County recognizes Bloomfield Councilwoman Mundell

The Essex County Board of County Commissioners celebrated Women’s History Month by recognizing the Women’s Club of Glen Ridge and three women including Bloomfield Councilwoman Jenny Mundell.

The ceremony was Wednesday evening, March 13, and held at the club. The emcee was Carlos Pomares, the county commissioners’ president and a Bloomfield resident. About 80 people attended.

“This is a pretty nice place,” he said in his welcoming remarks, surveying the ballroom. “We should come here more often.”

The opening prayer was offered by the Rev. Anya Sammler-Michael of the Unitarian Universalist Congregation, in Montclair. She evoked women’s rights and asked: Why are we gathered here?

“Because we cannot make it alone,” she answered. “Ask God to bind people together to attain the equity women have never had.”

Mundell is a vice-president of development with RWJBarnabus Health. As a council member, she initiated the CARES unit of the Bloomfield Police Department, which created a response team linking the BPD with the township’s human services division, the Bloomfield Community Farmers Market and secured funding for the Bloomfield Children’s Library, among other accomplishments. Accepting the award, she said the work is never done by one group, but everyone at the table. She thanked the two Bloomfield councilwomen who were in attendance, Sarah Cruz and Monica Tabares, and Morales and Venezia for “cheering me on.”

“The people about whom we are making the decisions must be heard,” Mundell said. Partnerships in families don’t necessarily go along gender lines, she followed.

“The work of families is the work we all do,” she continued. “This is an important lesson for our daughter and sons.

The other honorees were Leslie Ingram Lewis, a certified fitness instructor and the owner/operator of Mind Body Spirit, Personal Training, in Bloomfield; and Millburn Mayor Annette Romano.

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