Tuesday, October 29, 2013

Stafford Township elementary school students raise over $14,000 for local cancer organization

The brisk air on Friday, Oct. 25, did not faze McKinley Avenue Elementary School’s third- and fourth-grade students as they celebrated Make A Difference Day with an early-morning walkathon in the front parking lot of the school. The Stafford Township schoolchildren were dressed in their school colors, blue and gold, to show their support for David’s Dream and Believe Cancer Foundation, a local nonprofit organization that raises funds to provide financial assistance and services to families, primarily in New Jersey, affected by a cancer diagnosis.
Photo by Jack Reynolds
McKinley Avenue Elementary School
students 
Julia Nitting and Makayla Alessi
show their support 
for David's Dream and
Believe Cancer Foundation.
“We try to do something good for somebody in the area, and we chose David this year because his story’s so compelling,” said Susan Malmstron, a physical education teacher and organizer of Make A Difference Day at McKinley Avenue. “It’s just unbelievable what he’s been through and how he took this horrible event in his life and changed it for such a great thing. It’s such a good story for the kids to learn about.
“We have had staff members affected. We have had students affected. Cancer now affects all families, whether it’s a parent, a grandparent, a child. It’s just so rapid out there, and that’s why we thought this was a good charity,” she added. “A lot of these kids know someone that was affected by it (cancer). Some of these kids have lived through the hardships of cancer, or they’re going through it now. They see their grandparents or aunts and uncles that have gone through this. We try to talk about turning that negative into a positive thing.”
As the largest national day of community service, Make A Difference Day unites millions of volunteers around the world in a common mission to improve the lives of others. McKinley Avenue’s students have participated in the event for the past 14 years, raising more than $100,000 for local charities.
This year, the students far exceeded their goal of $6,250, which represents all 625 children who attend the school. The kids raised $14,502, which they presented to David’s Dream and Believe later in the day during an assembly.
“I would not be lying if I said it was one of the top five days of my life,” said David Caldarella, a local resident and founder of David’s Dream and Believe. “The donation and amount of the donation certainly shocked me, but it was the dedication and determination of the faculty and third- and fourth-graders to make a difference in the lives of others in our community that truly left me speechless and had me crying tears of joy during the assembly.
“The icing on the cake was having my niece Isabella, a fourth-grader, involved in the event,” he added. “For me to not only walk with her but look out and see her in the assembly was something very special for me. It inspires me that 8- to 10-year-old children with the backing of a tremendous faculty could set out on a mission to make a difference and succeed in doing exactly that. I will never forget McKinley's Make A Difference Day 2013 and will carry those inspiring feelings with me every day for the rest of my life.”
After Oct. 16’s kickoff meeting, led by Caldarella, the students were sent home with pledge envelopes to help raise money for the foundation throughout the week. The students also sold “Dream and Believe” bracelets, donated by the foundation, and contributed to a coin jar in homeroom.
“David did tell the kids last week that he had a 5 percent chance to live and that he overcame that,” said Malmstron. “That right there really sums it all up. Anything is possible.”
— Kelley Anne Essinger

This article was published in The SandPaper.

Monday, October 28, 2013

Trunk-or-treating, magic show, crafts at LBIF on Halloween

Celebrate Halloween with the Long Beach Island Foundation of the Arts and Sciences, at 120 Long Beach Blvd. in Loveladies, on Wednesday, Oct. 30. Children are invited to dress up in costume for trunk-or-treating in the parking lot at 6 p.m. A magic show, “a perfect blend of comedy, magic, excitement and fright,” presented by Joe Fischer, will begin at 7 p.m. Craft activities will also be available.
“This is a family event. Everyone in the family will be entertained and thrilled,” said Amy Carreno, the Foundation’s public programs coordinator. “As a mom I am always looking for more occasions for my daughter to wear her costume,” she added.
Tickets cost $10 for children and $5 for adults. To register, or for more information, call 609-494-1241. 

–Kelley Anne Essinger


This article was published in The SandPaper.

Friday, October 25, 2013

10-year-old Barnegat boy raises money for breast cancer awareness, donates funds to local cancer organization

