Taking Pride in Our Community

Beacon (00:12.942)
Welcome back to the Bridgeton Beacon. The greatest ability to bring about positive change in our communities and in our lives lies with each and every one of us. Transforming this individual and collective capability into constructive good is the vision of the Love Where You Live committee of the Bridgeton area.

Chamber of Commerce Foundation. Here to announce an exciting new matching grant program for community beautification and improvement projects is Ed Overdevest, president of Overdevest Nurseries and the chairman of the Love Where You Live committee, and Tony Stanzione, CEO of the Bridgeton Area Chamber of Commerce.

and the Cumberland Development Corporation. Gentlemen, welcome.

Ed (01:13.709)
Morning.

Tony Stanzione (01:15.336)
Hello

Beacon (01:17.484)
Ed, I'd like to begin, if you don't mind, by asking you, what is the mission of this new matching grant program? And when was the idea for it first developed?

Ed (01:33.325)
So there's a lot behind Love Where You Live. It's evolved over the course of time from its beginnings with CAWA, the Cohansey Area Watershed Association. And we've been reaching out to a variety of community service organizations and now the Bridgeton Area Chamber of Commerce to kind of collaborate and join forces so we can have greater impact. And in joining with the Bridgeton Area Chamber of Commerce, our hope is to

to rally the business community because they bring unique resources, but most importantly, an inherent ability to get things done. So we're looking forward to working together with them so that we can, much like it's been done in other areas of our communities, basically put together projects, what we call beacons of pride, which help to showcase all that love where you live is all about.

We have some current examples, particularly in the Bridgestone City Park. Folks are very familiar with the archway that Century Bank has sponsored. And also there's a garden as you lead into Mayor Aiken Drive. That's a little smaller scale, but equally significant. So we're reaching out to the...

business community in the greater area of Bridgeton to join with us and to think about sponsoring Beacon and Pride, much like we have already in various parts of Bridgeton and other areas of our surrounding communities, to sponsor those. And we're pleased to announce that we have some private funding that will offer a match grant process for them.

And essentially, that allows for a 50 -50 match up to a maximum of $20 ,000 per project to help assist with the development and actual construction of the project, however small or however large it might be. And I would say it's not just limited to area businesses, but also area organizations, but basically same parameters, as I mentioned.

Beacon (03:46.185)
Great. The tagline for the Love Where You Live Beacons of Pride Matching Grant Program is proud of who we are and all we can be. Why do you think it is important for individuals and businesses to take pride in their community? And how is this program specifically designed to help facilitate that?

Tony Stanzione (03:48.168)
It's a sluggy.

Ed (04:12.109)
talking about businesses earlier and as it relates to them, I think a good point can be made that good communities make for good business and vice versa. So there's a natural advantage involved with businesses working together to help better their communities. And as far as the residents of communities,

I think the benefits there are pretty obvious as well. People can help themselves, help their neighborhoods, help their community. And really with Love Where You Live, again, going back a little bit to the earlier days, it was a slogan for the campaign that we adopted because it was both inspirational and a call to action. And the recent slogan that you mentioned is sort of a springboard from that.

something that people can relate to. We want people to be proud of who they are and what they have around them, hence love where you live. But at the same time, much like with love where you live, we want to serve as a call to action, that even though things are good and we can always do better, and each of us has a role in that process.

Beacon (05:25.062)
Tony, I'd like to turn to you for a few minutes if you don't mind. Could you describe the relationship between the Bridgeton Area Chamber of Commerce, the Bridgeton Area Chamber of Commerce Foundation, the Cumberland Development Corporation, and the Cumberland Grows brand, and explain how this new matching grant program furthers the mission of the foundation.

Tony Stanzione (05:51.08)
Okay, Megan, a few minutes, okay. For all that, I can do that.

Beacon (05:55.718)
And I'll say you have come on the Birchton Beacon in the past and explained that. But I think it's maybe important just to remind our listeners about those interconnections and why they're important to this matching grant program.

Tony Stanzione (06:07.848)
The short version is, in the 90s, the Bridgeton Area Chamber of Commerce, which is an organization that helps promote its members and promote the region for economic development and business growth. And also it turns out to be a community organization as well, and I'll talk about that quickly. Wanted the economy to be better, and they urged the municipalities in the area to work together.

