Expansion of Zippy's Friends, Paterson Man Charged and Looking Back at 2012 Top Weekly News

Ouida Foundation Boosts Expansion of Zippy's Friends Across the State

Zippy’s Friends, an internationally acclaimed school-based program developed in the United Kingdom, found initial support in River Edge schools with the help of the Todd Ouida Children's Foundation will now be expanded throughout the state.

The program is designed especially for kindergarten and first grade students to help them develop healthy coping and social skills. And with a $10,000 grant, in part by the Ouida Children's Foundation, allows Montclair State University to serve as the sole licensed provider of Zippy’s Friends in the United States.  

A home health aide from Paterson was charged Friday for allegedly sexually abusing a 15-year-old River Edge girl while being employed in the family's residence.

Grady Brown, 30, was arrested by the Bergen County Prosecutor's Office Special Victims Unit and River Edge Police in Paramus where he works. Brown is a health aide with Loving Hands Health Care Services.

St. Peter Academy's student council and safely patrol recently honored the students and teachers who tragically lost their lives at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., by tying a ribbon around the American flag pole in memoriam of the victims.

The New Jersey Center for Tourette Syndrome & Associated Disorders (NJCTS) has announced that River Dell High School senior Emily Fleischman is the recipient of the first annual NJCTS Youth Advocate of the Year Award.

The Youth Advocate of the Year Award was established in 2012 to reward a teenager whose contribution makes a difference to New Jersey’s adolescent and pre-adolescent Tourette Syndrome community.

The 17-year-old Fleischman, authored children's book "Emily’s Tic,” which talks about life as a kid with TS – including her own challenges of facing bullying – and features a Tourette Syndrome fact sheet, information about NJCTS and Fleischman‟s personal message of why advocacy for Tourette is such a big part of her life.

Patch looked back at the top 10 most read articles from 2012 from the death of Rafael Acosta and arrest of alleged double murder Monica Mogg to 15 Bergen Catholic seniors committing to the NCAA, Hurricane Sandy and several other articles.

Patch put together a selection of some of the best photos and videos that ran on River Dell Patch this year.

Patch brings readers its annual Year in Review, a look back on some of the bigger news items from the first part of the year as school boards opted to move their annual elections to November, the backlash following River Edge's newest reassessment results and graduation.

The second half of the year included a judge's decision that charges against a former Paramus Catholic employee and River Edge resident would proceed to trial, the latest court hearing regarding the River Dell Regional funding inequality, and more.

At a young age, Oradell resident Michael Somma always knew he wanted to be a firefighter. What he didn't know is that he would become a historian of sorts for all things having to do with firefighting.

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