By Sunayana Prabhu
MIDDLETOWN – The American Association of University Women (AAUW) honored two Monmouth County women for outstanding achievements and recognized one of their members at its annual scholarship luncheon at the Beacon Hill Country Club April 17.
Stephanie Cartier, co-founder of No Limits Cafe in Middletown, and Patty Whyte, a retired nurse midwife who, since 2015, has played a significant role in the Red Bank Public Library’s Let’s Talk About Race program received the organization’s Women Achiever Of The Year award.
The luncheon included basket raffles to raise money for AAUW’s programs that support women and girls. AAUW, officially founded in 1881, is a nonprofit that advances equity for women and girls through advocacy, education and research. The group has 18 branches in New Jersey, encompassing about 1,000 women, and also nurtures partnerships with nine colleges in the state.
“The impact is definitely in our scholarship programs and providing that kind of funding,” said Sharon Suber, the state AAUW president, during the event. The nonprofit claims to have awarded “well over a million dollars in scholarships” in New Jersey, providing women opportunities to advance their college degrees.
In her career as a nurse and midwife, Whyte delivered over 800 babies in medically underserved communities, providing prenatal care primarily to low-income women. She worked to significantly lower unnecessary C-sections and provide quality, compassionate care. Whyte also led the library Let’s Talk About Race program with recently retired program coordinator Linda Hewitt since its inception in 2015. The program aims to create a respectful place for conversations about racial disparities and experiences in the community. In 2018, this program won the NJ State Library’s Multicultural Award.
Marian Wattenbarger, co-president of AAUW’s Northern Monmouth County branch, presented Whyte with the 2024 award for her professional and volunteer work in caring for Monmouth County’s diverse population.
“Any time you do a service for others, the community around you, it’s never wasted,” Whyte said in her acceptance speech, encouraging the younger generation to stay optimistic about community service. “The world around them looks a little troubling, a lot troubling. And when you’re 15, you don’t know that things are going to change – and they often change for the worse – but eventually things change for the better.”
of No Limits Cafe, received the AAUW Women Achiever Of The Year award for empowering young adults with intellectual dis- abilities through jobs and training. Courtesy AAUW
Heather Balczarek, co-president of AAUW’s Northern Monmouth County branch, presented Cartier with the award for her vision, energy and dedication to making a difference in the lives of community members with intellectual disabilities.
Cartier is the co-founder of No Limits Café which she runs with her husband Mark. The café, located on Route 35 in Middletown, is an initiative that empowers neurodiverse adults after they age out of the support system provided by educational institutions.
Cartier said her inspiration for the entire operation is her daughter Katie who has Downs syndrome. No Limits Cafe currently employs 37 adults with intellectual disabilities and five neurotypical adults. The employees do everything at the cafe from making the food to serving it.
Cartier discussed the “soft bigotry of low expectations” toward people with intellectual disabilities. At No Limits Cafe, they give employees the “dignity of risk,” she said, by allowing them to fail and learn from mistakes to help combat learned helplessness. “Eighty percent of people with intellectual disabilities are unemployed, compared to the current 3.9% unemployment rate. And that disparity is huge,” Cartier said at the event.
No Limits Cafe has a training program that places 25 young adults with intellectual disabilities in outside jobs, lowering the unemployment rate to 20% among this group in the area.
Neither Cartier nor Whyte are AAUW members.
Also at the event, AAUW member Kathy Olsen received the Member of the Year award for her longtime dedication to the organization’s mission through leadership roles and organizing the book sale and scholarship luncheon. Olsen has been an AAUW member since 1977.
The article originally appeared in the April 25 – May 1, 2024 print edition of The Two River Times.
