- [First Voiceover] Major funding for the NJ PBS Gala provided by RWJBarnabas Health, let's be healthy together.

NJM Insurance Groups, serving the insurance needs of residents and businesses for more than 100 years.

Bank of America, PSEG, BD and by Prudential Financial.

Additional support provided by Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey, The Ocean Wind project by Orsted and PSEG and by McCarter and English.

- Good evening everyone, I am Neal Shapiro.

president and CEO of the WNET group.

Welcome to tonight's broadcast gala benefit for New Jersey's own Public Television network, NJ PBS.

Nearly a year ago, we brought you our first ever broadcast gala benefit.

It was just a few months into the pandemic and part of a year that was full of incredible change and incredible challenge.

Like many organizations we had to quickly shift all of our operations and work remotely.

And in our case, that meant not just daily office operations but also the production of our weeknight news program and its 24/7 digital component.

Proudly we did it, as we knew so many depended on our work to make sense of what was happening on a day-to-day basis.

And we never missed a broadcast or a web update or a daily newsletter delivery.

What's more, we continued to innovate during that time, creating new programming like Chat Box with David Cruise and NJ Business Beat with Rhonda Schaffler.

And our two news programs, NJTV news and Nj Spotlight were co-branded into one powerful newsroom, NJ Spotlight news.

Understanding that during periods of uncertainty, it's even more important for New Jerseyans to have a place to go for a reliable, trustworthy news and information.

And we didn't stop there.

As you may know, public television's been a part of a decades long proud tradition of public media, serving the Garden State.

Earlier this year, we took the next step in its evolution with a new brand name that more clearly identifies and differentiates our network and its mission.

NJTV became NJ PBS, which more directly connects our excellent local programming to the national footprint and trusted PBS, America's Public Broadcasting Service.

We crafted a tagline that we hope will exemplify your experience, My NJ.

My PBS.

What hasn't changed?

NJ PBS is still the only public broadcaster to reach all 21 New Jersey counties from High Point to Cape May.

And we remain dependent on your support.

So we hope that as you watch tonight, you'll consider going online to contribute to keep NJ PBS's legacy of local news, information and entertainment going.

It's been a challenging year but tonight we're here to pay tribute to the many ways in which New Jersey has come together.

And it's our duty and our privilege to bring these stories to you, so let's take a look.

- Today is my my happy day because it's all these buckets food.

- I like going to school.

- This is a time of great uncertainty, but we will get through this and we'll be here to keep you updated.

- The trends are moving in the right direction for the third straight week.

You were in New Jersey and filed unemployment claims.

- Really pumped.

- We are at inflection point in history.

- [First Reporter] These athletes can choose up to two parents or guardians who attend practices and games.

Critics argue pipelines like this one hurt ecosystems and contribute to climate change.

- [Second Reporter] NJ Spotlight news has confirmed the governor and lawmakers they may be closer to a deal than they're letting on.

- [Third reporter] So many people went to the shore that sales of beach badges skyrocketed.

- For the entire news team, thanks for being with us.

- We'll see you tomorrow.

- As we rallied our resources to provide critical news and information not to mention some much needed entertainment to viewers like you, citizens and companies across the state also jumped into service to do their part.

Tonight, we're gonna recognize some of those individuals and organizations who have done extraordinary work to help to get New Jersey back on the road to recovery and paving a path toward the future.

From providing much needed medical care and finding innovative ways to educate our kids at home, to creating jobs and providing food to our struggling neighbors.

These honorees have each found a unique way that they could make a real impact on New Jersey.

- [Voiceover] BD the Community Food Bank of New Jersey, Shereef Elnahal, Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey, Kimberly Dickstein Hughes and Orsted.

- To help me introducing you to our honorees let me turn things over to your host for this evening.

You may know Mary Alice Williams as an award-winning journalist on the national stage or as a successful writer, an educator, or as a longtime member of the public media family of New Jersey including anchor a nightly news program.

It's my honor now to introduce Mary Alice Williams.

- Thanks Neil, I miss you, I miss working alongside the whole team every day.

