Master Sgt. Minnie Hiller-Cousins remembers the Iraqi desert combat and the trauma that took her hair.
She also remembers feeling reassured, knowing that the Teaneck Armory provides counseling services and a food pantry to her family.
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staff photo by sophia gonzalez
Interact Club members scoop pasta and salad at the Rotary Club’s pasta fundraiser.
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"I would think, ‘Thank god they’re people looking after my family.’"
The Rotary Club of Cresskill-Demarest knows what the Family Assistance Center at the Teaneck Armory means to soldiers like Hiller-Cousin.
Organizing a March 27 pasta dinner, the club raised more than $5,000 to benefit the families of the National Guard soldiers stationed at the Teaneck Armory.
The event coincided with a shipment a day later of National Guard soldiers from the Teaneck Armory for training in Pennsylvania and Texas. It is reportedly the largest deployment of more than 3,400 New Jersey soldiers since World War II.
About 1,500 of these soldiers are housed at the Teaneck Armory, where the Family Assistance Center there provides services to the soldiers and their 500 families.
"These [soldiers] are pulled from their civilian jobs to serve for extended periods in Iraq and Afghanistan," said J.M. Rodriguez, Rotary Club chapter’s secretary. "These National Guard servicemen and woman and their families are making an enormous sacrifice for their country."
Rotary Club chapter President Francis Conover said that raising funds for the Family Assistance Center is an ongoing club effort started almost two years ago. "It’s helping families and it goes beyond politics," he said.
Several club members learned of the drastic need for supplies and financial support from a meeting with Family Assistance Center Coordinator Hiller-Cousins. The food pantry, she said, is the only pantry available to soldiers in all Northern New Jersey.
The Rotary Club is comprised of 19 business professionals who devote their time to service projects. They fund local scholarships and donate money to non-profit groups such as Alliance for Smiles, said Conover.
Members of the high school Interact Club scooped lasagna onto an estimated 250 plates from those who attended the dinner at the high school cafeteria. Others placed their raffle tickets in baskets next to the prizes: a gourmet basket with pitted olives, a massage gift certificate at Palisades Rehab and a L’Occitane Soap Gift Box, among other wins.
But the few thousand dollars values little when compared to the ongoing service provided by the National Guard soldiers, added Rodriguez.
"[It’s] seeing to it that our community are aware that there [are] people making sacrifices for them," he said.
E-mail: gonzalezso@northjersey.com or call 201-894-6711
