Collier Youth Services will host its annual gala dinner dance June 8 in The Addison Park, Aberdeen, from 6:30 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. This year’s theme is “Celebrating 90 Years of Belonging, Dignity and Hope,” and will feature entertainment by Mission Dance.

Collier Youth Services, located in Wickatunk, provides at-risk youth ages five through 21 a wide range of non-denominational, educational, residential and recreational programming. The agency was founded by the Sisters of the Good Shepherd on the grounds of a Monmouth County summer estate owned by Sarah Van Alen Collier, widow of Robert Collier, a publishing magnate. Mrs. Collier, a Catholic convert, desired to offer support to neglected and dependent young women and enlisted the help of the order’s foundress, St. Mary Euphrasia.

Programs offered through Collier Youth Services have grown in size and scope over the course of its 90-year history. They include Collier School, an alternative education for students in grades 6-12; Collier Group Home, residential services for teenage girls; Collier House, transitional living for young women; Kateri Day Camp, summer recreation for disadvantaged children; Project ECO, summer special education for children with autism or other complex needs; JET, summer job experience and training for teenagers, the Kateri Center, environmental education programs that are open to the public, and the new Caramore Farm, a community supported agriculture (CSA) program which brings families and friends together over natural, locally grown food while using the environment as a teaching tool for children.

During Collier’s 90th anniversary Mass, held Jan. 28 in St. Gabriel Church, Marlboro, Good Shepherd Sister Debbie M. Drago, executive director, noted the agency’s diverse programs were at the core of its mission to provide young people “the chance to grow toward their potential in an environment that promotes belonging, dignity and hope.”

The mission, Sister Debbie continued, “is based on the deep respect for the inherent worth of each individual and the belief in the capacity for personal growth and change.”

Honorees at the June 8 gala will be the Ryan family, relatives of the late Good Shepherd Sister Dorothy Ryan, who served as social worker to Collier’s high school, founder and director of its Kateri Center, and minister to youth for 26 years.

“She was a dynamo,” recalled Russell Gartz, Collier’s director of external relations, of Sister Dorothy. Her death in death in 2009 at the age of 87 didn’t end the association of those sharing the Ryan surname, he continued.

“More than 30 members of the extended Ryan family have kept her legacy going,” Gartz noted, “with membership on the board and volunteering in many capacities at Collier.”

Tickets to the gala are $225 and can be purchased online at 501auctions.com/cys. Sponsorships and ad journal space is also available until May 12.

The Addison Park is located at 150 Route 35, Aberdeen.

For further information, contact Mary at 732-946-4771 ext. 213, or [email protected].