Mayor Colleen Bianco Bezich will present the 2025 Citizen of the Year Award to longtime resident and community volunteer Maureen Eyles on Saturday at Tavistock Country Club.
Eyles will get her award during the annual Mayor’s Breakfast, a tradition established by the Haddonfield Jaycees in 1973 and continued by the Lions Club since 1992. Over the years, 54 citizens have been recognized for their outstanding service to the community.Â
The goal of the award is to recognize a resident who has been a major force for good in the borough over a period of years. Eyles served as executive director for First Night Haddonfield from 2011 to 2014 and for Haddonfield’s 300th anniversary celebration in 2013. She was on the board of education from 2012 to 2019 and has been a member of the Haddonfield Educational Trust since 2013. She is now its president.
Eyles was project leader for the Haddonfield Memorial High School’s Beautification Project from 2017 to 2022 and the Trust’s Rally in the Alley from 2022 to 2024. Last year, she led Haddonfield CARES, a community group formed to advocate for the school board’s successful $46-million referendum.
Eyles received the civic association’s Alfred E. Driscoll Award for Community Service in 2015 and the Alumni Society’s Lifetime Achievement Award in 2024. A Haddonfield native who graduated from Memorial High in 1987 and from Villanova University in 1991, Eyles reconnected with a high-school classmate, Jack Eyles, at their 10-year reunion. Their sons, Matthew and Jack, are both Memorial High grads.
Also during the Mayor’s Breakfast, the board of commissioners will provide a state of the borough report and Henry Cowan, a senior at Haddonfield Memorial High School, will be presented with the William G. Hansen Youth of the Year Award for 2025.Â
Cowen is an officer in the LEO Club and has volunteered extensively with the Lions Club and Mabel Kay events since his freshman year. He is on the Student Council, attends the yearly Equity Summit at HMHS, founded the Investment Club, is a chairman in Model United Nations and co-captain of the Academic Challenge team.
He is in the Madrigal Singers and Jazz Ensemble as First Trumpet, in addition to a lifeguard during the summer and an employee at a local restaurant. Cowen is a research assistant for a professor at Rutgers studying political status and COVID-19 reporting accuracy. He is in the National Honor Society, National Music Honor Society and National French Honor Society, and was the HMHS nominee for Boys State. He is also a National Merit Scholarship Semi-Finalist. In 2017, Cowen even studied in Kyrgyzstan for seven weeks through the U.S. State Department, and has been studying Russian independently ever since.
Cowen was accepted to Dartmouth College, where he plans to major in government and economics. He is also in the final round of the selection process for a full scholarship to study abroad in Morocco for a year learning Arabic through the National Security Language Initiative for Youth, a U.S. State Department program that sends high schoolers overseas to learn foreign languages.
His goal is to continue helping others at an international organization like the International Monetary Fund or World Bank. He wants to fight economic injustice on a global scale.
“Until recently, the recipients of the Citizen of the Year and Youth of the Year awards have been announced at the breakfast ceremony. The selection is made by an independent panel of citizens who review candidates that are submitted by the public,” explained Larry Melton, president, Haddonfield Lions Club. “In 2024, the Lions Club decided to announce the recipients prior to the Mayor’s Breakfast. Now, family and friends may attend and celebrate together. Last year, almost 200 people attended the event. Again this year, the Tavistock Country Club will be the venue, and it will include a delicious full breakfast including eggs benedict.”
All members of the community are welcome, with reservations required in advance. Tickets are $30 and may be purchased online at HaddonfieldLions.org.