So they met with the mayors over a number of years and finally convinced them to form their own not -for -profit called Cumberland Development Corporation. So two separate not -for -profits, but very much aligned in their mission to serve the community to boost the economy. And then the chamber wanted to be more active in the community and community donations. So the chamber formed a 501C3 charitable organization, the Bridgestone Area Chamber of Commerce Foundation.

So I've got three not -for -profits. The board of the chamber and the board of the foundation are the same people. The board of the Cumberland Development Corporation are basically the mayors or their designated representatives from seven municipalities around Bridgeton. So that whole idea that Ed talked about earlier of people working together, coming together, has kind of been what Cumberland Development Corporation, the chamber alignment has been about all along.

So then Cumberland Grows was a marketing campaign and a marketing theme put together by the Chamber and the Cumberland Development Corporation. So how does that all tie into Love Where You Live? I'm really thankful, first of all, that Ed came to the Chamber Foundation to kind of take on this project because it fits so well. Also because Ed has been one of the largest boosters of our community.

his whole life and business life here. And for me, you know, I have a few more years I'm going to work full time. And this project is going to be really a delight for me because we will have some funds and some people working together and some collaborations and some partnerships on the private side, on the public side to, I'm going to say put a dent in some of the negative feelings and negative views people have of Bridgeton and the Bridgeton area.

Tony Stanzione (08:31.56)
one little project at a time to build that positivity and so fits very well with what a chamber does. Any chamber not only has the task to promote its businesses and to build business for them, kind of dollars and cents, we also are supposed to be the boosters of the area and to let people know it's a great place to live, work and play. So it fits together very, very well.

Beacon (08:57.602)
Thank you. Now the Love Where You Live committee is a committee of the foundation. How were the members of that committee chosen?

Tony, I'll ask you.

Tony Stanzione (09:08.296)
Well, first of all, it was a group of chamber members, so people from our chamber board for the most part. And then we wanted to have Ed on that committee because of his long time involvement with Love Where You Live and his leadership of that organization. And then we also wanted to have some local officials involved. So, Cumberland Development Corporation helped with that. So the board was chosen that way. So it's, I would say 70 %

chamber board members, some community members from the municipalities, and some members from the Cumberland Development Corporation Board as well.

Beacon (09:48.064)
And all of those individuals will work together to ensure that projects that are ultimately approved, I would imagine, can keep moving forward. Is that right?

Beacon (10:01.216)
So Ed, I'm going to ask you, and you've touched upon this already, there has been some discussion of some charter projects which you mentioned. Can you tell us a little bit more about those to give us an idea of some examples of the type of project that the committee is envisioning?

Ed (10:23.597)
That's all preliminary at this point, so I don't want to let the cat out of the bag. Again, my motto is actions speak louder than words, so I'd rather the actual occurrence of it announce what's actually being accomplished. But we are looking at a variety of projects that in high visibility locations in and around the city of Bridgeton that basically serve as a launch pad, so to speak, for the campaign.

So again, these beacons of pride could involve murals of sorts. They could involve landscape projects. They could have involved a variety of other things. So without getting into too much detail and letting the cat out of the bag, I'll just leave it at that. But we're looking forward to getting our ducks lined up and perhaps have some of these projects started this fall. And with that, we'll have the

I guess official launch of Love Where You Live as it's now constituted with the collaboration with the Bridgeton Area Chamber of Commerce Foundation and the future involvement of local businesses. But ultimately,

Beacon (11:35.52)
Fair enough, fair enough. Now you mentioned the Bridgeton area. This is open to Upper Deerfield and Hopewell townships, correct?

Ed (11:44.269)
Right, you know, for this beginning, we're looking at the surrounding townships and as we bring things up to speed and have successes to build upon, then there's the possibility of this expanding into other communities within Cumberland County. As people might have noticed the last few years that every entry point to the Cumberland County area, there is at the

bottom of the welcome sign, the love where you live logo. And so we do have a presence and that does stake out our ultimate goal in terms of involvement. But for these initial stages, we're looking at the greater British scenario.

Beacon (12:24.861)
Okay, and the projects as you've described it would be a 50 -50 matching up to $20 ,000, but any project large or small will be considered. Is that accurate?

Ed (12:40.205)
Exactly. We have some criteria, some of the main ones, and I mentioned the one was a highly visible area because we want to get the word out and we will be, you know, featuring the project. There will be recognition of the business or sponsoring organization so that they get some recognition for that.

