THE
HUNTERDON COUNTY NEWS |
TITLE: CHARLES REBICK NAMED HUNTERDON COUNTY VOLUNTEER OF THE YEAR
United Way of Hunterdon County will be holding its Seventh Annual “Celebrating Community Caring” recognition dinner on Friday, May 7, 2010 from 6-11 p.m. at the Hunterdon Hills Playhouse in Perryville.
This event provides the perfect venue to celebrate the extraordinary commitment, creativity, leadership, inspiration and sustained service of volunteers that benefits Hunterdon County residents by having a positive impact in our community. It also provides an opportunity to celebrate the commitment of all our community volunteers. This year, Charles Rebick, a community leader and longtime volunteer, will be recognized as United Way of Hunterdon County’s “Community Volunteer of the Year”.
“A VOLUNTEER is a person who remembers to do the thing to make other people happy, who takes the loneliness out of the alone by talking to them, who is concerned when others are unconcerned, who has the courage to be a prophet and to say the things that have to be said for the good of all. And so, Volunteerism is critical to our success and the ongoing success of the many programs and agency partners that we support,” comments Bonnie Duncan, Executive Director, United Way of Hunterdon County. “In Hunterdon County we are blessed by a strong cadre of individuals who just go about serving the community in ways we never hear about – making an impact that they are very reticent about taking any credit for. And yet, Hunterdon and its people are enriched because of their selfless acts.”
Dr. Charles Rebick, a recently retired scientist for ExxonMobil, in Clinton Township, New Jersey, and his wife, Suzanne (Kip), moved to Clinton Township in 1982 where they raised their two children, Sarah and Josh, and got involved in the community.
Over the years Charlie has served as mediator, facilitator, peace maker, policy maker, researcher, organizer, and dedicated volunteer.
He was responsible for starting the North Hunterdon girls community athletic soccer league.
In 1987 there were few girls who played soccer and often felt they didn’t get enough play time on the boys’ team. So Charlie and one of the other dads, along with their daughters, recruited enough girls to form 2 all girls teams and they played against the boys teams. The following year the league was able to field 4 teams as the girls continued to recruit for the teams. This led to the formation of traveling soccer teams.
From 1989-1991 Charlie served on the Clinton Township Board of Education where he says “ I learned a lot and facilitated keeping the Board together during some tough times.” During this time they focused on creating a culture of inclusiveness for special education.
Charlie has been involved with United Way of Hunterdon County for many years serving on the Board from 1985 – 1997. He served in several committees including Campaign, Fund Distribution, Nominating, and other committee work. He served on the Board of Trustees from 1985-1997 including Executive positions as Allocations Chair, and Secretary for the organization.
Charlie has been a community volunteer member of the Hunterdon County Human Services Advisory Council from its early formative years. He has served as Chairperson twice, and as Vice Chairperson, promoting discussion and helping to steer the County Department of Human Services in the development of policies and initiatives to support a comprehensive and inclusive human services delivery system for Hunterdon County’s most vulnerable and at risk populations.
As a member of the Human Services Advisory Council, and a United Way volunteer, he was one of the visionaries who helped guide and direct the County Department of Human Services, State of New Jersey-Juvenile Justice Commission and the United Way into a ground breaking partnership to develop the CADDY program for at risk teens.
Charlie served on the Human Services Allocations Committees and the Monitoring and Evaluation Committees and as the Human Services Advisory Council representative in the development of the Greater Raritan Work Force Investment Board (WIB). Charlie provided yeoman like efforts to develop the WIB and its activities to help residents obtain and retain employment.
As the WIB’s Volunteer Chairperson Charlie showed great courage, compassion, understanding and incredible tenacity in guiding the WIB through very challenging regulatory and fiscal times. He admits it was the toughest and most time consuming volunteer work he ever experienced. He represented the county interests with an eye on what services the unemployed need, from a period of floundering to an effective 1 stop through consolidation with less damage than other WIB’s and laid the foundation for the WIB we have today.
After his recent retirement from his “paying job” with ExxonMobil, Charlie has continued, and increased some of his volunteer activities including serving on a United Way’s Financial Stability Partnership, an Asset Building Planning Committee which also helped the County Department of Human Services further develop its anti-poverty strategies. And so after 20 years of serving on Boards and working on policies and procedures he now seeks to volunteer in ways that he can see the direct benefit to individuals being helped. He trained as a United Way Volunteer Tax preparer and helped realize over $112,000.00 in tax returns and earned income tax credits for Hunterdon County residents in 2009. He has expanded- his volunteer efforts this year to include volunteering for the Division of Senior, Disabilities and Veterans Services, as a volunteer tax preparer.
As someone who enjoys hiking, he continues to enjoy Day of Caring projects like the spring clean up for the South Branch Watershed or creating a trail on National Trail Day for the County Department of Parks and Recreation. While requiring a bigger emotional commitment, Charlie also volunteers for SCAP’s Headstart of Franklin. He is a role model for 4 youth, tutoring in math so these at-risk youth can attain their GED.
When asked where Charlie gets his volunteer spirit he indicated that for him “there are so many ways to volunteer and the are fun. I don’t see myself as a mover and a shaker – just someone who serves.”
According to Cathy Zahn, Mental Health Planner &Youth Services Coordinator of Hunterdon County’s Department of Human Services, “Charlie is truly a person who for over the last 20 years has put forth outstanding effort, given of his time and energy, displayed extraordinary patience, understanding and appreciation of what it means to work toward having a caring community.”
In addition to recognizing Charlie’s sustained volunteerism and positive impact to our community, the event will feature a silent and live auction, entertainment, dinner and dancing. The entertainment will be provided by Doctor D Entertainment and the Untamed Quartet.
All community members are invited to recognize Charles Rebick at this fun-filled event. Tickets for the event are $85.00 per person and are available from the United Way of Hunterdon County.
About United Way of Hunterdon County
United Way is working to advance the common good by focusing on education, income and health. These are the building blocks for a good life -a quality education that leads to a stable job, enough income to support a family through retirement, and good health.
Advancing the common good is less about helping one person at a time and more about
changing systems to help all of us. Our goal is to create long-lasting changes that prevent problems from happening in the first place. If you are in need of assistance, or would like to give, advocate, or volunteer, please call 2-1-1or United Way of Hunterdon County at (908) 782-3414 or visit our website at www.uwhunterdon.org