From coal country to borough, resident feels impact of giving back to community
Marie DiMatties has become a fixture in Haddonfield during her residency, which has stretched for nearly five decades and includes 45 years of dedicated community service connected largely with The Haddon Fortnightly.
She wouldn’t be here today, and certainly wouldn’t have been an easy consensus choice as Haddonfield’s Citizen of the Year for 2019, if Marie Miernicki from Shenandoah, Pa., hadn’t learned from an early age about the importance of taking an active role in her surroundings.
“Apparently leadership and volunteerism are in my genes. Early on, my parents were role models and taught me the importance of giving back,” she said upon accepting the award at the Jan. 19 Mayor’s Breakfast held at First Presbyterian Church. “My father was fire chief for the Polish-American Fire Company, and my mother was a charter member and president of the Polish Ladies’ Social Club.”
Having lost both of her parents at a relatively young age did nothing to dampen those lessons. Instead, the drive remained, and DiMatties threw herself into volunteerism.
DiMatties was the first woman chosen as Haddonfield’s Citizen of the Year since Elizabeth “Betsy” Anderson in 2012.
The mother of two was a long-serving occupational therapist in the Pennsauken Public Schools, and worked as a consultant for several school districts, including Haddonfield. A published author, DiMatties also previously won the New Jersey Occupational Therapy Association President’s Award for pediatrics.
Within the borough, DiMatties served on the board of trustees of the Haddonfield Library and as a past president of the Zone PTA. She has also held numerous roles in The Haddon Fortnightly, including terms as president in three separate divisions, and engaged in volunteer work with First Night and the Historical Society of Haddonfield.
“This is what it must feel like to win an Academy Award, just better. To be recognized by the community I loved and have lived in for almost 50 years is both an honor and a privilege. Thank you to the committee that selected me, because there are so many deserving people in this community,” DiMatties said when given three “huzzahs” prior to her acceptance speech.
DiMatties established herself in Haddonfield back in 1971, having gotten engaged to her high-school sweetheart, and then started her family. She became involved with The Haddon Fortnightly around 1974, and has remained active there ever since.
“The thing I’m most proud of related to The Haddon Fortnightly, I was president of the Junior Women’s Club, and later on I became chairperson of the Evening Membership Department for women who work outside the home and can’t get to daytime meetings. When I retired, I moved onto the general club, and I served as president of the general club for two consecutive two-year terms,” she related during a Jan. 25 interview at her residence.
Two days after her Citizen of the Year recognition, The Sun caught up with DiMatties at the Fortnightly clubhouse as she joined her fellow members in making blankets for abused and neglected children throughout the state as part of MLK Day of Service.
“The state project for women’s clubs this year was CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocates), so we were actually making the blankets for that organization. We did that last year as well, but that state project was Prevent Child Abuse New Jersey,” she explained.
Even as the sheer volume of her involvement over the years could take longer to recount than some grocery lists, DiMatties insisted she never had a clue she would be the target of recognition or considered for an award relating to her service.
“Never in my wildest dreams did I think I would be worthy. But in December, there was a group of my friends from The Haddon Fortnightly who wanted to get together for breakfast. I was really busy, and they said ‘you have to come to breakfast because we want to nominate you,’ and I said ‘no, there are far more deserving people,’ but I agreed to come and talk to them and as we talked, they were insistent that I not be so modest and humble, and allow them to nominate me,” she said.
“I did know I was nominated but I did not know I won until that very day (the Mayor’s Breakfast). It was a very well-kept secret. This was after the holidays, probably within a week or so of the award. And then, apparently, they all were very secretive, working with my daughter, inviting my various groups of friends to be there, unbeknownst to me and my family.”
DiMatties marveled at what former mayor Jack Tarditi referred to as the “busload of people” who came to see her. In addition to her close family, she had well-wishers arrive from upstate, the Jersey shore and as far away as Florida — all hidden away in the church parlor when they arrived.
Now that the shock and surprise of her special day has passed, DiMatties said she has no plans to rest on her laurels and ruminate over her good fortune in 2019 and beyond.
“I’m planning to continue my volunteer service. I’m a trustee of The Haddon Fortnightly and I’m also involved in a number of the projects and events we’re doing. In fact, we will be celebrating its 125th anniversary on Sept. 21. And we’re hoping to do a huge event to commemorate that,” she revealed.
