Dina Long among other Two River area speakers at TEDxNavesink
By Joseph Sapia
Ten months into becoming mayor of Sea Bright, Dina Long had to confront the reality of Super Storm Sandy hammering her barrier beach town of less than 2 square miles.
It was October 2012 and, Long recalled, “Everything familiar about Sea Bright, gone in one night. The entire landscape was unrecognizable.”
Two days after the storm hit, Long stood on the oceanfront, thinking. Evacuated residents were trying to get back into town, but it was on lockdown. Long’s own house was considered a total loss.
“I was scared, which is why I was on the beach, having my pull-it-together moment,” said Long, addressing TEDxNavesink, a day of inspirational talks to motivate action, held Saturday, April 9, at Monmouth University, West Long Branch. Her talk was “What Super Storm Sandy Taught Me About Leadership.”
Long had found part of the ravaged sign of Donovan’s Reef tavern – the “DO” part of the sign. She took that piece of sign when she addressed Sea Bright residents gathered at the football stadium of Rumson-Fair Haven High School.
“When I held up that sign, some people clapped,” said Long, noting the change in the vibe among those affected by Sandy. “Some hugged, some cried. Right there, at a football stadium, we came together.
“I’m here to say anyone can be a leader in any circumstance,” she said. “Don’t wait for a circumstance. How about you choose?”
Long said individuals came together and formed a more resilient future.
“It’s the lesson from Sandy,” Long said. “Your community means you.”
Long was one of about three dozen speakers or entertainers – a handful from the Two River area – who spoke at TEDxNavesink, attended by an estimated 600 to 700.
Another was Eileen Huang, 16, a Holmdel resident who, last year, was a winner in the National Student Poets Program. She is one of five National Student Poets – her Northeast Region being New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine.
In its fourth year, the National Student Poets Program is bestowed by the President’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities, Institute of Museum and Library Services and Alliance for Young Artists and Writers, whittling 20,000 high school poets to the five honored.
Eileen said the poet in her existed before the award and exists now.
For Eileen, poetry is like a snapshot of something, which is, then, focused upon as if under a microscope.
“No matter what these experiences were, poetry was a way to make my thoughts tangible,” Eileen said.
Looking back on her young life as a writer, Eileen said she wrote a short story in sixth grade. Now, as a sophomore at the Monmouth County Vocational School District’s High Technology High School on the campus of Brookdale Community College in Lincroft, “I like to write poetry mostly.”
In her talk, she said her Chinese immigrant parents, both engineers, were not typical “Asian tiger” parents, directing her toward STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering or Mathematics) studies. They, according to Eileen, support her writing and artistic side.
After the talk, her first as a National Student Poet, Eileen said, “it went pretty well.”
“I thought I was able to get my point across and I had a lot of fun doing it,” Eileen said.
Her main point, she said, was, “Don’t let your potential be defined by external pressure from your environment and internal pressure from your own insecurities.”
“I was pretty nervous, but I got on stage, I calmed down,” she said.
TED programs (Ted stands for Technology, Entertainment and Design) started in the 1980s. Now, TEDx programs are locally-run offshoots.
