A baby girl plays with her Dora the Explorer doll while her mother, top, watches on Saturday, Aug. 12, at the township’s annual Unity Day celebration in Orange Avenue Park.
IRVINGTON, NJ — Mayor Tony Vauss and the township of Irvington celebrated Unity Day with free concerts, free food and drinks and fun for residents of all ages in Orange Avenue Park on Saturday, Aug. 12.
Singer Melba Moore headlined the event, which also featured performance by members of the legendary Classic R&B singing groups the Delfonics, Blue Magic, and Ray Goodman and Brown while DJ Qua and his son, DJ Taj, rocked the crowds of all ages. House music legend Aly-us closed out the concert with a mix of dance music and hip hop.
“Not one, not two, not three, but four bouncy houses and it ain’t raining today,” Irvington Recreation and Cultural Affairs Director Donald Malloy said at the event.
Malloy is also a renowned gospel music singer who performed with Joe Branch of the Delfonics at the event.
“It’s something to be very proud of. We got some of the oldie, oldie cats up here. That real music they were talking about. When you think about people like Melba Moore, she just rocked us on off the stage man.”
Malloy credited the spirit of unity and teamwork, saying they are hallmarks of the Vauss administration.
“Nobody ever can say that the mayor is not doing anything good for this town,” Malloy said Aug. 13. “The mayor always preaches ‘teamwork, teamwork, teamwork’ and when you bring a team and unite and come together and everybody is of the like mind and on the same page and then you get 150 to 200 percent support from the top leadership in our township … man, you can’t ask for anything better.”
Vauss gave credit for the Unity Day celebration to Malloy and all the other municipal employees who worked together to make it a success. He said he was glad they didn’t get rained out despite rainy weather forecast.
“It’s a great event today. I want to give kudos to Donald Malloy, our director of recreation; every year he puts his heart and soul in this event and we’re just really proud to have this for our community and preach unity and lead by example in the community each and every year,” said Vauss on Aug. 13. “So it was a tremendous event today. The weather couldn’t stop us here in Irvington, N.J., so I’m just happy that we were able to have this.”
Ben Frederic, the son of Councilwoman Charnette Frederic, said he was happy to be at the Unity Day event.
“So far Unity Day is very fun,” he said Aug. 13. “We have a whole lot of kids around here. Everybody’s playing in the bouncy houses, we have the pool that’s open for free, we have adults down there they’re listening to their music all having fun. It’s a very good event. I think that we should start doing even more of these things.”
Frederic said Unity Day is always the perfect way to end the summer and Vauss agreed.
“It’s just a great day for Irvington. All of our performers did a wonderful job. Our volunteers here, our police staff, fire; everyone that was here did a wonderful job and it looks we’re just going to get bigger and better every year. That’s what it’s about.”
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