There are soccer shooters — and then, there’s Alyssa Badia. The Kearny girl was not only the Kearny representative to the Elks as part of the area’s soccer shoot contest, she won the national title and was honored recently at a special ceremony at the Kearny Elks Lodge. You read that correctly — of the countless lodges in America, Kearny’s Badia won the overall contest in the U-13 category. The grand lodge presented her with a plaque and the mid-Atlantic committee presented her with an embroidered bag with her designation. The NJ Elks presented her with an additional gift card, as well. Seen here are, from left, Bill Dow Jr., Badia, and Badia’s dad Jorge Badia.
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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.