Dennis O’Connor, the Hasbrouck Heights “Member of the Year”.
On the evening of April 5th, 2024, the Hasbrouck Heights Men’s Association held their Annual ‘Man of the Year’ and ‘Member of the Year’ awards ceremony at Segovia’s Meson Restaurant in Carlstadt, New Jersey. It is always a great evening out and a way for members and their wives to mingle after a long winter and a holiday season long behind us (it is only seven more months before we are back to selling trees). We were there to celebrate our two winners, Dennis O’Connor, the Hasbrouck Heights Men’s Association ‘Member of the Year’ and Robert Brady, the “Man of the Year”.
The evening starts with a Cocktail hour before dinner so that people can converse before we’re are seated and dinner begins. It is a nice way to catch up with people that we have not seen since the holidays.
It is a time to get together with old friends and meet up with other members and their wives. Us as an Executive Board enjoy sitting with the winners and their wives and a toast to their accomplishments and contributions the town. It is our way congratulating the winners in a more casual way.
The evening started with a wonderful meal at Segovia Meson, a popular restaurant the is a favorite of the members of the Association. This is our third year having the dinner at the restaurant and it is very popular with the whole organization.
Segovia Meson at 645 Washington Avenue in Carlstadt, NJ:
My review on TripAdvisor:
We started the meal with a wonderful appetizer of Calamari, Chorizo Sausage and Shrimp with Garlic. This is always a nice way to start the meal. The Shrimp is an especially popular appetizer with everyone.
This delicious Appetizer combination is very popular with everyone.
The meal continued on with a crisp fresh salad that is a welcome to the heavier appetizer.
In addition to the Appetizer platter, we had a bowl of Mussels in a Red Sauce which quickly disappeared and the sauce soaked up by the fresh rolls on the table.
The Mussels in Red Sauce was outstanding and better when you soak up the sauce with fresh rolls.
For such a large crowd, the pastas served at Segovia’s are excellent. The Penne Vodka is always a great choice for our pasta dish.
The Penne Vodka is so well prepared and the sauce is rich and creamy.
The entrees were Sautéed Salmon, Grilled Beef, and Chicken Francais and everything was so well prepared and well-spiced. It was an excellent selection of entrees and people got to help themselves in the family style dinner.
The Chicken Francais entree in a lemon and white wine sauce.
The Grilled Salmon entree.
The Grilled Steak with fresh peppers and onions.
The Seafood Paella is full of all sorts of Seafood and Chicken and the saffron flavor of the rice offsets the meats nicely. It is not just an entree but a full meal in itself.
It was an evening of good food and conversation. Some of us have not seen each other since the days of the Christmas tree lot and we talked about the long days ahead of us. After all, Christmas is only eight months away. Every time I pass the lot, I think it is coming soon and we have not even gotten to the summer yet.
The members of the Hasbrouck Heights Men’s Association and their wives and special guests.
For dessert, the restaurant created a special cake for us with our logo on it. The cake was really good with a vanilla and cannoli cream center in between the layers of white cake and a delicious buttercream frosting.
The proud Hasbrouck Heights Men’s Association logo on the cake.
After dinner was over, we started our awards ceremony. We were very proud to award “Member of the Year” to longtime member, Dennis O’Connor. Dennis has contributed so many years to helping set up for Christmas tree sales (leaf blower in hand) and participating in the Golf outing. His support at countless meetings and discussions has helped the organization grow.
The HHMA Executive Board Lou Verdi, Ken Wheeler, Dennis Coltan, winner Dennis O’Connor, Steve Palladino and Justin Watrel.
Winner Dennis O’Connor and his wife, Jodi.
“Member of the Year” 2024 Dennis O’Connor.
Our “Man of the Year” was no stranger to the Hasbrouck Heights community. Robert Brady seems to be everywhere these days. From coaching award winning Men’s and Women’s Track teams, to assisting in running Senior Programming, to stocking the Food Pantry to running our community’s successful Summer camp, Rob is involved in so many activities in town that benefit our community.
The Board had a sneaky way of catching him off guard to let him know that he won. We pretended to meet him at Woodland Park to propose a project for the park and snuck the announcement for the award in the paperwork. Needless to say he was totally caught off guard and was touched.
Needless to say for a man who does so much for our community, he was so touched that night he was trying to hold back his emotions. He talked about his love for the town and the community and how it was honor to work here.
“Man of the Year” award winner, Robert Brady and his wife, Jennifer.
It was a very emotional evening for both Rob and his wife, Jennifer, who were both very touched by the honor bestowed on him. Many members and their wives talked about how Rob contributed to their children’s success. Others talked about his support and love for the town. It was an emotional night for the couple.
Community “Man of the Year” 2024 Robert Brady
After the awards ceremony was over, it was time for the members of the Executive Board to talk to the Membership and our invited guests. We discussed the successes of our many events including the Golf Outing, the Halloween House Decorating Contest and continued quick sell out of our Christmas tree sale in December. We sold out in two weeks and three days.
We also welcomed new Executive Board At Large member, Kyle Kasper, a former “Member of the Year” himself. The amount of work and responsibilities on the organization is growing and we also needed to groom new members of the Board to take over future responsibilities to growing the HHMA and contributing to its success.
The Hasbrouck Heights Men’s Association Executive Board 2024: Dennis Colton, Secretary, Ken Wheeler, Vice-President, Steve Palladino, President, Kyle Casper At-Large Executive Member, Lou Verdi, Treasurer and Justin Watrel, Director.
After the awards ceremony, the crowd had time to talk to the winners before dessert.
Then the rolled and cut this very special sheet cake for everyone to enjoy.
The HHMA logo on the cake was a wonderful dessert.
The HHMA Group picture at the end of the evening.
Hats off to another successful year to the Hasbrouck Heights Men’s Association and to our families that support our late hours and long days of volunteering. Thank you to the Hasbrouck Heights community for helping make our programming the successes that they have been.
Downtown Hasbrouck Heights in the early evening.
mywalkinmanhattan 
It was another great awards dinner to two much deserving people.
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Nice coverage of the event, Justin. What you do is quite admirable , and you’ve been consistent for years. Hard to find loyalty , dedication , and longevity of your sort. It shows in your blogs which began because of your dad.
I continue to enjoy reading about your adventures. Enjoy the day..hope it’s as nice there as it is here…big sun and mild temps. Take care, Lucy
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Dear Lucy,
Thank you for your kind thoughts. It has been a busy time for me. I will be graduating from NYU on May 17th. That went by fast and then looking around for a new job. I have been revamping a lot of the blogs because of my new cell phone so the pictures have made them better.
Please let me know when you are coming in next. We are having our Volunteer Lunch at HASK on April 22nd. I just made my 2500 hours goal!! It only took eleven years.
Talk to you soon.
Sincerely, Justin
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