Senator Gopal Helps Stephanie Parze Foundation Expand its Reach

Stephanie Parze Walk participants at Riverside Gardens Park in Red Bank.

Senator Gopal and former Freehold Schools Superintendent Dr. Joe Howe.

OCEAN TOWNSHIP – The Stephanie Nicole Parze Foundatio]n], in an effort to expand its organization of volunteers who help victims of domestic violence and families of missing persons, held a successful fundraising walk in Red Bank recently.

The Stephanie Nicole Parze Foundation is named for the 25-year-old Freehold woman who was missing for three months, eventually found to have been murdered by her partner in 2019. Stephanie’s family formed the Foundation to support victims of domestic violence and their families and to create response teams that are ready to help local authorities conduct searches in missing persons cases.

More recently, the Foundation has expanded its mission to ‘Educate, Intervene and Support’ families and individuals dealing with domestic violence, sexual abuse and missing loved ones to address other community needs, Stephanie father and Foundation Founcer Ed Parze said. He decided to move the Freehold-based Foundation’s walk to Red Bank to reach more people.

“About half of the people who walked in Red Bank were participating in a Foundation event for the first time. That’s an encouraging sign, not just of the Foundation’s effectiveness, but of the good-heartedness of Monmouth County residents to volunteer and help neighbors in need,” said Gopal, a long-time supporter and a co-host of the walk in Red Bank. The senator secured a $50,000 grant for the Foundation in the 2024 state budget.

Senator Vin Gopal serves as Senate Majority Conference Leader and Chair of the Senate Education Committee. Elected in 2018, a lifelong resident of Monmouth County, Senator Gopal represents residents of Asbury Park, Allenhurst, Colts Neck, Deal, Eatontown, Freehold, Freehold Township, Interlaken, Loch Arbor, Long Branch, Neptune City, Neptune Township, Ocean Township, Red Bank, Tinton Falls, Shrewsbury, Shrewsbury Township, and West Long Branch in the State Senate.