David Charowsky, of North Arlington, was recently honored with a Community Shields Award by the Knight of Columbus and Queen of Peace Council 3428 as CERT Volunteer of the Year, in front of his family, friends and fellow CERT members. Charowsky has been a leader with the North Arlington Community Emergency Response Team for the past 12 years and chief for the past 10 years. Ang DeFranco, CERT deputy chief, announced his award by relating that Charowsky has trained the North Arlington CERT Team to be one of the best in the state and that he has developed strong and well-respected relationships with town and county emergency services.
In receiving his award, Charowsky said: “It is truly an honor to have been selected for this award. A leader cannot excel or become great without a good following. I am blessed to have not only the best members from North Arlington, but members from surrounding towns and as far away as Wharton. That speaks volumes as to the type of team we have and the commitment these folks are willing to put in living that far away from our wonderful borough. For it is in their selfless dedication that gives me the tools to make NA CERT the best team in Bergen County if not the entire state.”
Other North Arlington honorees that night were Jennifer Applegate, Mary Swedeski Biro, Catrin Bown, Larry Crawford, John Cristiano, Tyler Kotchkowski, Robert Melofchik, Ventura Mendoza and Andrew Porporino.
North Arlington CERT exists to keep the public safe during town-wide events or disasters that may arise in the community, as well as assisting the NAPD, NAFD and NAVES. The team is always looking for new members. If interested, send an email to NACERT@verizon.net.
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Kevin A. Canessa Jr. is the editor of and broadcaster at The Observer, an organization he has served since 2006. He is responsible for the editorial content of the newspaper and website, the production of the e-Newspaper, writing several stories per week (including the weekly editorial), conducting live broadcasts on social media channels such as YouTube, Facebook, and X, including a weekly recap of the news — and much more behind the scenes. Between 2006 and 2008, he introduced the newspaper to its first-ever blog — which included podcasts, audio and video. Originally from Jersey City, Kevin lived in Kearny until 2004, lived in Port St. Lucie. Florida, for four years until February 2016 and in March of that year, he moved back to Kearny to return to The Observer full time. Click Here to send Kevin an email.