Delaware Coast Aid assists Jersey town with cash, labor

Rehoboth Beach-based Delaware Coast Aid on Dec. 11 presented Sea Bright, N.J. Mayor Dina Long with a check for $20,000 for Sea Bright Rising to aid the rebuilding effort in the storm-damaged borough.

Long graciously accepted the gift on behalf of Sea Bright Rising, the Sea Bright nonprofit organization devoted to the relief of the needy and/or displaced and the general recovery of the town of Sea Bright, as a result of the devastation created by Hurricane Sandy in fall 2012.

“We chose Sea Bright Rising because the town of Sea Bright is so similar to the coastal town of Dewey Beach," where the Delaware Coast Aid benefit was held Nov. 15, said Delaware Coast Aid cofounder Chip Thompson. "Had Hurricane Sandy made landfall just 40 miles south, Dewey Beach, and our other beach communities for that matter, would have suffered the same devastating blow that Sandy dealt Sea Bright." Nearly 80 percent of the New Jersey town was devastated by the storm.

In addition to presenting Sea Bright Rising with the first disbursement from the Delaware Coast Aid benefit concert, Coast Aid led a group of volunteers who spent the day engaged in the grueling work of debris removal from houses whose first floors were ruined by the six feet of water that submerged the town. The volunteers made the six-hour round trip to Sea Bright so they could spend the day assisting in the town and for the opportunity to understand firsthand the devastation that the people of coastal New Jersey and New York are dealing with.

Coast Aid will allocate the rest of the nearly $80,000 raised by issuing checks to two other New Jersey-based organizations tasked with the challenge of helping New Jersey's coastal communities rebuild: Project Rebuild Recover, based in Red Bank, N.J., and the Barnegat Bay Foundation, based in Ocean Township, N.J. In addition, thanks to an incredibly generous spur-of-the-moment $20,000 donation to the cause made by Phyllis Wyeth at the New Jersey volunteer day, an additional check for $20,000 will be going to Sea Bright Rising.

For more information and to keep up to date on the volunteer activities of Coast Aid, visit the Delaware Coast Aid Facebook page or go to www.seabrightrising.org.