CompleteCare honors Bridgeton's Albert Kelly at Cumberland County Legends event

CompleteCare Foundation used its annual Cumberland County Legends celebration to recognize three familiar names with very different kinds of reach: Bridgeton Mayor Albert B. Kelly, Dawn Hunter of the Greater Vineland Chamber of Commerce and Cole the Deaf Dog. The event, held Friday, May 15, at Merighi’s Savoy Inn in Vineland, drew community members from across Cumberland County and once again tied public honor to the county’s health and civic infrastructure.

The foundation itself was created in 2015 to raise money for initiatives that support the communities served by CompleteCare Health Network, which says it operates 19 patient-centered locations and is one of New Jersey’s largest federally qualified health centers. That gives the Legends program more than ceremonial weight. It is part recognition event, part fundraising tool, and part public reminder that access to care in Cumberland County still depends on institutions willing to organize, solicit and distribute support.

Kelly’s selection carried the strongest political significance. Bridgeton’s city website says he was elected mayor in May 2010 with 76% of the vote and became the city’s first African-American mayor, after serving as council president in 2009. He later won a second term unopposed in November 2014. Beyond City Hall, Kelly is founder and chief executive of Gateway Community Action Partnership, a nonprofit started in 1984 that says it serves more than 56,000 low- and moderate-income residents across Cumberland, Gloucester and Salem counties with an annual budget of more than $40 million and a staff of more than 450.

Kelly’s upcoming retirement, effective Nov. 1, 2026, closes a long chapter in Bridgeton and in the region’s nonprofit sector. His recognition at the Legends event underscored how much county leadership has been shaped not only through elections, but through parallel institutions that deliver services where government alone does not.

Hunter’s role reflected a different kind of influence. The Greater Vineland Chamber of Commerce says she has served as executive director since 2010, and the chamber counts more than 410 members. Her work on the New Jersey State Chamber of Commerce Alliance and Vineland Public Schools’ Community Partnership Action Committee places her at the intersection of business, education and civic coordination, the kind of local network that often determines whether projects move forward or stall.

CompleteCare’s own history gives the night another layer. A 2022 Legends event was billed as the 12th annual celebration, and the program had already raised more than $500,000 for support for pregnant women, children’s dental care, childhood literacy, migrant healthcare and chronic disease. This year’s honors showed who Cumberland County chooses to celebrate, but they also highlighted how much of the county’s public well-being still rests on sustained private and nonprofit investment.