Author: atwiford

The township hosted its annual free rabies clinic on Oct. 25 in Challenge Grove Park, across from the Croft Farm dog park.

While the state’s Department of Health enables municipalities to receive vaccines for free clinics, the local areas themselves do all the advertising and organization. Cherry Hill has offered the clinics for several years.

Katherine Barrett of Evesham Veterinary Clinic was stationed at the park’s pavilion, inoculating dogs against the rabies virus with the help of some clinic technicians who helped keep the animals still as they received the shots.

“We’re making sure everyone’s vaccinated for rabies, since obviously rabies can kill,” said Barrett.

She explained the danger of rabies, not only to an animal’s health, but also to their owners and other humans in the community.

“If your pet gets it, then if they happen to, God forbid, lick you and you have a little cut on your hand,” Barrett noted, “they can transmit it just through their saliva. Them giving you their kisses can transmit it, so protect yourselves by protecting them.”

Before the vaccinations, several township employees got pets registered and licensed with Cherry Hill for the 2026 calendar year, an annual requirement.

The clinic’s location across from the Croft Farm dog park made it convenient for canine owners already there to make their way over and get vaccinated. Dog treats were on hand to calm and reward the animals. 

Township resident Eric Johnson brought his dog, a 7-year-old red fox lab named Daisy, after hearing about the clinic on Facebook.

“We basically have been living here in Cherry Hill for a long time,” he said. “So having the facilities and the services available to us, and allowing our dog to take advantage of it like this, has been great. Her health is important to us.”

The clinic was also open to cats, though ferrets and other companion mammals require a different type of vaccine or larger doses. Emma Lindsley, another Cherry Hill resident, brought her two tabby cats, John and Ringo.

“I saw the flyer on the mayor’s weekly newsletter email,” she stated. “I realized I needed to get their rabies vaccinations. I was free today, so I decided to come out. Free vaccines are definitely very helpful, especially when there’s two of them.” 

Thirty seven pets were vaccinated during the two-hour clinic and each shot is good for three years. Vaccinations outside of a clinic can cost between $40 and $75 per pet.

The Cherry Hill School of Rock combined a screening of the silent-film horror classic “Nosferatu” on Oct. 25 with a score composed and performed by eight students from the school’s township and Deptford locations.

While F. W. Murnau’s 1922 film had no sound, the students coordinated their music with the movie as it played on a screen at Camden County College. All of the music was instrumental and utilized guitar, bass, keyboard and drums.

While School of Rock music director Rob Sciortino and general manager Trisha Simon have long had the idea of composing a score for “Nosferatu,” it took finding the right students to make it a reality.

“So you kind of need, like, a perfect storm of really super creative, organized kids,” Simon explained, “because you don’t realize how much like home-worky stuff goes into writing a score for a film.”

The students involved in the “Nosferatu” project had to be skilled musicians with an understanding and command of their instruments who also had to write non-lyrical music. 

To bring the show to life in the Halloween season, students from the school’s summer season were called on and met twice for two-hour rehearsals to prepare for the October screening. Meanwhile, last year’s film remake of “Nosferatu” made it relevant again.

“Step one was to break the film into acts,” Simon noted. ” … They (students) sort of collectively decided which parts of the film they wanted to do, so all of them were assigned specific portions of the film for which to write their own score.”

The student composers watched the film together and timed each scene to make sure the music and the unfording movie were simultaneous.

“It was a lot of learning how to cue music with time stamps, along with the score and marking things like that,” Sciortino poined out. “It was just a lot of work for the students, just week after week progressing.” . 

The eight students performed for every section of the film.

“It was one of the first times they were going to write things for other people to perform,” Sciortino said. “It was a big practice in musical communication, in a way that I think is a little different than the way rock and roll musicians usually communicate with each other.”