I am Mary Alice Williams.

I've gone from pre-pandemic anchor of NJ TV news to current avid viewer like you.

And like you, I have been so grateful to have the NJ Spotlight journalists come into my home each night to arm us with the facts on the health of our State and the economy and the environment, education, the arts, to not only point out what's wrong but to highlight what's possible so we can make New Jersey better for everyone.

I'm honored to be with you tonight to celebrate some of the true heroes of the Garden State, a place I've called home for decades.

Our first honoree was truly on the front lines of the COVID response in the United States as president and CEO of University Hospital in Newark, Dr. Elnahal leads the academic medical center which was also one of the top hospitals in the State for the number of COVID patients served.

He was well-prepared to take the helm having previously served as new Jersey's commissioner of health where he dedicated his term to fighting the opioid crisis, reducing racial disparities and improving women's health.

Meet Dr. Shereef Elnahal.

- University Hospital's experience over the past year has really been a year that we'll never forget.

I just remember in the middle of April of 2020, walking through my hospital, sometimes carrying boxes of PPE to support our frontline heroes in addition to other members of our leadership team.

And you couldn't help, but notice that almost every person in our 300 beds filled with patients who had COVID 19 was a person of color.

This was something that was devastating for this community.

It's a majority minority community.

We were one of the only medical centers in the country that was recruiting predominantly minority population in a clinical trial for a COVID 19 vaccine.

And we know now that the vaccine is the ticket out of this pandemic, or at least to a state where COVID-19 is not dominating our lives.

We've also been out in the city doing everything from testing to COVID-19 vaccination.

We just had a event this past weekend and it was a pop-up walk-in clinic that we had right here on campus.

No appointment required, anybody could come and get a shot.

We delivered over 94 doses and hundreds of additional doses that day.

We're involved not only with the clinical care as I've been mentioning but the broader public health effort for public hospital we're a state institution.

It's part of why we're there in addition to the essential mission of serving this community's most vulnerable.

So in terms of meeting other care needs I'll just talk about a personal experience.

We had our third child about a week before I had to close down the mother-baby unit to be able to accommodate the surge of COVID 19 patients.

It wasn't lost on us that every other aspect of the care needs of this community still needed to be met.

And so we never ended up closing pediatrics or OBGYN, for example, we had to move them to different places throughout the hospital but that's a very important thing that we continued.

We also really overnight expanded telehealth and virtual care opportunities.

We put together a pretty simple platform that we delivered to all of our patients in terms of continuing their care and appointments.

And we were able to really match the demand that we were able to do in person before with virtual care.

Burnout stress and just the daily concern that our employees have as they continue to fight this pandemic, by the way, sometimes folks are too quick to talk about it in the past tense, they're still dealing with it, and they're still coming to work every single day to contend with all of this on behalf of the community.

That has led to a lot of stress and sometimes post-traumatic stress to a point where we really have had to put forward a suite of services that our employees can get.

So we have everything from psychosocial counseling that our department of psychiatry had to step forward and give to virtual chaplaincy services, peer to peer support virtually, and by phone.

All of that has been so critical because folks need each other to get through this.

They have good days and bad and days when they start to wonder why they're doing this because it comes at such great personal risk.

And so I can tell you that one of the best moments I saw was when one of our nurse heroes, Maritza Beniquez, was the first person in New Jersey to get vaccinated right here at our hospital and the word she used were, "I have peace of mind again, "I don't have to be afraid anymore."

I can tell you, we've never had a stronger partnership with local media than we had during this pandemic.

This was a time when the value of being able to see, not just national trends or international trends on an emergency that was impacting people where they were and impacting their own lives, but more importantly, what was happening in their community what were case rates looking like, what was the positivity rate.

What was the risk to them when they left their doors and had to go to the grocery store had to show up to their essential job.

The value of local media in partnering with institutions like us and the government to get folks the information they needed to keep safe is something that I think was obvious and really just speaks to the asymmetric importance of having robust local media and NJ Spotlight News, NJ PBS, NJ TV, they were partners with us from day one in spreading this message, not only for me to give updates to the community, but so many others in our hospital the experiences of frontline heroes in parting the importance of staying home when we had the surge, by getting the perspective directly from the folks who were dealing with it.

