With a century of life under his belt, it’s not easy to get much past World War II veteran Stephen Anderson.
But last Tuesday, Anderson was surprised to return home to find a large 100th birthday celebration in his honor with gifts, commendations, and even a letter from Gov. Mikie Sherrill waiting for him.
Wearing both a T-shirt and belt buckle emblazoned with the United States Marine Corps emblem, Anderson entered the dining room at the Wynwood Rehabilitation and Healthcare Center in Cinnaminson with a big smile as his friends, fellow veterans, neighbors, and more sang “Happy Birthday.” Each of Anderson’s arms are adorned with prominent dark tattoos that have now mostly faded to outlines, the finer details lost to time.
As cupcakes and ice cream were passed around, Anderson was quick to laugh as he joked with the staff and reunited with longtime friends from the American Legion, where he has been a member for 82 years.
“It’s amazing,” he said in between bouts of banter with old friends.
“It’s great because I can’t get out like I used to,” he said. Now, everyone’s come to him.
WWII U.S. Marine Corps (and U.S. Air Force) veteran Stephen Anderson is surprised by fellow vets who attended his 100th birthday party Tuesday at the Wynwood Rehabilitation & Healthcare Center in Cinnaminson.Tom Gralish / Staff Photographer
The party was put together by the staff at Wynwood, where he has lived since 2023 and has since become a beloved resident.
Stephanie Ward, Wynwood’s director of social work, was the driving force behind the celebration, organizing the party and contacting the Legion, the Tun Legacy Foundation, and the governor’s office to recognize Anderson for his lifetime of service.
“He’s so amazing, he’s got a kind heart,” Ward said. “All the veterans always have a special place in my heart and this big milestone, you’ve got to celebrate it.”
Cupcakes, including one with topping of iconic flag raising at Iwo Jima, at the 100th birthday party for WWII U.S. Marine Corps (and U.S. Air Force) veteran Stephen Anderson at the Wynwood Rehabilitation & Healthcare Center in Cinnaminson. He was presented with a letter from Gov. Mikie Sherrill, and letters from both the commandant and sergeant major of the Marine Corps, and more. Tom Gralish / Staff Photographer
Not one to draw attention to himself, she joked that Anderson would probably give her a hard time for setting up the elaborate surprise party for him.
“I’m going to get yelled at later,” she said with a laugh. “But he deserves everything.”
Separated by oceans and decades, it is clear that Anderson’s military service is still close to his heart.
Originally from Massachusetts, he enlisted in the Marines at just 17 years old and was quickly sent to fight in some of the most harrowing battles of WWII, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War. A rare two-branch veteran, Anderson also served in the Air Force from 1961 to 1963.
“Where he fought is legendary. Saipan, Okinawa — some of the largest battles of the war,” said Patrick Dailey, a Marine and founder of the Tun Legacy Foundation, which is working to rebuild Philadelphia’s historic Tun Tavern, where the Marine Corps was born in the 17th century.
WWII U.S. Marine Corps (and U.S. Air Force) veteran Stephen Anderson arrives for his 100th birthday party with Stephanie Ward (left), director of social services at the Wynwood Rehabilitation & Healthcare Center in Cinnaminson.Tom Gralish / Staff Photographer
To honor his years of service and sacrifice, Anderson was presented with official letters from Gov. Mikie Sherrill, the New Jersey legislature, and various levels of American Legion leadership.
Anderson seemed particularly moved by messages from his fellow Marines — personal letters from the Marine Corps commandant, the highest-ranking officer, and the sergeant major of the Marine Corps, the most senior enlisted member of the service.
He was also gifted an American flag that was flown over the U.S. Marine Corps Memorial by troops in Washington, D.C., on July 4 for him.
WWII U.S. Marine Corps (and U.S. Air Force) veteran Stephen Anderson (left) is greeted by his roommate Michael Evans (right) at his 100th birthday party Tuesday at the Wynwood Rehabilitation & Healthcare Center in Cinnaminson.Tom Gralish / Staff Photographer
While Anderson said he expected some of the Wynwood staff might be up to something for his birthday, he said he was not anticipating the celebration that had formed around him.
Brought to New Jersey in the 60s “by Uncle Sam,” as he put it, Anderson spent many years living in Burlington and has long been a dedicated member of American Legion Local Post 39 based in Roebling, at one point serving as commander.
Looking back, he said one of the best parts of the job was simply getting to drive all over rural South Jersey.
“I kind of miss that, I used to travel all the back roads,” he said with a smile.
WWII U.S. Marine Corps (and U.S. Air Force) veteran Stephen Anderson is photographed with letters and proclamations following his 100th birthday party Tuesday at the Wynwood Rehabilitation & Healthcare Center in Cinnaminson.Tom Gralish / Staff Photographer
Anderson has lived “a lifetime of service to the military, to the country, to the American Legion,” said longtime friend Chuck Robbins, a former national vice commander of the American Legion who worked with Anderson.
“You couldn’t ask for a more outstanding vice commander. Somebody who did their job to the fullest and always had my back — I will never forget the service you gave to me,” he said as he presented Anderson with a letter from the national commander of the Legion.
Looking at the flag in its shadow box, numerous framed commendations, piles of birthday cards and more laid out on the table before him, Anderson joked with Ward that they’d need to work out a plan to accommodate all of his gifts.
“You better get me a bigger room!” he said, laughing.
SEA ISLE CITY, N.J. — This is not the same old Sea Isle.
Jason and Kylie Kelce are mired in a four-year wait for membership to the Sea Isle City Yacht Club. They are currently No. 78 of 251, up from last year’s 149.
Neighbors are fighting over noise from the Oar House Pub, which expanded this year into two nearby buildings.
Prices in this Shore town have skyrocketed: The median home sale price for the three months ending in May 2026 was $1.8 million, according to Redfin, up 27% from the year before. For May alone, it was $2.2 million.
Blocks in Sea Isle are stuffed with new, side-by-side construction, multiple SUVs in pebbled front yards, with few trees or backyards. People sunbathe in their driveways. Silverados have near-collisions with Audis in the Acme parking lot, as golf carts idle out front.
Is it still pleasant on Pleasure Avenue?
People line the beach in Sea Isle City on Wednesday, June 25, 2025 in Sea Isle City, NJ.Monica Herndon / Staff Photographer
Depends on whom you ask. For some, the changes feel more like a maturing of Sea Isle, certainly an upscaling, from the beloved Shore town’s raucous old party days. Houses cost too much to risk renting to the rowdy Shore house crews of years past, homeowners say.
