Moms Who Rock: Petruccelli a Career Volunteer

Kinnelon resident Jen Petruccelli and her family moved to the borough seven years ago from central New Jersey because they were impressed by Kinnelon Public Schools' reputation. And because they simply liked the borough.

Since then, the stay-at-home mom has been actively involved in volunteering for various community groups in an effort to improve her four kids' experiences as they grow up.

"I really don't think about it, I just do it. You just do what you have to do and most of the things I do involve my children and obviously, I do those things for them to improve their experiences," she said.

Because of her volunteerism, we chose Petruccelli as the first mom in our new Moms Who Rock column and asked her a few questions. Check out what she had to say.

If you know of a mom who you think rocks, nominate them today by sending us a note about what makes them special and how we can get a hold of them at ariana.cohn-sheehan@patch.com

1. Tell us about your kids

There's Emily (10), Victoria (8), and twins Nicholas (5) and Dominic (5). Emily goes to Stonybrook School, Victoria goes to Kiel School and Nicholas and Dominic will be entering kindergarten at Stonybrook next year.

2. We see you at Kinnelon Board of Education meetings all the time, but what are some other ways you are involved in the community?

I'm a Girl Scout leader (Troop 4267), a Sunday school teacher at First Reformed Church in Pompton Plains, a Destination Imagination Team (DIT) manager, I'm on the board of my kids' preschool (Pompton Plains Preschool) where I'm also the treasurer and financial secretary and I'm one of the founding board members of Community Education Partnership (CEP). For CEP (a liaison group between the school district and community), basically we kind of wanted to sort of bring everybody together, not just people from the school or parents. We kind of wanted to get the whole commuity involved. Most of what we do is really by email because we're kind of a diverse group of working moms and stay-at-home moms. Our role is probably kind of changing, depending on where things are going. So much is changing in education right now. Now that they've made the decision not to have the election in April, any issues the community can email us and we kind of present.

3. What are some of your favorite things to do with the kids in Kinnelon?

We do go to the library. The kids like to play at the Stonybrook playground. We ride our bikes up at the Stonybrook School.

4. What is the biggest challenge of being a mom?

There's a lot. I would say one of the biggest challenges I find is sometimes I feel like I'm in a bit of a cultural war. I'm trying to raise my kids with some pretty strong morals and ethics and values and I feel like it's kind of counter-cultered. I feel like they're constantly being bombarded with a different model and different image. I try to teach them, "You need to do the right thing, even if it's not the popular thing to do." I find I really struggle with that when other kids are getting iPods and cell phones and I'm really trying to teach the kids that that's not really what life is all about. Those are not the important things in life. 

5. What is one piece of advice you would share with other moms?

There's a quote that I really love by Robert Brucker, "Enjoy the little things. For one day, you may look back and realize that those are the big things." Enoy all those little things because they truly grow up so quickly.