HOLMDEL – Super Storm Sandy did not pick and choose its victims when it devastated the Jersey Shore last fall, nor did it play any favorites. Marc Roberge, lead singer for the rock group O.A.R., knows this as well as anyone. The family home in Margate where he had spent many summers during his childhood was badly damaged.
Roberge and O.A.R. will headline The Concert to Save the Jersey Shore on Sunday, Aug. 3, at the PNC Bank Arts Center. The benefit concert will include Andrew McMahon (formerly of Jack’s Mannequin and Something Corporate) and Allen Stone.
“Our band grew up enjoying beaches up and down the Eastern seaboard, including the Jersey Shore,” says O.A.R.’s bassist Benj Gershman. “So when Sandy hit, we all felt it. The Concert to Save the Jersey Shore is our way of contributing to the process of rebuilding.”
The event will raise funds and awareness for the Foundation to Save the Jersey Shore, a grassroots organization with a reputation for cutting through red tape and helping victims of Sandy in the Garden State. In the six months following Sandy, Save the Jersey Shore volunteers have helped to clean up more than 1,000 homes, delivered truckloads of building supplies, appliances and furniture, and distributed checks and gift cards to families on the edge.
“Pulling together a benefit concert starts with a great band, of course, but it takes so much more,” says Save the Jersey Shore co‐founder Warren Diamond. “We have had a tremendous response from a wide range of donors and sponsors, including the presenting sponsor, CVS Caremark, as well as Amboy Bank, Investors Bank, Red Bull, Jersey Mike’s, American Eagle Outfitters, Maser Consulting, K. Hovnanian, News 12, American Self Storage, Buy Rite Liquor, Comcast, Domino Sugar, Modell’s, Saint Barnabas Health Care System, Sherwin Williams, Natural Pump, Sun Capital Partners, Verdi Fine Jewelry, Monmouth Park Charity Fund – and generous assistance from Stronger than the Storm in an incredibly compressed timeframe.”
Tickets start at $25 and are available through Ticketmaster. Net proceeds from the concert will go to The Foundation to Save the Jersey Shore. The Taste of the Jersey Shore festival will precede the concert in the PNC parking lot. It will feature classic boardwalk food vendors, special performances by The Benjamins, After the Reign and the New Jersey AllStars.
