Resident organizes Sunday prayer vigil

Maureen Jenkins hates everything about the Sayreville high school football hazing scandal, including the way it has tarnished the reputation of her home town, which she worked so hard to help rebuild just two years ago.

But mostly, Jenkins has been crushed by the way she feels the alleged victims in the case have been treated and portrayed. She was at the emotional board meeting last week when the decision to cancel the rest of the season was made official, and she couldn’t believe what she was hearing.

“Comments that were made were just demeaning and disrespectful to the victims,” said Jenkins, who’s lived in the central New Jersey town for seven years and owns a furniture business there with her husband. “They were being pushed to the back burner, and I felt they needed a voice.”

Jenkins, a 45-year-old mother with a 6-year-old daughter in a Sayreville school and several grown children, including one who graduated from the high school about six years ago, has organized a prayer vigil that will be held at 6 p.m. Sunday at John F. Kennedy Park.

She started by inviting about 50 or 60 people on Facebook but by Friday she had heard from more than 500 people who said they’d be there. Figuring that those people will bring others along with them, Jenkins is predicting a crowd of approximately 2,000.

Jenkins feels it’s at least a start toward helping her town heal. “The only thing we can do is come together as a community,” she said. “The town is hurt. Everybody’s hurt.”

— Garcia