Catching Up From A Long Weekend

(There was no Hometown View on Monday, 8/1 or Tuesday, 8/2)

Random notes and thoughts following a long weekend in which I made my first-ever visit to the Baseball Hall of Fame and Saratoga Racetrack:

As a follow up to a story I did last week, 20 students, five teachers and an assistant principal from Toms River High School East have arrived in California for tomorrow’s Hurley Walk the Walk National Championship. The world’s largest high school fashion competition is run in conjunction with the U.S. Open of Surfing in Huntington Beach and High School East will battle four other schools for the $25,000 first prize. The high-energy fashion show can be viewed tomorrow beginning at 7pm on TV21 for those of you who get the Toms River TV Channel on Comcast or you can watch on line at www.hurley.com/wtw. Online voting takes place immediately following the last school’s performance and it would be great to see many support the efforts of Toms River East. Good luck to the Raiders!

The Toms River-Ocean County Chamber of Commerce is holding their 18th Annual Golf Outing & Networking Dinner on Monday, August 15th at Pine Barrens in Jackson. Always a great outing, you can call (732) 349-0220 for more information and to register to play. Also, the Brick chapter of UNICO National will hold their 3rd Annual Golf Outing at Woodlake County Club on Monday, August 22nd to raise money for their scholarship program and other charities.
For information on that event you can call Anthony at (732) 779-1567.

So I mentioned in my opening that I’m just back from a little junket to New York. It was part of an annual “Bucket List” adventure that started four years ago with a group of longtime friends who attended Ocean County College together in the mid-70’s. After baseball trips to Chicago, Boston and spring training in Florida we did a 40-hour adventure by bus that included quick stops in Saratoga, Cooperstown and a Mets game at Citifield. Not nearly enough time but the company was great with friends coming from Kansas City and Mississippi to join in. The Saratoga part of the itinerary was a tribute to Joe “The Horse” Perrone, one of the original “bucket listers” who passed away unexpectedly this spring. There was a toast or two to Joe who may be gone but will never be forgotten.