But for others, the town’s rash of new construction, the pricing out of old blue-collar regulars, the impossible parking, even the price of an entree at a restaurant all feel like a betrayal.
Workingman’s beach
Colin Ratner, 53, of Fairmount, global director of sales at a medical software company, raves about Sea Isle’s enduring charms, a place where his daughters have found a sense of freedom they don’t have in Philadelphia, riding their bikes barefoot and playing outdoor basketball games to cheering crowds.
“In Philly, they’re not leaving the street without us knowing where they’re going,” he said. “Here, it’s like ‘Come back before we go to sleep.’ I call Sea Isle Middle America.”
Colin Ratner and his wife, Cindi, of Center City, at their home in Sea Isle City for the summer think the town has matured in a good way, Wednesday, June 24, 2026.Vernon Ogrodnek / For The Inquirer
A rowhouse dweller in Philly, he is not bothered by the density or the parking crunch. “Our property[value] has more than doubled since 2018,” he said. “I’m seeing less renters, and more people using their property, less of the crazy house parties. It’s really kind of settled down.”
Jo Ferenchak bought in 2017 and rents out to cover costs. Her parents bought their Sea Isle house in 1977, she said, for $20,000.
“When my parents bought their house, it was called the Working Man’s Beach,” she said via Facebook message. “No more!”
In a sign of the times, she said her children and grandchildren love to go mini golfing, “but we go to Pirate Island in Avalon because it is so hard to find parking at Pirate Island in Sea Isle.”
‘Saturation point’
It has been more than a decade since a town survey found that 62% of responders said traffic was a problem. The survey, taken for a master plan, drew comments that included “Feeling of too much density and congestion,” “Seashore feeling is being lost,” and “We’ve reached a saturation point.”
Things are more overstuffed than ever, many residents, summer and year-round, say.
Sea Isle’s year-round population is 2,019, fairly stable despite some declines in the years after Hurricane Sandy and some increases after COVID-19. But it can swell to 70,000 on a busy summer weekend.
The change in the housing stock is more dramatic. Between 1990 and 2020, there were about 17% more units created, mostly for seasonal residents, according to the city’s data. Although some old bungalows remain, the town is essentially built out, city officials say.
Sea Isle even proposed partnering with a mainland town to essentially outsource its required share of affordable housing units as required by New Jersey law, but that was not allowed.
New construction off 57th Street, in Sea Isle City, Wednesday, June 24, 2026.Vernon Ogrodnek / For The Inquirer
In a town long known for its rowdy bar scene, there is less tolerance than ever for the spillover effects in dense neighborhoods.
In June, a dispute erupted between the Oar House Pub and its neighbors, including Mike’s Seafood owner Mike Monachetti, a prominent figure around town and a pal of the Kelces’.
Monachetti told the city council that the noise from the pub was regularly so loud “the water cups were vibrating on the tables” at his place.
“Think about what you’re doing,” he scolded the council. “My neighbors suffer from noise, loud noise, smoke going right up into their properties, and, yes, people out on the streets, beer cans on my property. Please, look at your own laws and ordinances. You are putting an alcohol license closer to a church, as well as underneath a residence that was never intended to be a bar.”
Council President Michael Jargowsky, 64, says with the town nearly entirely built out, there is not much to do in terms of stemming overdevelopment.
The city is always looking at adding parking, he said, though he notes that not everyone wants to cross the causeway and see a multistory parking garage.
“Our town has changed a lot physically,” said Jargowsky, a former city police officer who grew up in Sea Isle and paid $205,000 in 1995 for a century-old bungalow. “A lot of single-family bungalows and Victorian homes are now the side-by-sides: three bedrooms went to a combined 14 bedrooms in some places.”
The increase in property value has brought new revenue to the town, and a robust capital project agenda, including a new community center. Longtime residents who sold, or whose children sold, did very well, he noted.
Some things about the town have stayed the same.
“You still see a lot of banners for Delco,” he said.
The Oar House Pub, off 42nd Place, at right, would like to expand to the empty lot adjacent to it, and found itself in a controversy with neighbors over the noise, in Sea Isle City, Wednesday, June 24, 2026.Vernon Ogrodnek / For The Inquirer
‘Like a bad AI-generated image’
Rick Kane, who worked at a family friend’s business for eight years in Sea Isle and lives just on the mainland, said the town is a shell of its former self.
“Many of the affordable family restaurants and cheap bars are gone, replaced by high-dollar places,” Kane said. “Sea Isle has lost its charm and personality. It’s now like a bad AI-generated image of a ‘Shore town.’”
Eagles cornerback Cooper DeJean signs autographs for fans as a celebrity bartender at former Eagle Jason Kelce’s annual Team 62 fundraising event for the Eagles Autism Foundation at the outdoor Paddy’s Green in Sea Isle City, Wednesday, June 24, 2026.Vernon Ogrodnek / For The Inquirer
Christopher Capuzzi, 42, a New York City capital markets attorney originally from Delaware County, said he bought on Long Beach Island even though his extended family gathers in Sea Isle and continues to own houses there.
Capuzzi said he paid $2.8 million in 2022 for a 3,500-square-foot house on LBI, one house from the ocean.
On LBI, he said, “My money’s stretched a lot further, and we actually have trees.”
“When it came time for me to buy, I just felt like Sea Isle has gotten so overdeveloped, the way they cram homes in, every home is basically a side-by-side. The garages don’t fit a single car in them. Parking has become a nightmare.”
Some things haven’t changed
For some diehards, like the 165 members of the extended Mannion family of West Chester and other Philly burbs that for a half-century has rented a half-dozen houses in Sea Isle for the last two weeks in June, the Sea Isle memories compound every year, albeit as the rents, along with all the new construction, go up.
It is a destination they wouldn’t change for anything, family members say.
Over at Trinity Community Church of Sea Isle City, pastor Chuck Swanson says his church has been a constant amid all the changes. A seasonal nondenominational place of worship, the church has been at 85th and Landis for 103 summers.
Chuck Swanson, pastor of the historic Trinity Community Church, off 85th Street and Landis Avenue, in Sea Isle City, says the resort town has significantly changed in that the old character of the town has been fundamentally altered, but the change is mostly good and the city is preparing for the future, Wednesday, June 24, 2026.Vernon Ogrodnek / For The Inquirer
“Sea Isle City has changed a lot of late,” Swanson said. “Lots of destruction of older homes and construction of new ones … the old character of the town has been fundamentally changed. Change is mostly good and the city is preparing for the future.
“One thing that hasn’t changed is our church.”
Jim Albright of Bordentown, whose family has owned a house in Sea Isle since 1998, said the town is no longer affordable for most people.