When Tyler Quinn, 10, of Barnegat noticed that making Rainbow Loom bracelets was becoming popular among his peers, he decided to put the new fad to good use. A fifth-grade Cecil S. Collins School student, Quinn asked his principal, George Delaporte, and his teacher, Linda McGlynn, if he could sell the bracelets in school to help raise money for breast cancer awareness month in honor of his mother, Karen, who was diagnosed with stage III breast cancer in October 2012.
Photo by Jack Reynolds
Tyler Quinn, 10, of Barnegat shows off
the bracelets he made in support of
breast cancer awareness.
“Ever since my mom was diagnosed with breast cancer, it’s been sort of tough. And these bracelets were really popular, so I decided to make them,” said Tyler. “I love to make them; a lot of people like to make them. They were selling everywhere, and everyone was making them. In school they’re very popular, and since my mom’s a survivor, I decided to do something nice and make other people feel good, too.”
Karen Quinn said she and her family received a lot of local support during her chemotherapy and radiation treatments. Last year, Barnegat High School funded the family’s Thanksgiving dinner, which was catered by Sweet Jenny’s Restaurant. The high school and the Collins school also donated gift cards during Christmastime.
“It was kind of sad,” said Tyler. “I felt bad because she was going through all this. I was just worried that something bad would happen.”
Thankfully, Karen finished her radiation treatments in March and chemotherapy in June, and has since been cancer-free.
When Tyler’s sister, Meaghan, began making the Rainbow Loom bracelets in August, Tyler said he “didn’t really like them because I didn’t really understand them.” But once he started making the bracelets, he realized the project was actually enjoyable.
The craft consists of making colorful, latex-free rubber bands into different patterned bracelets by using a special loom kit, which can be found in many local stores, such as Michaels and Walmart.
Photo by Jack Reynolds
With the help of his mother, Karen,
Tyler Quinn has made more than 200 bracelets.
Tyler and nearly 20 of his friends at school are selling the bracelets during their lunch period for $1 or 50 cents each, depending on the size and number of rubber bands used. With the help of his mother, Tyler said he has personally made more than a couple of hundred bracelets. He began selling them in early October, and with the help of his peers, has made more than $400 in sales.
“I’ve spent hundreds on rubber bands, I’m not kidding you. He just keeps making them,” said Karen, pointing to a display of mostly pink-and-white bracelets, which are the colors for breast cancer awareness.
In October Tyler helped draft a letter that was sent home to the school students’ parents, asking for help in making the bracelets. The letter informed parents that the bracelets would also be available for purchase at TGI Friday’s in Manahawkin, where kids eat for free on Wednesday nights. Tyler along with many other Barnegat students made $971 in bracelet sales at the restaurant on Wednesday, Oct. 16.
“That cracked our $1,000 mark,” said Tyler. “It’s important that I'm not the only one doing this by myself. People actually helped me,” he added.
It was at Friday’s that Tyler and his mother saw a flyer for David’s Dream and Believe Cancer Foundation, a nonprofit organization that raises funds to provide financial assistance and services to families primarily in New Jersey that are affected by a cancer diagnosis. Tyler has decided to donate all of the money raised through the bracelet initiative to the local organization, which will then donate it to a local breast cancer patient.
Tyler’s “a very special kid, and there’s no question he cares not only about his mom and her battle with this ugly disease, but for other people in the fight,” said David Caldarella, a local resident who founded David’s Dream and Believe Cancer Foundation after he was diagnosed with stage IV squamous cell carcinoma in 2010. “It’s incredibly inspiring for me to see this 10-year-old so motivated to pay it forward,” he added.
Besides helping others and gaining a sense of bravery, Tyler said making the bracelets has connected him with other kids at school whom he did not know very well before.
“It brings the kids together. I’ve known them, but I didn’t really know them that well. Some of them I wasn’t really close with, and now I’m pretty close with them,” he explained.
Karen said she, too, has made new friends through her son’s breast cancer initiative.
Tyler hopes to raise $2,000 in donations by the end of October. Anyone interested in making or purchasing bracelets can visit him and his friends at TGI Friday’s in Manahawkin on Wednesday, Oct. 30, between 5 and 9 p.m.
Tyler said he plans to create a website to sell the bracelets online. He hopes to sell more around Christmastime to benefit another local cancer organization to help support patients who are going through chemotherapy.
“My mom’s chemo was during the winter, too,” he said.

–Kelley Anne Essinger


This article was published in The SandPaper.

Thursday, October 24, 2013

'Sandy'versary celebration in Surf City marks one-year anniversary of Superstorm Sandy

The Tuckerton Lumber Company will host an upcoming “Sandy”versary party to mark the one-year anniversary of Superstorm Sandy. The event will be held at the company’s Surf City location at North Second Street and the Boulevard from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 29 – one year exactly from the day of the storm. Proceeds will benefit the Surf City Volunteer Fire Co.
“We wanted to mark this day somehow, but we wanted to give it sort of a celebratory feel of what we’ve come through and achieved through that,” said Elizabeth Harrigle, owner of TLC. “We know that it’s still such a sore topic for a lot of people because they’re still displaced, or they’re having trouble with getting grants and loans and money from FEMA. So we wanted to not just have fun, but we wanted to give that frustration an outlet.
Photo via Panoramio
The Tuckerton Lumber Co. is hosting a celebration
at their Surf City location on Tuesdsay, Oct. 29 to
mark the one-year anniversary of Superstorm Sandy.
“We wanted to be tongue-in-cheek about it. And at the same time, we thought we could help raise money for the fire company and do something good for our community – because they were such a huge blessing and a wonderful resource at that point in time. We want to make it just a fun day to help celebrate that,” she added.
The lighthearted, hurricane-themed party will give participants a chance to knock down “FEMA reps” in the dunk tank, which will be entertained by TLC staff members wearing mock FEMA and NFIP T-shirts.
“We’re going to heckle, but it’ll be more along the lines of, ‘Oh, you didn’t file your grant paperwork in time; I said, no, you’re not getting that loan.’ We’re trying to make it just a fun day,” Harrigle said with a laugh.
Other Sandy-themed games will include cornhole toss and ladder ball. FEMA bucks, which are “worth nothing,” Harrigle explained, will be given out during games to be incorporated in a raffle. Prizes include a Weber grill; two driftwood seahorse sculptures handcrafted and donated by local artist Jill Belloff; a Shop-Vac; a Downeaster wind instrument; and TLC apparel among other items.
Vendors offering information on hardware and lumber supplies will also be in attendance for anyone interested in learning more about the available home renovation options.
TLC will also offer a bag sale with 20 percent off your entire purchase. Anything that fits inside a provided bag (one per customer), from light bulbs to gardening and barbecue tools, will be included. Paint will also be discounted. Restrictions apply for pneumatic and power tools.
Food and beverages such as hot dogs and “low tide” water will also be available throughout the event. Shore Good Donuts will provide its special Sandy doughnuts topped with butternut crunch “debris.” TLC will also provide a special Sandytini, a “mocktail” made with cranberry juice, which represents New Jersey, and pineapple juice, which symbolizes Sandy during its tropical storm phase.
The event is free and open to the public. For more information, call 609-494-2111.

