Mayor: Volunteers a 'Bright Spot' in Sandy Recovery

The following letter was submitted by Toms River Mayor Thomas Kelaher:

Despite the devastation and heartache of Sandy, one bright spot was the response from so many groups of volunteers. These volunteers were not just local organizations, but were from all around the country.

While Toms River Township is capable of emergency response in many situations, no local government along the Jersey Shore has the assets to handle all of the storm related problems.  

The immediate problem was providing shelter and food for all of the thousands of residents displaced by the storm.

I initially called upon the members of the Greater Toms River Clergy Association for help. All of these pastors had access to church halls and congregations that were available to pitch in and help. Help included preparing meals, providing shelter, accepting and distributing all types of donations, such as food, clothing, water and cleaning supplies, to name a few.

One of the amazing volunteer groups was an organization started by Reverend Billy Graham known as Samaritan’s Purse headquartered in Ashville, North Carolina. This organization is now under the direction of Dr. Graham’s son, Franklin. Samaritan’s Purse arrived with hundreds of volunteer workers from around the country who immediately went to work helping clean out flood damaged homes. (Toms River had approx 10,000 homes impacted by flood water and structural damage). This organization has responded to a number of crisis situation around the world including the earthquake in Haiti, the Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans and tornado ravished Joplin, Missouri. Samaritan’s Purse has now subsidized a group of volunteers who are skilled in building trades who are now working at restoring homes around town. The efforts of Samaritan’s Purse were facilitated by the congregation of the Church of Grace and Peace which provided lodging and meals on a daily basis and continue to do so.

From the outset, the Hirair and Anna Hovnanian Foundation provided retail property on Fischer Boulevard in the Belcrest Mall that immediately allowed us to provide space for a FEMA Disaster Recovery Center (DRC), a police substation, a bus station to transport residents to the barrier island and also a store to distribute all types of donated items. The store was run by the teachers of the Toms River School System and is now relocated to the Dollar Mall on Fischer Blvd. run by a partnership of entities.

Cleaning gear was in high demand to aid in the restoration effort and thanks to an 18 wheeler load of $28,000 worth of cleaning equipment from Home Depot, we were able to store this material at the Ocean County Baptist Church on Old Freehold Road, and distributed throughout the affected area.

American Legion Post 129 made their Church Road Hall available and provided food and shelter and especially a memorable Thanksgiving Dinner.

Offers of help continue to come in and we now have the help of Jersey Cares at the Fischer Blvd People’s Pantry, who are coordinating the arrival of various groups and volunteers, and matching each group with projects that need to be addressed.

As recently as two weeks ago a busload of 43 midshipmen from the United State Naval Academy at Annapolis spent days helping to clean up while billeting by the United State Army at Fort Dix. In addition to the above efforts, the Hometown Heroes assumed the very important and necessary job of distribution of thousands of dollars from many sources such as the Robin Hood Foundation to needy residents.

While highlighting all of the above, I do not want to ignore the heroic efforts of our own first responders, who on the night of the storm rescued 542 residents without a single casualty. Other groups, too numerous to mention, also provided wonderful support to Toms River and will always be grateful.

As time goes on, I would continue to urge you to monitor our township web page at www.tomsrivertownship.com.