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TCPA makes waves with charter school application
Hamilton Pet Meadow hosts successful pet adoption day
By JOe EMANsKi
The Hamilton Township School District and a countywide grassroots political organization with members in Hamilton have appealed to the Department of Education to reject an application from Trenton Catholic Preparatory Academy to become a New Jersey charter school. The district, along with an organization known as Our Revolution Trenton Mercer, have said that TCPA’s application to become McCorristin Charter School should not be granted for a number of reasons including that it would divert millions of dollars from the district’s budget toward McCorristin. However, the Hamilton Post has seen an April 19 letter sent from DOE acting commissioner Kevin Dehner to Tracey Destribats, lead founder for the proposed McCorristin Charter School, informing Destribats that the school’s application has been approved, pending “successful participation in the preparedness process ... and See CHARTER, Page 20
By JOe EMANsKi
Tony Blakely on the video screen at Red Bull Arena in Harrison after being named New Jersey Youth Soccer Comeback Player of the Year.
Mind over matter
Youth soccer player Tony Blakely overcomes life-threatening injury to return to the sport he loves By Rich Fisher
In late August of 2022, George E. Wilson Elementary School rising third-grader Santonio “Tony” Blakely was in the rehabilitation facility of the Children’s Specialized Hospital in Robert Wood Johnson, New Brunswick. Doctors asked him
what he hoped to do after suffering a near fatal brain rupture. Tony said matter-of-factly he wanted to start running and playing soccer. “We said, ‘Can you hold your head up first and can we see if you can sit up or walk?’” his mom, Damaris Santos-Heredia, recalled. “His mindset was to
get back to running and playing. As parents, our goal was to just get him to sit up and be as close to a normal kid as possible.” For Blakely, playing soccer is being a normal kid, no matter what he has gone through. Nothing was going to stop him. See TONY, Page 22
For many years, Hamilton Pet Meadow regularly held community events. Pet Meadow is a pet aftercare facility that has been part of the local community for 26 years. Those who have recently lost a beloved pet often turn to the facility for burial, cremation, memorialization and bereavement services. There was a time when the facility regularly offered community events, such as pet adoption days, but for the past 10 years, including of course during the Covid-19 pandemic, such events were few and far between. Evan Corn, who joined as social media and outreach coordinator in September, decided that the time had come for Pet Meadow to begin hosting events See MEADOW, Page 18
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