lake Firehouse.  Finally, we presented The Soaring Hawk Award, the Foundation’s cash award, to the Mt. Olive High School graduating senior who has demonstrated behaviors in concert with our mission statement.  Adriana Morales won the award for the 2012-2013 academic year.

The Become Awesome Foundation is now proud to announce that our next project has obtained approval from the Mt. Olive Township Council and Administration and is now underway.  The Township is graciously allowing us to use a prominent section of Turkey Brook Park, located to the right of the dog park, to build a Garden of Memory and Reflection.  There, Mt. Olive residents who lost their lives before their 30th birthday will be celebrated with plaques and stones that identify these individuals, their lives and contributions.  It is planned that the garden will include perennial flowering plants and bushes, garden benches, engraved stepping stones, a rain barrel, and a potting shed.  The Foundation is currently researching historical documents, dating back to the Township’s incorporation in the late 1800s, in order to capture those young lives that were lost in our Township’s past.  The first phase of the project will convene in coming weeks when we will join with other volunteers to plant deer-resistant bulbs for spring growth.  We expect that we will need a substantial fundraising effort  to support the entire garden plan.  This spring we will continue additional plantings.

If anyone is interested in volunteering with research, gardening, or fund raising, please contact us via our website at:

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become-awesome.org.

I and the entire Board of Trustees would like to thank the Mt. Olive Township Council and Administration as well as the residents of our incredibly supportive town as we continue to celebrate life.

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Dr. Denise D’Amico Novaky

Budd Lake

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