EAST ORANGE, NJ — The East Orange Tree Lighting and Toy Giveaway, featuring the Cicely Tyson Elementary School Choir and the Children of Purpose of Messiah Baptist Church, will be Friday, Dec. 9, from 5 to 7 p.m. at East Orange City Hall, 44 City Hall Plaza, East Orange.
“We welcome all families and all friends, all residents in the city to come and participate in our annual Tree Lighting and Toy Giveaway,” Recreation Department Director Osner Charles said Thursday, Nov. 24, at the Thanksgiving Luncheon at the Fellowship Civic Center.
“It’s going to be a concert like it is every year and, as you know, we do it bigger and better every year, so I would encourage all of the families to come out.”
Mayor Lester Taylor said the annual Tree Lighting has grown into a signature event to showcase his administration’s twin goals of achieving urban excellence and transforming East Orange into a destination city.
“I am always excited to kick off the holiday season with our annual Tree Lighting and Toy Giveaway,” Taylor said Tuesday, Dec. 6. “This event is a wonderful opportunity for our entire East Orange family to come together and enjoy the blessings of 2016 and recharge our spirit for the new year ahead.”
“Urban excellence is a lifestyle for us,” Charles said Sunday, Nov. 20. “You have a lot of organizations that have vision statements, who have mission statements, but the truth of the matter is they don’t live it. This is a lifestyle. This is something that we live and breathe here in this administration. Urban excellence is not just a motto that we throw around; it’s actually a lifestyle that we live every single day. Every day, when we get up and gear up for work, that’s that mission — to do something excellent. Not good; not alright; not subpar — but to do something excellent.”
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