May 30, 2012 THE VILLADOM TIMES III • Page 19 Ho-Ho-Kus Eric Perkins garners Governor’s Jefferson Award are helping him gain self-confidence and stage presence. Founded in 1970, ECLC has grown from a small, early-intervention program into a comprehensive network of non-profit agencies serving more than 700 children and adults with special needs. ECLC runs schools for students ages five through 21 in Ho-Ho-Kus and Chatham and has P.R.I.D.E. Centers in Bergen County and Chatham, offering programs for adults with special needs. ECLC also offers adults with special needs opportunities for meaningful work. Learn more at www.eclcofnj.org. Eric Perkins, a student at ECLC of New Jersey’s school for children with special needs in Ho-Ho-Kus, celebrated the award with (left to right) his Homeroom Teacher Nancy Collins, grandmother, Carol Perkins, SKIL Teacher, Russ Bargiel, and Principal Vicki Lindorff. Eric Perkins, who has autism, is usually a young man of few words, but when he picks up a guitar or sits down at the piano, he finds his voice. Perkins, 19, possesses a gift for singing and playing music that has been delighting senior citizens at two Bergen County assisted living facilities this year and has won him a New Jersey Governor’s Jefferson Award. The award is part of the youth program of the New Jersey Governor’s Jefferson Awards for Public Service, recognizing the achievement of goals supporting outstanding service by students of all ages. Perkins won in the health and wellness category among 27 projects selected from all over the state. Perkins recently accepted the award at a ceremony held at the Newark Museum. Reading from a brief prepared speech, he told the hushed audience, “I enjoy bringing smiles to their faces as they sing along with me.” Perkins attends ECLC of New Jersey, a school in Ho-Ho-Kus for children with special needs, and the visits are coordinated by his teacher, Russ Bargiel, as part of the school’s work-readiness program called SKIL (Seeking Knowledge for Independent Living). In SKIL, students receive vocational training and job “sample” within the community to explore future employment options. Perkins is considering a career in the performing arts, and these opportunities to entertain at Van Dyk Park Place in Hawthorne and Van Dyk Manor in Ridgewood