“My dad was an electrician for GM and my mom was an elementary school teacher in Trenton, and on their salaries they were able to buy this house,” he said. “They would absolutely be priced out now.”
Homes along Landis Avenue, here near 23rd Street, have grown higher as the summer bungalows are replaced with more elaborate, and expensive, contruction in Sea Isle City, Wednesday, June 24, 2026.Vernon Ogrodnek / For The Inquirer
The Kelces can still make Sea Isle the center of the party universe when they hold the Eagles Autism Foundation fundraising days every year in June, but Albright and others see a vibe shift.
“There’s been a massive influx of money. You can tell even by looking at the cars being driven around town,” Albright said.
Regina Lewallen lived full time in Sea Isle from 2020 to 2025. “We loved how friendly everyone was,” she said.
But in those five years, the town transformed, she said. “Many houses were torn down, more people bought homes, parking became scarce, and it was obvious that the powers that be didn’t have a specific plan for what Sea Isle City could be,” she said.
Former Eagle Jason Kelce draws large crowds when he hosts his annual Team 62 fundraising event for the Eagles Autism Foundation at the outdoor Paddy’s Green in Sea Isle City, Wednesday, June 24, 2026. The two-day event features celebrity bartending and a Beer Bowl, drawing thousands of fans and raising hundreds of thousands of dollars for the cause.Vernon Ogrodnek / For The Inquirer
Jen DiMartino, 54, of West Chester, has been going down to Sea Isle for more than 50 years, to 36th and Pleasure Avenue, the third generation of her family to call Sea Isle its summer home.
She says she misses the “ma and pa shops and everyone knowing who you are,” but says there is still pleasure to be found.
Smoke from Canadian wildfires continues to blanket the region, casting a haze across the sky and posing a risk for people with respiratory issues.
With massive fires burning across Western Ontario, forecasters said wind patterns shifted this week to allow the smoke from those fires to enter the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic United States.
The city raised the air quality alert level from code red to code purple — meaning the air is “very unhealthy” and can cause health issues for all people.
Friday morning, at least six of the city’s air quality sensors were registering above 200 in the amount of fine particulate matter and nitrogen dioxide in the air, a metric called the air quality index. The city website tracking air data warned people to stay inside, keep windows and doors closed, and run air purifiers if possible. Those who must venture outside should wear N95 or KN95 masks.
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An AQI between 150 and 200 is still considered unhealthy to breathe with prolonged exposure, according to the EPA. Children, older people, and those with respiratory issues could be particularly susceptible to health issues. In air quality alerts issued by the National Weather Service, forecasters recommended avoiding prolonged outdoor exposure, particularly activities like exercise.
By Friday a prior heat advisory had been lifted, with temperatures expected to near 90. Air quality tends to worsen in dense, urban environments during hot weather.
Forecasters urged residents across the eastern United States, particularly those with respiratory issues, to monitor alerts from local officials and be mindful of conditions where they live or work.
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Data centers have drawn controversy across the region as residents protest their potential impact on the environment, noise levels, and quality of life. That debate is raging now in Monroe Township, where officials recently banned their development.
Now, a company that has been planning to build a data center in the Gloucester County municipality is pushing back.
Princeton-based Hexa Builders has for years sought to develop a property at 3043 Black Horse Pike. It’s now suing Monroe officials for $300 million after they denied its application to build a 1 million-square-foot data center and a warehouse.
Among Hexa’s allegations, according to its complaint: “Data centers are a medium of expression and banning data centers would impose a significant burden on the free speech rights of all citizens in the United States.”
An Inquirer staffer’s typed interview notes from 2019 came into the possession of the New Jersey Attorney General’s Office during an investigation that led to the high-profile, and recently abandoned, racketeering indictment against South Jersey power broker George E. Norcross III.
News organizations typically treat unpublished reporting material as confidential and often fight government demands for it in court.
The Inquirer’s top editor said the notes were not passed on by the journalist, nor was the company subpoenaed by authorities for them.
More than 500 acres of Burlington County farmland could be protected from development after officials voted to bring seven farms into the county’s Farmland Preservation Program.
The parasitic infection cyclosporiasis has been found in dozens of states, though cases in New Jersey were at typical levels as of this week.
Burlington County received $500,000 to improve its trails. The bulk of the funding will go toward engineering design costs for a trail segment that goes through Mount Laurel.
State energy regulators are investigating after July Fourth storms left around 850,000 New Jerseyans without power, mostly in areas serviced by PSE&G and Jersey Central Power & Light, New Jersey Monitor reports.
Somerdale Cold Cuts in Somerdale has temporarily closed after a thief stole copper piping connected to its refrigerator and deli case, according to 6abc.
🧠Trivia time
Which former New Jersey governor signed a bill into law to formally recognize Central Jersey?
A reader asks: I have been doing the Shore my entire life. I still pack an outfit for every day and an outfit for every night. Am I weird? Do other people do this or do they just throw stuff in a suitcase and wear the same things over and over because they are “on vacation down the shore”?
Amy answered: I appreciate [this reader’s] effort to keep things elevated. But I think the majority is falling into the “throw stuff in a suitcase” camp. Plus, they need room for the sheets the rentals don’t provide down the Shore.
Where do you fall on this topic? Is there such a thing as too casual at the Shore? Email Rosenberg at downtheshore@inquirer.com.
📸 Photo of the week
Hazy skies over the Ben Franklin Bridge caused by wildfires in Canada on Thursday.Aidan T. Gallo / Staff Photographer
Stay safe out there as you enjoy your weekend. I’ll be back with you Monday morning with more South Jersey news of the day.
By submitting your written, visual, and/or audio contributions, you agree to The Inquirer’s Terms of Use, including the grant of rights in Section 10.
A real estate developer sued local officials in Monroe Township for $300 million shortly after the Gloucester County municipality banned data centers. Now, the case has moved to federal court.
Hexa Builders, a Princeton-based real estate developer, has long sought to develop a property at 3043 Black Horse Pike. Hexa filed a lawsuit on June 5 in New Jersey Superior Court after Monroe officials denied its application to build a 1 million-square-foot data center and a warehouse on the property.
The ban, put in place by two ordinances approved by the township on April 22, followed months of public outcry against Hexa’s potential project. Even after the ban was passed and officially took effect on May 13, Monroe Township residents packed the room when Hexa presented its application that still included a data center at a rowdy Special Planning Board meeting on May 22.
In the filing against Monroe’s mayor, township, and planning board, Hexa claimed the application rejection and data center ban are arbitrary, violate freedom of speech rights and the 14th Amendment, and more. The Woodbury Warbler, a local news site, reported on the filing last month.
