Adam Rothstein accepts the Knights of Columbus’ Alec Baker Memorial Award from Mike Blackwell, director of the New Brunswick recreation department, for donating sports equipment to the department as his bar mitzva tzedaka project.
May 20, 2008
A Kendall Park teenager has hit a home run for underprivileged youngsters playing in recreational leagues in New Brunswick.
Adam Rothstein, who became a bar mitzva in September at Anshe Emeth Memorial Temple in New Brunswick, donated about 1,000 pieces of sports equipment to the city’s recreation department. He organized the donation drive as his bar mitzva tzedaka project.
The gift of mostly baseball items, the largest donation in the department’s history, so impressed its director, Mike Blackwell, that he nominated Adam for the Alec Baker Memorial Award.
The award, given annually by the Knights of Columbus New Brunswick Council, goes to the individual it feels has done the most to benefit the city’s youth.
On April 23, before an audience that included New Brunswick Mayor Jim Cahill and Middlesex County Freeholder Director David Crabiel, the Knights of Columbus honored Rothstein.
Also in attendance was Anshe Emeth’s rabbi, Daniel Fellman.
“The city of New Brunswick, as are most towns these days, is struggling with budgets,” said Middlesex County surrogate Kevin J. Hoagland. “Most of this equipment could not have been purchased otherwise. A great majority of children served by our recreation department are from lower-income families who couldn’t afford that kind of equipment.”
Hoagland, who chaired the Knights of Columbus community awards night, said that as far as he knew, no child had ever received the award.
As the father of a 13-year-old daughter himself, Hoagland said he could only imagine the reaction of Adam’s parents, Shari and Marc Rothstein of Kendall Park.
“I thought about how I would feel in their shoes knowing my child took it upon himself to benefit other children his own age with whom he had no contact or involvement with,” he said.
Shari Rothstein described the event as “a lovely evening” and said her son also received a proclamation from Cahill.
“I’m thrilled he came up with the idea all by himself,” she said. “We’re obviously extremely proud of his accomplishments.”
Adam said he thought of collecting sports equipment for his tzedaka project because “in New Brunswick near my temple I saw there were people who did not have a lot of sports equipment and I did not see people helping them.”
“But I could help,” said Adam, who got Blackwell’s name through Anshe Emeth’s community development corporation.
“I got bats, balls, a lot of brand new hats and gloves,” said Adam, who plays recreational baseball in South Brunswick’s leagues and on a traveling team and soccer at Crossroads South Middle School.
Marc Rothstein said the family passed out fliers and put boxes in parks and other spots throughout South Brunswick.
“We got a lot of baseball equipment and some soccer,” he said. “Adam is a big sports fan, especially baseball, so he wanted to combine his interests.”
“When the city rec department came to our house with a truck and saw what Adam had collected they were just blown away,” said his mother. “It filled an entire truck.”
Adam described himself as a “very big Mets fan,” adding, “My mother used to be a Yankee fan, but my father converted her.”
Adam said he hopes the youngsters who received his donated equipment will “see people want to help and I hope that they will be able to use the equipment for a long time.”
“I was kind of happy and really amazed,” he said about receiving the award. “I definitely did not go out to try and get an award and it’s amazing I actually did.”
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