Author: atwiford

The Cherry Hill Public Library spent the first full week of April celebrating 20 years in the new library building.

Cherry Hill High School East’s music department held a free community concert on April 8, to mark the second day of the anniversary week.

While students did not have a specific uniform, all were dressed in black. 

This is the third year the high school’s music performers have been invited to the library for a concert.

Gabriela Mandescu is the string specialist for Cherry Hill East, organizing and training the students who play string instruments.

“We are doing a lot of practice. We usually start putting the small groups together in September for the new year, and we practice through the school year after school,” said Mandescu.

Audience members began filtering in shortly before the 2 p.m. start time, finding their seats in the rows of cushioned folding chairs. 

The concert began with a string quartet performance of two songs, “Eine Kleine Nachtmusik- First Movement” by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and “Quartet number six, opus 64- Fourth Movement” by Franz Joseph Haydn.

The students stood or sat at the front of the room, carefully tuning their instruments before they began putting their bows to the instruments’ strings. 

They stared intently at the sheets of music in front of them, keeping in time with each other and playing the pieces with careful concentration. 

This quartet featured ninth graders Joyce Lee and Alessandra Vieira on violin, tenth grader Remy Choi on voila and twelfth grader Erin Li on cello.

Timothy Keleher is the instrumental director and teaches AP music theory at Cherry Hill East.

“The students are being challenged. This is not music that’s been adapted for students. This is adult, the same music somebody would play there in the Philadelphia Orchestra,” said Keleher. 

Upon the completion of the first quartet’s set, a second quartet walked up to the front of the room for their performance.

This set included “Quartet number four, opus 18” by Ludwig van Beethoven, selections from “Water Music” by George Frideric Handel, and selections from “Phantom of the Opera” by Andrew Lloyd Webber. 

When the latter of the musical selections was announced, the crowd stirred with a few audible expressions of excitement.

The second quartet was made up of twelfth grader Kaiyan Ling and tenth grader Ethan Yang on violin, tenth grader Jaslyn Tsai on viola and ninth grader Katherine Gao on cello.

“They’re very fortunate to have this kind of program, and it’s one of the unique programs that are in South Jersey at this moment… to have this luxury of having these small groups performing with budgets and everything. So we’re very fortunate that Cherry Hill still has this program and to offer that to the community,” said Mandescu. 

“Spring Sonata, Number Five- First Movement,” also by Beethoven, was a duet performed by eleventh grader Sean Tran and twelfth grader Jason Liang, on violin and piano respectively.

The concert wrapped with a set by a small group jazz band, performing “Take Five” by Paul Desmond and originally recorded by the Dave Brubeck Band, “If I were a Bell” by Frank Loesser, written for the Broadway musical “Guys and Dolls.”

As with the string players, none of the music was adapted for the students, allowing them to challenge themselves. 

The finale of the show was “Autumn Leaves” by Joseph Kosma and Johnny Mercer.

The jazz band was made up of eleventh grade students Dan Cezair, Dan Hofmann, Jay Rivi and Lukas Ortega, and twelfth grader Mira Wang. 

Every song was followed by an enthusiastic round of applause from the audience. 
“This program is only possible because of our incredible administration which supports us and our students 1000% and are doing everything possible so that programs such as this one are available to students,” said Mandescu.

The Cherry Hill library moved to its current building location in 2005, meaning that this year marks its 20th in the new building.

To celebrate the anniversary, the library hosted a week of events for patrons that began on April 7. As a kickoff, the facility held a jigsaw puzzle contest. Each 200-piece puzzle featured the same image of the front of the building, framed with a blue sky at the top and a bright green grass at the bottom, making the puzzle more challenging due to the number of similar pieces.

The contest was largely funded by the Friends of the Cherry Hill Public Library. Run by Hope Holroyd, the library’s public relations and marketing coordinator, the contest’s rules were firm: No distractions or devices were allowed, so most participants put away their phones or set them on tables out of arm’s reach.