Depending on the project, we might involve the latest slogan that we have that you mentioned, proud of who we are and all we can be. Because again, we want this to be both inspirational and a call to action.

Beacon (13:21.884)
Okay. Let's switch gears for a minute and Tony, I'm going to ask you to discuss generally speaking the application process. What's your vision for the timeline for these application cycles? And what will the committee be looking for when it reviews each application in terms of eligibility and other requirements?

Tony Stanzione (13:41.992)
to teach us in terms of.

Tony Stanzione (13:49.192)
Well, very generally, as Ed said earlier, the committee is still working out all the details of how the project will work in terms of application, approval, the type of project. A lot of that is done, but it's not ready to be public yet. So I'll just say generally, we are going to work like heck to try to receive the first applications from businesses and organizations starting September 1st. So I've got two months to get that going. Sometime between now and September 1st.

Hopefully, all that information will be released publicly in many ways, social media, on our foundation and chamber websites, the Facebook page of Love Where You Live. So you'll be able to get those details, certainly. But basically, we're going to ask you to fill out an application that explains the project you want to do and why you want to do it and how you intend to fund it and a little bit of the detail of the project. And then the committee will look at that.

to determine if it's a project that meets our criteria of being a beacon of pride for the area in a public, a very public location. And then you'll start the product, if you're the applicant, you'll start your project. There'll be a timeline to get it finished. And then Love Where You Live will be part of that funding as the project goes along. Some of those details, as I said, are still being worked out.

I'll give you a website whenever Megan's ready that you can check. There's just very general information there now, but as we get the applications done and the criteria wrapped up, you'll be able to go there to get all the latest information on the Love Where You Live Beacons of Pride.

Beacon (15:34.361)
We'll certainly share that here on the Bridgeton Beacon as well. Is there a maximum number of projects or a maximum dollar figure per year that will be provided in grant money?

Tony Stanzione (15:48.008)
Well, there is a donation coming to us annually. So I really think it depends on that donation. But the number of projects will depend on the dollar amounts of those projects. So for instance, when you said earlier we would match 50%, if you're an organization or a business that can fund 75 % of the project, then we would only match 25%. So we can spread that money as far as we can. But obviously most people are going to

want to apply for the 50 % match. So I don't know how many projects we can do, but when Ed talked about earlier and you asked about the sample projects, like perhaps some we want to get launched. But in September, when we start to accept applications, it's going to be the projects that you, the community, think you'd like to do that are public facing and on public land.

Beacon (16:43.801)
Excellent, that's great. And we're excited to get more information about that and we'll share that here. I guess I would just ask Ed, just in conclusion, why should a business be excited about participating in this type of project? Is it because it can be large or small? Is it because it's the community working together to beautify the area? What makes you excited?

as a business owner, as an individual in the community for a long time to be part of this project.

Ed (17:19.597)
Well, I think you pretty much touched on a number of the key points, the key values of it. And not only are we helping the community, not only are we helping our customers, but we're helping ourselves as businesses. Because again, going back to what I mentioned before, you know, good communities and good businesses go hand in hand. One feeds upon the other. So we're looking for that vibrancy, vibrancy in our community, vibrancy with our business activity.

fostered by this sense of pride. Perception is a big thing and if we can do a few things that help move the needle and this is pretty much the reasoning behind the beacons of pride then we begin to to make some changes and to the degree that we can involve everybody the more successful we're going to be. So we're starting with the business community but we're reaching out to everybody long term because in many ways each of us collectively are our best hope.

and also our highest resource.

Beacon (18:22.581)
Well, here at the Bridgeton Beacon, our entire underpinning is to highlight the beacons of the community. And there sure are a lot of them, and we're excited to hear more about this application when it comes out. It's certainly an exciting opportunity, I think, for local businesses and individuals to take pride in the community through this program. And large or small,

you know, it's really something that I think all of us should be excited about. So we'll definitely be hearing more and we will certainly bring it to you live from the Bridgeton Beacon as soon as that application comes out. So I would just ask all of our listeners to stay tuned. There's more to come.

Beacon (19:14.901)
Thank you, Ed. Thank you, Tony.

Tony Stanzione (19:16.904)
Thank you, Megan.

Ed (19:18.349)
Thanks, Megan.