Photos: Moorestown Night

Thanks to robust partnerships between multiple facets of the community, the first-ever Moorestown Night was an unqualified success.

Organized by a group of township employees, the event's main mission was to raise money for breast cancer survivor Dorothy Samartino's participation in the Susan G Komen 3-Day Breast Cancer Walk in Philadelphia next month. Samartino is the township tax collector. 

Karen Maltbie, secretary to the township manager and one of the primary organizers of the event, said a Camden Riversharks representative told her it was one of the team's best-selling September games ever, with roughly 1,000 tickets sold through the Moorestown Night promotion. 

The Riversharks presented organizers with a check for $970—a portion of the proceeds from tickets sales—for Samartino's walk, and the organizers themselves raised $3,583 through donations and the sale of Moorestown Night-themed pink T-shirts and hats.

And that doesn't count the money raised by the Moorestown Education Association—which contributed to the cause by selling tickets and T-shirts to students and staff. 

The other motivation for Moorestown Night was simply to bring residents out for a night of fun together, and whether it was a teacher dunk tank outside Campbell's Field, face painting, an on-field tug of war between innings or the game itself, the mission seemed to be accomplished. 

Kelley Knight took her 7-year-old daughter, Hadley, to the game after she'd been begging all week to go. It was Hadley's first trip to a sporting event, Knight said, and she was "having a blast."

"She's loving it," she said. "She can't wait to come back."

Township clerk Patricia Hunt, one of the other organizers of the event, was seated nearby and said, "That's what it was all about."

Maltbie said, given how successful this year's Moorestown Night was, it's very possible they'd do it again next year, perhaps raising money for a different cause. 

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