Dear Dunworkin Members,

If you know of any members that may be ill or having other difficulties, please notify Eileen Reilly-Diaz at ereillydiaz@msn.com.

Updated November 28, 2025

The club meets on the 2nd and 4th Fridays of the month at the Upper Montclair Presbyterian Church located at 53 Norwood Avenue, Upper Montclair. There is informal Socializing beginning at 10:30 followed by a presentation from an invited speaker at 11:00. The topics vary from meeting to meeting. Attendees pay for lunch prior to the presentation. Lunch and additional informal socializing begin at noon.

UPCOMING SPEAKERS

01/23/26 Anthony DePalma, formerly a reporter for The New York Times and the author of several books on Cuba, the environment and the health crises that followed the 9/11 terrorist attacks, will speak to the Club on January 23 about his latest book, On This Ground: hardship and Hope at the Toughest Prep School in America. It’s the story of how a school in Newark became one of America’s most successful inner-city educational programs through the dedication of its staff and the remarkable resilience of its students.

At The N.Y. Times, he manned the newspaper’s bureau in Newark during the 1980s, and later was an education reporter before becoming a foreign correspondent. He did not attend St. Benedict’s Prep, the school featured in his new book, but he did graduate from an all-boys Catholic high school that has since shut its doors. He first wrote about St. Benedict’s for The Times in 1981. He hiked the 55-mile length of the Appalachian Trail in New Jersey with St. Benedict’s students in 1982, and did it again in 2024, when they seemed to be so much faster and stronger than he remembered.

02/13/26 Harvey Araton will speak to the Club on February 13 about his recently published young adult book The Goal of the Game. A heartfelt coming-of-age tale for kids from 7-12, it deals with the inherent pleasures and pressures of youth sports, grappling with grief and ultimately discovering what really matters in sports and life. An underlying narrative is the increasing presence and control of for-profit businesses in the youth sports industry. Harvey has written for four daily newspapers in the New York City area, including the New York Post, the Daily News, the Staten Island Advance and New York Times, where he served as a Sports of the Times columnist for 15 years.

In his professional career he covered sports and some non-sports, including 10 Olympics, many Wimbledons, the U.S. Open, the French Open and the Davis Cup. He has also written about many N.B.A. finals, World Series, Super Bowls and men’s and women’s Final Four tournaments in college basketball

Harvey was nominated by The Times for a Pulitzer Prize in 1994; was named 1998 Sportswriter of the Year by the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association and won first place in 1994 for Best News Story from the Associated Press Sports Editors among many other awards and honors. He is a native of Montclair, where he lives with his wife and two hoops-loving sons.

02/27/26 Suzanne Trauth, Novelist, playwright and acting teacher, will speak to the Club on February 27 in a talk entitled “Chapter Two,” which will discuss, among other observations, creative pathways in retirement. A mainstay of the theater department at Montclair State, Suzanne co-produced and directed productions at the Ensemble Studio Theater, Playwrights Theatre of New Jersey, the Whole Theatre, and 12 Miles West. She also served as Assistant Artistic Director and teacher at the Sonia Moore Studio in New York City and performed for the American Stanislavski Theater.

In addition to her six mystery novels in the Dodie O’Dell series, she has written eight plays, two award winning screenplays, a short play and a variety of essays and articles that have appeared in Theatre Insight and Notable Women in American Theater. As part of a global initiative, she directed The Crucible for the Theater-on-Podol in Ukraine. Her most recent books are What Remains of Love and The First to Die.

03/13/26 Kiran Gaudioso, CEO of the United Way of Northern New Jersey, will speak at our March 13 meeting about the special challenges faced by ALICE families, Asset Limited, Income Constrained,Employed families that earn above the poverty level ($32,150) but less than the basic cost of living in our region.

Prior to joining United Way, Ms Gaudioso had extensive experience providing expanded after-school learning and mentoring programs for public school students in New Jersey and New York. She also worked as a policy advisor for former Governor Florio and was instrumental in establishing AmeriCorps in New Jersey.

Ms Gaudioso graduated from the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University, and received a masters degree in political science from The Eagleton Institute at Rutgers.

03/27/26 Teresa A. Rodriguez, the Dunworkin Club’s speaker for our meeting on Friday, March 27, will share her insights and advice with club members on how to be alert to financial frauds and investment trickery.

As senior counsel in the SEC’s Enforcement Division for more than 20 years, Rodriguez has led numerous investigations into a wide range of illegal activities. collaborating with the FBI, the US Attorney’s Office, Dept. of Homeland Security, and other government agencies.

In addition to her work with the SEC, Rodriguez is an adjunct professor at Rutgers Law School, Newark and co-chair of the New York SEC Hispanic Organization.

Schedule for 2026.

Luncheons are identified; all other dates are for speakers

JANUARY	2nd Friday             1/9 4th Friday              1/23
FEBRUARY	2nd Friday             2/13 4th Friday              2/27
MARCH	2nd Friday             3/13 4th Friday              3/27
APRIL	2nd Friday             4/10 4th Friday              4/24
MAY Spring Luncheon	1st Friday             5/1
JULY Summer Luncheon	2nd Friday            7/10
SEPTEMBER	2nd Friday             9/11 4th Friday              9/25
OCTOBER	2nd Friday             10/9 4th Friday              10/23
NOVEMBER	2nd Friday             11/13
DECEMBER Holiday Luncheon	2nd Friday            12/11
	Executive meeting October 24, 2025

PREVIOUS 2026 SPEAKERS AND EVENTS