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News 12 Staff

54spotlightnj2

We are talking about the Fuse 5K race which is organized by It Takes a Borough in Metuchen. It happens on Father's Day morning. John Mendler is the president. Cathy Bush is a board member. Lauren Coe is vice president. Lauren, tell us all about this. So the Fuse 5K is the biggest fundraiser for our year. It happens every Father's Day. We kick off at about 8:30 in the morning and it's really an amazing community tradition. This will be our 17th year um having this race on this Father's Day and it really is such an amazing opportunity for community to come together. We have everyone running from diehard runners who are, you know, getting another 5K in the books to. I guess families who want to just get out for the morning whether they're walking with their kids in strollers, little toddlers on bicycles alongside of them just chatting up with a neighbor that you haven't seen in a while, it's really such a great opportunity for people to come together, spend the morning before they start their Father's Day. Do people need to know the meaning behind this race? I do think it's important for the the to remember that they that it's run in memory of Mike Fuscial um, that's the basis of it and that's the spirit of what we're doing the the race like Lauren said is, is extremely fun. We've, um, even if you wanna volunteer in it, if like she said, if you wanna push a stroller, you wanna walk, you wanna run. Um, we take everybody that wants to come and come and get involved. Uh, we are doing it in the spirit of what, uh, Mike Fusila done towards, towards contributing to his community and the proceeds of the race, um, are, are given back to the community that it's directed right back to the community. What kind of a turnout do you have and why are people so excited to take part? Oh, it's it's an amazing day. We generate about 1000 people get involved between volunteers, runners, people cheering them on. Um, the whole town comes alive, and this year we're doing it right. Through downtown Metuchen, so that's gonna generate a lot of energy as well. What's really cool in addition is that it's sort of become like the thing everyone knows they're gonna do on on Father's Day. It's sort of written in pen on everyone's calendar. You pop up for as long as I can remember we were up at 6 a.m. on Father's Day. Uh, let dad sleep in. We go out, start getting registration going and volunteering, and then everyone meets at the start line. It's just a really happy day, great way to start Father's Day.

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54spotlightnj3

It takes a borough is holding a fuse 5K race on Father's Day morning. John Mendler is the president. Cathy Bush, board member, Lauren Cohen, vice president. High energy, two keyboards tell us. Yes, this race is such a high energy race. It really is a very spirited morning filled with families, everyone ranging from very serious runners who kick off our race, and once they get going, the families. We have a DJ who kicks off the race. We have warmups. We let balloons go up in the air. It's really a lot of fun and part of that is the race itself and part of it is just all the families that come downtown to partake in the race. It's a really great atmosphere for kids who can feel very safe just riding their bikes along the route or mothers pushing a stroller or walking next to your neighbor and just kind of chatting it up because you haven't seen them in a while. All while doing something good for members in the community who might need help, that's what you were underscoring, Cathy, how everybody can go off and do their own thing. Yeah, it's a great morning. You can just kind of let your kids, it's a community event and it feels like a community event and even though there's hundreds and hundreds of people there, kids sort of run off and run off and their moms catch up with them at the finish line and they surprise themselves sometimes they make good time, right? Some of our youngest runners are our fastest runners. We're looking at the new route. Tell me about it. So this year the race is moving downtown to Metuchen's Great American Main Street. We're super excited to have the energy of being able to run through the streets that we frequent every day, and we're we're very excited. We'll be kicking off downtown and circling back and finishing downtown with all the festivities that that we've had in our other location. It will be even more amplified this year. Very excited. We have so many opportunities to. Get involved through sponsorships or registrations. So if you're just a diehard runner who wants to knock out another 50, you can register as a single, but we have opportunities for family memberships where you can get up to 6 members for a registration fee, including t-shirts and a goodie bag, um, and then we also have an opportunity for corporate sponsorships, lots of different versions ranging from a community member up to platinum, and all that can be found on our website it takes a borough.com. Are you looking for a huge turnout? We're looking for a huge turnout where we'd like to see the event, uh, get the excitement, uh, get going and the more people the better.

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54spotlightnj5_2025-05-04-12-45-58

It takes a borough does a lot to give back to its community. John Mendler is president. Cathy Bush is board member. Lauren Cohen is vice president. Let's talk about that, what you all do so people can appreciate what ITA is all about. OK, uh, it takes a borough is, is kind of. Inherent in its name, what we try and do is is give an avenue for our borough to support each other uh through uh various means but mostly fund raising uh through events that, uh, we do a race and a cookie walk and, uh, we try and raise funds to give back to the community and the the the people that we try and help, uh, mostly are kind of uh been impacted by unforeseen circumstances, uh, whether it be a fire, uh. Family death of a loved one or family member or or or provider within the family and uh we're there as as that type of backstop to help them but we're just more of a channel of what the community does uh the community puts in their registrations for the for the race for the baking and the cookie walk for buying cookies and we we kind of uh just kind of administer the funds we hear about the cases and we try and help. Help uh pass it out with the community where we see need. You say the borough is this just from a touching? Yes, it's um the recipients of um most of our efforts are people who live in or work in or play a vital role in the community um and usually we learn about the cases just through word of mouth, uh someone someone's neighbor or you know someone's family member, but we do have a website it takes a borough.com where there is actually an application. It's very easy to go on and kind of fill out a form to reach out to us or to email us if you find yourself or someone you know possibly in need of help. How have you helped people in need? Do you have any examples you can share? So I can last year during 2024 we we administered about $100,000 in aid through. Uh, various channels for, uh, the same cases in terms of, of untimely death. Uh, Cathy and Lauren were both instrumental in in facilitating a. Uh, response to people that were affected by a fire, so we might help relocate those people while they couldn't get into their apartment or, you know, help them get closed for the day or two after while they're kind of sorting through all of what they have to do to be able to move forward with their lives after a fire like that um and that was one of our biggest events last year.

