SUEZ, JCMUA, and Shauger Donate Back-to-School Backpacks

by Alexandra Gakos

More than two thousand years ago, Aristotle said, “Educating the mind without educating the heart is no education at all.”

The wisdom of those words has transcended time. There are people who live by that mantra—who believe it with every fiber of their being, who show it in every action they take.

That idea of educating the heart is something that Donald Shauger, executive vice president of The Shauger Group (TSG), has embodied every day of his life. To Shauger, there is no higher purpose than serving others—no greater good than giving opportunities to those in need. Making other people’s lives better has always been Shauger’s mission, even from the time he was a child facing some of life’s most difficult struggles.

Shauger only has to close his eyes for a moment to remember his childhood—back to the days living in a single-parent home, watching his mother work six to seven days per week, often for more than 13 hours per day, as she struggled to feed her five children. He developed his own relentless work ethic from seeing his mother’s endless perseverance in the face of adversity: despite being handed some of life’s greatest challenges, such as raising five children alone and losing a child to a terminal illness, Laura Shauger worked hard to lift herself from under State aid and sacrificed every day to give her kids a better life. And, even while facing her own difficulties, Laura still managed to donate time and resources to help those less privileged than her, including donating leftover food to a local orphanage.

Shauger saw his mother’s example of selflessness, and he learned from it.

So any time Shauger has an opportunity to help someone else, the answer is always, unequivocally, yes.

To help a child in need, yes. To help a struggling parent, yes. To offer a scholarship to a disadvantaged student, yes. To provide a holiday meal to a family, yes. To renovate a homeless shelter, yes.

Yes. Yes. Yes.

And so, Shauger and TSG have once again said yes to a cause they care deeply about: helping make education more accessible for kids from struggling families, by making sure financial constraints do not hinder their academic opportunities.

For the third straight year, Shauger and TSG have teamed up with SUEZ to donate backpacks to local children for the upcoming school year; and for the second year in a row, Shauger and TSG have again partnered with the Jersey City Municipal Utilities Authority (JCMUA) for back-to-school backpack donations as well.

In a heartfelt team effort, TSG, SUEZ, and JCMUA gave 300 backpacks this month to the Jersey City Housing Authority (JCHA), which offers affordable housing opportunities to over 15,000 residents of Jersey City. TSG and SUEZ also donated another 600 backpacks this month to various charities and organizations, including 100 backpacks to WomenRising, a 501(c)(3) charity that offers support to women and children in need; 400 backpacks to residents of the City of Orange; and 100 backpacks to children in need in the Town of Kearny.

TSG also just donated an additional 525 backpacks to benefit students in other local communities, including Newark, Hoboken, Bloomfield, East Orange, and Essex County at large.

The backpack donations—totaling close to 1,500 backpacks—come amidst a time when many families are facing significant financial uncertainty due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

“The last year and a half has been difficult for everyone—even more so for families that are struggling to make ends meet,” said Shauger. “Not only have people been dealing with the emotional trauma of losing loved ones and dealing with the health effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, but they are also facing the financial realities of the pandemic as well. So many people have lost their jobs, so many families have lost their primary source of income, so many businesses have been forced to close, and so many families are unable to afford basic necessities. We knew that we were in a position to make things easier on people, so we didn’t want families to feel burdened with extra back-to-school costs they may not be able to afford right now. Families are facing extraordinary challenges at the moment, and no child deserves to be at a disadvantage educationally because of it.”

“I’ve also been in those shoes before,” Shauger added. “I know what it’s like to be uncertain about where your next meal will come from or how you will pay for that big expense. The kindness of others was a big reason why my family got through our time of greatest need. We came from tight-knit community in West Orange. While my mother struggled to balance working long hours with caring for my sister Susan through her illness, the community tried to make things easier for us. West Orange families, especially those from Our Lady of Lourdes Church, made meals for us. Samuel Spina, the former West Orange mayor, organized a fundraiser through his ‘Sunshine Fund’ to support Susan while she was sick. It was thanks to the community’s Sunshine Fund donations that we had help paying for Susan’s medical bills—and also part of the cost of her Susan's funeral when she passed away. I will never forget where I came from.”

