HANOVER TOWNSHIP — Hanover Township seniors who attended this year’s annual picnic held on Wednesday, August 21 at the Multi-Purpose Community Center had the opportunity to mingle with members of Hanover Township Police Benevolent Association (P.B.A.) Local 128. As an outgrowth of the Local’s decision earlier this year to make a donation to the club to pay for the food and paper supplies for the picnic, a few off-duty officers volunteered to attend the event to help the seniors with the work involved with hosting it.
“When I put sponsorship of the picnic to a vote among our members this spring as one of our community donation options” noted P.B.A. Local 128 President Joe Quinn, “our officers voted overwhelmingly to go forward with it. But our members wanted to do even more than pay for the food — that’s when they offered to sign up if they were available to lend a hand where they could and be present for the seniors.”
“We’re grateful to our local P.B.A. for their generous sponsorship of our picnic and for the offer to help,” commented Hanover Township Senior Citizens Club President George Coppola. “With the assistance we get from the staff of our Department of Public Works in picking up and grilling the food, and our Recreation Department in overseeing the room set-up and making us feel at home, we thought the best way to take the P.B.A. up on their kind offer was to have them join us to chat with our members during the picnic.”
Township Committeeman Mike Mihalko, who serves as the governing body’s liaison to the Hanover Township Senior Citizens Club, also attended. “It’s great to see our seniors enjoying themselves at this event,” said Mihalko. “And having P.B.A. Local 128 members join them this year was a nice addition that gave them an opportunity to get to know our community’s police officers in a relaxed, informal setting.”