Jim Maley, Hexa’s lawyer and a partner at Maley Givens in Collingswood, said he expects the ban to be overthrown, since he believes the ban in Monroe stems from trending public disdain for data centers.
“Nobody is giving any testimonial, any scientific reasons for the good of the community. Everybody’s doing it,” Maley said. “It’s just a thing.”
For now, Maley said Hexa is at a standstill. But the company still wants to complete the project, even with the public’s pushback and what could be a lengthy court process.
On July 6, the township moved for the case to be pushed to federal court, closing the Superior Court case, and no federal proceedings are on the docket yet.
“The Township is committed to vigorously and zealously defending this lawsuit while remaining steadfast in its commitment to protecting the interests of the Township, its residents, and its taxpayers,” said Sandra Graise, solicitor for Monroe Township, in an email.
Graise declined to further comment on the case or the data center ban, but the township wrote in a Facebook post last month that the lawsuit wasn’t a surprise.
How the ban came to be
Hexa, led by CEO Dipal Patel, officially obtained the property in a $5 million transfer of about 170 acres of farmland back in 2022. The township has included that land in a resolution for commercial redevelopment since 2019.
The site was previously approved for the construction of hundreds of homes when Hexa bought it, Maley said, but the township ended up moving in a different direction. In 2022, the township approved a redevelopment plan that set the grounds for Hexa to build warehouse, storage, and distribution facilities on Black Horse Pike, but not data centers.
That changed in early 2025, when the township passed an ordinance amending the redevelopment plan to allow data centers.
It didn’t take long for residents to speak out about the impact a data center could have on water quality, pollution, and noise in their neighborhoods, even before Hexa officially added a data center to their plan.
A planning board meeting in January 2026 dragged on for more than four hours because of resident objections, but the township still voted to approve a preliminary site plan for Hexa to move forward with its warehouse and distribution center project. The proposal didn’t include a data center at the time, though the lawsuit filed in June claims that Hexa had already expressed interest in developing one, and residents made it clear they weren’t fans of the possibility.
The township drafted an ordinance in March to set standards for data centers, including noise restrictions and a closed loop cooling system to avoid groundwater withdrawal, but that ordinance was tabled and never moved forward.
Instead, in April, Monroe passed two ordinances: one banning data centers altogether, and another repealing the 2025 ordinance that allowed data centers on Hexa’s property.
“At the end of the day, this Township has now banned any data center use from ever coming to Monroe Township. I thank those residents who attended the many meetings and expressed their concerns. The process worked,” Mayor Greg Wolfe wrote in a May township newsletter.
Two weeks before the ban was adopted, though, Hexa’s legal complaint claimed it submitted an amended application to the township to turn one of its proposed warehouses into a data center.
Maley said the amendment was driven by “interest from the marketplace that began before Township passed the ordinance” that allowed data centers at 3043 Black Horse Pike last year.
When Hexa sought approval for the new application on May 12, the township deemed the company’s application incomplete, prompting Hexa’s lawsuit.
The lawsuit
The $300 million sought by Hexa Builders accounts for financial losses related to the stunted data center project, Maley said.
“The damages all come from real, actual commercial realities here. … It’s the loss of the value of the project,” Maley said.
In its 102-page complaint, initially filed in Gloucester County court on June 5, Hexa claimed that Monroe violated the 14th Amendment by treating Hexa’s plan differently from similarly sized projects, like warehouses and other high water usage facilities, that it claims would have similar environmental and aesthetic impacts.
Hexa also claimed that banning data centers violates the First Amendment and free speech rights, since the facilities could support artificial intelligence and social media communications in the area.
Maley said the data center ban will have “an adverse effect on communications,” and the argument is an effort to adapt constitutional law to today’s tech.
“Data centers are a medium of expression and banning data centers would impose a significant burden on the free speech rights of all citizens in the United States,” the complaint reads.
Those are just some of the 20 counts alleged by Hexa, including that the township didn’t give the company ample notice of its ban as it prepared data center plans. Monroe Township officials have publicly shared their intention to keep mostly silent on the litigation as the case moves forward.
Some residents have continued to speak out at meetings and ask questions about potential loopholes in Monroe’s ordinances to ensure their neighborhoods remain data center-free.
At the township’s planning board session on July 9, Williamstown resident John Romano asked who allowed Hexa’s application to get so far in the first place, and whether Monroe will be able to hold a case against Hexa in court. He said the data center would be right in his backyard.
“I’d like to sit out in my backyard and enjoy a stogie and a cold one and not hear noise and pollution and this and that,” Romano said. “I would like to be able to stay in Monroe Township, live out my golden years here, which was the plan. This has got my wife and I really concerned.”
BERLIN, N.J. — Blake Zielinski carried the puck around the ice at Pennsauken Skate Zone in Camden County on a muggy late June day. He skated around an Edgebosshockey mini-stick, dangled and weaved before putting a shot into the upper corner.
There was some hooting and hollering, a raised stick, and a celebration with one knee touching the ice before the winger with a big grin threw a hit into the glass at the end boards.
Peering through the glass along the sideline were Ed Snider Youth Hockey & Education campers who one day hoped to follow in Zielinski’s footsteps. Above him hung banners that also dotted the other sheet of ice at the Skate Zone. Each banner includes a name, a logo, and a year. There are Mattias Samuelsson-Buffalo Sabres-2018; Cam Dineen, who just signed with the Flyers, with Arizona Coyotes-2016; Tyler Boucher-Ottawa Senators-2021; Cayden Primeau-Montreal Canadiens-2017; and the late Johnny Gaudreau-Calgary Flames-2011.
A 15th banner is now set to join them: One for Blake Zielinski, Los Angeles Kings, 2026.
“Obviously being drafted is a dream come true,” he told The Inquirer via text while on the West Coast for the Kings’ development camp. “It’s what I’ve been working toward my entire life. There’s honestly no words that you can describe the feeling that went through me after my name was called. I couldn’t have done it without my family and everyone who helped along the way, and it’s just the beginning, for sure!”
While the beginning of Zielinski’s NHL dreams is on the West Coast in gray, black, and white, his origin story is in orange and black.
Blake Zielinski had to wait until Day 2 of the NHL draft, but not for long, as he was selected 80th overall by the Los Angeles Kings.Courtesy of Julie Zie
A natural skater finds his calling
On a quiet street in Berlin, Camden County, nicely manicured lawns dot the landscape. Inside one of those houses lies a basement that has seen its fair share of knee hockey, and the living room’s hardwood floor is scratched because of a makeshift puck made out of an old tobacco tin and tape. Three kids, Grant, Kylie, and Blake, the youngest, filled this house with memories.
