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Posts Tagged ‘Hurricane Sandy relief’

Disassembling the Boardwalk: Showing Up, Pitching In

Posted in Blogfinger News, Ocean Grove news, tagged , , , on January 19, 2013| 5 Comments »

This is how we move wood from the debris pile to the dumpster -- hand to hand. Photos by Mary Walton

This is how to move wood from the debris pile to the dumpster — hand to hand. Photos by Mary Walton (left click to enlarge)

By Charles Layton

On this crispy-cold Saturday morning we found approximately 40 volunteers down at the beach, divided into two work gangs – one at the foot of Main Avenue, the other at the Pavilion.

Both were performing similar tasks, tearing up the broken boardwalk and using human chains – bucket brigade style – to load the wood into dumpsters. We’re told a third group was working at the South End.

“We’ve been trying to find places where we could volunteer,” said Gina Voorhees, a kindergarten teacher at Presbyterian Church at New Providence. She and others at her church discovered Ocean Grove via the Facebook page of another volunteer group, Calvary Relief, which does cleanup operations all along the Jersey Shore.

Voorhees put a note about Saturday’s Ocean Grove cleanup on her church’s own Facebook page, and that’s where Karen Lawler of Bucks County, Pennsylvania, found out about it. So on Saturday she was out there too.

One thing we’ve learned from Hurricane Sandy is how many people, like Lawler and Voorhees, are eager to volunteer for the massive ongoing cleanup efforts. “Our goal is to try to do something two Saturdays a month,” Voorhees told us, speaking for the New Providence group.

Another thing we’ve learned is the important role that social media play in coordinating these efforts. For instance, Calvary Relief’s website had a posting on Friday that said, “Join in Ocean Grove tomorrow morning to continue work on the boardwalk! No need to call, just meet us in the Youth Temple at 9:00 a.m.!!!”

If you go to “PCNP Hurricane Sandy Relief” you’ll see how that group in New Providence spreads the word to its followers.

Most Grovers probably have little idea how much our town and others benefit from perfect strangers who read such postings, show up, pitch in, and ask absolutely nothing in return.

Most of the volunteers in the Main Avenue work gang on Saturday seemed to be from New Providence and from Calvary Relief. Members of the latter group are headquartered at the Youth Temple in Ocean Grove and can often be found at work on our beachfront, especially on weekends. (To read our previous story about them, go here.)

But native Ocean Grovers were out there, too. Liz Saunders of Ocean Grove told us she had been looking for ways to help with the cleanup. So she just showed up at the beach on Saturday morning. “The lady in charge said to me, ‘You looking for a job?’ and I said yes.”

Simple as that.

Doing her bit, Zlë Walters, 8, with the Calvary Relief group, sweeps the sand off the memorial plaque at the base of the flagpole.

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FEMA Comments Concerning Ocean Grove’s Boardwalk Damage — Is the Camp Meeting Eligible for Federal Relief?

Posted in Blogfinger News, Ocean Grove news, tagged , , , , on December 27, 2012| 19 Comments »

Ocean Grove, NJ. Dec. 9, 2012. Paul Goldfinger photo

Ocean Grove, NJ. Dec. 9, 2012. Paul Goldfinger photo. Left click to enlarge

EDITOR’S NOTE: Our December 23rd story on whether the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) will reimburse Ocean Grove for repairs to our storm-damaged boardwalk raised as many questions as it answered.

Many Grovers are wondering why disaster relief for our boardwalk is in doubt while relief for damaged boardwalks in neighboring towns is not. The answer is that our boardwalk is owned not by a local government but by the Camp Meeting Association, a private, non-profit organization.

A FEMA official assigned to Monmouth County hurricane relief has been following our discussion of this issue. Today, she weighs in with an explanation of some of the main considerations on which FEMA’s decision will rest. Although she makes no prediction as to which way that decision will go, she frames the issue in some detail. We present her analysis here.

-0-

By Robin E. Smith, FEMA Media Relations

Public Assistance grants from FEMA may be given to state, local and tribal governments, as well as to certain qualifying private non-profit organizations, to cover 75 percent of the cost of disaster repairs.