–Kelley Anne Essinger


This article was published in The SandPaper.

Tuesday, October 22, 2013

LBIF to host Giants vs. Eagles tailgating party

Watch the area’s local rivals, the New York Giants and the Philadelphia Eagles, battle it out on the big screen at the Long Beach Island Foundation of the Arts and Sciences on Sunday, Oct. 27. The nonprofit organization will host a tailgating party on the Foundation’s premises, at 120 Long Beach Blvd. in Loveladies, from 12:30 to 4:30 p.m. Kickoff is at 1 p.m.
Photo via YouTube
The LBIF will host a tailgating party for the
Giants vs. Eagles game on Sunday, Oct. 27.
“The community is very divided as to whether they like the Eagles or the Giants, so we thought it would be a fun way to get everybody together. Who doesn’t like a football party?” said Amy Carreno, the Foundation’s public programs coordinator.
Catered barbecue food such as hamburgers, hot dogs, sausage and peppers, and green and blue cupcakes will be available for purchase. ReClam the Bay will provide drunken clams, steamed and soaked in beer broth. Country Kettle Chowda will also provide its award-winning Manhattan and New England clam chowders. A beer garden provided by New Jersey brewery Flying Fish will be open inside the gallery.
“It’s a way to say, ‘Hey, we’re here; we are a part of the community. We are throwing this fun party for everybody to get together,’” said Carreno. “We want everybody to know about the Foundation because I don’t think enough people are aware of what we have, or what we offer. This is just a fun, relaxed way to spend a day, rather than going to a bar. Here you’re going to be outside with games. There’s something here for everybody. Wear your team colors,” she added.
Outside games will include ring toss and corn hole, among others.
The event is free and open to the public. A $5 donation is suggested to help keep the LBIF’s year-round programs available. For more information, visit lbifoundation.org or call 609-494-1241.

–Kelley Anne Essinger


This article was published in The SandPaper.

Thursday, October 17, 2013

Crime victim re-enters home she was held hostage in

In a recent episode of “Surviving Evil,” an Investigation Discovery TV series that features the emotional stories of victims who fought back against their attackers, Debra Puglisi Sharp of Delaware recounts a dramatic story that many would hope is just a fictional tale. But according to her sister, Darlene Sillitoe of Manahawkin, the tragic inci dent was very real.
Photo via ID
Investigation Discovery reenacts Sharp's
abduction during an episode of 'Surviving Evil.' 
In April 1998 Sharp was abducted, raped and held in captivity for 101 hours. She had just entered her home after spending the afternoon planting roses in her front yard when she was knocked to the floor by a male intruder who stuffed her in the trunk of his car and drove her to his home one town over, where he kept her for five agonizing days.
“It’s every woman’s worst nightmare. I was dealing with a monster,” Sharp said in a telephone interview Monday, Oct. 14.
Sharp’s story had been shared before. She bared all in the 2003 novel Shattered: Reclaiming a Life Torn Apart by Violence, which she co-authored with former Ladies Home Journal reporter and rape victim Marjorie Preston. She even relived the story in the A&E Biography series “I Survived,” as well as in Discovery Health’s “Worst Thing That Ever Happened to Me.”
Photo via ID
Sharp walks out of her attacker's former home
after an interview with Investigation Discovery.
But the ID documentary made retelling the graphic affair a more tangible experience than the others. During the interview for the show last year, Sharp walked producers through the home, now under new ownership, where she was tortured by her captor.
“Investigation Discovery asked me what would help me as far as the taping, and I said, ‘I really want to go back to the house where I was held hostage.’ It was very empowering for me to go back to the house. It’s part of my healing,” Sharp said.
Though many people were uncomfortable with the idea, including some of Sharp’s relatives, Sharp said she did indeed find the experience to be very therapeutic. What would have once evoked a post-traumatic episode, such as the sight of a roll of duct tape, only made her question the trigger – a sure sign of recovery, she explained.
Sillitoe accompanied Sharp during the interview for moral support.
Sharp “obviously changed her life tremendously after (the crime),” Sillitoe said. “Part of her story is that after this happened she was insistent on reclaiming her life again. She lived in her house again; she worked her job again; she was out in the world again; she remarried.”
Sharp was remarried to Bill Sharp in Ship Bottom, her father’s former hometown, and the two currently live in Lewes, Del. Her brother is retired Stafford Township police Sgt. Robert Engel.
Minutes prior to her abduction, Sharp’s first husband, Nino Puglisi, was shot and killed in the couple’s home by the same attacker. Sharp, who was missing when police found her husband dead, was even considered a suspect in the murder. The couple was just a few days shy of celebrating their 25th wedding anniversary.
“We were telling police, ‘No, you don’t understand. My sister doesn’t have guile. She doesn’t have a mean bone in her body. There is no way she’s behind this; you are wasting your time,’” Sillitoe remembered.
Bound and gagged “like a piece of meat, like a slaughtered animal,” on the floor of her attacker’s home, Sharp learned of her husband’s homicide the day after she was abducted via a radio announcement. Her captor told her, “I had to kill him.”
After grieving for her husband and thinking she might never again see her twin children, Melissa and Michael, who were 19 and away at college at the time, Sharp switched into survival mode. She befriended her attacker who, before heading to work at a local car plant, left her tied up on the bed the night she was rescued. Freeing herself from the hogtie, she made her way to a phone and called 911. Her attacker was arrested at work that same night and was subsequently sentenced to life in prison.
Sharp now shares her story at victims’ rights conferences as an inspirational speaker. She recently spoke in her hometown at Burlington County College.
“Every time I speak, I always have people approach me who have been victimized themselves. It’s rewarding for me because I’m able to inspire them to get the help they need,” said Sharp. “The people in the audience that take care of victims will come up and thank me for sharing my story because, by giving a victim’s perspective, it helps them to take better care of victims. That’s rewarding to me, knowing that I have given them the understanding of how a victim feels,” she added.
Sharp’s novel Shattered is studied in college criminology courses across the nation. Sillitoe plans to help her sister write a sequel to the novel. The two said they will begin working on the project within the next couple of months.
Anyone interested in watching the ID episode featuring Sharp can download the segment, “Bound and Determined,” on Amazon for $1.99.

