Childhood Community Formed Mayor’s Character

WOODBINE – It is a little town, in a small county in New Jersey. And few people realize its great historical significance as they drive through on their way to sun and sand by the ocean.
This borough was the first place in the world that Jewish people were self-governing after the Romans decimated them in what was Roman Palestine in A.D. 70. That happened in the late 19th century when a wealthy Jewish industrialist purchased land from Denis Township as a haven for Russian Jews suffering under the pogroms ravaging their homeland. 
For the past three decades, Woodbine has been led by a man with a remarkable history of his own. This is where Mayor William Pikolycky was raised and thrives. 
”My parents came from a DP camp (Displaced Persons) after the war,” he recounted. At this point, the mayor showed a photo of a dark-haired woman with sad eyes, eyes that saw much suffering. As a young girl in Ukraine, she lived through the Ukrainian genocide, known as the Holmodor in which famine claimed millions of lives.
As a teenager she was able to get work as a nanny for a wealthy Jewish family when they were taken off to a concentration camp, she followed to do what she could.
The family survived the war and the horrors of the camp. They immigrated to America.
In the meantime, Pikolycky’s mother, who spoke six languages, had met Victor Pikolycky, his father, who had been in a DP camp but managed to get a visa to the United States.
He proposed. She said “yes.”
The mayor’s parents worked in the uniform factory that was thriving at that time in Woodbine. The couple had four sons and one daughter. Three things were emphasized in the home of those Ukrainian immigrants, hard work, education and their Ukrainian Catholic faith. “God and the Church were essential in our lives,” Pikolycky said.
He smiled as he recounted his youthful days attending St. Nicholas Greek Catholic Church in Millville and Sts. Peter and Paul. “We picked up the priest every Sunday and all the brothers were altar boys.”
After church services, there would be community fellowship with meals or picnics. “There was always an exciting event after church. It motivated us kids to want to go,” he laughed.
The mayor then reminisced about an adult church member, Steve Chichuria, who always “gave the kids coins if we behaved.” He also credits a good example of the adults around him, the way they dressed, spoke and comported themselves and helped each other with establishing good values within him. “It stuck with me,” he admitted.
His home was modest. “We lived in a three-bedroom house. My mom made me do chores and made us all say our prayers at bedtime,” Pikolycky said.
He added that it was this upbringing and his faith that drew him into public service. “Being raised a Christian I grew up understanding how to treat people and how the community needs to support each other,” he said.
He first got involved in politics in the late 1970s. “At first, I wanted to join the Democrats. I tried, but they didn’t want me, so I thought, ‘Well, I might as well go where I’m wanted,’ so I joined the Republicans.”
He ran for borough council in 1978 where he served for 12 years.
For the past 20 years, he has run as an Independent.
“Except for the last election I have never run unopposed,” he said.
But he has been re-elected over and over. “For me, politics is about helping people. I am a Conservative. I want to help people. This community is a melting pot. I know firsthand the needs of people on the margins. Sometimes people need help. I have conservative values from my parents, and they work for the whole community.”
Pikolycky married a woman of Italian heritage named Denise, and they had two children, a son, William and a daughter, Jessica.
Although the marriage did not survive the couple remained friends and the children matured. “My children have faith,” he declared.
“What helped me growing up as a youngster was my faith and being around families that supported each other and enforced community values,” Pikolycky said.
He said he learned “Helping people is not a bad thing. What people had they shared, but they did not take from others.”
Some of the lessons he learned taught him to stay on the straight and narrow.
He recalled an incident when he was 9 years old, involving hubcaps of unknown origin which he took home. One of the elders in the neighborhood found out and confronted him foretelling that if he “embarked on a life of crime” he would not end up well.
Tha warning did the trick. The hubcaps were returned, and young William never again ran afoul of the law.
All of this taught Pikolycky that everyone needs a team working with them. That is what he has put together for the citizens of Woodbine.
”I have a great team. I learned a sense of togetherness growing up. I learned that when you make a mistake correct it early and look out for each other,” he said. That’s what he tries to do for Woodbine.
As a man of faith, he knows to look beyond. “I have a vision for this little city that’s very exciting. I want to see it through a difficult time and keep it a nice rural community. We want to keep our heart while at the same time promote economic development. We can grow at a stable rate.”
As the mayor thinks about the community of 2,600 over eight square miles he offers some advice for parents who face challenging times with youth, unemployment and the heroin epidemic.
“It is very difficult to raise a family now. Kids need some kind of faith. We all should have a God. Religion helps young people with guidance and assistance in hard situations. It teaches them how to live and that everything is not about them.
“They need stability in their family, and that there is a community they can count on. They need to learn not to hate others and get along with their neighbor. Faith stores confidence and friends and family give you people to share concerns with,” he stated.
All these are values he learned from parents who survived the genocide, famine, concentration camps and war to make a new life in a far-off country. 
To contact Helen McCaffrey, email hmccaffrey @cmcherald.com.
 
Faith and religion are important facets in the Cape May County community. The author plans to do stories on various aspects of religion and what impact it has on those who practice it. She encourages those with ideas on subjects to email her at hmccaffrey@cmcherald.com for consideration.