Her ultimate goal may be to compete in Olympics, but Kayla Burcin, of Basking Ridge, achieved a milestone when she won last Sunday's dual-mogul event at the Eastern U.S.S.A. Freestyle event at the Sunday River ski resort in Bethel, Maine. On Saturday, Burin placed sixth in the single mogul event. “Course conditions were great, despite the weather leading up to the event, and athletes had the choice of four lines with well maintained jumps and landings,” said one of Burcin’s coaches Sam Tarrant, a freestyle coach at the Killington Mountain School (KMS), a ski academy where kids are on the …

Diapers, baby clothes and other donations for babies collected on Halloween by Senior Girl Scout Troop 40 in the township will be presented as holiday gifts for unwed moms and their babies living at the Center for Great Expectations in Franklin Township, according to Troop Leader Colleen Pine."All the items raised will help the center create Christmas gifts for the children," Pine said. The center will create gift bags for babies living at the center using such collected donations as baby clothes or crib sets, Pine said earlier in December."It really ties Halloween with the holiday," Pine …

One can at a time, (or maybe by the bagful), pre-kindergarten through fifth grade at the Mount Prospect Elementary School are locked in a heated competition through this week. At stake is the coveted Golden Turkey award. But, even more important, the young students are compiling food donations for the New Jersey Community Food Bank in Hillside.  Along with canned foods, the students or their parents are being asked to drop off frozen turkeys until this Friday, when the food bank will send a truck to collect the donations, said teacher Patrick Vreeland. Frozen turkeys are being stored in the …

Being able to dress up for Halloween and attend parties to celebrate the witching season are simple pleasures that most young people take for granted. Each year, the Matheny Medical and Educational Center in Peapack-Gladstone makes sure its students get to enjoy Halloween at the center's annual Haunted House and Costume Parade. Both residential and day students take part in the fun, along with volunteers and staff who make the day special. Patients at Matheny have developmental disabilities, most with medical complications. Edana Desatnick, of Basking Ridge, said her son, Bryan Desatnick, 19…

Andrew James Yarosh not only was honored by the Township Committee on Tuesday for achieving the rank of Eagle Scout with a project at the county's Environmental Education Center in Basking Ridge. He also made his former den leader very proud. Right before Yarosh, 18, was officially honored by the governing body, Township Committeewoman Carolyn Gaziano told the audience she had been the former den leader for the newly-minted Eagle Scout. Yarosh was in her den between the ages of 7 to 12, she said. Yarosh, accompanied by his parents, Cathy and Denis Yarosh, said he had achieved Eagle Scout …

COAT DRIVE The Liberty Corner  School Brownie Troop #60651, made up of local second graders, has undertaken a service project to help guarantee that K-4 students in a school in Newark will have warm coats for this winter. The troop is conducting "Coats for Kids"  in memory of the late Maureen Haluszka, the school nurse at the Elliott Street School in Newark. Mrs. Haluszka, the aunt of one of the troop members, would undertake the project each year to provide coats for her students. After Mrs. Haluszka's passing, the troop is trying to carry on her mission so no child at the Elliott Street …