Arts & Entertainment
2012 Mendies Bring Out Current and Former Town Luminaries
The 2012 Mendies celebrated the community of Mendham, both Township and Borough.
With all of the talk of consolidation and shared services throughout the region, the 2012 Mendies left behind the mechanics of Township and Borough and focused on the united community of Mendham.
The Fourth Annual Mendies, the awards celebration of the Mendhams, filled St. Joseph's Hall on the campus of the off Hilltop Road in Mendham Borough on March 9 with residents, award winners and their loved ones.
At council and committee meetings before the event, both Borough Mayor Neil Henry and Township Mayor Sam Tolley urged members of the community to come out and support the event.
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"It is a nice night and it is good to be with people in a setting like this," Tolley said at the last Township committee meeting. "Everyone is together for a nice reason."
For his part, Henry was looking forward to honoring a predecessor.
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"Former mayor Mike Ackerman is being inducted into the hall of fame and I think it would be great if we were there," Henry said at one of his Borough meetings. "He did a lot to better the community."
Sponsored by the Mendham TV, the Mendies were created to recognize the best of the Mendhams and bring residents of Mendham Township and Mendham Borough together for a night of local celebration. The evening had a silent auction along with food and drinks and dancing.
But the highlight of the evening were the programming awards and hall of fame inductions.
State Senator Anthony Bucco (R-25) was on hand to congratulate hall of inductees Gary Quam, former Mendham High music and band director, Mike Ackerman, former Mayor of Mendham Boro, Pat Maynard, long time Mendham Township community contributor and Brian Phelan, former Mendham Township Committeeman and community contributor.
Daryl Brewster was the master of ceremonies for the event, and helped hand out awards to Dan Kelly, Mendham Boy's Basketball statistician, for Best Sports programming and Karen Bailey, who accepted a Mendie for the program Knitting With Karen.
Mendham TV board member Mike Monahan also handed out the Chairman's Award to Bob Cleary. Cleary is known for his Kronos Projects which he produced, directed and edited. Kronos features long videos of various events such as Mendham Borough Centennial, Phoenix House Garden Reconstruction & History Series, Mendham Labor Day Events, Pastime Club Circuses and the Veterans Video Series.
