“Volunteer Of The Year,” “Community Partner” And “Media Partner” Awards At Main Street Vineland’s A Taste Of Vineland & Volunteer Recognition Event

(left to right): Vineland Board of Education (Community Partner of the Year) representatives Dr. Mary Gruccio (Superintendent of Schools) and Ross Stanger (Supervisor of Instruction), Main Street Vineland Board of Directors Chairperson Brian Lankin, Vineland Board of Education representative Rossini Salerno (Administrative Assistant to Dr. Gruccio); Visto Bueno editor Alfonso Bermudez (Media Partner of the Year), Main Street Vineland Design Team Chairperson Vanessa Sosa (Volunteer of the Year, and Main Street Vineland Executive Director Russell Swanson.

Main Street Vineland honored one of its lead volunteers with this year’s “Volunteer of the Year” award—as well as new “Community Partner” and “Media Partner” awards—at its recent ninth annual A Taste of Vineland & Volunteer Recognition Event at the Greenview Inn at Eastlyn Golf Course. 4049 Italia Ave., Vineland.

The event, in addition to recognizing Main Street Vineland, brought Vineland’s finest restaurants together offering their signature dishes and raised funds for downtown beautification, business recruitment and development, and events. The major sponsor was Century Savings Bank.

Honored as “Volunteers of the Year” was Vanessa Sosa, Chairperson of Main Street Vineland’s Design Team. Sosa was recognized for her hard work on several Design Team initiatives, to enhance the appearance of Vineland’s downtown—The Ave. “She has really hit the ground running on projects ranging from our updated “Operation Facelift” façade improvement grant, to our Military Mural project and much more,” said Main Street Executive Director Russell Swanson

The Vineland Board of Education was honored as “Community Partner”—one of two new awards this year. The Board has partnered with Main Street Vineland in several initiatives over the years—including the annual Scarecrow Contest/Pumpkin Patch Party event, Christmas Tree Contest, and others. “They have been true partners with us in so many ways,” Swanson said. When we need something that they can provide—even something like providing a school bus for our Realtor Tour—Dr. Mary Gruccio [Superintendent of Schools], Ross Stanger [Supervisor of Instruction], and Rossini Salerno [Administrative Assistant to Dr. Gruccio] have made the Board’s resources available to us.”

The “Media Partner” award, new this year, went to Alfonso Bermudez, editor of the area Spanish-language newspaper Visto Bueno, for his diligent coverage and publicity of Main Street Vineland events. Bermudez as long been active in covering events for the area Hispanic population, for with the newspaper Su Voz and then with his newspaper Visto Bueno. “His regular promotion of our events—articles and photos—has played an important role in getting the news out to Vineland’s large Spanish population,” Swanson said. “It is rare that Alfonso misses one of our events to get copy for his newspaper. Whether it is an article, press release, or an ad, he is right there to help us.”

“I am so proud and honored to have all of them as volunteers and partners who help to carry forth the great work of Main Street Vineland,” Swanson said. “With people like them and our other many committed volunteers helping us, we are making our downtown—The Ave—a focal point and the heart and soul of Vineland.”