Anthony D’Ambra and Elizabeth Fox postponed their wedding due to the coronavirus pandemic but celebrated their love with a small gathering. NJ.com's #TogetherNJ initiative highlights community efforts during the crisis, such as Millburn High School students creating a coloring book to support local businesses, children making sandwiches for frontline workers, and teachers producing videos to connect with students. The community is finding ways to spread hope and support each other during these challenging times.

Tapi has integrated Prex into its payment infrastructure to enhance the experience for users making recurring payments in Peru and Argentina. This integration allows Tapi users to scan and pay bills at over 15,000 local businesses across various sectors. Tapi's service is accessible to banks, fintechs, crypto wallets, and other platforms for processing payments. Prex, which provides a virtual wallet and a prepaid Mastercard, enables its customers to manage finances through Tapi’s app on iOS and Android.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, 6-year-old Lily Cuticchia and her mother Jordan Murphy started 'Lily’s Sock Drive' to collect donations for patients at Cooper University Health Care, resulting in 1,160 pairs of socks delivered. NJ.com's #TogetherNJ initiative showcases New Jerseyans' acts of kindness, including a man overcoming COVID-19 against the odds, lifeguards rescuing a deer at sea, a police officer paying for a man's gas, billboards celebrating the Class of 2020, a $25 million donation to Hackensack University Medical Center, a child rescued from a sand hole collapse, and a socially distant graduation ceremony. A New Jerseyan's baseball card collection is also highlighted as a significant find.

Federico's pizzeria owners, Bryan and Michael Morin, took out a $50,000 line of credit to ensure their 20 employees would continue to receive paychecks despite the economic impact of COVID-19. This act of kindness is part of a broader initiative by NJ.com, called #TogetherNJ, which aims to share positive stories from around New Jersey during the pandemic. The initiative includes a newsletter and invites the public to submit inspiring stories.

Students across New Jersey participated in the National School Walkout to honor those killed in the Parkland, Florida shooting and to call for gun law changes and increased school safety. The walkout included protests, memorials, and ceremonies. Students at various schools engaged in different activities, such as reading poems, singing, and holding moments of silence. Some faced support while others faced opposition from school administrations. The movement coincided with the one-month anniversary of the Parkland shooting, and some schools reacted to threats by closing or altering their walkout plans.

Shuri Henry, 40, was fatally shot during a carjacking in Newark on Thanksgiving. Her 2015 Kia Sorrento was stolen, and she was pronounced dead at University Hospital. Another man, Terrance Harris, 46, was also killed in a separate shooting that night. A church fire also occurred in Newark on the same day. The Essex County Prosecutor's Office and Newark Public Safety Department are investigating the incidents, and the community mourns the loss on a holiday meant for family gatherings.

Turqoise Williams, a 30-year-old Newark woman facing charges for murder, witness tampering, and weapons offenses, died in the Essex County Correctional Facility on October 22. The cause of her death is pending a medical examiner's report. Williams was accused of the April 28 killing of Virdea Beard, who was shot multiple times in Newark. The case was described as a domestic violence incident, and Williams had previously been arrested with Beard in December 2016 on drug-related charges.

The family of 14-year-old Lauren Liu, who took her own life due to depression, has created a memorial called Hope For Lauren to fund research on mental illness and promote suicide prevention. Lauren was a resident of Millburn and a freshman at Kent Place School in Summit. Her father, James Liu, highlighted the taboo surrounding mental illness and the need for open discussion. A vigil and celebration of life service are planned. The article notes that suicide is the second leading cause of death for children aged 10 to 14, citing CDC data, and references the earlier death of 12-year-old Mallory Grossman in New Jersey.

The South Orange Maplewood School District in New Jersey is facing criticism for its racial achievement gap, with recent data showing a significant divide in honors class enrollment between white and black students. Despite a diverse student body, black students are less likely to be in honors classes compared to their white peers. The district's board members expressed disappointment at the lack of progress in addressing this issue. The Black Parents Workshop, a community group, has been vocal about the problem, which they attribute to institutionalized racism and unfair tracking policies. The district has implemented an 'access and equity' policy to allow students to choose their course levels, but the impact has been slow. The group is now planning to file a lawsuit for more active government intervention to resolve the racial disparities.

New Jersey's Red Cross dispatched two emergency response crews from Fairfield, Essex County, to Texas to assist victims of Hurricane Harvey. The crews, equipped with supplies and four disaster workers, join other volunteers and resources already sent by the Red Cross, which includes 200 response vehicles, hundreds of workers, and 80 tractor-trailer loads of supplies to help those affected by the widespread flooding and displacement caused by the storm.