Folks would not know the emergency and the level of crisis that we had faced had it not been for, I'll call them heroes in media coming to the frontline themselves, putting themselves at risk and capturing that story and telling that story.

And so my appreciation goes out to NJ PBS and thank you for this recognition, but also the recognition also falls at the hands of a group of people who really helped us all get through this pandemic.

- Thank you, Dr. Elnahal for the heroic work that you and the team at University Hospital are doing.

You know, like Dr. Elnahal, I am so proud of the work that New Jersey Public Television has done to provide our citizens with crucial information during the pandemic.

So why not show their pride with a contribution to keep it going?

You can go MyNJPBS.org, now.

While the pandemic is far from over, we are beginning to see some light on the horizon as we begin to reopen, and to spend time with our friends and family in person.

As a special treat, we are joined by Rising Broadway star and New Jersey native, Shereen Pimintel, with a performance created just for this evening.

Shereen made her Broadway debut at just nine years old as young Nala in the "Lion King."

She would turn to Broadway last spring to star as Maria in the revival of "West Side Story."

While simultaneously finishing her studies at Juilliard no less performing "Sing Happy," here's Shereen.

♪ Sing me a happy song about Robins in spring ♪ ♪ Sing me a happy song with a happy ending ♪ ♪ Some cheerful roundelay about catching the ring ♪ ♪ Sing happy ♪ Sing me a sonnet all about rolling in gold ♪ ♪ Some peppy melody about rainbows blending ♪ ♪ Nothing with phrases saying you're out in the cold ♪ ♪ Sing happy ♪ Tell me tomorrow's gonna be peaches and cream ♪ ♪ Assure me clouds are lined with a silver lining ♪ ♪ Say how you've realized an impossible dream ♪ ♪ Sing me a happy song ♪ Play me a madrigal about trips to the moon ♪ ♪ Or some old ballad about two eyes shining ♪ ♪ It can't be loud enough or a moment too soon ♪ ♪ Sing happy ♪ No need reminding me how it all fell apart ♪ ♪ I need no lyrics singing of stormy weather ♪ ♪ There's quite enough around me that's breaking my heart ♪ ♪ Sing happy ♪ Give me a Hallelujah and get up and shout ♪ ♪ Tell me the sun is shining around the corner ♪ ♪ Whoever's interested helping me out ♪ ♪ Please keep it happy ♪ I'm only in the market for long, loud laughter ♪ ♪ I'll let you serenade me till dawn comes along ♪ ♪ Just make it a happy ♪ Keep it a happy song - Wow.

Thank you, Shereen.

One of the inherent missions of public television is to educate.

When the pandemic closed our schools, New Jersey Public Television quickly filled the learning gap partnering with the State Department of Education and the NJEA under our previous network name to produce our on-air instructional series, NJTV Learning Live.

- [Voiceover] The department of education NJTV and the New Jersey Education Association had partnered to begin NJTV Learning Live, a new public television program, featuring lessons, taught by new Jersey's tremendous educators best of the nation, best of the world.

- Hi, New Jersey.

My name is Kimberly Dickstein Hughes, but you can call me Miss Dick.

- I love being a teacher.

- Power, bang, boom.

- Do you have a favorite subject?

- In three, two, one.

- It is so exciting to me that I have this opportunity to help students as learners grow.

They're from over the State of New Jersey.

- I honestly feel the energy coming through this television screen.

[cheering] - To all the teachers out there, we thank you and we appreciate you.

- Our next honoree Kimberley Dickstein Hughes was New Jersey's State teacher of the year for 2020 and helped to lead the charge on this hugely impactful project.

Her passion for teaching is palpable, her enthusiasm is infectious, meet Kimberly.

- My name is Kimberly Dickstein Hughes and I am the 2020 New Jersey's State teacher of the year.