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54spotlightnj4

My guests all belong to it takes a borough, John Menler, President Kathy Bush, board member Lauren Cone, vice president. We're talking about your Mautin cookie walk, Cathy, yeah, the Cookie walk is our other touchstone event. It takes a borough has the Fuse 5K and our major other major event, but the cookie walk happens around the holidays and um it's amazing. People come from all over the state to buy cookies that are donated and baked by. People in our community and people in the surrounding community, they home home bake and decorate cookies, holiday cookies. We present them and people line up for hours before we open the doors and we sell out of, oh gosh, how many cookies, Lauren? Probably upwards of 1,200,012,000 cookies in less than 3 hours we would sell more and less than 3 hours. We always turn people away at the end. They're always disappointed. It's sad to say but I guess it's good for. People who make these cookies too good for them it's excellent and um people after the event's over, people are always going online trying to get recipes for their favorite cookies and it really becomes a whole event unto itself with a big following and it's really, really fun. It's a fun morning. We sell two size boxes of cookies. People buy them for themselves for gifts. Every dollar goes back to it takes a borough to help support families in need, uh, families struck by, uh, tragedy. Crisis um and and it's just a really great event around the holidays. People want to give back and it's a wonderful way to do it and a jolly way to do it. And speaking of what you won't do for the community, tell people more. Well, what we try and do with the community is I, I kind of look at it as a kind of a tragedy type insurance where the, the community is basically supporting each other and they also know that we'll be there to support them if they need it to so what you put in. You hopefully don't need, but you would get out if you in turn needed some help in the in the future but we basically deal with with I uh kind of situations that are unforeseen circumstances, uh er uh early deaths like untimely deaths, um, fires in the neighborhood, uh, in within the uh community that displaced members were impact members, uh, and just unforeseen circumstances where we can kind of. Try and help um provide some support. Oftentimes it's financial, but it doesn't always have to be financial if we can find ways to help and people can go online to figure out if they can apply to get help from you. That's right, yes, we can, we, you can access, uh, on it takes a borough there's a request for help form.

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54spotlightnj6_2025-05-04-12-46-59

It takes a borough does a lot of fundraising, but they also do a lot of community building and connecting. John Mendler is president. Cathy Bush is board member. Lauren Conn, vice president. Tell me everything people need to know based on what I just said. We really try to proceed with the driving idea that we're better together and you know as a community um we're helping each other out like John said um we're we're putting in the effort and helping people when they might have a need so that in turn if one day we have you know we personally have a need that support is there so the idea is sort of a pay it forward kind of idea and um. What we found is that above and beyond the help that we're providing um and the support we're able to give, we are connecting each other. It makes it makes our community stronger because we are intertwined and these events help to strengthen that fabric and that and that interconnection, but so does just the day to day activity of It Takes a burrow. We're sort of sprinkled around town in different ways throughout the year. And we do have a lot of ways that people can get involved. There's obviously there are two big events, the Cookie Walk and the Fuse 5K, which require a lot of volunteer efforts, and we're always willing to have people help out with those. But throughout the year we have some smaller events sprinkled sprinkled through where we're always looking again for people to come out and help and then just to get the word out so that if you do find yourself in an unforeseen circumstance or perhaps a neighbor who's in need of help. You know that we exist and the more people that know the more money we can raise and the more people we can give back and help. How often do you all meet? How many members do you have? We have 8 board members right now and we meet once a month, uh, but we're always constantly in contact because we're either planning a race or we are dealing with something that that was brought to our attention that we don't want to wait for a month, you know, and if somebody needs help they might need it right away so we're we're willing to. Pick up the phone, get everything together and get organized. Sometimes it's the response like a a fire where uh Lauren alluded to it earlier. These people need clothes, so that doesn't wait a month for our meeting that needs the response that day or the next day. So we're always on it's a volunteer organization, a volunteer board, and we rely completely on the community they're. They're 100% part of this and we just try and kind of channel channel their help to the people that need it. Yeah, we really need our volunteers. The volunteers help drive us forward and and I think what people find is once they do volunteer they feel so good about it they look for opportunities to volunteer again and differently and that's really that's really what makes it special.

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News 12’s Della Crews spoke to president John Mindler and vice president Lauren Cohen to learn more about the group’s mission. 

Spotlight New Jersey: It Takes a Borough

News 12’s Della Crews spoke to president John Mindler and vice president Lauren Cohen to learn more about the group’s mission.

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