East Orange Mayor Lester Taylor, second from left, and First Lady Bibi Taylor, center right, stand with East Orange General Hospital Chief Executive Officer Otis Story, second from right, a member of the Shauger Group developers, right, and another corporate partner and sponsor, left, on Monday, June 19, during the LT3 Foundation Scholarship Awards Ceremony and Charity Golf Fundraiser at the new and improved East Orange Golf Course and Par 440 clubhouse in Millburn, near Short Hills Mall. The Shauger Group and East Orange General Hospital were two of the event’s sponsors.
EAST ORANGE, NJ — East Orange Mayor Lester Taylor and members of East Orange City Council, including mayoral candidate Ted Green, welcomed the public to the East Orange Golf Course grand reopening ceremony and celebration, inside the new, state-of-the-art Par 440 fieldhouse on Friday, July 7, at the facility located just off highway Route 78, near the Short Hills Mall in Millburn.
Prior to that event, Taylor and his wife, Bibi, hosted the third annual Lester Taylor III Foundation Scholarship Awards and Charity Golf Fundraiser on Monday, June 19, at the new and improved city-owned golf course, described as the jewel in the crown of East Orange’s assets, although it’s not located in the city proper. The LT3 Foundation, founded by the Taylors founded in 2015, is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization committed to providing scholarship opportunities that foster civic engagement, leadership, responsibility and pride among East Orange youth.
Bibi, herself a product of the East Orange public schools, formerly served as the president of the East Orange Board of Education and is currently president of the Essex County College Board of Trustees. She said the focus of the foundation is to provide financial support, through grants and programs, to enhance the lives of the residents of East Orange. The scholarships are awarded annually to students planning to pursue higher education at Essex County College.
The LT3 Foundation raised more than $60,000 in December 2015 at its first LT3 Scholarship Breakfast Fundraiser at the Galloping Hills Golf Course in Union Township, and followed that up by raising $60,000 in 2016 at its second Breakfast Fundraiser at the same venue.
This year, the Taylors found a suitable venue for their annual foundation event at the East Orange Golf Course in Millburn.
“This just in: With a very, very affordable price of $175 per golfer — because this is a public course and we wanted to keep it reasonable — we raised over $55,000 today. Thank you all on behalf of Bibi and myself. We can’t thank you enough for coming out today,” Lester Taylor said Monday, June 19.
The mayor went on to thank the city’s new business partner, Mario LaVecchia, who co-owns and operates the Par 440 clubhouse at the East Orange Golf Course.
“I want to thank Mario LaVecchia from Above Restaurant and Bar in South Orange, who is now the proprietor at Par 440,” said Taylor. “We just got our certificate of occupancy on Friday, so it’s not fully opened yet. But this is an example of what government can do, when you have aggressive leadership, competent leadership, working with the private sector and the nonprofit and public sector. We have a golf course you all played on that I hope and trust that you had a pleasurable experience out there.”
Taylor said the charity and awards event was “the first golf outing at the new and improved East Orange Golf Course.”
“The LT3 Foundation, quite frankly, wanted to put our money where our mouth is and support this asset, which is so important to the future of the city of East Orange,” Taylor said of the golf course. “We have invested over $3.5 million in the golf course, $4 million here; this is something that we’re so proud of and we’re just very happy that LT3 Foundation can inaugurate and open and christen this asset right here and we welcome you all here. We hope you all come back and spend your time on the golf course.”
Robert LaVecchia, one of the co-managers and co-owners of Par 440, said he just hopes people from across Essex County will come to the new facilities, saying it is a worthwhile destination.
“I’m just glad to have this opportunity to partner up with East Orange and bring a massive, beautiful venue to the city of East Orange, and Essex County in general, and I’m looking forward to things to come and this great partnership we have with the city of East Orange,” said Robert Lavecchia on Friday, July 7, at the grand reopening celebration. “I think tonight’s reopening went fantastic. Everybody got to see the facility and I hope that everybody that was here will come back again and see what it looks like, during the day and on a regular night that we don’t have it set up for a big venue like this. This is for everybody — the people of East Orange, the people of this area; it’s just for everybody.”
Robert LaVecchia said the new clubhouse features food that is “one-stop shopping,” and suggested people “come in and enjoy what East Orange has to bring.”
“You can get whatever you want — appetizers, Spanish food, Italian food, American style food, a burger, pizza; everything,” he said. “The drinks, we’re going to have a high-quality drink for low cost, nothing crazy. We’re going to have happy hour. We’re going to have live entertainment Thursday, Friday, Saturday. We’ll have Sunday brunch. We obviously have the patio. We have an outdoor bar. We have an amazing atmosphere and I honestly don’t think there’s anything like this anywhere in New Jersey. Just like the mayor said: This is truly a destination and there’s no other place like this.”
Robert LaVecchia also said the Par 440 clubhouse has “TVs everywhere for sporting events.”
“Come catch the game on Sundays when football season comes,” he said. “We have great bartenders, friendly people, so we’re just hoping that everybody comes here — people from East Orange, people from Short Hills, people from South Orange, Livingston, Chatham, everywhere.”
East Orange resident Mark Cheatham said Friday, July 7, that one thing in particular sets the new golf course and Par 440 clubhouse apart from the competition: “All of us from East Orange are VIPs. This is our golf course.”
Scholarship event hosted prior to EO golf course’s grand opening added by Chris Sykes on
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