I became a teacher because my teacher showed me that anything is possible from a classroom and magic happens here and I wanted to be part of that community.

Being selected as the New Jersey's State teacher of the year is one of the greatest honors of my professional path and being named as the teacher of the year it means that I am part of a community much larger than myself.

I am engaging with educators across the State and across the country and representing the best of the best.

The greatest challenge for me as an educator during the pandemic was re-envisioning how I understood the world of education.

And I think that was the greatest challenge for all of us is that we have set expectations and standards and we overnight had to re-envision what that looks like and that required a lot of creativity and a lot of faith in ourselves in order to achieve those goals.

And I have really had to shift how I teach.

I am a very physical teacher and I am up and moving and I have decided that that needs to continue in the virtual space as well.

So I have asked my students to get up in their spaces and perform Shakespeare and in a breakout room stage a scene from home.

I've asked them to imagine themselves in a place of togetherness in the virtual sphere and that has been challenging, but at the same time it's been rewarding to see the courage that that space has allowed for students.

Students have been able to share differently whether it was verbally or non-verbally but they could show up in a new way.

And that's been really exciting for my students at the high school level.

♪ From my house to yours ♪ From New Jersey show will be a Jersey thing ♪ ♪ That we're learning live, learning live ♪ NJTV Learning Live started as an emergency relief effort on behalf of the New Jersey Department of Education, the New Jersey Education Association and NJTV part of the WMDT groups.

And all of these stakeholders saw a need once we moved to remote learning.

So we knew that our vulnerable populations wouldn't have access necessarily to remote learning that required broadband internet, devices in the homes.

And we had learned in the beginning of the academic school year of 2020, at least in New Jersey over 230,000 students didn't have access to an internet or device in their home that was reliable.

And so in April, we had assumed that there would be a great need and we were right.

The conversations around being culturally relevant and responsive were essential to putting on responsible programming.

And our educators made that their priority is that we are meeting the needs of our learners whomever they are.

- Students from all over the world have taken on learning from home and done such an amazing job.

- I knew going into NJTV Learning Live that new Jersey's educators would go above and beyond for their students.

But what surprised me was the extent of what educators were willing to do to make learning accessible for all.

Everyone who was part of the partnership wanted to ensure that there was opportunity for children to learn.

And that was really powerful.

What's been really exciting is watching how educators have used this time to engage the community, the outside world and see beyond the four walls of the classroom.

So students can engage with actors in Oregon, the Oregon Shakespeare festival, or London at the globe or they can Skype or Zoom with NASA or they can speak with Washington DC right from their classroom, and really travel the world through that internet connection.

And so I do think that the walls of the classroom are coming down so that the world can open up to our students.

Being recognized as an NJ PBS Gala honoree is not only humbling, but a little surreal.

I have been really fortunate to have incredible teachers in my life and to instill love of learning in me, but some of the greatest teachers I've ever met were the teachers on NJTV Learning Live,.

I was able to work with some of New Jersey's best who were creative and resilient.

And I wouldn't be the educator I am today without all of you who rose and rallied and did everything you could to make learning fun and engaging and meaningful for our kids.

I just really want New Jersey to know that educators have done everything they can and we'll keep doing that.

And it's really powerful to be part of that community.

- Clean, renewable energy is not only important to the future of our planet but it's also an important choice of new jobs.

Our next honoree, Orsted, is an international leader in sustainable energy and is aiming to make New Jersey the heart of the offshore wind industry.

Here's a look at offshore wind, how it works and what Orsted is bring to New Jersey.

- For decades, supporters of offshore wind in the United States have looked at the ocean off the east coast and seen the potential for renewable energy projects that could power millions of homes.

- We need to shift our energy system away from fossil fuels that produce greenhouse gases and towards renewable energies that don't.

- We're dealing now with major consequences.

- If we act to save the planet we can create millions of jobs.

- We're running out of time, but there is still hope.

- Hope doesn't come from words, hope only comes from action.

- Orsted is one of the largest green energy companies in the world.

We, about 10 years ago transitioned from one of the most coal intensive European utilities to today being the world's most sustainable energy company.

