May 31, 2024| Community, Events, People
By: Caitlin Doran
Please join us on Thursday, June 13, at 6:30 pm at the Lake Hopatcong Foundation, 125 Landing Road, Landing, NJ, for a very special annual meeting, where we will recognize the contributions of Lee Moreau, Beth BaRoss, and Barb Kraus!
Lee, Beth, Barb – I’m sorry. You are three of the humblest people I know, refusing to take nearly as much credit as you deserve and always dodging the spotlight. And you were given no advanced warning of this blog, in part because I knew you might protest, but mostly because it’s hard to capture all that you are and all that you’ve done for our lake and this community.
For those who don’t know Lee Moreau, Beth BaRoss, or Barb Kraus, allow me to introduce them to you! They are the trio that carefully plans and executes our ever-growing, ever-improving Lake Hopatcong Block Party, which has connected our community each Spring, for 11 years. Well, except those pesky nor’easter and global pandemic years, which only served as more evidence that this trio is capable, flexible, nimble, and resilient.
It was at the peak of Block Party planning, in March of 2020, that I was brought on to help with fundraising and events, and first met this team of superhumans. They were kind, welcoming, and already hard at work turning a large ship in a 180 direction. There would be no Block Party that spring. Instead, the event and its multitude of moving pieces would be carefully and expertly moved to a new home in the fall of 2021.
Only this team could communicate with and coordinate 200 vendors, 40-some-odd sponsors, 150 volunteers, and a bunch of free entertainment and activities – many times personally – to have an event take place at a totally different time of year, under strange circumstances (think lots of new social distancing signage, food court sanitizing protocols, and boxes and boxes of masks). But they did, and it was a gorgeous day, and the park was as full as ever with people grateful to have a bit of normal – not an easy thing to pull off in the large-scale event space!
The drinks at the after party on the deck at Patrick’s Pub – a longstanding planning team tradition – tasted especially good after that Block Party. And it was then that I got to spend a little more time with each of these folks, laugh with them, and learn more about them, more than I have room to tell you here. Very briefly, when you meet them on July 13, you will get a sense of:
Their big hearts. These are people who fiercely love their families, make you quickly feel like a longtime friend, and will give the shirt off their back to help a stranger. Barb has more than once learned everyone’s particular diet at work and prepared a lunch for the entire staff (food is definitely her love language). Lee is the “I can be there in an hour” guy, no matter what help you ask of him (and we do ask – a lot!), and Beth is always, always looking after us all. She’s the one packing water bottles and granola bars for each volunteer the day before the Block Party and texting me from the car, when I’m at the office late at night “Caitlin, go home! I’m worried about you!”
Their amazing skills. Lee built the MWR (Morale, Welfare, Recreation) program at Picatinny Arsenal into the robust program it is today. A water park for military families and members called Frog Falls? Yeah, that was Lee’s idea! Barb was the self-described “behind the scenes” lady (read: magician), making everything run like clockwork as a business financial manager at Picatinny. Budget-driven and resourceful, she’s proudly told me of the channels of communication she opened up to barter between departments to make things happen that wouldn’t otherwise. Both retired into a life of volunteerism. And Beth - the team member who planned the Block Party while also balancing a job with Teaneck Schools– brings with her great organizational and people skills, as well as grammatical accuracy and an eagle eye when it comes to all the communications and marketing that go out at Block Party time.
Their commitment to the lake. It would have been enough to plan a fun annual event for the community with maybe 100 vendors and some volunteers to help out, and a few sponsors to cover costs, and call it a success. But not for these three. Ten years and double that in vendors, over 50 sponsors, and bartering for every available open parking lot and shuttle bus nearby to get more and more people to the Block Party later, the event is now one that attracts people from near and far, even from out of state, to enjoy a day lakeside. It’s one in which each of the surrounding towns, representatives from Morris and Sussex County, and the Commissioner of NJDEP and others participate, truly bringing all voices together.
Next year will be a transition year, as Lee, Beth, and Barb pass the torch of planning the event to our new and capable event coordinator, Kari Constantine. While they will not be going far (they’ve already told us which parts of the event they still want to coordinate as volunteers-in-change), this does mark a milestone, and one we intend to celebrate.
So, join us on June 13 from 6:30-7:30 pm at 125 Landing Road. Landing, NJ for our Annual Meeting, to celebrate the contributions of three big-hearted, incredibly skilled, committed volunteers - and stick around to learn more about our vision of a vibrant and healthy lake and community, a vision to which Lee, Beth, and Barb have dedicated so much of their time and talent.
As they always remind us when it comes to the Block Party, it’s all “for the lake!”
