Autumn Years Fall 2024

may travel to her native Bermuda. As she approaches retirement, they are planning for their future. It includes their two daughters, one who is in marketing in Monmouth and the oth er who is rebuilding her dreams for a dance studio that had to close during the COVID pandemic. Reviewing his life so far, he says, “You can’t just sit there or you may as well be dead—you gotta get up. I was so grateful that my dream came true.” He continues, “I’m thinking about what can I do to affect people and the world?” A fan of singers Stevie Wonder and Adele, he gets spiritual inspiration from former teammate Kenny Lewis.

NFL Comissioner Roger Goodell, Bruce and Wayne Chebret.

Wearing his Heroes & Cool Kids T-shirt, he is recognized more these days as the hero, rather than the football player. One time at a mall, two police of ficers came up to him and said “I was in that.” Visiting elementary schools with high schoolers, he has twice had a teacher say she was a “cool kid.” Get

Joe Klecko, Mark Gastinesu, Marty Lyons and Bruce.

“We ask high schools to select the kids, so we get the best and encourage them to be the example,” Bruce says. “I don’t want to discourage the kids on the cusp—I was that kid. I want them in my program; they turn out to be good ones. One example was when one kid did something not right. The other kids de cided he could not be part of our team.” He notes that the Heroes police each other in a tough-love way that helps turn around the marginal student and might lead the youth to take someone off of the Heroes team if their behavior was not acceptable. “Things that we addressed 25 years ago are not the same as now,” he notes, though there are similarities, such as warning students about the dangers of drugs, alcohol or tobacco. In addi tion, today there is peer pressure made worse by the influence of social media, especially as it relates to bullying done online and face-to-face. “The drugs, al cohol or tobacco may change, but pre vention is the same,” he says.

ting sentimental, he looks away and says that when he collapsed during a heart episode, the nurse said she was in the pro gram. “I took care of her, now she took care of me. That blew me away. I cried in there,” he says. Bruce is working on preventing future health

Nowadays regularly thanking God for his blessings, Bruce says that “as a boy I was in vited to church, but it didn’t take.” Later, the teams had chapel study or services that offered a chance to learn les sons of the Bible. Looking ahead with op timism, he says his motto is “a partnership for a posi

scares, which means he has had to scale back his activities. For instance, he no longer is on the boards of the Englewood Hospital and Medical Cen ter Foundation Board and Lodi Boys and Girls Club. He would love to golf again. However, these days, he attends golf outings without playing. Travels to places such as Alaska, Ireland and the Caribbean are in the past although he and his wife Nancy, a pediatric nurse,

tive future.” He is positive about his Jets (really, the JERSEY Jets since they play in New JERSEY!), and he repeats his yearly prediction for 2024-25: “We going this year! This is it!!” With those words, he also shares that “I’m a jokester, I like to kid,” and repeats the old joke “Life’s short, eat dessert first.” Then, finishing his bites of melon and fruit, he says, “I do eat my desserts, I like cake and cookies.” a

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FALL 2024 I AUTUMN YEARS