{"id":32682,"date":"2024-02-05T15:05:18","date_gmt":"2024-02-05T15:05:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.localmedianj.com\/?p=32682"},"modified":"2024-02-05T15:05:18","modified_gmt":"2024-02-05T15:05:18","slug":"chasing-good-raises-awareness-on-deserving-deed-doers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.localmedianj.com\/?p=32682","title":{"rendered":"Chasing Good Raises Awareness on Deserving Deed-Doers"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Caroline Cleaveland<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Chasing Good,\u00a0the New Jersey nonprofit that awards a monetary prize to deserving deed-doers, has just completed its second year of rewarding good deeds!\u00a0\u00a0Chasing Good\u00a0is a family-run, local organization that strives to ensure that no good deed goes unnoticed.\u00a0 Although it may seem hard to find,\u00a0Chasing Good\u00a0is a nonprofit organization here to teach the world that good is rampant in humanity. Nominate someone in the future at www.chasinggood.org.<\/em><\/p>\n

The 2023 Winners<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Carolyn Daurio came in first place for the award, winning one thousand dollars.\u00a0 Carolyn has devoted an abundance of time to Refugee Assistance Partners New Jersey (RAP), which is a 501 (c) (3) nonprofit that provides support for refugees beginning to resettle in or around Union County.\u00a0 RAP assists refugees with essential needs such as housing, school, medical issues, and jobs.\u00a0 Carolyn has volunteered for RAP for the past seven years and has made a huge difference in the lives of various refugee families.\u00a0 She has worked to help refugees from Congo, Sudan, and Afghanistan overcome a myriad of obstacles and gain self-sufficiency.\u00a0 Carolyn has also assisted in transportation for RAP numerous times.\u00a0 \u201cDuring the darkest days of the COVID pandemic, Carolyn was one of the faithful cadre of drivers delivering hot meals, paper products, and other necessities to refugee families facing a sudden loss of income and isolation,\u201d says Lois Whitehead, Carolyn\u2019s nominator.\u00a0 Carolyn is now a member of the RAP Advisory Committee and aids the organization in improving its ability to meet the needs of the refugee community.\u00a0 Carolyn is more than deserving of the Chasing Good Award as compensation for all her hard work in helping society.\u00a0 More information about RAP can be found at\u00a0https:\/\/www.refugeeassistancepartnersnj.org\/. Congratulations Carolyn!<\/p>\n

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Chasing Good\u2019s second place winner was Sandra (Sandy) Powers, who earned seven hundred and fifty dollars for her work with the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) of Union County.\u00a0 Sandy created two special social events: the NAMI Holiday Star Party and the Summer Pizza Party, both of which were designed to bring joy to adults in Union County with a mental health diagnosis.\u00a0 The December holiday party consisted of music, a sing-along, and gift bags with toiletries, clothing, and Sandy\u2019s homemade cookies.\u00a0 This was the only holiday celebration that some participants experienced.\u00a0 The annual Summer Pizza Party provides gifts, prizes, pizza, soda, snacks, and more of Sandy\u2019s famous cookies.\u00a0 Joann Mehalick, the 2022 first place winner and Sandy\u2019s nominator, describes her as having \u201chumility, compassion, and nonstop energy that would rival the Energizer bunny\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0Chasing Good\u00a0is happy to award the second place prize to Sandy: someone who, according to Joann, has been \u201cchasing good for all of her life\u201d.\u00a0 More information about NAMI can be found at\u00a0https:\/\/namiunioncountynj.org.<\/p>\n

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The third place winner, earning five hundred dollars, was an organization called Imagine, a Center for Coping with Loss.\u00a0 In 2012, Imagine began offering grief support to families of all ages. Imagine provides opportunities for families who experienced a loss to meet with others on a biweekly basis. Imagine embraces people with open arms and centers around the principle that those who grieve are not alone.\u00a0 In children, Imagine\u2019s services have proven to boost the grades, mental health, and coping skills of participants.\u00a0 Facilitators who assist in grief counseling are not exempt from the benefits of Imagine\u2019s community.\u00a0 Some find it life-changing to know that they are helping people through the arguably most difficult aspect of life. Furthermore, Imagine\u2019s grief education trains thousands of people in how to support someone who is going through any type of loss.\u00a0 Nominator Connie Palmer urges society to \u201cImagine a world where we can talk openly about grief, get the support we need; a world where we will all be better off\u201d.\u00a0 Imagine\u2019s tremendous work of restoring hope has earned our third place Chasing Good Award! Executive Director Lindsay Schambach is a passionate presence at Imagine. As she wholeheartedly believes in its mission, she accepts this award on Imagine\u2019s behalf. For more information on Imagine, a Center for Coping with Loss, visit\u00a0https:\/\/imaginenj.org.<\/p>\n

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Last but absolutely not least, the one hundred dollar Honorable Mention was awarded to Gianna Puglisi, a high school senior who was able to help many people by providing shopping carts that assist people at food pantries to transport the food home.\u00a0 When Gianna\u2019s St. Helen\u2019s Youth Group volunteered at St. Joseph Social Service Center in Elizabeth, she noticed that a large portion of the people coming for food could not take everything offered because there was simply no way to carry it all. When Gianna made this observation, watermelons were given out and she watched as many hungry people refused the heavy fruit.\u00a0 After a second trip to St. Joseph\u2019s, Gianna noticed this issue once again, and decided to ask the St. Helen\u2019s Youth Minister about fundraising to provide shopping carts to the community serviced by the food pantry.\u00a0 Corey Wu-Jung, St. Joseph\u2019s employee and Gianna\u2019s nominator, said that Gianna \u201cenlisted the help of the [Westfield High School] Community Service Group to assist with raising funds\u201d, as well as the St. Helen\u2019s parish community.\u00a0 Gianna makes it clear that an abundance of good exists in younger generations.\u00a0 Information on St. Josephs can be found at www.sjeliz.org and also check out Gianna\u2019s narrated video that thanks the St. Helen\u2019s Community for their support in this project:\u00a0https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=reeec7r0bkU<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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By Caroline Cleaveland Chasing Good,\u00a0the New Jersey nonprofit that awards a monetary prize to deserving deed-doers, has just completed its second year of rewarding good deeds!\u00a0\u00a0Chasing Good\u00a0is a family-run, local organization that strives to ensure that no good deed goes unnoticed.\u00a0 Although it may seem hard to find,\u00a0Chasing Good\u00a0is a nonprofit organization here to teach […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":32688,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[151],"tags":[],"post_flags":[],"class_list":["post-32682","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-westfield-local"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.localmedianj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32682","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.localmedianj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.localmedianj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.localmedianj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.localmedianj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=32682"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.localmedianj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32682\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32689,"href":"https:\/\/www.localmedianj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32682\/revisions\/32689"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.localmedianj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/32688"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.localmedianj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=32682"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.localmedianj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=32682"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.localmedianj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=32682"},{"taxonomy":"post_flag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.localmedianj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fpost_flags&post=32682"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}