IRVINGTON, NJ — South Ward Councilwoman Sandra Jones and Omar Bilal Beasley decided to join forces with Steve Harris and the Irvington Coalition for Empowerment to take a group of children from Irvington, Newark and Jersey City skating at the Floyd Hall Arena Ice Skating Rink on Monday, Jan. 16.
Jones and Beasley are both members of the Friends of Irvington Park group and Beasley also carries on the family tradition of public service that his father, former Municipal Council President and Essex County Freeholder D. Bilal Beasley, began many years ago.
The Friends of Irvington Park’s annual Holiday Toy Drive and Gift Giveaway in December was the second free community event Beasley was involved with last year; it was organized shortly after hosting the annual pre-Thanksgiving Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Giveaway. And those events led up to the recent skating outing.
“It’s all about the kids and showing them that there is more than what they see of a corner and on the news,” said Beasley on Monday, Jan. 16. “Our children need to be exposed to more than the neighborhood.”
Jones agreed, saying the skating trip was great for her, too, since it took her back to her childhood growing in Brooklyn, when she used to go on family outings to the local skating rink.
“On Monday, Jan. 16, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, we’re taking about 15 to 20 kids to Montclair State University to skate,” Jones said Monday, Jan. 16. “A young man that lives here in Irvington, Steven Harris, he owns a limousine company, so he will be taking the children. He is a former resident of Jersey City, so he will be taking some kids from Jersey City. Then we have another young man, Frank Lucas, who’s doing some work over at the Gatling Center, and he’s going to be taking some children from Newark.”
Jones said she doesn’t know why more urban black and minority children don’t engage in activities and sports such as swimming and ice skating, but that’s going to change, if she has anything to say about it.
“This is a mission to get our kids introduced to things that they have not tried,” Jones said Sunday, Jan. 15, at the township’s Martin Luther King Jr. Commemorative Committee’s 32nd annual Legacy of a Dream event in the Irvington High School Auditorium. “Ice skating is something that black kids don’t do, like swimming.”
Jones said she swam from the age of 6 to 17, because she was a counselor in upstate New York and also skated with her family on Friday nights in Brooklyn.
“This is something that we need to introduce to our community,” Jones said.
About the Author
