09/22/2025
ROBBINSVILLE, NJ - Mayor Dave Fried is extremely proud to announce that The Papp/Walls Family of Robbinsville as the 10th annual “Pay it Forward” recipients when he delivers his State of Robbinsville Township address on October 14, 2025 at The Stone Terrace by John Henry’s beginning at 6:30 p.m.
The tragic yet incredibly inspirational story of Robbinsville residents Lisa Papp and her husband, Tom Walls, who are in the process of establishing legal guardianship of their four nieces and nephews, personifies everything the mayor’s “Pay it Forward” initiative encompasses.
The children’s father, military veteran Jason Tear, died of complications from lung cancer in 2023 following exposure to toxic burn pits in the Middle East. Alicia Tear, the children’s mother and Tom’s sister, passed away suddenly in 2024.
“This incredibly resilient family is moving mountains to give their nieces and nephews an opportunity to flourish after the unimaginable trauma of losing both parents in the span of one year,” Mayor Fried said. “They need our support, both financial and emotional, our compassion, our empathy and our kindness – all things Robbinsville residents and businesses deliver in spades year after year.”
Past Pay it Forward recipients include the Shepherd Family, Quilts for Comfort, Deborah Dauer, C.A.R.E., Mercer Street Friends Food Bank, the We Love Our R'ville Neighbors campaign, the Breden Family, the McLaughin family and Robbinsville Meals on Wheels. Since 2015, those efforts have raised over $500,000.
Tom has been essentially displaced from their four-bedroom home in Robbinsville while caring for the four school-age children in southern Delaware while still working full-time. Alison is 10, twin boys Xander and Gage are 8, and Lauren is 6. Lisa is a tenured special education teacher of 19 years at Pond Road Middle School and the couple share two college-attending daughters – Katharine, 25, and Caroline, 18. Their beloved son Nicholas passed away at the age of 18.
"I don't know another man who would be able (or willing) to step in and do what he's doing," Tom's sister, Susan Walls Daly, said. "Family helps when we can, but the burden is on his shoulders 24/7. It's a hard job to do on your own. I know that he and his family, along with the extended Walls/Tear families, appreciate greatly all the help that has been given and all the help yet to come. Our sister knows her children are in good hands."
As one may imagine, with the hopes of a legal adoption of the four children on the horizon, the couple’s needs are many. Primarily, their Robbinsville home is in dire need of extensive renovations to provide a safe and comfortable domicile for the four children. Katharine and Caroline Walls also maintain their personal spaces in the home, which will now house eight family members instead of four.
“You have to keep moving forward,” Lisa says. “We have these four beautiful children that want an opportunity in life, and we are determined to give it to them.”
Fundraising for this effort is now open and corporate sponsorships levels of $25,000 (Community Champion), $10,000 (Township Trailblazer), $5,000 (Hometown Hero), $2,500 (Township Partner), $1,500 (Beverage Sponsor) and $500 (We Love R’ville Neighbors Sponsor) are available. Individual tickets are $150 and $1,350 for a table of 10.
“These children have been through a lot,” Tom Walls, a volunteer for nearly two decades as a Robbinsville Little League softball and baseball coach, as well as a rec basketball and soccer coach, said. “It’s been traumatic, and that comes up regularly. They need love, structure and discipline and we’re working through a lot of that, but their resilience thus far has really been amazing, and so has the help we’ve received from family, friends, neighbors, church groups and perfect strangers. Seeing them develop every day has been kind of overwhelming. They are such wonderful, good-hearted children.”
Kindly RSVP to this year’s event by October 1, 2025 and make checks payable to C.A.R.E.
Send to: Robbinsville Township 'Pay It Forward'
Attn: Jodi Stephens.
2298 Route 33, Robbinsville, NJ 08691
Please write "2025 Pay it Forward" in the check notes.
