2023-2024
Program Year
Mother's Day Luncheon 2024
Celebrates
50th
Anniversary!!
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Join us for our annual Mother's Day Luncheon to be held at the Venetian in Garfield, New Jersey. This year promises to be a special one as The Bergen County (NJ) Chapter of The Links, Incorporated celebrates its 50th Anniversary. Learn about our illustrious history by click HERE. As always, we will celebrate our Mother of the Year as well as our scholarship awardees. Please mark your calendars. It's an event that you don't want to miss.
Chapter Honors First President
Theodora Smiley Lacey Receives Legacy Award at 15th Annual Mother's Day Luncheon
Legacy Awardee Theodore Smiley Lacey with former Chapter President Tammy King
Theodora Smiley Lacey, the chapter's charter member and first president received the Legacy Award at this year's annual luncheon. The Platinum member and civil rights activist continues to be an active member of the chapter as well as a mentor to scores of new members. Theodora's glorious history includes her civil rights work in her hometown of Montgomery, Alabama where she helped organize the Montgomery Bus Boycott with her close friend and ally Rosa Parks. She also marched along side the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and their friendship continued until his untimely death in 1968. You can watch the tribute to this extraordinary Link HERE.
New Jersey Cluster Celebrates
Founders' Day
In 1946, Co-Founders Margaret Rosell Hawkins and Sarah Strickland Scott invited seven of their friends to form the Philadelphia Club. The aim: “to do some good to help less fortunate citizens, raise the cultural level of our race, and to enjoy the social company of our friends,” Hawkins said. Hosted by the Morris County (NJ) Chapter of the Links, Incorporated, members from all over the Garden State came together to greet each other and welcome our National and regional officers as we commemorated our rich history of friends transforming communities through service.
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Area Teens Earn Scholarship Awards
Eight local teens received generous scholarship awards at the 2023
Mother's Day Luncheon.
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Nina Jeffries-El
(Bergen County Academies)-The Arts Facet Award
Ellen Kyeremeh
(Hackensack HS)-The HHS Award
Jasmine Lockwood
(Hackensack HS)-National Trends and Services Award
Kendall Adkins
(Paramus Catholic HS) Spirit and Service Award
Alycia Brown
(HackensackHS) Jacquelyn Styles Memorial Award
Nia Gooden-Johnson
(Teaneck HS) The Hadnott Family Foundation Award
Shannon-Milan Lambert
(Teaneck HS) The Harold Hall Memorial Award
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Gabriel Beidleman (Bergen Catholic HS)
The Ina J. Samuels Martinez Award
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Chapter Feeds the Homeless During
Project Connect
Once again, the chapter took part in Project Homeless Connect, a county-wide initiative to count the homeless and provide services for those less needy. Chapter members came together to serve a nourishing lunch for 150 people. We received a thank you from the County Executive Jim Tedesco and County Freeholders Mary J. Amoroso and Tracy Zur who said she has already brought her hat for our 2024 Mother's Day Luncheon.
Scholarship Application Open
for Bergen County High School Seniors
Chapter Officers:
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Maredia Dionne Warren
President
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Althea Avery
Vice President
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Tiannia Barnes
Treasurer
Jasmine Franklin
Financial Secretary
Darla Miles Jeffries
Recording Secretary
Tara Edmonds
Corresponding Secretary
Kathy Zeno
Program Coordinator
Christine Fowler-Phillips
Protocol Officer
Valerie M. Hamer
Parliamentarian
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The Bergen County (NJ) Chapter of The Links, Incorporated will again offer Scholarships to deserving high school seniors in Bergen County. Students who plan to attend a four year institution of higher learning qualify for this opportunity. Applicants must be on track to graduate in June of 2024 and have a GPA of 2.75 or above. Strong candidates will show financial need, be active in their communities and display leadership skills. Head to our scholarship page HERE.
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The Links, Incorporated Celebrate 75 Years with "The Invitation"
Chapter Promotes Awareness of Chronic Kidney Disease with a Night of Dance 2024
The Bergen County (NJ) Chapter of the Links, Incorporated has received a Black K.A.R.E. Initiative sub-grant to help raise awareness of Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) in Black communities. Learn more about the initiative here and find out how you can reduce the risk of kidney failure and improve outcomes for people living with the condition.
Back To School Jam Brings Community Together
It's Back to School 2023 and the chapter joined other community groups helping middle school students from Hackensack, NJ get ready for the new school year. The Back to School Jam offered school supplies as well as fun and games to area students who will return to the classroom after Labor Day. Watch the fun below.
Chapter Wraps Gifts for those in need
In 1946, when Philadelphia educators Margaret Rosell Hawkins and Sarah Strickland Scott co founded the Links, Inc. — their vision for an intercity volunteer service organization for professional women of African descent — they did so with the help of just seven friends. Today, the Links has grown to more than 16,000 members (including Vice President Kamala Harris) in 299 chapters across the country, the Bahamas, and the United Kingdom, who log more than one million hours a year in service to their communities and to ensure the cultural and economic survival of African Americans and others of African ancestry. Watch the trailer below for "The Invitation", the highly touted documentary on the history of The Links, Incorporated. The Bergen County (NJ) Chapter of the Links, Incorporated was founded in 1974.
Maredia Dionne Warren
Elected Chapter President
Maredia Dionne Warren was elected the Chapter's President succeeding Tammy King who served two terms. Maredia had previously served as the Vice President handling membership activities and leading meetings in Tammy's stead. A successful development officer, Maredia is on the Institutional Giving and Grants Management team at Hackensack Meridian Health Foundation where she serves as the Manager of Institutional Giving. Maredia will be joined by newly elected Recording Secretary Darla Miles Jeffries and newly elected Treasurer Tianna Barnes.
For the last few years, our chapter has joined other community groups to provide and wrap gifts for those in need. This year, close to 200 young people will enjoy a merrier Christmas in part because of the generosity of our community and Santa's Elves who joyously wrapped and packed.
Chapter Sponsors Rosa Parks Doc at TIFF
What a powerful evening!
We had a packed house for the Teaneck International Film Festival screening of The Rebellious Life of Mrs Rosa Parks sponsored by the Chapter.
Learning more about the remarkable legacy of Rosa Parks from what we thought we knew to what we are blessed to know now, will stay with us and continue to inspire us. It was amazing to see the seats filled with our community and leaders of tomorrow…our youth.
We must also thank Link Theodora Smiley Lacey, our first chapter president, who was a personal friend of Mrs. Park and gave us some great insight into the civil rights icon.
©2024 Bergen County Chapter of the Links, Incorporated