Published in the Asbury Park Press 09/29/05
BY VINCENT MILLER
STAFF WRITER As part of its community
outreach program, Monmouth Rubber and Plastics Co., 75 Long Branch Ave., Long Branch, has
donated $3,000 worth of sponge-rubber padding to the Police Athletic League's Long Branch
Boxing Club.
"The padding has
been donated in memory of deceased city police officers, including my uncle, Rocco
Bonforte," said company President John Bonforte.
Rocco Bonforte had been
a detective and police commissioner.
Most of the
three-quarter-inch-thick rubber mats were placed on the vinyl floor of the boxing club to
prevent slipping.
Other 3-foot-by-6-foot
mats will form a subsurface in one of the club's two boxing rings, said coach Don Lee,
Neptune.
The club was formed
four years ago and has been managed since March by Lee, a retired corrections officer who
had a brief professional boxing career as a light heavyweight and heavyweight.
Lee said 70 to 80
youngsters age 12 to 21 meet at the club in the basement of the Long Branch Board of
Education
annex, Third and Chelsea avenues, from 5:30 to 8 p.m., Mondays through Thursdays.
"These kids need
somewhere to vent all their energy," he said.
Lee
had them doing just that during a recent Wednesday session.
They went from pushups
to hitting boxing bags in rapid succession.
"I'm just getting
them in shape now," he said. "After the football season, our attendance will
increase, and we will have competitive boxing matches from January through April."
The boxers pay nothing
for workouts or boxing unless they should win a club championship.
In that case, they
would pay $40 to register for further competition, Lee said.
The program was
arranged by Detective Sgt. Michael McGlennon of the city's Youth Services Bureau.
It serves young
residents of Long Branch, West Long Branch, Neptune, Ocean Township and Monmouth Beach.
Other than those in
Brick and Middletown, it is the only PAL-sponsored boxing program in Monmouth and Ocean
counties, Lee said.
"It's a good way
of keeping some of these kids off the street," Lee said.
He thanked Bonforte and
also A. Winston Woodward, financial specialist for the Long Branch branch of Wachovia, who
donated a humidifier and water cooler to the club.
"Everyone is
looking to redevelopment and looking forward," Bonforte said, "but we also want
to remember some of the people who got us where we are."
In 2006 Monmouth Rubber
will celebrate its 40th year in business at its current location.
Lee said he would
welcome donations of such items as treadmills, weights and boxing gear. He can be reached
at
(732) 207-6922. |
