Community Corner

Comedy Night to Benefit Pfeiffer's Daughter

Roosevelt teachers set to perform in band following comedy.

A group of  teachers banded together to help raise funds to benefit the granddaughter of a co-worker.

The group is organizing a comedy night on March 10 at 7:15 p.m. to benefit the Carly Pfieffer Memorial Fund, a scholarship fund organized for the education of Carly Pfeiffer, the daughter of Westfield firefighter and Cranford High School alumnus Jim Pfeiffer, who died in August. Carly’s grandmother, June Pfeiffer, is a paraprofessional at Roosevelt.

Kim Jonny, a public speaker and drama teacher at the school, said she was looking for a way to help the Pfeiffer family out after Jim Pfeiffer died. Having her own production company, Comedy Jam Productions, Jonny thought organizing a comedy night would be the best bet.

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“I work with June,” Jonny said of her desire to organize the event.

Jonny has recruited several comedians, including Adam Kerr, Adam Lucidi, Roberta Rockwell and Jerry Shack, to go on during the show, which will be held at the Crossroads in Garwood. In addition to the comedy, Jonny wanted to put together a musical component to the event, which she mentioned in passing to RIS music teacher James Doyle.

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“I told him about the comedy and James said ‘wouldn’t it be fun to get the faculty to come together and do something,’” Jonny said. “It sort of snowballed from there.”

Doyle has organized a faculty band to headline the show following the comedy. Jonny said in addition to Doyle, teachers Brace Friedman, Daisy Lemos, Liz Sherr and Sabina Lasko have committed to the band. She said several more teachers will likely get involved in the music as well.

“We hear them practicing and singing in the hallways,” she said. “It will be a nice program. An hour and a half of comedy with professional comics and then the faculty band will go on and there is another band following that.”

Jim Pfieffer, a Cranford High School graduate,  while off duty at his Mountainside home on Aug 22. The heroic firefighter, who received national acclaim following his 2005 rescue of a child stuck in an underground pipe at Tamaques Park, was buried at Fairview Cemetary following a . The FMBA founded the Carly Pfeiffer Memorial Fund shortly after his death to raise funds for the education of his only child.

There have been a variety of fundraisers for the Pfeiffer Fund since its inception, including , the  and Edison resident Hal Smolanoff  an to the firefighter, whom he had never met.  The FMBA has also been selling memorial t-shirts to benefit the fund.

Tickets have been selling steadily for the comedy night, according to Jonny. She said there are 120 seats, along with room to stand and speakers have been installed to hear everything in the bar area. Almost all of the 180 tickets for the event have been sold out, with a high response from community members.

“I know that people just want to come out,” she said. “They are so excited to help and do anything they can.”


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