–Kelley Anne Essinger


This article was published in The SandPaper.

Tuesday, October 15, 2013

Bee Healthier food store and juice bar opens on LBI

Bee Healthier, a new grocery store, deli and florist shop, has taken over the former Tramontano Produce building, located at 604 North Central Ave. in Ship Bottom. The store offers healthy food options, including fresh produce hand-picked every other day from an 800-acre farm in New Egypt; fresh bagels delivered daily from Bagels and Beyond; homemade soups and salads; and Boar’s Head meat, which store owner Patricia Barry of Manahawkin said is all natural and mostly gluten free.
Photo by Ryan Morrill
Bee Healthier recently opened inside the former
Tramontano Produce building 
in Ship Bottom.
What’s more, customers will even find a juice bar at the store, with drinks and smoothies made on the spot.
Having just opened the store in July, Barry said she had always wanted to open a juice bar in the local area after she read The Bruess Cancer Cure three years ago, which suggests cancer patients consume a rigid diet of fruits, vegetables and herbs in liquid form. She decided to try the diet with her husband when he was suffering from stage IV colon cancer at the time. Although he passed away a few years ago, Barry continued the juicing diet after realizing how much better it made her feel.
Photo by Ryan Morrill
Store owner Patricia Barry (far right) said she
has always wanted to run a local juice bar.
“The juicing, on a whole, is just so good for you,” she said. “I weighed 226 pounds when I started this diet. It’s been three years, and I’m down to 166. I had diabetes. And for nine months now, my A1C’s have all been low, so they took me off all my diabetes medications. The doctors were so amazed.
“I don’t call it a diet; it’s my way of life.”
Barry swears by juicing and said she is rarely hungry if she drinks all-natural juice made from whole fruits and vegetables for breakfast and lunch.
“When you drink vegetable and fruit juice, the time it takes your body to digest food is decreased. Therefore, the nutrient absorption in your body is sped up,” she said. “Raw fruits and vegetables offer higher levels of minerals and enzymes that the body needs. Vegetables lose large amounts of minerals and nutrients your body needs when they are cooked.
“Enzymes that are found in fruits and vegetables are needed to help encourage digestion. The nutrients that are left undigested cannot be used by the body. Because our diet consists mainly of foods that are hard for our bodies to digest, we need the enzymes to help break down the food so that our body can digest the nutrients.”
“You can increase your ability to fight off disease with phytochemicals that are found in plants,” she continued. “During a typical day, most people do not eat enough whole fruits and vegetables to get enough phytochemicals in their diet, but with juicing you can easily consume more vegetables. Juicing helps the body detoxify itself and allows the body to absorb nutrients. When your body is loaded with toxins, it is hard for the cells to absorb the necessary nutrients from the food you eat. By drinking juice, you can unconsciously help your body overcome illness quickly. Drinking juice with specific fruit and vegetable combinations can actually help improve symptoms from illness,” she explained.
Bee Healthier offers a combination of different fruit and vegetable juices from fruit-only juices such as the “Love Muffin,” which includes apples, pears, pineapples and cinnamon; to vegetable-only juices, such as the “Juice of Life,” which incorporates beets, potatoes, celery, carrots, radishes and lemon essential oil.
Other juices incorporate both fruits and vegetables. “Queens Candy” is made with spinach, kale, pineapples, blueberries, oranges, carrots, and ginger and citrus essential oils. Customers can also customize their own concoction. Juices cost $7.50 for 16 ounces and $8.50 for 20 ounces.
Shots of juice such as wheatgrass with lemon essential oil are also available, as are smoothies that can be made with homemade almond milk. Agave nectar is used instead of sugar, and coconut water can be substituted for regular water.
Barry is hoping to keep the store open year-round. She has included breakfast and lunch specials to help encourage participants to stop in on a regular basis. The store is open Monday through Friday from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m., and on Saturday and Sunday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Staff will attend the seventh annual Fall Harvest Festival at Manahawkin Lake Park on Saturday, Oct. 19, between 11 a.m. and 5 p.m. to help promote their florist business. Paul K. Barry, creative producer, who has nearly 28 years of experience creating flower arrangements for celebrities in New York City and Los Angeles, Calif., will manage floral arrangements for all occasions. Delivery is available for a minimum of $50 plus a $10 delivery fee. For more information, call 609-661-1155.