The backyard is typical, with a comfortable sitting area, green grass, lighting, and a white fence. The fence looks tall, but it is actually not tall enough. Despite its majestic height, it cannot stop hard rubber disks from heading into a neighbor’s yard.
“I broke a couple of fences when I was younger,” Blake said with a chuckle. That is why two summers ago, Blake, his father, Joe, and one of Joe’s friends dug a foot down into the dirt, built a shooting platform — it has a BZ97 on it — and set up netting that stretches all around a hockey goal, almost touching the fence on both sides and going vertically to the sky.
Blake Zielinski shoots pucks in the backyard with his dog, Mabel, at his family home in Berlin.Isaiah Vazquez / For The Inquirer
This spot, regardless of the weather, has seen several buckets of pucks find the netting — preferably between the pipes of the 6-by-4-foot goal — or stopped by Mabel, the family dog.
All of these moments have been tinder, lighting up easily as Blake’s love of the game and his skill level have grown to become a third-round NHL draft pick. But the initial spark came from the Flyers, of course.
“My first hockey game [that] I think I ever watched was the Flyers in the Stanley Cup Finals in 2010,” he said. “I was 2 or 3 years old, and I saw Patrick Kane score the goal on the Flyers, and it stuck with me. I don’t know why. But that’s one reason I really love hockey, and just, in general, after that, I just fell in love with it.”
Blake would often accompany his older brother Grant’s ball hockey games in Marlton, Burlington County. He was handed a stick and ball, and spent time hitting the ball off the rink before finally playing games from his preschool days until the eighth grade. The ice hockey itch came early.
By the age of 3, he wanted to skate, his mom Julie recalls.
“My friend Jenn [Edwards], I just happened to meet with her because our daughters played field hockey together and she said, ‘Oh, I’m a skater. … I can teach him,’” Julie said.
“So I said, ‘Let’s go.’ Put on his little jacket … he had a helmet. And went over to the Flyers Skate Zone, met with her. And she said, ‘He’s doing great. How long has he skated for?’ I said, ‘About 20 minutes.’”
Blake Zielinski skates for the first time, working with family friend Jenn Edwards, at the Flyers Skate Zone in Voorhees. According to his mother, Julie Zielinski, he threw the walker aside and “that was it.”Courtesy of Julie Zielinski
The family still jokes that Jenn said it just because she wanted to make money with lessons, but that was far from the case. It was easy to see Blake’s knack for moving on ice — and for the record, Edwards jokes in return that she wants credit for him becoming a draft pick.
A Flyers fan, and an audience with Johnny Hockey
Over time, Zielinski progressed through the youth hockey ranks in the Greater Philly Area. While his number has changed over the years — he was, coincidentally, given Danny Brière’s No. 48 by the Kings at development camp — some of it was with a No. 93 on the back. One of his favorite players growing up was former Flyers right wing Jakub Voráček.
“My first game, I was pretty young. I think I had this Voráček jersey. I got surprised for my birthday,” Blake said. “ … I think there used to be a restaurant in Wells Fargo where you can see the ice when you’re up there eating. Just enjoyed it with my family.”
The number of games he has attended over the years is too big to count. Joe would often take Grant and Blake on Thursday nights, and they would have to begrudgingly leave early because it was a school night, his sons often chirping at their dad if they’d left a game that the Flyers came back to win.
Recently, Blake was there watching the Flyers take on the Pittsburgh Penguins in almost every home game of the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs, dreaming of what it would be like under those same bright lights.
Blake Zielinski’s suit jacket for the draft featured moments and memories from throughout his hockey career. More than 20 people were in Buffalo, N.Y., to hear his name called, including his 82-year-old grandmother, Patricia Mayer, and his billet mom from Iowa, Kelly Schofield.Isaiah Vazquez / For The Inquirer
“When he was in preschool, he made a book, and the whole book was based on the Flyers,” Julie said. “The rink, the number, all of it, the little stick figures. And it was, one day, when I grew up, I’m going to play for the Flyers. … He wore Flyers stuff all the time to school. And every picture was always Flyers or [a] rink or something.”
Blake would actually don orange and black, playing for Virtua and Flyers Elite, which is where people began noticing the kid racking up points. As a youngster, he skated with the kids of Flyers players and coaches, and he suited up for Tony Voce, the first Philly native to play for the Flyers organization, a few times, including at the World Selects Invitational.
And like any local kid, he plied his trade not only at Pennsauken and Voorhees, but also at Holleydell Ice Arena in Sewell, Gloucester County, working with South Jersey coaching legend Guy Gaudreau and skating a few times with his son Johnny in the summer.
“When I was on a summer team, Guy was coaching us; Johnny would always come on the ice a little bit and come around,” Zielinski said. “And so he came out to one of the practices, and he demoed one of these drills, and just came down — we were like 7- or 8-year-olds, and he just ripped it on our goalie.
“That was always one of the moments that I remember, just him coming down and always giving the kids in the community a good laugh, and just that was the person he was,” Blake recalled of the Calgary Flames and Columbus Blue Jackets forward, who was a fatal victim in an alleged drunken-driving incident while cycling along with his brother Matthew in August 2024 in South Jersey.
A young Blake Zielinski grew up dreaming of being a Flyer, he is now a member of the LA Kings organization.
The hockey world takes notice
At the age of 15, Blake started playing with the North Jersey Avalanche, a top-tier U16 squad based out of Ice House in Hackensack.
It took a village to get him up and down the state for practices and games, with his sister Kylie picking Blake up from school and dropping him off at Julie’s school before she got him to Joe’s office for the drive north. There were a lot of late-night dinners at home — often after midnight — before getting up early for school.
Although he eventually billeted in North Jersey, the long trips paid off. It was with the Avalanche that Providence College first saw Zielinski play; he will be a freshman there in the fall. And it was there that he was asked to head to Des Moines, Iowa, for a two-week stint in November 2024 with the Buccaneers of the United States Hockey League. He went out again in December and was in the airport in Chicago, eating and watching YouTube videos, waiting to head home, when he got the call that the Bucs wanted him to play the rest of the season with them.
“When I went out and watched him play in Des Moines, I was really impressed with how well he wanted the puck and was holding on to the puck in the game,” Friars coach Nate Leaman said during a recent phone interview.