We do onshore wind, onshore solar, storage, but our real claim to fame is offshore wind.

In the US we're also the market leader by a number of different standards.

And in New Jersey, we're building New Jersey's first offshore wind farm called the Ocean Wind Wind Farm.

We have a vision of a world that runs entirely on green energy.

The Ocean Wind Wind Farm is an 1100 megawatt wind farm that doesn't really resonate with many people they don't know what that means.

But for context it will power about 500,000 homes in New Jersey and it will be built about 15 miles off the coast of Southern New Jersey and Orsted, the world leader in offshore wind with our partner PSEG, New Jersey's largest utility are committed to building the project in a sustainable way in coexistence with other ocean users, including commercial and recreational fishermen, environmentalists and other ocean users.

We're excited about the opportunity to bring this green power to New Jersey.

New Jersey is one of the leading states with respect to offshore wind with a target of 7,500 megawatts which again would be somewhere in the magnitude of 4 million homes eventually.

Offshore wind is the under estimated job creation tool of the current time.

People think about offshore wind and jobs and they think about constructing turbines off shore.

But the reality is that we're building a whole new industry.

And in order to build that industry we need to build all the infrastructure for that industry.

So that includes port revitalization, special bespoke vessels for installation and operation and maintenance of ships and supply chain.

And so there's a lot of construction jobs happening already today to start building this infrastructure for the industry.

We also have recently announced that we'll open our operational digital headquarters in Newark, New Jersey.

And this is the headquarters for our IT for all of our operating assets, both for onshore and offshore.

Orsted has solar and wind farms out in Texas and Nebraska and other parts of the country.

And then we'll be building offshore wind farms all along the East Coast.

And this will be our headquarters for monitoring those assets.

In our response to New Jersey's most recent offshore wind solicitation, we've partnered with Xen Solutions to make an investment to transform 50 class eight semi-trucks that are used at the port of Newark into electric vehicles, also to build the charging station and to power that charging station with our offshore wind electricity and some other development and training opportunities.

We see this as a great opportunity to bring clean vehicles to an area that's been probably more importantly and impacted more by COVID-19 and as an environmental justice community affected by smog around the port.

So this is just another way for us to bring our sustainability mission to New Jersey and try to reduce the smog and emissions in and around the port of New Jersey.

One of the biggest challenges we have as we bring this nation industry forward is misinformation.

There's a lot of people that don't really understand what offshore wind is, how reliable is it, the job opportunities.

We really are thankful for what New Jersey Public Television is doing already to help educate New Jerseyans and public television in general to educate citizens about climate issues, offshore wind, renewable energy, et cetera.

And we appreciate the coverage in your local news segments and local community segments and also some of the specials that are brought by the New Jersey Public Television Network.

So we're super grateful for the work that's been done but we can use all the help we can get.

- Chances are, you've probably at some point used products made by our next honoree.

BD is everywhere providing medical devices and technologies for more than a century.

This year in particular they focus their innovation on aiding in the pandemic response.

BD quickly developed COVID testing technologies and got them out into our communities, and then went on to develop the rapid test that allowed timely virus knowledge to have an impact on essential workers and others.

As vaccines were developed, they reached out to global partners to help increase production of syringes so those vaccines could be delivered worldwide.

Let's hear about their vital work.

- BD's portfolio is quite broad.

As I like to say, there's hardly a public health issue out there that we don't care about, or can't help address.

Everything from medication delivery to diagnostic tests and research tools to interventional products.

So BD's purpose is to advance the world of health.

And we know that we can't do that on our own so partnerships with governments, non-government organizations, foundations and many others are just critical to enabling our purpose.

We're committed to advancing the world of health and that will result in better outcomes for our communities.

Obviously, the focus now is on vaccination and in the background while the pharma companies were developing the vaccine we were ramping up our production of needles and syringes to meet global demand.

And we currently have orders for over 1.7 billion needles and syringes to enable vaccination globally.

So engagement with governments around the world is just critical to our ability to help meet the needs.