–Kelley Anne Essinger


This article was published in The SandPaper.

Monday, October 14, 2013

25th anniversary of Chowderfest Weekend on LBI sees near-record breaking attendance

The Beach Haven area was bustling with thousands of people who came out to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Chowderfest weekend at the Taylor Avenue ball field, just days before most traffic signals on Long Beach Island were turned off, signaling what many people believe is the real end of summer and the true beginning of the off-season.
Photo by Ryan Morrill
The Chowderfest Cook-Off on Sunday was
mobbed with hungry participants.
This year’s soup and shopping extravaganza, with Chowderfest on Sunday, preceded by Merchants Mart on Saturday, brought first-time visitors and seasoned guests to the Island, despite the fact that Superstorm Sandy had ravaged the area nearly 11 months ago.
Though the Southern Ocean County Chamber of Commerce, which hosts the event, has not yet received the final attendance number for the festival, officials believe it will be close to record-breaking.
“It definitely feels like this is going to be one of the largest we’ve had. We went full force with this,” said Lori Pepenella, the chamber’s destination marketing and communications director. “We had a lot of different opportunities to get the word out all year. We were promoting in December that we were open, and that was the first thing on the slate right after the storm. People wanted to know, are we going to have it (Chowderfest). We fulfilled every commitment that we had as far as events and marketing campaigns and just moved forward to make it happen. We know how important it is to the area and to our members. From what I’m seeing, we were able to draw a lot of new people for a first-time experience, and they were thrilled with it.”
Pepenella said people traveled from as far as Kentucky, Indiana and even Guyana, Africa to experience Chowderfest firsthand.
Photo by Ryan Morrill
Volunteers help Howard's Restaurant chef owner
Kevin Sparks spoon out cups of its winning
New England clam chowder.
Last Sunday’s 2013 Chowder Cook-Off Classic featured unlimited tastings of New England (white) and Manhattan (red) chowder. When all the tasters’ votes were tallied, the two grand champions were announced: Howard’s Restaurant for New England chowder and Stefano’s Restaurant for Manhattan.
This year’s installment included a number of new participants, including The Arlington and Stockton Seaview Hotel and Golf Club on the white side and Shore Fire Grille and M&M Seafood Shack on the red side.
Guy and Patti Ann Mazzeo, owners of M&M Seafood Shack, said they decided to enter the Chowderfest competition to promote their homemade Manhattan clam chowder recipe as well as their new business, which they started after Guy’s mother decided not to reopen the M&M Steam Bar in Beach Haven Terrace due to Sandy damage. The couple chose to use a similar name for the local wholesale, retail fish market and takeout restaurant, but have not yet purchased a building for the business.
“We make a good soup, and the response today has been promising. People seem to like it,” said Patti Ann. “It’s hard to be recognized after summer without a business, so Chowderfest is the perfect place to do this.”
Photo by Ryan Morrill
Chamber members Dan Taylor and Ellen Dondero
Meyer remember the late Frank Panzone, former
Chowderfest chairman, by retiring his Jersey.
The owners rented space at the First United Methodist Church of Beach Haven Terrace to prepare approximately 220 gallons of chowder for the cook-off. They shucked 2,500 fresh clams and pulled fresh herbs from their home garden to create the recipe. Meltdown Ice Cream and The Chicken or the Egg allowed the couple to use their refrigeration to store the soup prior to the festival.
“You can’t just make the soup at home. It needs to be made in a kitchen authorized by the health department. The other local business owners have been nothing but encouraging,” said Patti Ann.
J.B. Maschal, whose father started Chowderfest on the Island in 1989, was competing on the other side of the stage for the best New England clam chowder on behalf of Country Kettle Chowda. Though the restaurant had won the competition many times for its 1960s family recipe, Maschal said it had been a long time since the last victory and was hoping to take home the grand prize this year.
Country Kettle took third runner-up in the New England clam chowder competition and took home an award for its decked-out booth complete with a ship and other nautical flair, for the best shore motif.
The VIP best booth winner awards also went out to Buckalew’s for most enthusiastic, whose booth featured clamming baymen, and Lefty’s Tavern for most creative, whose booth sported a football game played by a group of clams. The Black Whale Bar and Fish House, whose booth featured a “Souper” bowl of chowder, took home the award for best interpretation of the Chowderfest theme. The Super Bowl theme was chosen to celebrate the location of the 2014 Super Bowl in New Jersey.
Shore Fire Grille, which brought LED TVs for people to watch the Eagles-Giants game while sampling their spicy chowder, took home the rookie of the year award and placed third runner-up in the Manhattan clam chowder competition.
Lefty’s Tavern took home critics’ choice and first runner-up for the red chowder competition. Second runner-up went to Black Whale.
Critics’ choice for the New England chowder was awarded to Phillips Seafood. Buckalew’s took first runner-up, and the Chicken or the Egg took second runner-up.
The awards were given out by Beach Haven Mayor Robert Keeler and 9th District Assemblywoman DiAnne C. Gove.
Before the awards ceremony, former president of the chamber, Frank Panzone, who chaired the Chowderfest committee for the past 24 years before passing away from cancer last year, was recognized with a special dedication. The chamber retired Panzone’s Chowderfest Jersey, which will be framed and hung on stage at every Chowderfest.
“Just to have that little moment of dedication in the park, I think, was very important for everyone,” said Pepenella. “To head a committee is a lot of responsibility, a lot of details, and he (Frank) grew this event with the help of the volunteers to be what it is today.”
According to Pepenella, more than 400 volunteers helped out during this year’s festival.
“We thank our members and the volunteers and the restaurants because it made a huge impact on the area. Businesses did very well all around Southern Ocean County. It was definitely a high-traffic weekend, and we’re proud of that,” she said.
Planning for next year’s Chowderfest, which will also honor the chamber's 100th anniversary, will begin within the next couple of weeks after cleanup from this year’s event is completed.