Blake Zielinski scored 25 goals this past season for the Buccaneers.Courtesy of Des Moines Buccaneers
“He’s like the youngest guy in the game, and he was really good at getting the puck, holding on to the puck and making plays with the puck. Typically, you see young guys go in the USHL, and they’re a little timid, but I thought he did a really good job with that.
“He’s really crafty around the net. He can score. He’s another kid who is pretty physically put together,” he added about the 6-foot, 187-pound winger. “I think that’s good, but I think the big thing with him is just that you get him below the tops of circles, on the power play, around the net, he’s really crafty and quick in those situations.”
He notched 32 points in 41 games to finish the year, with the hockey world starting to take notice. Last summer, he opened more eyes when he helped the United States win gold at the Hlinka Gretzky Cup, leading the team with four goals and nine points. In the semifinals, he was named USA Hockey’s player of the game after potting a goal and an assist and scoring in the shootout with a “T.J. Oshie move” to beat Canada, 4-3.
This past season was a busy one. Aside from 55 points in 53 regular-season games and two goals in three playoff games for the Bucs, he was a late addition to the U.S. roster at the CHL USA Prospects Challenge, a two-game series between top prospects for the 2026 draft from the Canadian Hockey League and the U.S. National Team Development Program Under-18 Team.
In December, as a 17-year-old, he was part of the U.S. team that won gold at the World Junior “A” Challenge, a U-19 tournament, notching two goals and four points in five games. And in January, he played in the Chipotle All-American Game, showcasing the top draft-eligible players from USA Hockey’s U-18 National Team and other teams in the USHL.
And at the end of the USHL season, Zielinski received the Gaudreau Award, an honor given annually to the player in the United States Hockey League who best embodies the legacy of Johnny and Matthew.
“Despite his elite talent, Blake competes with humility and respect for the game,” his coach for Des Moines, Derek Damon, told USHL.com. “He understands that success is built through team effort, and he consistently uses his ability not just to stand out, but to lift the performance and confidence of everyone around him.”
Jane (second from left) and Guy Gaudreau (middle) with Blake Zielinski at the Second Annual Gaudreau 5K & Family Fun Day in May.Courtesy of Julie Z
Soon Blake Zielinski’s banner will hang near the one with Johnny Gaudreau’s name on it. It went by fast for the Zielinski clan. One day, he was a kid, bigger than others his age, unable to stop, and now the hope is that another South Jersey kid will follow in the footsteps of Johnny and live out his NHL dreams.
“It’s just been a great ride, and the time went so fast, you didn’t have time to think about anything,” Joe said. The ride is not done, but, as Voce, who died in July 2024, would advise, have fun.
“I think that’s one of the biggest things,” Blake said. “When I was younger, just go out there and enjoy it. My dad said that a lot to me when I was growing up, you have to enjoy every day, every second, because you never really know what could happen.”
Even more farmland in Burlington County could be preserved for years to come after the Burlington County Board of Commissioners took the first steps to protect more than 500 acres from future development late last month.
The board voted on June 24 to grant preliminary approval for seven Burlington County farms totaling 529 acres to enter the county’s Farmland Preservation Program.
Farms can voluntarily join the program where the state and county pay farmers for the development rights to their land and enact a permanent deed restriction, ensuring the land is forever protected for agricultural uses even if the farm is sold. The farmers would retain ownership of the land.
The seven farms will now be appraised before the county can make offers to purchase the development rights.
Burlington County leads the state in farmland preservation with more than 67,000 acres of farmland protected, Commissioner Randy Brolo said, which accounts for nearly 72% of all active farmland within the county.
“Farming and agriculture have always been a major part of life in Burlington County, and our board has made it our mission to do everything possible to keep the industry strong and viable for the present and the future,” Burlington County Commissioner Director Felicia Hopson said in a statement. “The Burlington County Farmland Preservation Program is essential to that goal, and we’re pleased to take this step to protect more acres of farmland.”
The farms that could be preserved are:
Bruch Farm in Chesterfield, 59 acres
Kirby Farm in Pemberton, 50 acres
Lounsberry Farm in Springfield, 169 acres
Russo Farm in Tabernacle, 37 acres
Seward Farm in Southampton, 22 acres
Specca Farm in Springfield, 82 acres
Varano Farm in Tabernacle, 110 acres
State funding could cover up to 80% of the preservation costs while the remainder is paid for out of the county’s Open Space and Farmland Preservation Trust Fund.
The county is also poised to preserve another seven farms totaling 1,070 acres.
“Every acre of farmland Burlington County preserves guards against overdevelopment that can impact our environment and quality of life, so we continue to target more farms and open space for protection,” Commissioner Deputy Director Allison Eckel said in a statement. “It’s good policy for Burlington County farmers and a win for residents who value living in a county with a green landscape and freshly grown food.”
Good morning, South Jersey. Hot temperatures will continue, so don’t forget to drink water today. The state has experienced an uptick in heat-related deaths from last year, according to New Jersey Monitor.
After winning a prestigious all-expenses-paid scholarship, a Haddonfield High School student has a blank check to attend any college he wants in the country.
P.S. Thank you for your continuing support. We want your thoughts! Tell us your opinion of the newsletter by taking our survey or replying to this email.
Luke Patterson will start his final year at Haddonfield Memorial High School with one less thing to consider: how to pay for college.
The student won an all-expenses-paid merit scholarship from the Calvin Coolidge Presidential Foundation. The award will cover Patterson’s tuition, room and board, and other related expenses for any college he wants to attend in the U.S.
He’s among five students nationwide selected, and the first one to ever win from South Jersey.
Four years ago, a K-9 working for the Gloucester County Fire Marshal’s Office and another dog died after an official allegedly left them in a hot vehicle.
On July 8, Gloucester County received notice that the Attorney General’s Office closed the state investigation into the incident with no criminal charges attached.
That was one day after the Salem County Prosecutor’s Office charged a sergeant for a May incident in which the official allegedly left two K-9s in a work vehicle.
Now, a Gloucester County commissioner is using the more recent case to renew interest in the 2022 case and push for justice.
Camden might need federal aid from FEMA to deal with the aftermath of intense flooding from earlier this month, but New Jersey is still trying to get aid for a snowstorm that President Donald Trump denied. Sen. Andy Kim, a South Jersey Democrat, is among the group of senators accusing the president of “significant partisan disparity” in federal disaster aid.
According to the New York Times, data centers are projected to add billions in electricity costs in 13 states, including New Jersey.
The state will roll out a pilot over about four weeks that will distribute Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits through chip-enabled EBT cards. The move aims to prevent EBT skimming.
The Burlington County Superintendent of Elections Office will host multiple outreach events throughout the rest of the summer to encourage voter registration and educate residents on how voting machines work. The first one is today at the Cinnaminson Library.
