A year ago I found myself in the CHEER office for the first and, as a result of the pandemic, only time thus far. I had filled out an application online to volunteer. I was in the office for a meeting. This was essentially an interview. Bruce Baker (CHEER’s Executive Director), Ray Nosbaum (now CHEER’s Operations Coordinator) and former CHEER staffer Lisa Middleton were in attendance. We had a pleasant, thoughtful conversation and at the end I was told that we could be in tou

I recently caught up with Vanesa Pinto; she started working at CHEER in 2014. Our exchange, which has been edited, is below. How has the pandemic affected your work with CHEER? The main impact has been in the workload that I have now. This is directly related with the difficult and even dramatic situation of many more community members in Long Branch. The hard living circumstances are in many cases, much more difficult now. Therefore, we had to extend our help to many more pe

By Anthea Levy This fall, CHEER partnered with Holy Cross Hospital and offered the “Road to Health” fitness and nutrition class to residents of the Maple Avenue Ethiopian community as part of the Maple Tree Group. We adapted class presentations to a Zoom format, and fifteen women participants successfully tuned in to our weekly sessions. Our class members started with varying levels of knowledge. They were all very interested in creating healthier lifestyles for themselves an

Vaccines. Hope. Happiness. Potential. My dear parents are getting vaccinated in Dallas in a few days and I could not be more excited. And, if you had told me ten months ago that there would be several really good vaccines in the works, I’m not sure I would have believed you. After all, there was never a guarantee that we’d ever have even one viable vaccine, in the U.S. or anywhere. So, there are reasons to be optimistic. There’s no question about that. And, thinking more abou

I recently got in touch with Mary Jacksteit, the President of CHEER’s board. Our conversation, which has been edited lightly, is below. When and why did you join CHEER’s board? I joined the CHEER board about 10 years ago after [CHEER’s Executive Director] Bruce [Baker] visited the Takoma Park Presbyterian Church and told our pastor he wanted to let us know about CHEER and welcome any involvement. My professional work for many years had included helping community-level efforts

I recently reached out to Kathy Porter, a member of CHEER’s board. Our exchange, which has been edited lightly, is below. When and why did you join CHEER’s board? I was one of the first members of CHEER's board; in fact, I was one of the people who signed the incorporation papers before CHEER was formed. So, I have been here since the beginning. I have known Bruce Baker [CHEER’s Executive Director] for years and was very interested in his ideas for CHEER, which is probably wh