–Kelley Anne Essinger


This article was published in The SandPaper.

Thursday, October 10, 2013

Special edition of "Surviving Sandy" books to benefit Superstorm Sandy recovery group

Down The Shore Publishing is producing a special edition of Surviving Sandy: Long Beach Island and the Greatest Storm of the Jersey Shore, which hit stores last weekend. A hand-bound, leather-cased, numbered edition with silk ribbon, the book will be sold to benefit a Sandy recovery group.
“We’re producing 100 numbered copies of this edition, which will sell for $100 each, and all the revenue above the cost will go to START,” said Ray Fisk, owner and publisher of Down The Shore Publishing.
Photo via Down the Shore Publishing
Proceeds from the special edition books
will benefit a local Sandy recovery group.
START (Stafford Teachers and Residents Together) is the group founded right after the storm by Stafford Township school district teachers Joe Mangino and Mike Dunlea. Even though their own homes were damaged, they felt compelled to help others in Southern Ocean County.
“They were literally boots on the ground, gathering and coordinating volunteers who did yeoman’s grunt work, gutting homes and truly helping people in need,” said Fisk.
“Ray is a special person and a shining example of why our community is as strong as it is,” Mangino responded. “He is one of my many new ‘Sandy friends,’ a person who, while going through their own recovery and rebuilding struggles, still takes the time to help others. We greatly appreciate what he has done and what he is doing for START. In January, he donated proceeds from his holiday card sales to START, and we were able to turn that into Sheetrock and insulation for a resident.”
Mangino and Dunlea will soon formalize START into a 501(c)(3) charity and will continue their efforts helping local people in need long after the storm recovery is past.
The special edition of the book will be available in a couple of weeks, about the time of the anniversary of the storm. Books can be reserved from Down The Shore Publishing by emailing dtsbooks@comcast.net.
“Although it’s $56 more than the regular hardcover, we’re hoping that individuals and business leaders will step up and purchase copies to support START. They’ll also get a deluxe commemorative edition of this book,” said Fisk. 

–Kelley Anne Essinger


This article was published in The SandPaper.