🤠 Stampede Rodeo and Bull Riding: The event is a two-day affair full of bull riding, barrel racing, and roping. Enjoy food vendors, live music, and a beer garden. ⏰ Friday, July 17, and Saturday, July 18, 7 p.m. 💵 $25 for adults, $12 for children under 12 if you buy tickets online ahead of time📍 Miller Farms Arena, 134 N. Grove St., Berlin.
🎉 South Jersey Caribbean Festival: This 26th annual free family event features live music and dance performances, food and craft vendors, and community resources. ⏰ Saturday, July 18, 2-8 p.m. 💵 Pay-as-you-go📍Wiggins Waterfront Park, 2 Riverside Dr., Camden.
⚽ SoccerFest26 World Cup Final Watch Party & Community Soccer Tournament: Start your morning with the tournament among recreational teams from across the region. In the afternoon, cheer with fans at the viewing party for the World Cup Final. ⏰ Sunday, July 19, 10 a.m- 5 p.m. 💵 Pay-as-you-go 📍 South Delsea Drive Park, 152 Delsea Dr. South, Glassboro.
The owner of South Jersey’s Tideline added the Liquid Asset to her drink menu with a eye-popping price tag. It consists of tequila, an ice cube, a red chili pepper — and a speedboat. How much is it?
🏠 Ogling: A rebuilt Shore home after a couple spent years designing it. (Is your house a Haven? Nominate your home by email — and send some digital photographs — at properties@inquirer.com.)
Thank you for starting your morning with The Inquirer. I’ll be off for a couple of days, but my editor Julie will step in to take over Friday and Monday, so there will not be a gap in your news roundups. See you soon! ☀️
By submitting your written, visual, and/or audio contributions, you agree to The Inquirer’s Terms of Use, including the grant of rights in Section 10.
New JerseyGov. Mikie Sherrill and Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle L. Parker are assessing whether they’ll need to ask the federal government for help following recent storms in Philadelphia and Camden as President Donald Trump rejects more disaster aid from blue areas.
Sherrill and Parker have both signaled they anticipate seeking federal emergency aid, but first they need to see if there’s enough damage to qualify. New Jersey is still trying to get aid for a snowstorm that took place just one month into Sherrill’s term — a request that Trump denied — and Pennsylvania has faced several Federal Emergency Management Agency request rejections in recent years.
Sen. Andy Kim, a South Jersey Democrat who serves as the ranking member on the subcommittee that oversees FEMA, recently led a group of senators accusing the Trump administration in a letter of a “significant partisan disparity” in federal disaster aid.
“Right now, there’s no predictability with this administration, and that’s just scary when you’re dealing with disaster response,” Kim said in an interview Wednesday.
Here is what to know about federal emergency aid at this moment.
How does FEMA aid work?
First, local officials work to assess the extent of the damage after a storm and report it to the county, which works with the state to assess the damage. If the disaster has caused more harm than the local and state government can address, the governor can request the president declare a major disaster. That’s required to unlock public FEMA aid.
Individuals can only apply directly for FEMA aid if the president approves individual assistance as part of a disaster declaration.
Residents should report damage to their insurance companies and begin the claims process as soon as possible and report damage to the Office of Emergency Management, said Joseph Walsh, a sergeant first class with New Jersey’s Office of Emergency Management.
“There are technical things we need to meet,” Sherrill said during her visit to Camden after the storm. “I think we probably will, but we’re collecting that now.”
Sean Higgins, a Sherrill spokesperson, said in a statement Wednesday that the governor’s team “has been working around the clock to ensure communities have the support they need and we will ensure that New Jersey applies for any and all help that we qualify for.”
In Philadelphia, Dominick Mireles, the city’s director of emergency management, said earlier this week thatthe city is figuring out the “financial price tag” of the damage, a process that will continue in the coming weeks. Then the city will determine what may be needed — and what it’s eligible to receive — from state and federal resources.
“This might be something above and beyond what we can navigate on our own,” Mireles said.
Camden Mayor Victor Carstarphen shows New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill visuals of the recent storm in Camden on a tablet on Tuesday.Tyger Williams / Staff Photographer
Has Trump denied FEMA aid to Pennsylvania and New Jersey?
New Jersey is in the process of appealing a FEMA rejection for Winter Storm Hernando from February of this year, Walsh said.
The rejection was part of a $227 million denial in disaster aid requests from four Democratic-led states, along with New York, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts. Higgins said more than $84 million of that pool represented costs from New Jersey municipalities and counties.
“Without that aid, our local governments will be stuck with the costs of an unprecedented snowstorm that didn’t care about political boundaries. … Sherrill will continue to fight for every dime that New Jerseyans are owed, regardless of political party,” Higgins said in a statement.
FEMA data also show a 2018 rejection for a severe storm and flooding event in New Jersey during Trump’s first term. Walsh said the state requested aid for several counties even though the damage did not meet the threshold for federal assistance.
The data show that Pennsylvania faced denials from the Trump administration during his first term for awinter storm in March 2017 and storms and landslides fromFebruary to April2018, following a close2016 win for Trump in Pennsylvania during Democrat Tom Wolf’s gubernatorial administration.After losing the 2020 election to former President Joe Biden, Trump on Nov. 18 rejected requests for aid in Philadelphia and surrounding counties for the August 2020Tropical Storm Isaias.
Pennsylvania’s appeal for the 2017 storm was rejected for not meeting the “severity and magnitude” for a disaster declaration, and an appeal for the 2018 incidents were rejected for being “separate and distinct” and not meeting the required threshold, according to documents from the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency.
The state did not appeal the rejection for damage from Isaias.
The commonwealth also faced rejections during Biden’s administration following flooding in July and September 2023, and a snowstorm in November 2024 after Trump flipped back Pennsylvania.
Sen. Andy Kim and other Democratic senators have asked for a meeting with FEMA to discuss disaster assistance.Alejandro A. Alvarez / Staff Photographer
What is Andy Kim accusing Trump of?
Kim said Wednesday that Trump has been treating government money like “his own personal slush fund.”
“These are about families that are struggling, and you can’t punish them because of political retribution,” the senator said.
He was joined by 16 members of the Senate Democratic caucus in writing a letter last month to Russell Vought, the director of the federal Office of Management and Budget, citing a Politico report that said Trump’s second administration rejected disaster aid for Democratic-run states at the highest rate in the 47 years that FEMA has existed.
