Helping the Beaches Recover from Sandy

I am sure you have read the news a time or 2 in the past few months. NJ beaches took a beating in October when Hurricane Sandy came to town. I luckily live an hour West of the beach, but those that lived down there were not so lucky. I took this as an opportunity to give back to the beaches that have given me so much in the past years (LBI!!) and as a chance to teach my wonderful nieces how to be active and give back as well.

 I know in times of disaster people often feel helpless. I know I do. I am writing this post to show you just how helpful you can be, even if you live really far away! Here are some things you can do!

1) Donate money to whatever organization you believe will do the most good.
2) If you have a FB, share/join events and spread the word on cleanups, food and clothing drives, donations etc.
3) If you live close enough, make a trip to the location. Speaking of our experiences here, you could have called any church and they would have directed you to the closest shelter if they didn't have one themselves.
4) Start a donation drive! A few of my friends posted on their FB walls that they would collect local donations and do all the leg work to get them to the locations!
5) If you are in high school, start a group for fundraising/donation collections!

These were just a few things that I saw popping up around on my FB walls and community when the disaster happened. I am sure I am leaving many things out, but the possibilities of helping those in need are endless! It has been many months and so much help is still needed here. If you want to help, contact me and I can fill you in on what I know! Just keep in the back of your mind that no gesture of help is ever too small! Just think if the whole world made small gestures, big things would happen!

Team Beach Bums for a Cleaner LBI!

One small site we cleaned

Another trip down, cleaning LBI bay

Cleaning Bay access. The house wasn't built there, it drifted.

I am dedicating this post to my awesome nieces, who every time I call them to wake up early on the weekend, they jump at the chance to go help others!