Blood Drive in Memory of former Mayor Andy Bertone

Submitted by Kathleen Mathieu

Former Mayor and Blood Bank Chairman Andy Bertone in 2015. Photo Credit: Chris Mathieu/The Red Wagon Group

Rutherford Community Blood Bank Annual Spring Drive

Monday APRIL 1 3-8 PM

55 Kip Center (located directly next to the municipal parking garage)

Visit vitalant.org or call 201-251-3703 for more info, including eligibility guidelines.

Pre-register online at https://donor.cbsblood.org/donor/schedules/drive_schedule/48165

Life is an ocean and love is a boat, so says the popular Irish song "The Voyage" by Johnny Duhan. Love was the inspiration and guiding light for the life journey of the late Andy Bertone - father, husband, public servant and frequent volunteer for community-minded causes.

Andy will forever be known for his love of wife Pauline, his children and Rutherford, the town where he lived for 62 years.

For these and many other reasons, Andy’s memory will be honored at the Rutherford Community Blood Bank's April 1 blood drive, at 55 Kip Center, 55 Kip Avenue, Rutherford, from 3 to 8PM.

Among his many personal commitments was the blood bank, a local volunteer group founded in 1957. Both Andy and Pauline served on its board of directors for decades, often as officers. Most recently, Andy was chairman from 2008 to 2016.

“My father loved Rutherford, and he wanted to give back,” said daughter Pamela Steele. “It was love as lived by my parents that made us a close-knit family, and it was love that inspired my father to give back to his beloved hometown. My father touched many lives in Rutherford, and his legacy is that his family has continued his work of community service, each of us in our own way.” This legacy is now being lived by his five children, including Pamela, Cynthia Frazier, Andrew Bertone, Mary Alice Rogoff and Lisa Wheeler. Pauline, Andy's wife of 57 years, died in 2011.