The other four signs are located on Route 24 on the Chester line, Schooley’s Mountain Road on the Hackettstown line, Route 513 on the Tewksbury line, and on Route 517 at the Califon line.

Piano Project 

Thanks to the commitment and hard work of the ladies of the Long Valley Junior Women’s Club, we were able to bestow a gift of music to the youth of our community.

 Primarily through monies raised in our organization’s Children’s Arts & Recreation Program (an after-school enrichment program familiarly known as C.A.R.E.), the Long Valley Junior Women’s Club was able to donate nearly $42,000 to Long Valley’s schools in 2007.  $20,000 of these funds was specifically designated to purchase brand new pianos – one for each of our exceptional elementary schools.

 The piano project commenced in December 2005, when Patricia Hill, music teacher of the Walter J. Kossmann School, expressed her wish to have a piano to teach her music classes and for school performances.  For Ms. Hill, having a piano was not an option for the school’s music program, it was a necessity.  The Long Valley Junior Women’s Club agreed, and, upon learning that none of the other primary schools in the district had pianos, the Juniors pursued the possibility of providing each school with one. 

 Thanks to the extensive piano research efforts of Ms. Hill as well as the generous discount provided by East Coast Piano, the Juniors voted to allocate the funds required to purchase 4 Baldwin Hamilton upright pianos for all of Long Valley’s youngsters to experience, learn from and enjoy.

 On June 21, 2006, we very proudly presented one of the exquisite instruments to Dr. Canning, Principal of the Kossmann School, Ms. Hill and the children of the Walter J. Kossmann School.  The ribbon cutting ceremony was symbolic of the gift of a piano to the children of Old Farmers Road, Flocktown Road and Benedict A. Cucinella Schools that were forthcoming.  Ms. Hill graciously volunteered to coordinate the delivery and tuning of these pianos prior to the reopening of school to the children in September.

With more than fifteen Juniors and their children attending the ceremony, the Kossmann School shared video coverage of the exciting delivery of the instrument a few weeks prior.  First graders cheered as the piano rolled into the school!

Before proceeding with the ribbon cutting we expressed our gratitude to our school district’s administrators, faculty, staff and Board of Education as well as the Long Valley community for their continued support of the CARE program as well as all of the Junior Women’s Club’s educational and community-based events, activities and programs.

We called upon Ms. Hill, Dr. Canning, Long Valley School Superintendent, Dr. Vernotica, and Old Farmer’s Road School Principal, Dr. Roberts to accept these gifts by assisting in cutting the piano’s ribbon.  Mayor of Long Valley, Tracy Tobin, also assisted in cutting the ribbon around the piano and in reading the engraving on the plaque found thereupon, “Donated to the Children of the Walter J. Kossmann School by the Junior Women’s Club of Long Valley.”

The ceremony concluded with the second-grade daughter of a Junior member playing “America the Beautiful” on the new piano with more than forty (40) second graders accompanying her with song.  To be sure, the children’s performance was the highlight of the ceremony.

Members of the Board of Education also attended the ceremony and they additionally formally acknowledged the gift at a Board of Education Meeting.  Following the ceremony one Board Member extended his personal thanks to our Club.  He wrote, in part, that

 “…as one member and as just a father with children in the district I want you to know what a wonderful gift the club has given and how wonderful it is that such giving women are so much a part of our district.  Those pianos will be in our schools as an instrument of delight and learning long after the children who were singing so beautifully are grown and have had children of their own.  What an incredible and enduring legacy.”

In recognition of this contribution of music, at the Spring Conference of the New Jersey Federated Junior Women’s Club, the Long Valley Junior Women’s Club was presented with the 2006-07 Woodrow Wilson Good Government Award.


Palmer Park Project

 In September 2005, a new playground was installed at Palmer Park located on Bartley Road, Long Valley, NJ.  The purchase and installation of the playground and surrounding barrier was primarily funded with donations from the Long Valley Junior Women’s Club and PBA Local 301. 

 The playground covers a space of 1300 sq. ft. and is equipped with three slides, a vertical climbing wall, a chain link climber, a funnel bridge with rails, a loop ladder, a crunch bar, a cargo net wall, and wavy tree climber and talking tubes.

 The playground is located near the entrance to Palmer Park between baseball field #2 and the soccer fields.