Citizen's Awards

ROSELLE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE HONORS BANKER, ACTIVIST

        The Roselle Chamber of Commerce honored two women active in the life of Roselle, when the RCC held its seventh annual dinner on Wednesday, September 30.  This year, the event was held at the Cavalier Restaurant at the corner of St. Georges and Wood Avenues, and started with cocktails at 5:30 pm, with dinner and program following at 6:30 pm. The seventh annual Citizen of the Year Award was presented to Roselle civil rights activist Myrtle Counts.  The fifth annual President's Award was given to Jill Schafhauser, CEO of Roselle Savings Bank. Counts is a second generation Roselle resident who has been on the front lines for civil rights since her childhood.  Starting as a youth member of the NAACP chapter in Elizabeth, she was a founding member of the Roselle-Linden chapter, and has been president for thirty years.  Early in her career, she integrated the work force at R. J. Goerke's department store, and later at National Color Laboratory.  A member of the Roselle Republican Club, National Council of Negro Women, and the Urban League, Counts also marched in the 1980's against South African apartheid in such cities as Washington DC, Toronto, and London.  She served as an attendance officer with the Roselle Board of Education, and has tallied over 1200 hours of volunteer service at Runnels Hospital since 1998.  She is a former member of the state Advisory Commission on the Status of Women. Schafhauer is a second generation executive of the Roselle Savings Bank, following in the footsteps of her mother, who retired in 1995 as the bank's vice-president after a thirty-seven year career.   Jill worked her way up from teller in 1970 to president and CEO in 2001.  One of the few female bank executives in the state, she serves as a board member of the Occupational Center of New Jersey.  Now in its 120th year, RSB is a product of the 1983 merger of Roselle Building and Loan Association and the Roselle Savings and Loan Association.  It has a long history of support for Roselle community activities. 

The recipients of the Chamber’s Citizen of the Year Award are: 

2003 Anne Beeman

2004 William Frolich

2005 George G. Woody

2006 Dorothy Mayner

2007 Anthony & Deborah Esposito

2008 Ginsberg Family

2009 Myrtle Counts

The recipients of the Chambers President’s Award are: 

2005 Julie Pinho

2006 Sidney Stone

2007 Rev. Milton A. Byrd

2008 John Bush

2009 Jill Schafhauser.