Video: Bicentennial in Morristown celebrates an enduring safety net, sewn by women

TIME TRAVELERS: They re-created the 1913 Central Bureau of Social Service, a forerunner of today's Family Service of Morris County. From left: Donna McNamara, Karen Ann Kurlander, Peg Shultz, Ann Stachenfeld and Ariadne Montfalcone. Photo by Kevin Coughlin
TIME TRAVELERS: They re-created the 1913 Central Bureau of Social Service, a forerunner of today's Family Service of Morris County. From left: Donna McNamara, Karen Ann Kurlander, Peg Shultz, Ann Stachenfeld and Ariadne Montfalcone. Photo by Kevin Coughlin
3

Would the world be a better place if women ran everything?

We may never know. But Morris County certainly is better off thanks to 17 ladies who took matters into their own hands two centuries ago.

They called themselves the Female Charitable Society, and their mission was to help Morristown families affected by the War of 1812. That organization evolved into Family Service of Morris County, which today touches 7,000 lives across northern New Jersey with pre-school-, adult daycare- and counseling programs.

Family Service marked its bicentennial recently with ceremonies at the place where it all began, the Presbyterian Church in Morristown.

This video, by our production company,  traces the origins of one of the state’s first social safety nets. Our thanks to re-enactors Carrie Fellows, Karen Ann Kurlander, Donna McNamara, Ann Stachenfeld, Peg Shultz, Ariadne Montfalcone and Larry Cohen, and to the Macculloch Hall Historical Museum, the Kellogg Club and Karen Ann Kurlander for graciously providing authentic historical settings.

Thanks also to Family Service volunteer Roland Ekerdt and to the Morristown & Township Library for combing their archives, and to CEO Patrice Picard and her staff at Family Service for their enthusiastic support.

TIME TRAVELERS: They re-created the 1913 Central Bureau of Social Service, a forerunner of today's Family Service of Morris County. From left: Donna McNamara, Karen Ann Kurlander, Peg Shultz, Ann Stachenfeld and Ariadne Montfalcone. Photo by Kevin Coughlin
TIME TRAVELERS: They re-created the 1913 Central Bureau of Social Service, a forerunner of today's Family Service of Morris County. From left: Donna McNamara, Karen Ann Kurlander, Peg Shultz, Ann Stachenfeld and Ariadne Montfalcone. Photo by Kevin Coughlin

 

3 COMMENTS

LEAVE A REPLY