It's worth it in the end By Ellen Donker Every year, as spring moves into summer, I am determined to improve my gardens. I’m aware that I should probably be saying this in winter when it’s time to start seedlings, but I can never seem to rustle up the enthusiasm or plan ahead to get a spot in the Maplewood greenhouse. Early June comes along and I’m just getting started with clearing garden beds of leaves and weeds (hoping I don’t yank a perennial by mistake) and figuring out

Inside the Maplewood Youth Gardening Program By Adrianna Donat L to R: Eden Prager holds freshly-picked spinach, Ameer Azma is getting ready to plant an eggplant seedling and Annelise Salierno with harvested radishes. Photos by Julia Maloof Verderosa. On a Saturday afternoon in Maplewood, the MapleFood Garden in the greenhouses behind Maplewood Town Hall has the pleasant, slightly chaotic, feel of a place where real work is getting done by people who are not too worried about

Local volunteers advocate for youth in crisis By Amy Lynn-Cramer L to R: CASA Essex County board president Neil Yaris, executive director Marla Higginbotham and board member Ed Schwarz. In communities like ours, where daily life moves through school pickups, coffee shop conversations, neighborhood gatherings and familiar routines, children navigating foster care are part of the everyday fabric of community life. One of the biggest misconceptions surrounding foster care is the

Language Matters By Kristen di Gennaro In response to my call for language pet peeves, a reader emailed about the “misuse” of personal pronouns, as in “Me and him went to the circus today.” Noted the reader, “It’s so simple if you remove one of the pronouns and listen to how the revised sentence sounds to your ear.” Indeed, few speakers would say “Me went to the circus” or “Him went to the circus,” so why are some of us OK with “me and him” as a subject in the same context? T

SOMA Tool Share promotes a sharing economy mindset By Ellen Donker L to R: Volunteers organize tools in the storage facility; SOMA Tool Share board members Janet Villano, Dave Helmkamp and Kenny Grossman; more tools! When you become a homeowner it seems like you inherit an endless list of repairs or improvements. Some projects, such as kitchen or bathroom renovations, are best handled by the professionals. But what about items such as adding shelving, cleaning your dryer vent

Strawberry girls: short and sweet By Ilysse Rimalovski Early in June, sweetness is smiling little faces stained with strawberry juice. Strawberry shortcake, the quintessential American pastry layered with whipped cream and sliced berries, is an ode to the start of berry-picking season. The strawberry shortcake that my grandfather knew, plucked from his bakery’s refrigerated display case somewhere in Queens, was tall and fluffy but never tasted as good as it looked. The halved

New owners honor the vision of Danny Ives By Ellen Donker Martine Ives (center) in July 2024 with Jazmin and José Bencosme on the day they bought the Maplewood Bike Shed from her. The Maplewood Bike Shed is just 6 years old, yet it has a meaningful story to tell. It starts out happy, turns tragic and continues with resilience, ultimately evolving into a new chapter that keeps the vision of founder Danny Ives alive. A 2011 graduate of Columbia High School, Ives had a passion f

Babies, plumbers, hair stylists, gardeners, doggos, eagles – and Henry the Cat By Cindy Perman Henry's off to join his family in the UK! Photo and graphics by Cameron Dickson who did not use AI. There’s been a steady drumbeat of friends declaring they are leaving Facebook. Some (Gen Zers) never joined in the first place. This may out me as uncool, but … I’m never leaving Facebook. Don’t get me wrong. I’m on other platforms that I value, but there are a lot of connections and

Sometimes you just want to get home By Ellen Donker When it comes to air travel, I have one rule: fly nonstop whenever possible. Splitting up a flight leaves you open to delays on top of other typical travel woes: weather problems, TSA workers not getting paid, airline staffing shortages and more. The less time I spend in an airport the better. Unfortunately, I broke my rule a few weeks ago. I dragged my heels getting tickets to Fort Myers, Florida for spring break. By the ti

New nonprofit All Paws In helps fur babies find their way back home By Cindy Perman Conover and Sandford Fishkind helped rescue Goldie, a goldendoodle, who was left in a crate in the snow in Irvington Park and adopted with the help of PAWS Montclair. Maya was found loose in Irvington. Conover and Sandford Fishkind arranged a foster for her. After the owner agreed to surrender Maya, she was adopted with the help of PAWS Montclair. Sandford Fishkind with Coconut, a Pomeranian

