FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Anthony Puglisi

March 12, 2013 973-621-2542

Lauren Shears

973-621-1590

ESSEX COUNTY EXECUTIVE DIVINCENZO WELCOMES HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS

TO THE 2013 ESSEX COUNTY CONSUMER BOWL

Annual Contest Teaches Students about their Consumer Rights

Newark, NJ – Essex County Executive Joseph N. DiVincenzo, Jr. welcomed students from five local high schools to the 2013 Essex County Consumer Bowl on Tuesday, March 12th at the Essex County Vocational Schools – West Caldwell Tech. The 17th annual event featured students competing in a game show style format to test their knowledge about consumer laws and fraud. The contest is sponsored by the Essex County Division of Community Action and the NJ Division of Consumer Protection.

“This partnership between the County and State provides our teen consumers with an extracurricular event that teaches them about consumer laws and how they can protect themselves from fraud and scams,” DiVincenzo said. “Watching our students compete against one another and answer rounds of questions is an innovative and exciting way for them to learn about State consumer laws,” he added.

“The key to this competition is that students learn information that they can utilize in the future. This helps them to know their rights, so nobody can take advantage of them,” said NJ Division of Consumer Affairs Chief of Staff/Consumer Bowl Director Margaret “Peggy” Anastos. “Even if students only absorb 25 percent of all the information they study for the Consumer Bowl, it is enough to make them think twice before responding to advertisements and will help them recognize scams,” she added.

During the competition, teams of five students (plus one alternate) competed against each other by answering questions on consumer-related topics, such as Internet fraud, identify theft and more. Other topics included recent headline-grabbing topics, such as Ponzi schemes, sale and purchase of securities, vehicle financing, new and used vehicle Lemon Laws, merchandise return and refund policies, and overall knowledge of New Jersey’s consumer protection laws and regulations. Winners of the County Consumer Bowl will advance to a regional competition next month before the State finals in Trenton.

“The Consumer Bowl helps our residents become knowledgeable about consumer laws at a young age,” said Essex County Director of Citizen Services Anibal Ramos, Jr. “This is valuable information that students can use to help themselves and their families, and it will benefit them for the rest of their lives,” he added.

“We are excited to welcome all of our Essex County students to the 2013 Essex County Consumer Bowl. This event provides our students with an invaluable learning experience,” said Acting Essex County Director of the Division of Community Action Maurice Brown. “We are proud to partner with the NJ Division of Consumer Affairs to host this event annually and we look forward to the continued growth and success of this competition,” he added.

Participating in the 2013 Essex County Consumer Bowl competition were teams from Irvington High School and Essex County Vocational School District’s Newark Tech, Bloomfield Tech, North 13th Street Tech and West Caldwell. Irvington High School finished first, ECVTS-West Caldwell Tech finished second, ECVTS-North 13th Street Tech finished third and ECVTS-Newark Tech and ECVTS-Bloomfield Tech tied for fourth place. The members of the Irvington High School team are Kadeem Willis, Danny Tandazo, Danielson Jospeh, Nelly Sekyere, Josmar Adames and Chiamaka Udoye. Irvington will participate in the Regional competition on Tuesday, April 16th.

“I am proud of our students for winning the Essex County competition today. Now, we are all looking forward to the Northern Regional competition next month,” said Irvington High School Teacher/Advisor Joseph Romano. “I want to congratulate all the other participants for doing an excellent job as well, especially, West Caldwell Tech for being second place,” he added.

Building off of its tradition of success, the Irvington students earned a total of 250 points in this year’s competition. The Irvington High School Team members were excited about the victory, stating that, “we are proud of today’s accomplishment and we are glad that we are advancing to the regional competition. With hard work anything is possible and we will continue to study even harder for the next competition,” they added.

“Today was a great day for our students. They really stepped up and competed well against tough competition and improved from last year. Irvington High School is a very talented team and we wish them well as they move forward to represent Essex County in the Regional Consumer Bowl,” said ECVTS-West Caldwell Tech Teacher/Advisor Sheena Chapman. “This competition provides our students with valuable information that they can use for their entire lives and we are just delighted to participate and we look forward to next year’s event,” she added.

“We were happy to make it to the final round today. We studied and we did well against the competition today. Irvington High School’s team is great and we hope they win the Regional Consumer Bowl again this year,” said ECVTS- West Caldwell Tech Team Captain Muwakkil Khan. “This is a great event because it teaches us about many important laws and regulations that can help us throughout our lives and many of these things we might not have found out about until it was too late,” she added.

This is the 17th year of the competition and the 12th year that Essex County has been a co-sponsor. The Essex County Division of Community Action is part of the County’s Department of Citizen Services and is located at 50 South Clinton Street in East Orange. It provides Consumer Services, a Homeless Unit, Tenant Resource Center and Utility Assistance, and Weights and Measures. For more information, call the division at 973-395-8350.