HPC Announces Jan Lilien Education Fund

Jan Lilien Human Rights Advocate

Celebrate Jan Lilien Day
April 24, 2022 – 2 pm to 4 pm

The Hanson Park Conservancy (HPC) is pleased to announce the Jan Lilien Education Fund, which will begin this year to provide educational programs on sustainability and environmental awareness. The Jan Lilien Education Fund was made possible by donations in memory of the late Jan Lilien of Cranford.

The Conservancy and Jan’s family and friends invite the community to join us on Sunday, April 24, 2022, at 2 pm in Hanson Park in Cranford, NJ, to Celebrate Jan Lilien Day. This day of celebration of Jan’s life will be the formal commencement of the Education Fund and the groundbreaking and dedication of a living memorial for her in the park. The rain date is May 1, 2022.

HPC’s Jan Lilien Education Fund plans a series of events and programs to address sustainability and environmental awareness. Topics will include measures citizens can take on their properties and throughout the community.  

Some programs under consideration involve:

  • the benefits of trees, 
  • native plants, and 
  • sustainable gardening techniques.  

There will also be programs geared towards children to introduce them to sustainability and reinforce what they are learning in the classroom through outdoor activities.

The Conservancy will coordinate with the Cranford Environmental Commission, The Cranford Green team, and other township organizations to bring environmental awareness to children and adults. 

Several programs have been scheduled, including a presentation in June by Randi Eckel of Toadshade Farm. The title is “If you plant it, they will come” and will discuss the importance of native plants to encourage butterflies, birds, and other wildlife. 

HPC would like to express extreme gratitude to the family and friends of Jan Lilien. Jan was the former Executive Director of the YWCA of Union County and a tireless advocate for social justice issues.  

Living close to Hanson Park, Jan, and I, spent many hours enjoying the park, and it became a special place for our family.

Through more than one hundred seventy-three donations in her memory, HPC purchased two new benches and funded Educational Programs through the new fund. In addition, Jan’s living memorial will include planting a Forest Pansy Redbud tree and improvements to the park’s triangular garden. 

Please visit our website or Social Media sites on Facebook or Instagram for a schedule and program announcements.

Register to Attend Celebrate Jan Day

Click on the donate button to make a tax-deductible donation to support Jan Lilien Education Fund.

Checks should be made payable to the Hanson Park Conservancy with a note that this is a donation for The Jan Lilien Education Fund and mailed to:

The Jan Lilien Education Fund
Hanson Park Conservancy 
PO Box 542
Cranford, NJ  07016 

Our friends at the Celebrate Jan Lilien at Hanson Park (HPC) announced on March 9, 2022, the Jan Lilien Education Fund,…

Posted by Richard W. Brown on Thursday, March 10, 2022
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Ruth

Read: August 2025

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Ruth: A Novel

by Kate Riley

“Ruth” by Kate Riley is a captivating and thought-provoking exploration of a woman’s journey through the complexities of life within a tightly-knit and devout community. The narrative intricately weaves together the nuances of faith, tradition, and individual desire, encouraging readers to confront their own deeply held beliefs about the nature of fulfillment and purpose.

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Her life is seen in glimpses through childhood, marriage, and motherhood, as she tries to manage her own perilous curiosity in a community built on holy mystery. Is she happy? Is this happiness?

Kate Riley was raised in New York City, and this book is her final work.

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Read: April 2022

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My Evil Mother: A Short Story

by Margaret Atwood

My Evil Mother: A Short Story by Margaret Atwood was a free book with your Prime Reading membership. I have always enjoyed reading Ms. Atwood’s books. My Evil Mother was an enjoyable read and reminded me why she is a great author and why short stories are unique and special. As the NY Times described, My Evil Mother, is a bittersweet short story about mothers, daughters’ witches’ brew of love—and control. I highly recommend it as it is one of my best books this year. 

Goodreads provides a concise overview.

Life is hard enough for a teenage girl in 1950s suburbia without having a mother who may—or may not—be a witch. A single mother at that. Sure, she fits in with her starched dresses, string of pearls, and floral aprons. Then there are the hushed and mystical consultations with neighborhood women in distress. The unsavory, mysterious plants in the flower beds. The divined warning to steer clear of a boyfriend whose fate is certainly doomed. But as the daughter of this bewitching homemaker comes of age and her mother’s claims become more and more outlandish, she begins to question everything she once took for granted.

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The Tokyo Suite

Read: April 2025

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The Tokyo Suite

by Giovana Madalosso

I recently dove into The Tokyo Suite by Giovana Madalosso, expertly translated by Bruna Dantas Lobato. This captivating book represents the English-language debut of one of Brazil’s most thrilling contemporary voices. It intricately unravels the complexities of modern family dynamics, diving deep into the hidden tensions that simmer just beneath the surface of everyday life. Each page draws you in, inviting you to explore the rich tapestry of emotions and experiences that define our relationships.

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Giovana Madalosso is a Brazilian writer and screenwriter born in Curitiba in 1975. She has been a finalist for the Biblioteca Nacional Award and the São Paulo Prize of Literature. The Tokyo Suite is her English-language debut.

Bruna Dantas Lobato is a fiction writer and translator. Her translation of Stênio Gardel‘s The Words That Remain won the 2023 National Book Award for Translated Literature. Her fiction has appeared in The New Yorker,  Guernica, A Public Space, and The Common. Raised in Natal, Brazil, she is an incoming Assistant Professor of English and Creative Writing at Grinnell College.

When you purchase a book through one of my links, I earn a small commission that helps support my passion for reading. This contribution allows me to buy even more books to share with you, creating an incredible cycle of discovering great reads together! Your support truly makes a difference!

Enjoy a limited-time offer of 20% off your next book purchase at Bookshop.org!

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Read: November 2022

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Civil War by Other Means

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Civil War by Other Means: America’s Long and Unfinished Fight for Democracy by Jeremi Suri is the perfect book to help us understand our failures at creating a multi-racial democracy in the nineteenth century and how this has weakened and divided our nation. Jeremi Suri chronicles the events after the civil war, from Lincoln’s assassination to Garfield’s, and how they were a continuation of the war by other means.

I purchased a signed copy and watched a video presentation by Dr. Suri due to my membership at One Day University. Civil War by Other Means is a vivid and unsettling portrait of a country striving to rebuild itself but unable to compromise on or adhere to the most basic democratic tenets. 

I highly recommend Civil War by Other Means: America’s Long and Unfinished Fight for Democracy by Jeremi Suri.

In addition, the documentary, on Apple TV+, Lowndes County and the Road to Black Power is a companion piece that illustrates the continued failure to create a multi-racial democracy. Jeremi Suri makes a convincing case that the eternal struggle for democracy continues in our time.

The Goodreads summary provides an overview,

In 1865, the Confederacy was comprehensively defeated, its economy shattered, its leaders in exile or in jail. Yet in the years that followed, Lincoln’s vision of a genuinely united country never took root. Apart from a few brief months, when the presence of the Union army in the South proved liberating for newly freed Black Americans, the military victory was squandered. Old white supremacist efforts returned, more ferocious than before.

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What emerges is a vivid and, at times, unsettling portrait of a country striving to rebuild itself but unable to compromise on or adhere to the most basic democratic tenets. What should have been a moment of national renewal was ultimately wasted, with reverberations still felt today. The recent shocks to American democracy are rooted in this forgotten, urgent history.

The Jan Lilien Education Fund sponsors ongoing sustainability and environmental awareness programs. Gifts made this month; I will match dollar-for-dollar. All donations are tax-deductible.

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Read: February 2024

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After Annie: A Novel

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