Trenton365
CARE Trenton
Elissa Horan
It was a hot day in the
summer 2011 as a team of volunteers worked to cleanout the “manse” of the
Bethany Presbyterian Church. This
facility would become the Bethany House of Hospitality. On that day I met Elissa Horan.
Elissa whose family owns and
operated the Horan Funeral Home a block away on Hamilton Ave. for many decades
saw some activity in the neighborhood and came over.
It was a typical hot NJ summer day with heat
and humidity forcing even the coolest of people to leave puddles while standing
still let alone doing manual labor. In
between my demolition of the kitchen I was checking on the volunteers and met
Elissa.
Later that day we met with
others at Trenton Social for lunch and the friendship took off.
During the lunch we shared
our backgrounds, thoughts on Trenton, projects and visions. At that point we knew we were kindred
spirits.
Since that initial meeting
and chat over food we have partnered on several projects all with bettering
Trenton in mind. Elissa created the
organization CARE Trenton. The focus of
the org is to cleanup, beautify and to make Trenton better. This began when Elissa started cleaning
around the outside of her home and the home she grew up in by picking up litter
and organizing trash for pickup. This
progressed to cleaning around the block and soon other residents were getting
involved.
CARE Trenton would then grow
to organizing cleanups around the city with a simple idea that having clean,
litter free streets would benefit everyone.
Since the vision is to make Trenton better for everyone, CARE Trenton
has partnered with several other groups who have the same vision. In the 2+ years I have known Elissa, CARE
Trenton has organized cleanups at Columbus Park, Hamilton Ave, Roebling
Wireworks, Franklin Park, Roma Bank Triangle, Sacred Heart Triangle and Villa
Park. Partnering organizations have
included TCCA-Trenton Council of Civic Associations, Villa Park Civic
Association, Chambersburg Civic Association, Old Mill Hill Society, Berkley
Square Civic Association, FPNEBA-Franklin Parks NE Block Association, 1st
Baptist Church of Trenton, Home Depot, Wal-Mart, TCNJ-The College of New Jersey
Bonner Center, several local small businesses and many others.
 |
| l-r Carol Rogers, Jim Halliday, Robin Erfe, Gabrielle from Social, me and Elissa Horan |
In the spring of 2013 a
resolution was presented to Trenton City Council by Councilwoman Verlina
Reynolds-Jackson to recognized CARE Trenton as an official organization whose
focus is to make Trenton cleaner, safer and more beautiful for everyone.
As the vision of CARE Trenton
is seen by others you can expect more collaboration and partnering all with
making the City of Trenton Better!
