Midsummer Issue 2023

Seniors of the
Year Chosen in
Hopatcong
28
Story by ELLEN WILKOWE
Photos by Karen Fucito
Joe and Joy Gorgolione, who are known
around Hopatcong Borough as Mr. and
Mrs. Tree because of their tree-service company,
were well prepared for their entertainment gig
at the annual Hopatcong Seniors Picnic held in
June at the senior center.
Providing musical talent—no strings
attached—at hometown events has become
routine for the business owners of “Joe Tree,”
who planted roots of their own in Hopatcong
45 years ago.
On this day the plan was for Joe, 73, and Joy,
66, to be joined onstage by their son, Joe Jr. for
easy listening musical entertainment.
So, when Mayor Michael Francis and
Councilman Brad Hoferkamp announced them
as Senior Couple of the Year, they were a bit,
well, stumped.
“I was completely in the dark,” said Joe
Gorgolione, who is lead singer and plays guitar.
“I thought we were just playing here.”
Entertaining the community is just one of the
many reasons the couple was nominated by
their neighbor, Ida Brown, 2015’s female Senior
of the Year, who also happens to chair the
Senior Advisory Committee.
“There is never a Memorial Day ceremony,
Veterans Day ceremony, Hopatcong Days
event, Christmas tree lighting or the annual
911 ceremony in which you won’t see them
performing their music and entertaining the
attendees,” Brown wrote in her nomination
letter that was read by Hoferkamp.
Having been on the receiving end of the
couple’s assistance during major hurricanes,
Brown knows firsthand the open-heart and
open-door nature of the Gorgoliones.
From an observational perspective, she
marveled at her good friend Joy for her ability
to juggle the couple’s business, house and
grandchildren—plus her community outreach,
such as providing anyone in town with
transportation to doctor appointments and
shopping.
“Family, church and volunteerism are the
most important parts of their life and mission.
Whenever they are asked to help, they are first
in line,” Brown wrote.
The Gorgoliones have three adult children and
four grandchildren, several of whom rushed the
stage to help fashion around their grandparents’
necks the green Senior of the Year sashes.
LAKE HOPATCONG NEWS Midsummer 2023
Left to right: Joy and Joe Gorgolione. Annette
Grieco.
The Gorgoliones credit their faith for making
them better people.
“I wanted to be a better person,” said Joe
Gorgolione, who serves as a deacon at his church.
(Joy serves as a board of trustees member.) “I
went from being selfish to selfless.”
Emceed by Francis and Hoferkamp, the annual
picnic and ceremony drew about 150 seniors to
the pavilion at the Senior Center.
Established in the early 2000s, the Senior
Advisory Committee was formed by the mayor
to provide a voice for the 60-plus community,
said Brown.
The committee typically votes for male
and female seniors of the year but has made
occasional exceptions—such as the case with
the Gorgoliones—to declare a couple of the
year.
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In maintaining tradition, the mayor declared
Annette Grieco as female Senior of the Year.
(The male Senior of the Year was substituted
this year for the Couple of the Year.)
Like the Gorgoliones, the longtime Hopatcong
resident was equally motivated by her faith to
make an impact in her community, as noted in
her humble acceptance speech.
“For those who know me, I’m never one for
a lack of words … but I gave all credit and glory
to God,” she said while being draped with the
green Senior of the Year sash.
Grieco, 67, was nominated by her family
who provided a resume-like letter noting her
contributions.
Since setting foot in Hopatcong in 1983 with
her husband, Dino, Grieco assimilated herself
to the area through the Hopatcong Welcome
Wagon. She became the organization’s social
chair and spearheaded fundraising events
such as a cookbook, which provided financial
assistance to a local mom with a life-threatening
illness.
As her family grew to include four children,
so did her involvement in the community. An
original Modick Mom (a group of concerned
residents who set out to improve Modick Park),
Grieco used her networking and fundraising
savvy to help foster improvements to the park.
When her children were in the school district,
Grieco established herself as a class parent, field
trip chaperone and all-around on-call assistant.
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