“This was something that we wanted to try at a smaller scale to see what a larger-scale program could look like,” Holroyd said. “And we figured for the people who really love puzzles, being able to come and be able to take it home with them was special.”

When the contest timer began, participants rushed to tear off the wrapping on puzzles, ripped open the plastic bags inside the boxes and set to work sorting their pieces. The first person to finish a puzzle was awarded a $50 Target gift card and all puzzlers took theirs home with them 

Some participants dove in and started putting pieces together, some got borders done first, and others set the lids of puzzle boxes upright so they could easily use the photos for reference. As the timer ticked on, the room remained almost silent, except for the sound of cardboard pieces coming together and the light tapping of folding tables.

First to finish was Katherine Dilks, who completed her puzzle in under 15 minutes. She regularly competes in jigsaw puzzle competitions, including a national contest in Washington D.C., where she came in 34th out of 600 competitors. 

“I think the main strategy is practice, lots and lots of practice,” Dilks explained. “And then seeing what works for you, because a lot of people have different strategies that work for them, and if you try to switch your strategy, it might slow you down.”

Though Dilks finished first at the library contest, she insisted that the gift card go to the second-place puzzler – Kristen Dowd – since Dilks was there merely to compete for fun and take a puzzle home. Participants continued working on their puzzles after the contest ended. 

“I think it was definitely something different that we don’t usually offer,” Holroyd noted. “I think it was interesting to see, even when people were finished, they just kind of wanted to hang out and talk. And then even when people won, people still wanted to finish theirs and enjoy their time putting it together. That’s why we left so much time for people …

“That’s the point … just come have fun.”

Judy Rothman competed for the first time at the library.

“It was a lot of fun,” she said. “I was with a lot of people my age, so I guess young people just haven’t gotten into puzzles yet, which I think they should, because it really helps your brain.”

In addition to the puzzle competition, the library also sold 500-piece puzzles with a different image of its building on them. Both the sale and competition not only served to commemorate the library anniversary, but emphasized the facility’s stock of puzzles for patrons, who can check them out and return them when completed.

The majority of drivers will be pulled over at some point in their driving careers, with a MarketWatch survey finding that the average American driver receives at least two speeding tickets in a lifetime.

So while seeing a police car behind a driver with lights and sirens on can be nerve-wracking, the experience is particularly stressful for those who are neurodivergent or on the autism spectrum. They can become overwhelmed by sensory overload and fail to respond as an officer would typically expect.

The situation has resulted in a new Camden County initiative known as the Blue Envelope Program, which allows drivers to voluntarily opt in and receive a blue envelope of necessary documents they may need in a traffic stop to let an officer know if a driver has unique needs and requires special communication.

“We always look for ways to further engage with our community, and particularly residents who may have individual needs or circumstances,” said Cherry Hill Mayor Dave Fleisher as he rolled out the program in the township. 

“I would think it would work for anyone with special needs,” noted Police Chief John Ostermueller. “It’s just certainly an immediate clue or a recognizable document that the officer would see that. It just starts that checklist of things for them to look for.”

Given that the needs and capabilities of neurodivergent drivers can have a wide range, the envelopes also contain information about a specific disability, including whether the driver is verbal or non-verbal, and advises drivers on how to speak with an officer to alleviate a tense situation.

“We expect it to immediately give us a sign or an easy recognition point of someone that may have a special need who’s verbal or not verbal,” Ostermueller explained. 

The chief recommends that an envelope be kept out of sight and in a location easily accessible in a car, such as the glove compartment or center console. 

“With the Blue Envelope Program, Cherry Hill is expanding its efforts to promote neuro-diversity awareness throughout the township and meet the needs of residents of all abilities,” a release from Fleisher’s office reads.

Immediate results on the program’s effectiveness have yet to be seen, but officials are expected to learn more in the next several weeks and months.

“As always,” Fleisher maintained, “we both sought public input and continue to receive input from the public after this is launched and up and running, since we always strive to improve the services we provide to our residents.”