William Penn Life, 2009 (44. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
2009-05-01 / 5. szám
Magyar Matters AHF honors environmentalist,public servant NEW BRUNSWICK, NJ - A highly successful young environmentalist and an extremely active public servant were honored April 25 during the American Hungarian Foundation's 46th Anniversary Carousel Ball held at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in New Brunswick. Tom Szaky, founder and chief executive officer of TerraCycle, was presented the Foundation's Abraham Lincoln Award. Also honored was Melonie Krisza Marano, mayor of Green Brook, N.J., who received the Distinguished Service Award. Szaky was bom in Budapest in 1982 and emigrated with his family as political refugees first to Holland and then to Canada in 1989. At the age of 14 he started his first business, an award-winning web design company, and later helped start three small Internet companies. He came to the United States in 2001 and attended Princeton University, but left college to form TerraCycle, Inc., known for organic plant food. From a two-man operation in the basement of an old office building in Princeton, TerraCyle now occupies a 20,000-square-foot factory in Trenton where it employs about 45 workers. It is a "second chance employer" which hires veterans, exconvicts, former drug addicts and the homeless to work as part of a team. It is one of the faster growing organic and eco-friendly companies in the country and sells its products through numerous retailers, including Home Depot, Wal-Mart, Target and Whole Foods. Marano, whose maternal grandparents emigrated from Hungary in the early 1900s, is a graduate of Rider College. After earning a degree in accounting, she worked for a public accounting firm and then for the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) for 11 years. She later worked for another music licensing group, SESAC. In 2003, she ran for a seat on the Green Brook Township Committee as a Democrat, becoming the first member of her party to win such a seat in more than 20 years. In 2009, her peers on the township committee appointed her mayor, the township's first Democratic mayor in 46 years. She has served on the Green Brook Environmental Commission; Green Brook Flood Control Commission; Green Brook Cultural, Heritage and Historical Preservation Committee; Green Brook Design Group; Planning Board and Elder Affairs Committe. Dedicated to fostering volunteerism, Marano was the creator and chair of Green Brook's annual Volunteer Day, which attracts about 400 volunteers to clean up the town. She has also served as a Girl Scout leader, religious school teacher, Junior Achievement consultant and chair of the 2008 Red Cross Heroes fundraising campaign. cIhe Hungarian <Rpom Committee of the University of ^Pittsburgh Cordiady invites you to join in the cefeßration of the 70th anniversary of the dedication of the Hungarian CCassroom Saturday, June 13, 2009, at the University CCu6 of the 'University of Pittsburgh. Cash <Bar- 5:00p.m. /(Dinner - 6:00p.m. /<Program - 7:00p.m. 1Todowed 6y Five music and dancing ‘Tickets -$40/person Tor reservations, cad John L. Lovász at 412-231-2979, e%t. 145 or Lndre Csornán at 412-231-2979, exp. 136. William Penn Life, May 2009 9