Saturday, October 5, 2013

Writer with LBI ties authors book about Superstorm Sandy

Those of us who have grown up around Long Beach Island know the 18-mile stretch of land has been ravaged again and again by tumultuous weather long before the Great March Storm of 1962, regarded as one of the 20th century’s 10 worst storms, and beyond the Great December Storm of 1992, which formed record high tides and snowfall across the northeastern United States. Some of us have lived through those storms while others have heard about them from family members and friends or read about them in books. The stories have been recounted in Six Miles at Sea: A Pictorial History of Long Beach Island, written by former Beach Haven historian John Bailey Lloyd, and Great Storms of the Jersey Shore, co-authored by Islanders Margaret Thomas Buchholz and Larry Savadove. For Scott Mazzella, 36, of Matawan, who spent much of his childhood at his family’s second home in Holgate, those accounts were more than just stories.
Photo by Ryan Morrill
Scott Mazzella, 
author of Surviving Sandy, checks
on the progress of his parents’ second home in
Holgate, which was damaged by Superstorm Sandy.
“I grew up reading John Bailey Lloyd’s books. I grew up reading Great Storms of the Jersey Shore. Those were my storm bibles,” Mazzella said. “Those were the tools I used to learn about my two favorite things, history and weather. That became my lesson on storms, and I became intrigued with hurricanes and nor’easters. It was all through those local books.”
Every summer during his youth, Mazzella went to hear Lloyd speak about the 1962 storm. Mazzella later became a journalist and landed a job writing under the leadership of Buchholz for The Beachcomber as well as The SandPaper.
Although he eventually gave up writing for the local papers to pursue a full-time career as a seventh grade history teacher at Jonas Salk Middle School in Old Bridge, Mazzella continued to stay in close contact with the area’s people and happenings.
“I love Long Beach Island. I consider Long Beach Island as much my home as my regular home,” said Mazzella. “If I could say where I grew up, I could just as easily say Holgate because it was just the summers, but it never felt that way. We always came in the winters, too, and on the weekends all the time. I didn’t live here, I didn’t go to school here, but I felt like this was home.”
After the area was devastated nearly a year ago by Superstorm Sandy, the greatest natural disaster in Jersey Shore history, Mazzella combined his passion for history and meteorology with his love for LBI to write a book about the effects of the storm on Southern Ocean County, just as his favorite local authors had done for the area’s prior storms – a feat he considers “a slice of history” and a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that “you have to say yes” to.
His book, Surviving Sandy: Long Beach Island and the Greatest Storm of the Jersey Shore, published by Down the Shore Publishing, hit stores last weekend.
Photo via
Surviving Sandy: Long Beach Island and the
Greatest Storm of the Jersey Shore
 is now
available in books stores on LBI.
“For the first time, without deadlines and details focusing our attention on actually creating a book, I am surprised at the unexpected emotion that hit me in describing the project,” said Ray Fisk, Down the Shore publisher and a Cedar Run resident. “It’s been out on the street barely 48 hours, and I’m hearing about tears and similar emotional responses from others who have picked up these first copies. It’s a factual account, told without exaggeration or flowery prose, and I’m just a little taken aback by the emotions. This book is catharsis.”
A historical narrative that takes readers from the storm’s inception through the destructive blow of its tidal surge on the LBI area, through the recovery and into the aftermath, Surviving Sandy is unlike any other book of its kind. Its cover photo gives readers a close up view of the morning after the storm – a blue Volvo half-buried in sand and debris amid bottomed-out homes along Long Beach Boulevard and rolling ocean waves in Holgate before any rescue personnel had arrived. The photo was captured by local resident Carl Clark who rode out the storm with his wife, Susan, and stepped out the next morning to witness the destruction.
“That’s not a photo from a photographer at a newspaper,” said Mazzella. “That was taken by a couple that stayed through the storm, were rocked by it and came out the next morning to see their neighborhood completely different than it was before, the neighborhood they retired to, the neighborhood they call home full time. We’re seeing what they’re seeing. This is genuine.”
The book’s heartrending photos and unforgettable firsthand accounts, shared by the community from first responders and municipal personnel to residents and local business owners, will evoke a flood of emotions for all who lived through the storm.
“Working with images for this book was a totally different, new experience from any other book we’ve done. It was more confusing and not easy technically,” said Fisk. “Because so many images were very low-resolution cell phone pictures, or images copied many times, it was not easy getting the quality and resolution necessary for publication. Leslee (Ganss, Fisk’s wife) not only designed a remarkable book, but she did a phenomenal, behind-the-scenes job, much to her frustration, of working some magic on the images so that they’d be suitable for print on paper.”
Fisk said that originally he had no plans for publishing a book about Sandy, especially since his office and home on Cedar Run Dock Road had been devastated by the storm.
“I didn’t want to do a book on Sandy. I thought Great Storms of the Jersey Shore would be the end of the storm books,” he said. “I had so much work to do with picking up the pieces for my own house and my business. I didn’t want to take on any new publishing projects this year. But everywhere I went, I would hear the same refrain, ‘When are you guys doing the Sandy book? When are you updating Great Storms of the Jersey Shore? Down the Shore has to do this. You have to have something out this summer.' I did feel sort of an obligation to do it and do it well.
“For all that we had going on as individuals in our lives and our business, it was no different than anyone else,” he said. “Everyone else was affected by the storm and had huge, huge problems to deal with and pieces to pick up and a mess to clean up. Somebody had to tell that story.”
As a meteorology hobbyist, Mazzella had tracked the storm from beginning to end, keeping friends updated on its potential threats via Facebook. When Fisk shared a post about his uncertainty in evacuating his home the Sunday before the storm, Mazzella, whom Fisk knew through The Beachcomber and The SandPaper, offered a simple yet prophetic warning, “This storm is not well understood.”
“That was a haunting sentence,” said Fisk. “It helped persuade me not to stick around for this one.”
Like most people, Fisk and Mazzella did not expect the storm to pan out as predicted.
“We were looking at the Euro model (of the storm), going, ‘Wow, imagine if that happened,’” Mazzella remembered. “That’s what it was, ‘Imagine if that happened,’ not ‘Oh my God, this is going to happen.’ What people didn’t get was this was not Irene.”
For many area residents, the media hype surrounding Hurricane Irene, which wound up causing little damage to the area in August 2011, had cast doubt on Sandy’s impending destruction.
“I didn’t think that kind of scenario would actually happen,” said Mazzella. “I don’t think we’ll see that again in our lifetime. That’s how rare this kind of storm was.”
Mazzella watched the storm transform from a tropical depression to a thousand-mile-wide extratropical storm, a “massive animal” that was “almost apocalyptic for the Jersey Shore.” It was then he knew Sandy was coming.
Residing at home with his family in Matawan, Mazzella was able to view the storm from an objective point of view, he said. Although his parents’ vacation home in Holgate needed to be renovated after it suffered from 2 feet of floodwater damage, he said there was nothing he was required to do in the wake of the storm. That bird’s-eye view, he said, gave him the freedom to research and write a book about the experience.
“I was living in an area that was not affected directly. I was free to do it,” said Mazzella. “I wasn’t picking up pieces. I could look at the pieces everyone else had to pick up.”
For months Mazzella interviewed local residents who experienced Sandy firsthand. With the help of Cedar Bonnet Island resident Steve Warren, former editor at the Press of Atlantic City, Mazzella fashioned those stories into a narrative that speaks for the community.
“All the people featured in the book stand in for everyone,” said Mazzella. “We have people that rode out the storm, we have people that were evacuated, we have people who have seasonal homes that were represented because they’re a big part of the fabric of Long Beach Island as well. Everyone’s threaded together, almost like a plot. It’s real people, and you experience everything they experience through the whole storm. It’s like watching a movie. You’re going to want to know what happened to these people after the storm. It strikes a chord.”
“This is going to be the Sandy book forever and ever,” agreed Jim Mahoney, a Holgate resident who is featured in the book. “I’m humbled and honored (to be a part of it). This is our storm. I read (the book) halfway through and was choked up.”
In between investigating the storm and writing Surviving Sandy, Mazzella continued teaching and, of course, spending time with his wife, Liz, and two children, Ryan and Emily. He even managed to finish a master’s degree and acquire an administrative certification as well.
“Thank God for my wife, for her patience and her strength in keeping the family unit together while I was writing upstairs,” said Mazzella.
Surviving Sandy took six months to complete. Mazzella and Fisk agreed to take on the project over a beer at Buckalew’s in January. Mazzella finished researching and writing the narrative in July.
The book even includes a foreword written by Buchholz and an introduction penned by Savadove.
“I think Scott did a fantastic job. Together with Steve Warren, they put together a fast-paced narrative,” Buchholz said. Surviving Sandy has so much more depth and human interest than the picture books the newspapers up north threw together right after Sandy.”
Furthermore, she said, “I was happy to pass the storm job on to the next generation. Scott worked for me at The Beachcomber about a dozen years ago, and often we’d get off the subject of whatever we were doing and talk storms, hurricanes, northeasters. He was always passionate about the weather. Way back then he said he wished he could write a book about storms. And so he did.”
Surviving Sandy retails for $44 and can be found in most gift shops on LBI. It is also available through Down the Shore’s website as well as at Barnes and Noble’s New Jersey locations.
Mazzella is set to hold a number of upcoming presentations and book signings in the area. The author will be available at Merchant’s Mart during Chowderfest weekend at the Taylor Avenue ball field, located at Ninth St. and Taylor Ave. in Beach Haven, across from Schooner’s Wharf and Bay Village, on Saturday, Oct. 5. He will also be in attendance at the New Jersey Maritime Museum, located at 528 Dock Rd. in Beach Haven, on Sunday, Oct. 6 beginning at 12 p.m. A presentation will be held at the Tuckerton Seaport on Route 9 in Tuckerton on Wednesday, Oct. 9 at 12:30 p.m. for an admittance fee of $2 per person. Advance registration is required for anyone who would like to participate in the lunch, which costs an additional $6. Call 609-296-886 to sign up. The Long Beach Island Foundation of the Arts and Sciences will host a book presentation on Sunday, Nov. 10 at 4 p.m.