Trump has approved 23% of disaster declaration requests from states with a Democratic governor and two Democratic senators, compared with 89% of requests from states with a Republican governor and two Republican senators so far during his second term, and Democratic-led states also had longer wait times to find out the decision, the report said.
“To be clear, this reporting suggests that in the wake of disasters, as President, President Trump, who has the sole authority to grant or deny this assistance, may be punishing Americans who live in states with Democratic Senators and Governors, by denying access to disaster relief funding,” the senators said in the letter.
FEMA did not respond to a request for comment on the letter. White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson has previously told news outlets that “there is no politicization” in Trump’s disaster relief decisions and that he “provides a more thorough review of disaster declaration requests than any Administration has before him.”
The senators contendedthere are specific approval criteria and called for more transparency on the administration’s process.
In response to their letter,the budget office told the senators to talk to FEMA, so they sent the letter to FEMA to ask for a meeting and are awaiting a response, Kim’s office said Wednesday.
President Donald Trump has touted FEMA funding for states with candidates he supports.Julia Demaree Nikhinson
In the meantime, the president has attempted to use the agency to advance his agenda.
A report by House Democrats found the Trump administration improperly diverted resources from FEMA by sending staffers to help with immigration enforcement, Trump’s hallmark policy.
His administration also recently threatened to withhold FEMA terrorism prevention money for states that don’t run their elections the way the president wants them to.
During his first term, Trump opposed disaster funding for Puerto Rico and said he wanted more aid to go to Texas and Florida, according to news reports.
Recently, Trump touted FEMA funding for states with candidates he supports.
But the administration’s efforts haven’t always succeeded.
Pennsylvania and New Jersey were part of a lawsuit against the Trump administration for cutting certain FEMA funding meant for preventing harm from natural hazards through infrastructure upgrades. That program, called Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC), has since been reinstated. As a result, Pennsylvania was awarded nearly $838,000 for recovery from the 2024 Tropical Storm Debby.
Trump signed BRIC into law during his first term, but during his second term FEMA criticized it for being too “focused on ‘climate change’” under Biden.
Kim said he has advocated for the program’s expansion to help prevent damage from major weather events before they happen.
“This is not a shock that Camden had the flooding that it did,” he said. “We’ve known for a long time that their drainage and sewage and other types of efforts to mitigate flooding are just not to the level that is needed for the people there.”
As he prepares for his senior year at Haddonfield Memorial High School, Luke Patterson has a big decision to make: What college to attend? He has a blank check to go anywhere.
Patterson, 17, was awarded an all-expenses-paid merit scholarship from the Calvin Coolidge Presidential Foundation. The four-year award will cover tuition, room and board, and related expenses for him to attend any college in the United States.
He was among five students nationwide selected from among 4,200 applicants, said Matthew Denhart, the foundation’s president. He is the first recipient from South Jersey since the foundation began awarding the scholarships in 2016, he said.
“It doesn’t matter to us where they go,” Denhart said in an interview. “The sky is the limit.”
Haddonfield Memorial High School rising senior Luke Patterson poses at the school Tuesday, July 7, 2026. He has been awarded a Coolidge Scholarship, a prestigious, highly competitive full-ride merit award that pays for four years of tuition, room, board, and expenses at any accredited U.S. college or university.Tom Gralish / Staff Photographer
Patterson learned about the scholarship last year when he noticed a track teammate reading Coolidge’s autobiography. The teammate was reading the book to apply for the scholarship.
In order to apply, Patterson was also required to read Coolidge’s autobiography and study policies during his administration, write several essays and get recommendation letters. Applicants must demonstrate humility and a commitment to public service, qualities endeared by Coolidge.
He then traveled to Plymouth Notch, Vermont, Coolidge’s birthplace and where the foundation is located, for a final interview. He fielded questions from a panel chaired by the state’s former governor, James H. Douglas.
“I expected to be nervous, but I actually felt pretty comfortable,” he said. The foundation requests that recipients do not disclose details about the interview process.
Said Denhart: “Luke was just a real star.”
At Haddonfield High, which enrolls about 870 students in grades 9 through 12, Patterson is an honors student, participates on the track and cross country teams, and writes for the school newspaper, covering school board meetings.
Patterson also is a member of the Anti-Bias Club and serves as historian of the Student Council, and has been tapped to help spearhead a project this school year to create a timeline for the school’s 100th anniversary, Principal Tammy McHale said.
“Where good things are happening, Luke is around it,” McHale said.
Haddonfield Superintendent of Schools Chuck Klaus (right) happens to pass by as Haddonfield Memorial High School rising senior Luke Patterson is at the school Tuesday, July 7, 2026. Patterson has been awarded a Coolidge Scholarship, a prestigious, highly competitive full-ride merit award that pays for four years of tuition, room, board, and expenses at any accredited U.S. college or university.Tom Gralish / Staff Photographer
English teacher David Scorsolini noted in a recommendation letter that Luke had demonstrated humility in his world literature class, one of the scholarship’s requirements. Patterson showed respect for his classmates and their perspectives, he said.
“It takes a great deal of humility to read, and more importantly, to listen. Luke listens,” Scorsolini wrote in an email.
Patterson credits his teachers for preparing him to apply for the scholarship. He was surprised when he got a call that he had been selected.
“I was completely shocked,” he said. “Over the next days, I realized how many doors this opens.”
It will ease the financial burden on his parents, who also have a younger daughter, Clara, he said.
“I’m just really proud of all that he has done,” said his mother, Ellen Patterson. “Obviously, the scholarship is amazing.”
The foundation launched the scholarship program to better educate young people about Coolidge, considered one of the least-known presidents, Denhart said.
Calvin Coolidge’s seated portrait, June 6, 1924.Library of Congress
The program seeks students who embody the principles and ideas that defined Coolidge’s term as the 30th U.S. President. Coolidge was known for his humility as well as his support for political bipartisanship, public education, and local self-government.
This is the 11th class of scholars sponsored by the foundation, Denhart said, and since 2016, nearly 50 students have passed through the program. The foundation also awards smaller scholarships to its top 100 finalists.
The scholars are not expected to follow the politics of Coolidge, a Republican who had a reputation as a small-government conservative, Denhart said. They study his history and public policies and debate at an annual seminar, he said.
Patterson said he plans to spend the summer finalizing his college choices and writing essays. He is undecided about a possible major.
“The really cool thing about the scholarship is that it opens up all kinds of possibilities,” Patterson said.
He is considering joining an ROTC program and possibly becoming a U.S. Air Force pilot.
Patterson wants to encourage underclassmen to consider applying for the scholarship. His advice:
“Don’t be afraid to put yourself out there. You never know what might happen,” he said.
