On Wednesday December 16th, Cherry Hill West AFJROTC cadets were posted by the doors, while school administrators and local government leaders floated around the new auditorium lobby. News cameras were pointed at this one woman with blond hair, a New Jersey State pin, and crazy holiday socks stepping out of a black Chevy Suburban state vehicle. Lt. Governor Kim Guadagno was visiting our school to discuss the “Rock your Socks” competition which will benefit the Covenant House. It is a privately funded agency that provides services for homeless and runaway youth.

Dr. Morton started off the assembly by telling the students and staff that “no one rocked their socks as good as me” causing chuckles which could be heard from the audience and the “Pledge of Allegiance.” This was followed by Dr. Morton giving some background information on  Kim Guadagno, stating that she is the first Lieutenant Governor in New Jersey’s history and her job entails being the Secretary of State, Chief Election official. She oversees travel and tourism, state cultural institutions and arts, and finally, the New Jersey Partnership for Action. With that, Dr. Morton introduced the Lt. Governor who was very excited to be visiting West to talk about this fun and benefiting competition. She first started with explaining to students that she was Acting Governor of New Jersey because Governor Christie was out of state on the presidential campaign trail. This is another one of her very important jobs in this position. She lectured students on their constitutional right to register when they are 18 to vote and how important it is to our state and country.

From politics, the Lieutenant Governor introduced the topic of community service saying “we are in the season of service” which is an annual initiative that the Christie Administration partakes in. Her first order of business was to address the wonderful videos that Dr. Morton, Mayor Cahn, Chief of Police Monaghan, Council President Fleisher, Superintendent Dr. Meloche, and Board of Education President Carol Matlack created in support of this competition. Guadagno challenged Camden County Sheriff-elect Gilbert “Whip” Wilson to rock his socks, Wilson gladly accepted.  The Lt. Governor then introduced a representative from the “Covenant House” Jennifer Williams. Williams talked about what the Covenant House is and told a story about how “Rock your Socks” came to be. It told of a homeless girl who came into their Camden store front on an extremely hot day wearing nothing but a worn out pair of socks and broken flip flops. Her feet were burnt from the sidewalk. The Covenant House gave her a new pair of socks and flip flops. Williams went on to say that socks are often overlooked in a donation drive so they wanted to focus on a youth sock drive. To further explain, Williams showed students and guests a short video of some homeless teens that went through the Covenant House and benefited from the donated clothes and their services.

The lights turned on and the Lt. Governor stood behind the podium to wrap up the presentation. She began taking questions on her position or the competition from students. She told students at the end of the assembly “you can be anything you want to be if you put your mind to it and have the best possible education.” With that, students were dismissed and the guests came to the stage to get their picture with the Lt. Governor. She even held a mini press conference to answer more questions about this competition. Everyone remember to #RockyourSocks and donate through the holidays for this wonderful cause.

The Lt. Governor encourages students to follow her on the social media accounts below:

Twitter: @LtGovGuadagno

Facebook: KimGuadagnoNJ

Instagram: LtGovGuadagno