By Christina Leslie | Correspondent

This winter, the Catholic Youth Organization of Mercer County was selected by the Times of Trenton newspaper as one of two agencies in the greater Mercer County area to benefit from its annual Holiday Appeal, and reaped about $16,000 in donations toward its operating costs.

“I have been submitting yearly applications for the CYO for over 20 years,” CYO executive director Thomas G. Mladenetz said about the 62-year-old Holiday Appeal drive designed to aid agencies with 501(c)(3) nonprofit status in the county. “I was thrilled our time had finally arrived.”

The Times of Trenton/ NJ Advance Media alerted the CYO and their other selection – the Interfaith Caregivers of Greater Mercer County, which matches homebound elderly and those with disabilities with caring volunteers – in mid-November. Mladenetz responded to the selection with gratitude.

“The Catholic Youth Organization of Mercer County is honored to be one of the recipients of this year’s Times Holiday Appeal,” he wrote in a letter to the Times. “On behalf of our board president, the Most Reverend David M. O’Connell, C.M., our board chairman, Arthur J. Caola, and our entire CYO board of trustees, we are most appreciative of the opportunity for recognition and monetary support for our agency. We are confident the 2018 Times Holiday Appeal will help us continue fulfilling the CYO mission.”

Throughout the appeal, which continued until the middle of January, the newspaper printed editorials and information on the two agencies, urging its readership to consider donating directly to the agencies as a holiday gift.

Mladenetz was grateful for both the donations and the exposure the contest gave the agency, which was founded in 1952 by Msgr. Leonard Toomey. An estimated 100,000 young people have been served by the  CYO sites: South Broad Street Center and East State Street Center, both Trenton; Bromley Center and the Yardville Branch in Hamilton, and the Ewing CYO in Ewing.

“[The appeal] was a wonderful opportunity for the CYO story to be told to the greater community,” Mladenetz said, noting that it helped dispel the myth that the CYO only focused on youth basketball. “Many people are quite surprised to learn we have so many educational programs along with social services such as our food pantry. With the support of so many partners, the CYO hopes to continue meeting the [community’s] changing needs for many more years.” 

The executive director detailed the agency’s plans for the holiday appeal funds, supplemented by community and corporation donations and grants. Renovations to the nearly-100-year-old main site in Trenton, once the home of the capital city’s RKO Theatre, top the list.

“The CYO Broad Street Center was built in 1920,” Mladenetz explained. “Some improvements will be adding LED lighting in our gym, brick pointing an exterior wall, and [funding] a recently added, fenced parking lot behind our building for a CYO bus and van.”

Transportation upgrades are also in order, he continued.

“We are also applying some of these funds to help purchase a new CYO bus later this year,” he shared. “One of our buses needs to be retired, by state regulation, since it is 15 years old. This will upgrade our fleet of vehicles at our East State Street Center.”