Maddy Connolly of North Beach Ventnor is the recipient of this year's North Beach Ventnor Residents Association scholarship.
VENTNOR The North Beach Residents Association held its annual Meet & Greet Saturday, June 10 at La Serina Mermaid at the 5000 Boardwalk high-rise complex.
The association holds the event to bring residents of the North Beach area together for a night of camaraderie and to present its annual college scholarship and Citizen of the Year awards.
Maddy Connolly of the North Beach area was selected to receive a $2,000 college scholarship, which will be split over two years of her time at Stockton University, where she will study literature.
The organization awards a scholarship to a deserving North Beach student who attends Stockton, Atlantic Cape Community College or Atlantic County Institute of Technology. The student must live in North Beach, which includes the area between Jackson and Surrey avenues, from the beach to the bay. It was the fourth year the group awarded the scholarship.
Jenna Weinerman was named Citizen of the Year for her work volunteering to create a new website for the group, which will go live on the web soon. North Beach Ventnor Co-chair Stacey Jaskol said the existing website had served its purpose but the new website will offer a better way to communicate with the neighborhood, sell tickets to events and move North Beach merchandise.
Co-Chair Richard Gober spoke of the benefits of joining the North Beach group, which includes 10% discounts at area merchants.
Also present was newly appointed Commissioner Maria Mento, who will be running in the November election to retain the seat she filled when former Mayor Beth Holtzman resigned. Mento said she plans to run in the next regular nonpartisan election in May 2024.
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Guest speaker was Nanette LoBiondo Galloway who spoke about the interesting people she has met over her 25-year career as a journalist, the last 10 of them covering the Downbeach area. She mentioned meeting all the brilliant and beautiful local Miss New Jersey candidates, Holocaust survivor Betty Grebenschikoff of Ventnor, who was forced to leave Berlin and live in the Shanghai Getto, and Gen. Charles McGee, one of the last surviving Tuskeegee Airmen.
Galloway also spoke about her earlier careers, which included fundraising for the American Cancer Society, being a day-oner at Resorts International Hotel & Casino, and managing a real estate office in Absecon.
