By Elizabeth Wulfhorst
From left, Zack Rosenburg, co-founder and CEO of St. Bernard Project, with Chris Wood, Ilene Winters and Pete Forlenza of Sea Bright Rising.
SEA BRIGHT – Next year at this time will mark a decade since the Two River area and surrounding region were hit by the largest Atlantic hurricane on record. When Hurricane Sandy made landfall in New Jersey Oct. 29, 2012, it had already caused death and destruction in the Caribbean and along the eastern United States. What became known as Super Storm Sandy destroyed homes, left much of the area without power for days and caused billions of dollars in damage. But help also arrived seemly as quickly and as forcefully as the storm.
One of the organizations that provided much needed assistance in Sandy’s aftermath – and for the last nine years – was the St. Bernard Project (SBP), a group formed after Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans which focuses on disaster relief and recovery. In partnership with Sea Bright Rising, a nonprofit that spent four years helping families and businesses of the small oceanfront community recover, SBP was able to rebuild 241 homes in New Jersey. But now SBP is calling its job finished. “Almost nine years to the day, the St. Bernard Project came back to Sea Bright to sunset their New Jersey operations,” said Ilene Winters, one of the founders of Sea Bright Rising. Representatives of both organizations gathered at Woody’s Ocean Grille Oct. 21 to reflect on the experience with donors, partners and some of the families who were able to return to homes repaired by the organizations.
While operating, Sea Bright Rising, which disbanded in 2016, raised and distributed more than $1.6 million in cash donations, according to organizers, with that money going directly to borough residents, businesses and the municipality itself, as the community worked to rebuild after the storm destroyed and damaged much of the area. The group helped 300 displaced families with rental assistance, moving and storage expenses, obtaining new furniture and other needed home items and helped 20 local businesses with their rebuilding and reopening efforts. At the event, SBP honored Winters and the other co-founders of Sea Bright Rising, Pete Forlenza and Chris Wood. SBP also recognized Farmers Insurance for its support of Super Storm Sandy recovery, as both a philanthropic and volunteer partner; Farmers directly provided more than 600 volunteers to help more than 50 families return home.
Also on hand were donors and supporters “as well as people that aided in making Sea Bright Rising/ St. Bernard Project success possible, such as Declan O’Scanlon and Grace Hanlon,” said Winters. “Dina Long was the mayor of Sea Bright during and post-Super Storm Sandy and nothing would have gotten done without her leadership.” SBP, a social impact organization focused on disaster resilience and recovery, solves the challenges facing at-risk communities by bringing the rigor of business and innovation to drive social impact, create resilient communities, and streamline recovery. To shrink the time between disaster and recovery, SBP takes a holistic approach to effect transformational change in the disaster recovery system and restore opportunity and security for people and communities. Since its founding in 2006 in St. Bernard Parish, Louisiana, following the devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina, SBP has rebuilt homes for more than 2,800 families with the help of 150,000 volunteers in 14 communities across the U.S. and in the Bahamas.
The article originally appeared in the November 4 – 10, 2021 print edition of The Two River Times.
