Hand in Hand Festival
for the
Mentally Challenged

September 24, 2006
Click here for more info
on this year's event

Hand 'n Hand is a festival held annually for the physically and mentally challenged. The first Hand 'n Hand Festival was held over 30 years ago, the dream of Dorothea Apgar. Mrs. Apgar very nearly single handedly coordinated the first 15 festivals at the Edison, NJ campus of Middlesex Community College. After Mrs. Apgar's untimely death in December 1994, Jeff Zirpolo, the owner of The Club, in Woodbridge, NJ decided to continue the event in Mrs. Apgar's memory.

Initially the event hosted over 1,000 handicapped guests from private homes and hospitals all over New Jersey. Today The Club, on Main Street in Woodbridge hosts some 300 handicapped people at The Club's annual event.

The name Hand 'n Hand is derived from the action of pairing each special guest with an volunteer for the day. The volunteer, often a high school student, escorts their guest around the grounds and assists them on pony & horse rides, miniature train rides, a petting zoo's, sand art, batting cages, ball toss games, face painting and many, many other events. Prizes are awarded for the games and hot dogs, hamburgers, juices, water, cookies, cake and fruit are served.

Everyone working the event is a volunteer and has donated their time and goods. Some times there are ice cream trucks, other times there are balloon animals and always there's plenty of live music for dancing. The Woodbridge Fire Department is there with water hoses and a clown for our guests to soak and maybe a hook and ladder with a siren and bucket to see, touch and hear. Welsh Farms Ice Cream, Sunshine Biscuit, Burger King, McDonalds, Ritter/Cisco, NJ Telephone Pioneers, Wakefern Foods, and the NJ National Guard cook and serve food and paramedics and nurses are on hand.

It's an entirely different kind of experience for most of the students and volunteers. Many have never met a handicapped individual and the interaction at the festival helps break down barriers as well as provide a fun filled day. Most of the volunteers come back year after year. Many of these special guests, who can range in age from 3 to 73, are warm and affectionate and live to smile.

.