It was in that same giving spirit that SUEZ, JCMUA, and TSG donated the backpacks to representatives from JCHA, WomenRising, and the other municipalities during these final weeks of August; from there, they are being distributed to children who need them. The backpacks are stuffed with various school supplies, including notebooks, rulers, folders, crayons, pencils, and erasers—as well as something we rarely leave home without these days: hand sanitizer.

JCHA will pass along its share of backpacks to children at their annual backpack giveaway on August 26 and August 27, at their headquarters in Jersey City. The event is first come, first served, while supplies last. JCHA, which was founded in 1938, aids low-income families, seniors, and people with disabilities in finding affordable quality housing; JCHA also pairs people up with safe neighborhoods, health and wellness programs, educational initiatives, and job opportunities. JCHA administers approximately 7,100 housing units in every ward of Jersey City, including about 2,500 public housing units and 4,600 Housing Choice Vouchers, the latter of which is a program that assists eligible individuals in paying rent in the private market as they work toward financial independence.

The City of Orange will hand out their backpacks on August 31 at Mayor Dwayne Warren’s yearly “Operation Back to School” / “Back to School Festival” event, which annually distributes over 1,000 backpacks to local students. As in prior years, Orange’s festival will be held at Central Avenue Playground in Orange and will feature music, free backpacks and school supplies, food, drinks, face painting, dancing, games, and more. The event is open to students in grades K–12, for Orange residents who have pre-registered through the City of Orange Township Division of Recreation. Many of the other municipalities are also distributing the backpacks at similar events, including Bloomfield’s upcoming August 29 “Back to School Backpack Giveaway” at Bloomfield’s Felton Field, East Orange’s September 4 “Back to School Supply Giveaway” at East Orange’s Church of Light, and Hoboken’s August 20 “Back to School Carnival” at Hoboken’s Mama Johnson Field.

TSG and SUEZ both have a long history of supporting WomenRising, a nonprofit that aids women and children in need. Throughout its impressive over-115-year-history, WomenRising has provided timely, critical assistance with job placement and occupational training, safe harbor from domestic violence, and housing. Additionally, WomenRising offers social services; advocacy services; referrals; and counseling, intervention, outreach, shelter, a 24-hour hotline, and other resources during times of crisis. Aiding approximately 10,000 to 15,000 women and children annually, WomenRising ultimately aims to guide women on the path to self-sufficiency. In addition to making yearly backpack donations, TSG and SUEZ have both served as sponsors of WomenRising’s annual Celebration of Service Gala for years, with SUEZ first having introduced TSG to WomenRising. Since then, in 2019, WomenRising renamed its “Corporate Partner Award” after SUEZ; this past October, Donald Shauger, Lisa Shauger (president/CEO of TSG), and TSG were the 2020 recipients of WomenRising’s SUEZ Corporate Partner Award.

Last year, TSG, SUEZ, and JCMUA also teamed up to give 500 backpacks to JCHA, with TSG and SUEZ also donating an additional 550 backpacks to WomenRising, the City of Orange, and the Town of Kearny. The year before, in fall 2019, SUEZ and TSG donated 750 backpacks to various municipalities and to WomenRising for the back-to-school season.

TSG has partnered with SUEZ on countless other philanthropic projects over the past several years. Last spring, SUEZ and TSG joined forces to make multiple donations benefiting front line workers during the COVID-19 pandemic—the companies teamed up to donate more than 1,000 meals to essential emergency workers at hospitals, medical centers, police departments, fire departments, emergency services units, and offices of emergency management during March and April 2020, as well as give 1,000 Dunkin’ Donuts gift cards to nurses for National Nurses Week in May 2020. For the past few Thanksgivings, SUEZ and TSG have donated hundreds of turkeys to families in need. Additionally, in May 2017, SUEZ joined a volunteer effort spearheaded by TSG to renovate Newark’s Apostles’ House homeless shelter.

“SUEZ and JCMUA are both similar to The Shauger Group in their dedication to philanthropy—we can always count on them to join us,” said Lisa Shauger. “We are really proud to have them by our side on meaningful projects like this that will make people’s lives—especially kid’s lives—better. Don always likes to say that investing in our youth is an investment in the future: the building of a future generation. It’s so true.”

