2016 Recap!

Here's to a great 2016 for Jersey Shore beaches!

From the Surfrider Foundation Jersey Shore Chapter to you and your family, we wish you happy holidays and a prosperous, safe New Year! Before we move on to 2017, we would like to "wrap up" some of the highlights of this year:

First of all, thank you all for a fun and successful Holiday Party Membership Party at Beach Haus Brewery in Belmar earlier this month. We signed on 37 new or returning members!

Guests enjoyed participating in creating art on a surfboard provided by local artist Peter Nicolaou. Wonderful musical talent was donated and performed by Anthony Lee. Included with the entry was a Jersey Shore Surfrider beer glass and two Beach Haus brew drink tickets, as well as excellent food, provided by our Ocean Friendly Restaurant –Main Street Kitchen in Manasquan!

Some other highlights of the year include:

Kicking off the Ocean Friendly Restaurants program, we now have 7 restaurants between Rockaway and Lavallette, NJ signed up for the program;
Springtime Bradley Beach dune grass planting with over 100 volunteers;
Spring Lake dune grass planting;
MANY wonderful new and returning volunteers at each monthly chapter meeting, which were held at locations ranging from Monmouth Beach, Belmar, Asbury Park, and Point Pleasant;
Interview and book-signing with author of the novel Barbarian Days, by Bill Finnegan;
Street clean-up in Asbury Park;
International Surfing Day cleanup in Manasquan;
East Coast Chapter conference on Long Island;
Preserving beach access in Deal with the help of the Surfrider beach access committee and COBRA;
Collected wetsuits to be recycled into yoga mats;
Rain Barrel workshop in Toms River;
Tabling Bouncing Souls and Slightly Stoopid/SOJA concerts and surfboard raffle;
Hands Across the Sand event to rally against offshore drilling;
"At the Edge" Film Event with visiting Dutch scholar on the Dutch perspective of rebuilding the Jersey Shore;
Rallied and successfully opposed offshore drilling in the Mid-Atlantic;
And a lot of fun times, good energy, and stellar surf!

Thank you all for another wonderful year at the Jersey Shore. We hope to ring in the New Year stronger together than ever to protect our oceans and coasts. See you at the next event or meeting!

Here are some photos to recap the year:

Thanks for all your support!

From:
The volunteers on the Jersey Shore Chapter Executive Board!