We need to understand from governments how they're thinking about tackling the pandemic but we also have to share with them our capabilities, make sure that they understand how we can help, what tools were in the process of developing.

And so that's what we did during COVID, engage with governments early and made them aware of our capabilities and then partnered with them to pre-position needles and syringes to support vaccination efforts and also worked with them on the development of new diagnostic tools.

NJ PBS is just a critical source of information for millions across the state, a trusted source of information, both in times of crisis and more calm times as well.

BD's legacy of leadership and public television dates quite a ways back to the founding of the New Jersey Public Broadcasting Authority back in 1968 and our own Henry P Becton Senior was one of the founding commissioners at that time.

And our partnership with NJ PBS has continued all the years since then and we're proud of that partnership.

So this recognition is a tremendous honor for our company and our 70,000 associates globally who's been working around the clock, literally to fight the pandemic.

So we appreciate the recognition and on behalf of my colleagues, thank you for the ongoing partnership.

- The New Jersey Symphony Orchestra has been quite innovative in sharing their artistry with music lovers while we're all stuck here at home.

Their NJSO Everywhere series features performances of beloved classics, filmed outdoors at iconic locations around the state.

We'd like to share with you their "Lyric for Strings" by composer, George Walker who lived in New Jersey for much of his life.

[orchestra music] What a beautiful piece.

What a gorgeous location.

Now onto our next honoree.

You may know Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey as one of the largest insurance providers in the state but the company has also been instrumental in supporting healthcare resources during the pandemic from direct assistance with testing and vaccine distribution to making sure that their members are also continuing to receive routine care.

Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield has been integral in getting New Jersey healthy.

- New Jersey's own Superman, Christopher Reeve, once said, "A hero is an ordinary individual who finds strength "to persevere and endure "in spite of overwhelming obstacles."

The past year has given us a lot of heroes.

2020 was defined first by a pandemic that forced us to live apart.

A time the CDC called the most difficult in the public health history of the nation.

As spring turned to summer, a series of events stirred a national awakening and sparked a wave of action to address racial injustice.

Fall ushered in the political discussions of an election year, always a central feature of our nation's history and challenged many to remember that the ideas and values that have united us for generations are bigger than what divides us on any given day.

From these moments, heroes emerged, doctors, nurses, therapists, hospital staff, first responders, and others who were essential to helping us to prevent and treat COVID continue to be our heroes.

Horizon is proud to call them our partners in health.

To make sure Horizon did its part when COVID surged and the supply of PPE dwindled, we pitched in by donating face masks and shields to the state's coordinated response effort in support of our healthcare heroes.

From Cape May to High Point, local organizations that make our community stronger and healthier, faced enormous challenges.

Their response rise to meet the test Head-on that's what heroes do.

From the Institute for social justice to the Community Food Bank of New Jersey and from the New Jersey pandemic relief fund to the New Jersey YMCA State Alliance, Horizon was proud to stand up and do our part, supporting them with resources so they could continue to help others.

Across New Jersey a dedicated group of community health workers, hometown heroes, began reaching out to neighbors to help them deal with challenges that have traditionally been beyond the reach of healthcare.

They were part of the Horizon Neighbors and Health Program, a partnership with local health systems and community health organizations to address the social determinants of health.

And then there are the everyday heroes.

The moms and dads, the teachers, the small businesses owners the people who made sure the lights stayed on, the shelves stayed full and the streets remained safe.

They persevered and endured in spite of obstacles, big and small every day.

Through it all as always was NJ PBS.

Whether it was bringing the stories of these heroes into our homes each night or giving us a welcome distraction with the rich programming that has always been the soul of public television, NJ PBS proved once again that it is the heartbeat of New Jersey.

We're proud to be your partner NJ PBS.

And we're grateful for all the heroes of New Jersey who let us earn their trust by being there when they need us most.

New Jersey, heroes live here.

- Please join us in thanking all of our funders for this year's NJ PBS Gala benefit.

The health emergency caused by the coronavirus pandemic has grabbed headlines across the globe, but the economic impact has also been felt across the country, across the State and throughout our local communities.

