Speaker Series Presentation – Andrea Flores Mendoza, Poet and Entrepreneur, and Jim Bacon, TD Bank, to Share the Hispanic Immigrant Experience in Hammonton

Our featured speakers are Andrea Flores Mendoza, published poet and local entrepreneur, and her husband, Jim Bacon, Vice President of Business Management Specialist with TD Bank. They will share their history, culture and traditions from their native countries – Honduras and Peru.

Andrea and Jim live in Hammonton with their two children, and they’ll share their experiences arriving and living in Hammonton from a Hispanic immigrant perspective. They each experienced a different path on their journey to Hammonton, and how they got involved in the community. Andrea will share the process of moving to Hammonton from Edison, NJ, her fears, dreams and how she found in writing a way to connect with the community. She is very thankful for the way Hammonton supports the arts, and the many volunteer opportunities in town. She has volunteered and even picked blueberries in order to connect with people, learn about them, and then be able to write those stories; all while running her small business. One of her poems is featured on the Art Walk in the Downtown. She loves Hammonton because it bring back memories from her hometown in Honduras.

Jim arrived in Hammonton in 2001 from Peru and graduated from Hammonton High school in 2004.  He attended college, got into the corporate workplace in the financial industry. Today, Jim works at TD Bank as a workforce management specialist and leads the Latinos In Leadership Business Resource Group in NJ/PA. He has been on the Hammonton Revitalization Corporation board (MainStreet Hammonton) for over three years, where he aims to represent and serve as a connection with the Hispanic community. He is also a writer and has published a Spanish poetry book. Jim continues to be an advocate to improve Hammonton and promote our town as a great place to live, work and visit.

Both will speak on the eve of Hispanic Heritage Month which runs from September 15^th through October 15^th and is celebrated in a variety of ways in Hammonton. From Hammonton Health Coalition’s kick off event on Friday, September 15^th, to the Downtown Hammonton Third Thursday Fiesta September 21st, to the Puerto Rican Civic Association’s 64^th anniversary celebration.