Area NAACP to honor 9 for their good works
BY JOHN DUNPHY
Staff Writer

MIGUEL JUAREZ staff Gwen Crews and Teresa Douglas are two of the nine recipients this year of awards for public service from the NAACP Metuchen-Edison Area Branch, which will hold its 30th annual Freedom Fund Awards April 22 in Bridgewater.

EDISON - They don't do it for the awards, but they'll graciously accept them, nonetheless.

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) Metuchen-Edison Area Branch will honor nine area personalities at its 30th annual Freedom Fund Awards at the Bridgewater Marriott in Bridgewater on April 22.

Two of the honorees, Teresa Douglas and Gwen Crews, have ties to Edison Township.

Crews, a resident of the township for three years, is a paraprofessional in the Piscataway Township school district. Douglas has been a manager of career transition with the Edison Job Corps Academy on Plainfield Avenue for five years.

"I'm not necessarily an awards person," said Crews, a 25-year member of the NAACP who will receive the Rosa Parks Community Outreach Award. "I'm just used to being a person that gets involved."

To say the two women have simply been involved in the community might be considered an understatement.

Crews, originally from Plainfield, was that city's council president during the 1980s, a member of Plainfield's Zoning Board of Adjustment from 1988 to 2003 and also served on the Board of Health Consortium. She was an active member of Plainfield's NAACP for many years before she moved to Edison.

Douglas, 48, a Piscataway resident, has been with the Edison Job Corps Academy since 2001. She received her bachelor's degree in recreation and leisure studies from Montclair State University and her master's degree in management from Minot State University in Minot, N.D.

She will receive the President's Award, which acknowledges the projects she has done, as well as her volunteer work with the community.

"It's just been natural for us to take part and it's followed me through college and through my professional life," she said.

Reggie Johnson, president of the Metuchen-Edison Area Branch of the NAACP, appreciates their dedication and commitment.

"They are both in nurturing positions," he said. "At the Job Corps, Teresa works with inner-city youth. That's a 24/7 position and she has gone above and beyond the call of duty to make sure her students receive job placement, clothing and that she checks on them to make sure they're doing all right. These aren't part of her job but she still does these things."

His comments about Crews were no less enthusiastic. Her volunteer work with the Second Baptist Church in Metuchen was instrumental in the development of a day center there, Johnson said.

"She has reached out to folks in need, that's her primary function," he said. "Any families needing counseling, she has taken it upon herself to go out and make sure those needs are met. Everything from loss of jobs, loss of transportation to eviction notices, she's there to assist these folks."

Crews said she felt particularly honored to receive an award named after Rosa Parks, a woman who for many African-Americans represents one of the highest benchmarks for civil rights.

"When she refused to get off her seat [at the front of the bus] in 1955, I can honestly say I was doing something too," she said. "I was leading my kindergarten class in prayer. At that time, we could have prayer. And I was the one who could read the best in the class."

Crews had a number of other experiences, including meeting Coretta Scott King, wife of Martin Luther King Jr.

She shares all of these stories with her students.

"I tell them how to pick their battles," Crews said. "Your schoolwork is just like a business, go and do well."

Douglas noted the importance of the programs offered by the NAACP, not just for African-Americans, but for other minorities, and beyond.

"It's about the entire community," she said. "I think some people think it's just African-Americans but it's not. It's open to all people. We live in a diverse society so it's important that we all know."

"Our charge is to uplift the burden of what society has done as far as some of the challenges. But, not all of what we do is black and white," Johnson said. "There's people out there who have needs, and our job is to work with them, regardless of race, color or creed."

For Douglas, Crews and the other seven award recipients this year, that is the reason they do what they continue to do, day in and day out.

Douglas' parents, Evelyn and Edward, volunteered extensively throughout her childhood. And it was a trait that would forever become a part of who she is, and those like her.

"I do things automatic," Douglas said. "I don't even think about it as doing something extra. It's come to me naturally from the way I was raised. I've always been giving back."

"I'm just used to being a person that gets involved," said Crews. "When you've been fortunate and had things given to you, you should give back."

Also receiving awards this year from the Metuchen-Edison Area Branch NAACP are Anna Aschkenes, of Jamesburg; Samuel and Yolanda Caldwell, of Plainfield; Ivan Van Sertima, of Highland Park; Shaila, of Piscataway; Allen Williams, recently of South Carolina; and Wade Baker, posthumously of Jamesburg.