The criteria for approving the grants, set by the Stafford Act, differ for governmental entities and private non-profits.

State, tribe or local governments may apply for disaster-related damages to public facilities they own that provide flood control, navigation, irrigation, reclamation, public power, sewage treatment and collection, water supply and distribution, watershed development, or an airport facility. They may also apply for disaster-related damages to non-federally funded streets, roads or highways, and any other public building, structure, park or system, including those used for educational, recreational, or cultural purposes, that is owned by a state, tribe or local government.

In general, a private non-profit facility may qualify for FEMA Public Assistance grants if it provides educational, utility, irrigation, emergency, medical, rehabilitational, or custodial care resources to the community.

In certain cases, private non-profit organizations that provide essential, non-recreational services of a governmental nature to the general public may also be eligible. Examples include some museums, zoos, performing arts facilities, libraries, homeless shelters, senior citizen centers, and similarly purposed facilities.

For a form that helps determine the eligibility of private non-profits for FEMA Public Assistance grants, see http://www.fema.gov/library/viewRecord.do?id=2726. Additional information about FEMA Public Assistance grants for non-profit cultural institutions may be found at https://www.heritagepreservation.org/federal/index.html.

Ed. note: Of particular interest to Ocean Grovers is this link.

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Mucking, Lugging, Cleaning — Calvary Relief Operation Expands

Posted in Blogfinger News, Ocean Grove news, tagged , on November 12, 2012| 18 Comments »

In the Youth Temple, their base of operations in Ocean Grove, volunteers prepare donated clothes and food for distribution to disaster victims.

Text and photos by Mary Walton

After establishing a base in the Camp Meeting Association’s Youth Temple, Calvary Relief has tripled in size from the days following Hurricane Sandy to an operation that fields 100-plus volunteers daily from as far away as California, Florida and points in between.

Calvary Relief is a nondenominational organization of far-flung Christian churches specializing in good works.

After spending the night on air mattresses in the basement and washing up in the janitor’s sink, these out-of-staters join with volunteers from the Calvary Chapel in Old Bridge and head north to hard-hit areas like Union Beach and Sea Bright, and south to Belmar.

Whatever the issue, “we’d be happy to help out,” said Jason Baker, a Calvary pastor who is overseeing the work. “Any kind of mucking, deconstruction, tree removal.”

Fort Lauderdale volunteers Elyssa Service, 19, and Daniella Silva, 20

Connie Ogden of 23 Broadway was a grateful beneficiary of Calvary’s assistance rendered after professional pumpers siphoned six feet of water from her basement. For two days, as many as eight Calvary volunteers at a time cleaned and disinfected the basement, a job that required “a lot of lugging,” Ogden said. That wasn’t all. “They helped reassemble my shed and did a lot of hosing down of stuff.  They pretty much did what I asked them to do. They were very, very polite and very helpful.”

Back at the Youth Temple, volunteers sort clothing and food donated by churches for distribution to hurricane victims. In addition, said Baker, food for the volunteers themselves, particularly packaged meat, bagged salads, and individual cheese slices, would be welcome.

As she sorted socks, Elyssia Service, 19, one of several volunteers from Fort Lauderdale, explained that she is enrolled in a Calvary discipleship program called “Patmos.” That is the name of a small Greek island where John the Apostle is believed to have had a vision from Jesus. This is her first assignment to a disaster, she said. “This is awesome being able to come out and serve.”

Another volunteer, Jim Shevchenko from the Old Bridge congregation, who was grabbing brooms and other cleaning items before heading up to the Highlands, said he is unemployed. “I’m just trying to look for a job and in between I’ll help the best way I can.”

One volunteer from Ocean Grove, who did not want to give his name, said he was both impressed by the relief effort and disappointed at the turnout from town. “There’s a lot of work to be done here and it’s being done, but not by Grovers.”

Baker said the Calvary Relief volunteers plan to stay on in Ocean Grove for a minimum of two more months.

Here’s where some volunteers sack out — in the Youth Temple basement. Others stay at Grove Hall when there is room.

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