New Jersey has seen an increase of more than 50% in the number of residents who are struggling to put food on the table.

That's 10 points higher than the national average.

The Community Food Bank of New Jersey is the State's largest food bank and has been a lifeline to our neighbors in need.

They ramped up their services in a truly heroic way to meet the huge surge in demand.

And I expect in the coming months the need will continue to remain high.

Here's their story.

- You know, it's interesting about who we think our neighbor in need is.

And so you think hunger and maybe we have a preconceived notion of who's hungry.

Most families, most individuals that are in need, even before the pandemic but even more so since the pandemic are individuals and families that have work income.

Some of them have more than one job to make ends meet.

But the fact of the matter is they cannot make ends meet.

The resources that they have are not enough for the high cost of living in our area and in fact is why they have to make tough choices of what food, if any, to put on the table.

And so why are so many New Jerseyans food insecure?

Before the pandemic, there were well over 8% closer to 9% of the population did not have that peace of mind of knowing where their next meal would come from.

Since the pandemic, well over 12% throughout New Jersey are facing that same dilemma.

And it's not because of lack of food.

Pandemic supply issues aside, it's because of the lack of financial access to food.

And what happened since the pandemic really as a result of the economy having to shut down is that it exacerbated that need.

It really exposed the vulnerability of so many of our neighbors.

A 56% increase in those that are food insecure, as many as three out of 10 coming to our pantry for the very first time.

As I traveled through the state, as I provided food and trunks for many of our neighbors, we just kept hearing the same story over and over again.

I used to donate to my local pantry, I used to support or volunteer at the local pantry and now I'm in line for food.

Like so many of the honorees that are being honored today as well, adaptability was really the fuel that we had to tap into.

We had to re-imagine things that we didn't ever think we would have to reimagine.

How do you socially distance in a 285,000 square foot facility which is where we are today?

How do you help partners who don't have the ability to social distance 'cause they're working out of a church basement or out of a small space, continue to distribute food.

How do you do more of it?

Exponentially more of it in the months ahead.

And how do you do that when your funding streams or your sourcing streams of food completely changed?

These are some of the things that we had to tackle.

I remember that first large scale distribution in Essex County, in Branch Brook Park and how what we thought would be a few hundred cars was quickly a few thousand cars, miles long and that became not just the distribution in Essex County but then in Union County, in Bergen County and then Atlantic County of Bader Field.

Lines just snaking around around and around for miles.

And so many of those faces struggling, not knowing whether they were gonna have enough food to make ends meet.

So what do I remember most throughout this pandemic?

Face of a mother, pulling up with worry in her eyes and seeing a car seat with a baby behind her.

That's just seared in my mind and will forever be seared in my mind.

I remember that look, I knew that look growing up as a child in the South Bronx.

I didn't know what it was then but I certainly know what it means now.

I also remember the looks of so many of my team members here who didn't have a chance to mourn family members, elders or friends that passed away because of the pandemic.

And they were just committed to being here and doing what needed to be done for other neighbors who needed us to be here and the generosity of time, funds and just encouragement from our board, our volunteers, our donors who really just leaned in with us and say "I know you don't know what you need now "but just tell us what you need when you know, "we're here to help in any way."

We have to keep telling the story and keeping at the forefront, how important it is for us not to lose the compassion, the compassion that we saw, the understanding that we felt because we were all in this together.

And so once this goes behind closed doors, once all those vaccines are administered, there will be people struggling.

Getting out of the reality that they only found themselves in because of the pandemic or continuing to struggle because they were struggling since even prior to the pandemic, let's not lose that compassion for each other.

We couldn't be more honored to be recognized by NJ PBS and especially alongside such distinguished honorees, representing health, representing education and representing innovation and renewal energies.

This is the kind of energy that we need to continue to build out of this pandemic reality.

And we're just privileged to be able to tell the story and hopefully we can count on you to help us tell the story and to engage in the work with us.

- In addition to those heroes who were celebrating this evening, there have been lesser known stories of small businesses all across the state, doing their part to provide their services and keep New Jersey working.