–Kelley Anne Essinger


This article was published in The SandPaper.

‘Pamper Yourself,’ support Ocean County’s only domestic violence shelter

Photo via weheartit
Domestice violence can
affect anyone and everyone.
In support of Domestic Violence Awareness Month, the Zonta Club of Southern Ocean County is sponsoring an afternoon of pampering at the Southern Ocean Medical Center’s Family Resource Center, located at the Ocean Club at 700 Route 9 in Manahawkin. “Pamper Yourself” will offer makeovers, massages, reflexology and cooking demonstrations from 1 to 4 p.m. on Sunday, Oct. 6. A professional photographer will even be available to capture those beautiful looks.
Tickets cost $20 per person. Pay at the door, or pre-register and reserve a spot by sending a check to Zonta Club SOC, P.O. Box 2, Tuckerton, N.J. 08087.
The funds will benefit Providence House Domestic Violence Services of Catholic Charities, Ocean County’s only domestic violence shelter. For nearly 30 years, PHDVS has provided free and confidential services to victims of domestic abuse and their children who are seeking a safe haven and healing from violence in their homes.
For more information about the event, call Pat Lathom at 609-384-0745 or Jeanne Ellis at 609-760-4120. For emergency assistance, or to access PHDVS, call the 24-hour hotline at 732-244-8259 or 800-246-8910. 

–Kelley Anne Essinger

This article was published in The SandPaper.