Catholic Charities honors businessman Stanley Koreyva Jr. as Light of Hope in Monmouth County
Catholic Charities, Diocese of Trenton will honor Stanley Koreyva Jr. with its Light of Hope Award for Monmouth County at the 30th Annual Guardian Angel Dinner Dance in September.
Koreyva has served on Catholic Charities’ board of trustees since 2015. He also has donated financially for many years.
Caring for the community
For Koreyva, community service was the family business.
His grandfather opened a grocery store in 1944 behind St. Joseph’s Church in Trenton. His father was the market’s butcher, and Koreyva joined his brothers after school and weekends to work there too.
“It’s really where I learned that treating people with respect is key,” said Koreyva, who said he continued pitching in at the store until his family sold it in 1988. “You treat people how you like to be treated.”
Koreyva went into banking, working his way up to president of Amboy Bank before moving in 2018 into real estate. He now serves as president and chief operating officer of The PRC Group, a construction, development, and property-management firm based in West Long Branch.
It was at Amboy Bank where Koreyva learned about Catholic Charities, Diocese of Trenton from Peter Haas, then an Amboy vice president who served as chairman of Catholic Charities’ board of trustees. When Haas retired, he recommended Koreyva to replace him in 2015 as a Catholic Charities trustee.
Changing the world, one person at a time
Koreyva was eager to serve – after checking with wife Gayle, of course, who “besides being my best friend, is also my boss,” he joked. 
“Catholic Charities really opens the door to people who have real needs, whether it’s people struggling with drug addiction, children who don’t have parents that take care of them, abused mothers, or so many others,” Koreyva said. “When you meet the real-life people who Catholic Charities serves, you see how Catholic Charities is changing the world, one person at a time.”
Koreyva considers El Centro a favorite, because the program serves the Latino community in Mercer County near the same neighborhood where his family’s store operated.
Besides serving on the board, he financially supports Catholic Charities and coached Little League teams for about 15 years. Community service runs in the family: His brother Rick Koreyva chairs the board of The Arc Mercer, which serves people with special needs, including their sister Karen.
Koreyva was raised Catholic, going to school at St. Hedwig’s of Trenton and then Notre Dame High School in Lawrenceville. He raised his three boys, who are now grown, in the Church too, to ensure a strong moral foundation, he said. He and Gayle now are parishioners at St. Mark’s Catholic Church in Sea Girt, where they live.
Still, he said, “going to church every Sunday doesn’t make you a good person. It’s what you do every day that counts more. It’s how you treat people.”
Tickets available
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