We'd like to shine a light on them.

- [Jenyne] March of 2020, brought the lives of many in our state to a halt when the COVID-19 pandemic hit causing widespread shutdowns.

But one South Jersey company, Nipro Pharmapackaging saw light beyond the looking glass and looked no further than their own glass vials.

- We knew early on that it was critical for us to keep our operations going while we keep our employees safe.

So we knew the need and the requirement for vaccinations would soon arise after the pandemic began.

So our demand began to ramp up pretty quickly after.

- [Jenyne] Nipro manufacturers vials for medicines, but more importantly vaccines in industry critical to help combat COVID-19.

So understanding this virus and how it worked created challenges along the way but nothing they couldn't overcome.

- The in-denials in everyday life is a challenge already.

You add a pandemic on top of it and it really ratchets up the complexity of what not only employees but employers and manufacturers have to deal with.

But you find a way, you understand what you do has a purpose and it's important and everyone seems to buy into that and it does keep you going.

So it says a lot to the spirit of the people in our country and what we're trying to accomplish together.

- [Jenyne] Nipro ramped up manufacturing, added machinery to their three New Jersey locations, increased production by times 50% working seven days, sometimes 24 hours a day, producing hundreds of millions of vials.

They increased their workforce by 25%.

Employees just thankful to be working during the pandemic when so many others were not, determined to be part of the solution - I can tell this story to my daughters too in the future.

It feels great, that's a motivation to be here.

Like we are part of the solution and hopefully this can be eradicated soon and we can go back to a normal life.

- [Jenyne] Now they see the state reopening and more and more residents getting vaccinated probably knowing their vials played a small part.

- What makes me feel good that I can be a part of helping with maybe taking care of this virus to send out the product that's needed to fill, to give to others.

- [Jenyne] One South Jersey company, making a difference for so many.

- In the spirit of honoring the great organizations and people in our state, we'd like to thank Mary Alice for her years of public service.

Here are some highlights from her career with us at NJ PBS.

- As I leave you I'm leaving you the audience in good hands.

And I wanna thank the audience for welcoming me into your homes.

Hello, thank you for joining us on air and online.

For giving me a guided tour of your communities and the issues you care about.

Senator Robert Menendez has said he'll fight the criminal charges, the first fraud against a sitting US Senator in seven years.

The Christie aides charged in the biggest corruption scandal in years proclaiming their innocence, their boss not charged but looming large over the proceedings.

- You've had a storied career in broadcast that spans a lifetime.

- [screams] I'm Mary Alice Williams for NJTV News have a safe weekend, we'll see you next week.

If you guys ever need me to note this call, I am so there.

- Family is forever, that's right.

- Thank you again, Mary Alice, for all you've done for NJ PBS and for the Garden State.

You've mentored our entire news team, dedicated professionals, keeping all of us informed during these trying times.

Which is why support for NJ PBS has never been more consequential.

We're so grateful for this year's NJ PBS Gala benefit supporters.

- [Voiceover] RWJBarnabas Health, NJM Insurance Group, Bank of America, BD, Prudential Financial, PSEG, Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey The Ocean Wind Project, McCarter and English, Dick and Kayla Pechter, Josh Weston, The MCJ Amelior Foundation, Atlantic Health System, One-on-One with Steve Adubato, Bernie and Anne Flynn, Governor Thomas H. Kean.

- We hope that you would join these generous supporters by going to MyNJPBS.org and making your contribution today.

You know, this has been an unprecedented year for our entire team at NJ PBS, together, we've been able to provide you with your favorite shows and special virtual events.

I want to especially thank our NJ Spotlight News team who have consistently reported throughout this extraordinary year, reporting from their cars, their living rooms and everywhere in between without missing a single deadline.

I also wanna thank our NJ PBS board of trustees for their encouragement and leadership.

I hope you share in my pride of the work the entire team in New Jersey has done.

We're excited to continue to innovate and provide you with content that enlightens, educates and entertains.

So on behalf of everyone here at NJ PBS, thank you for watching.

[rock music]