By Kristen di Gennaro Many of us have used AI for various reasons. Google searches use AI to find sources in response to a question. Currently, Google provides an overview instead of sources. This fully formed response uses generative AI, technology widely available since 2022. Generative AI has led to widespread panic, especially among college teachers who see changes in students’ writing. Gone are the sentence fragments, run-ons, subject-verb discrepancies and other signs o

Columbia High School's Science Research Program connects students and mentors By Savannah Martin The Science Research class of 2026. Bottom row, L to R: Isabella Palkhiwala-Sarette, Lola Karp-Foster, Juliet Givoni, Rachael Mayer; Second row, L to R: Susannah Litwin, Julia Freidrich, Emerie Katz, Olivia Traub; Third row, L to R: Theo Boddeker, Christopher Kondak, Joey Kerner, Melia Crain; Top row, L to R: Angelo Lynch, Zachary Brenden, Hudson Ebright Columbia High School

Small business owners keep their work human while taking advantage of the new tech By Amy Lynn-Cramer Left: A back yard installation in progress by Split Rock Design. Right: An AI-generated image to help homeowners visualize new landscaping in the newly-created planting bed. Split Rock Design specified the plants based on their expertise. On any given day, Anthony and Melanie Cortese, the husband-and-wife team behind Split Rock Design, a Maplewood-based landscape design firm,

Love is a Spanish tortilla By Ilysse Rimalovski Estelle Fournier makes this Spanish tortilla that carries her back to her time in Pamplona. The double cheek greeting, customary for the Fournier Lopez-Silvero family, feels especially welcoming these days. As new Maplewood residents by way of Summit, NJ, they already seem at home. Rooted in the arts community, Estelle Fournier has replanted herself along with her husband, Dr. Alberto Lopez-Silvero. Their four grown daughters, A

Time to thaw out and get it together By Alex Koenig L to R: Betsy Cahn and Linda Thibodeau of Curated Spaces; Gwen Vigorito and Mindy Catron of Align Wellness Studio and Dr. L. Dawn Christian of Village Dental Group There comes a point every year when winter starts to feel less cozy and more like a personal attack. The oversized scarves, boots and puffer coats have lost their charm, the dry skin situation is fully out of hand and suddenly everyone is craving the same thing: a

The quiet force behind Maplewood's arts scene By Adrianna Donat One of the best known projects of the Maplewood Arts Council is "Art in the Tunnel," designed to add "creative heat and light" into what had been a dark and dreary commuter passage. If you’ve ever walked through the Maplewood train station tunnel and been jolted awake by a burst of vivid artwork or paused in town to read a poem hanging in a public space, you’ve already encountered the work of the Maplewood Arts C

Immerse yourself in comedy, art and auction By Ellen Donker Max Weinberg's Jukebox is the featured performer. The band will play audience requests from a video menu of more than 200 songs. Twenty years may seem like a short or long time, depending on your perspective. For residents who remember the groundbreaking for the South Orange Performing Arts Center (SOPAC), and its growth as a destination to experience live performance, arts education and community connection, it’s a

Route 22, culture shock and the community that made it all worthwhile By Ashtyn Asay My first thought when visiting Maplewood Avenue was that it reminded me of Main Street in Park City, Utah, a charming, uphill drag that was one of my favorites back home. It was early September 2024. Even on a weekday afternoon, snippets of chatter floated down the sidewalk from outdoor diners. Commuters walked purposefully to and from the train station. To a couple from a sleepy mountain cit

A day (and a few holes) with the crew bringing cleaner water to South Orange By Adrianna Donat The lead service line replacement that took place in Maplewood last year has started in South Orange. We’ve probably all experienced the same moment of neighborhood déjà vu: you turn the corner and (surprise!) there’s a line of orange cones, a truck with flashing lights and a fresh street is auditioning for Holes: The Musical. Beyond the driving hazard, it can make you wonder what e

On roots, restlessness and the price of belonging By Ken Gagne A few months ago, I stood in a banquet room in Chicopee, Mass., attending my high school class’s 40-year reunion. Forty years? It felt like a clerical error, the kind I assumed someone would correct once I pointed it out. The faces were familiar in the way old furniture is familiar; you recognize the shape even after it’s been reupholstered. We hugged. We laughed. We squinted at name tags. Knee pain was discussed.