Antique Toy Train
Fundraiser for Freehold Open Door
February
21, 2008
The
train display to benefit the Freehold Open Door was a huge success. Besides
JoAnn and Danielle we had the help of Scot and Lucy Kienzlen and their
children Danny and Vicky, Jim Reid, Dave Decker, Tom Bassi, Tom Martin and Bob
Gassaway. The amount of trains and the quality of displays was amazing. I
could have never pulled it off alone.
The
unofficial tally for the benefit looks to be over $1100 collected and over 90
bags of food. The doors opened at 10:00 and by 11:00 we were told that the
turnout was far greater than they ever expected. They also asked us to do it
again.
All
in all it was great fun and we raised quite a bit for a good cause.
The
following article appeared in the Asbury Park Press
All Aboard at Toy Train Fundraiser
By Joseph Sapia • FREEHOLD BUREAU • February 21, 2008
Freehold Area Open Door, a food bank serving the needy of Western
Monmouth, received an estimated $1,400 in cash and 50 to 60 supermarket bags of
goods through a toy train
fundraising event held Sunday.
Approximately 200 to 250 attended the benefit at Knob Hill Golf Club
in Manalapan, said Carmen Rivello, a member of the Sunrise Optimist
Club of Freehold, the community organization that ran the event.
"It was a great feeling," said JoAnn Mania, a Freehold resident and
one of the event volunteers. "And it was fun."
Open Door serves about 300 households, totaling 600 to 1,000
individuals, per month, said Jeanne Yaecker, the food bank's
executive director. Open Door provides its clients with three to five
days of food once a month, Yaecker said.
The event included nine operating toy train layouts, said Mania's
husband, Joe, a toy train collector who had the idea for the event.
Mania knew his wife has donated goods to Open Door for
about 15 years and works in a local insurance office sharing space
with Rivello, an insurance agent.
Event visitors were asked to make a donation of money or nonperishable food to
Open Door.
"It was a lot of work to set up, but when you saw the
people coming
in, it was great," JoAnn Mania said. "The kids seemed to have a great
time. It was a family event."
Adults and children enjoyed the event, Yaecker said.
"For someone my age," said Yaecker, 59, "the
nostalgia of the train
sets really took me back to being a kid."
The Mania family, which includes daughter Danielle, got help from the
fellow toy train hobbyists Bob Gassaway of Colts Neck, Jim Reid of
Milltown and Scot Kienzlen of Roxbury.
"We couldn't even display half the stuff we brought out," Joe Mania
said. "There was just so much stuff to display. For a train guy, the
quality of the trains was unbelievable. "
A highlight of the event was a silent auction held for a 1950 0-27-
gauge Lionel train set and an accompanying 4-foot-by-4- foot layout
donated by Gassaway. The train was the same model Gassaway had as a
child, and he re-created his childhood layout.
Joe Mania won the auction with a $300 bid. He said he expects to
display the set at his home.
"It was a lot of fun, very enjoyable," Rivello said. I think
everybody had a good time."
Now, the Optimists are considering running the show every six months
or annually, said Rivello, who is active in the Freehold area community.
"All my (toy train) buddies were asking me, "Are we going to do this
again?' " Joe Mania said. "They had a blast."
JOSEPH L. MANIA TOY TRAIN REPRODUCTIONS
AND RESTORATIONS
General
Information, Sales, Customer Support: 