And there’s a reason for it: Shauger turned his own childhood financial and educational disadvantages into a lifelong lesson about the importance of education, hard work, and opportunity.

“I learned a lot of life lessons both from the opportunities I had and the opportunities I missed,” said Shauger. “At the end of high school, I was offered a full scholarship to Upsala College in East Orange. I unfortunately had to walk away from it, and I had to miss going to college altogether, because I needed to work to support my family. I know firsthand what it is like to miss out on a great educational opportunity because money gets in the way. That’s why it makes it even more meaningful today to help these kids, because I know it’s directly benefiting their education and their futures.”

“Giving kids educational opportunities is one of my biggest passions,” added Shauger. “For me, it’s personal. After our friend Timmy Groves, who was a West Orange police officer, passed away, Lisa and I founded the Timothy Groves Memorial Scholarship with the West Orange Scholarship Fund in his memory. Since we started the Groves Scholarship in 2014, it has helped more than 60 students in financial need by giving them scholarships to college. We make personal contributions to the scholarship regularly and raise money through fundraisers. We started the Shauger Family Scholarship at the University of Scranton and sponsored student trips through University of Scranton’s International Service Program. We’ve paid for the balance of a girl’s college education when her father passed away in Hurricane Sandy, sponsored scholarships for students at Immaculate Conception High School and East Orange High School, helped pay off a student’s college debt—any chance to change a student’s life and give them a brighter future.”

With a commitment to giving back that has never wavered, Shauger has clearly understood—and lived—Aristotle’s message about educating the heart.

About The Shauger Group

Recognized for high-quality service, hands-on management, and a family team approach, The Shauger Group offers a wide spectrum of diversified construction and maintenance services to clients in the New York metropolitan region. Since 1981, The Shauger Group’s family-owned and operated business has earned a reputation as a leader in the industry and has fostered lasting relationships with a host of clients, vendors, and subcontractors alike. Serving clients in both the public and private sectors, The Shauger Group offers an extensive range of services, including construction, underground utility, landscaping, street sweeping, maintenance, snow removal, and emergency response services. Known for reliability, responsiveness, and quality work, The Shauger Group has become one of the largest private employers in East Orange, New Jersey, where its state-of-the-art headquarters house over 200 company-owned vehicles and pieces of equipment, as well as a complete fleet maintenance repair facility.

About SUEZ North America

SUEZ North America operates across all 50 states and Canada with 3,000 employees dedicated to environmental sustainability and smart and sustainable resource management. The company provides drinking water, wastewater and waste collection service to 6.7 million people on a daily basis; treats 560 million gallons of water and over 440 million gallons of wastewater each day; delivers water treatment and advanced network solutions to 16,000 industrial and municipal sites; processes 160,000 tons of waste for recycling; rehabilitates and maintains water assets for more than 4,000 municipal and industrial customers; and manages $4.1 billion in total assets. The company posted revenues of $1.1 billion in 2018 and is a subsidiary of Paris-based SUEZ.

About SUEZ

With 90,000 people on the five continents, SUEZ is a world leader in smart and sustainable resource management. We provide water and waste management solutions that enable cities and industries to optimize their resource management and strengthen their environmental and economic performances, in line with regulatory standards. With the full potential of digital technologies and innovative solutions, the Group recovers 17 million tons of waste a year, produces 3.9 million tons of secondary raw materials and 7 TWh of local renewable energy. It also secures water resources, delivering wastewater treatment services to 58 million people and reusing 882 million m3 of wastewater. SUEZ generated total revenues of 18 billion euros in 2019.

About Jersey City Municipal Utilities Authority

Operating and managing the sewerage and water systems of Jersey City, the Jersey City Municipal Utilities Authority (JCMUA) is responsible for providing water and wastewater collection services to more than 250,000 Jersey City residents. Originally created as the Jersey City Sewerage Authority in 1949 before it was reorganized into the JCMUA in 1998, the JCMUA maintains over 230 miles of sewers and 5,000 catch basins as part of its daily operations. Drawing water from two reservoirs that collectively store over 11 billion gallons of water, the Jersey City water system is comprised of 240 miles of water lines within Jersey City; the City’s water treatment plant treats and purifies an average of approximately 50 million gallons of water on a daily basis, handling as much as 80 million gallons per day during periods of heightened use.