Yvonne’s restaurant. Main Avenue July 26, 2014. 7 months later, #50 Main Ave. with Yvonne’s was destroyed in a fire. The site is still unoccupied. Fire safety in OG has to improve. Derelict buildings like the Warrington should not remain standing. Paul Goldfinger photograph. ©
The Ocean Grove Chamber of Commerce will host a gathering of friendship and remembrance in response to the fire on March 3, which displaced dozens of Ocean Grove residents.
The gathering will take place on Sunday, March 5, on Seaview Avenue, between Beach Avenue and Central Avenue, and will begin at 6:00 p.m.
There will be a moment of silence, followed by a bagpipe solo.
Donations of cash or gift cards for those displaced by the fire may be made to The Angel Fund of St. Paul’s Church. You may bring a donation to the event, or mail it to St. Paul’s UMC, 80 Embury Avenue, Ocean Grove, NJ 07756.
For more information about The Angel Fund, contact the fund coordinators, Arlene and Tom Malanga, at (732) 775-1125, x5 or at oceangrovechurch@gmail.com.
If you know of anyone who needs emergency assistance, please ask them to contact the American Red Cross help line at (800) 507-6058. Reference “Ocean Grove fire”.
CELTIC WOMAN
Jennifer: We received this notice from the OGHOA. They should have explained that the cash gifts might not go to the victims.
BF will have to be more discerning in the future. We never promote charitable events or fund raising with the exception of those rare occasions when the beneficiaries would be Grovers. (eg after hurricanes or after fires). —Paul @Blogfinger
FYI: we tried donating essential items (brand new items of- socks, under garments, toiletries, baby items, pet items, etc)
to the St Paul’s Church – for the fire victims, but they were not accepting donated items. The Church is only accepting monetary donations.
The church then suggested to donate to the Asbury Hotel. The hotel also did not want to accept any donated items for the fire victims that are staying there.
We then tried contacting the Red Cross and their voicemail mailbox was full.
We finally drove by the fire site and met the fire victims from the La Pierre condo building. We left all the donated items with them, as they were lined up waiting to enter into their condo’s – to grab anything they could remove.
Also, I wanted to mention that the Chamber of Commerce Friendship & Remembrance letter of invitation states where the monetary donations are contributed to, which includes the members of the St Paul’s Church.
Perhaps there is a direct avenue to donate money to the actual victims?