Union_Beach is_full_of_Amazing_People

 The Borough is full of amazing people. A couple days after the storm owner of Jacabobs's Bay, which was down by the water and completely destroyed after the storm, due to the storm, and a pastor from a neighboring church, he's not from Union Beach but it's a nearby church, opened a food pantry in our Borough Hall area. 

We are at Union Beach Borough Hall in Union Beach New Jersey which has become a disaster relief for the hurricane victims of Sandy. FEMA is here, SBA, AmeriCorps, and then disaster relief from churches and organizations. The day after the storm she started a relief fund. 

I felt the only thing to do was to be here and to figure out how to, how to help. The Borough was gracious enough to allow us to be here. I mean it is a donation volunteer center; everybody here is volunteers. Everything that we get is on a donation level. So it's, we just try to give a little bit to everybody. The reason 

I am here since the beginning volunteering, water come all around my house, first time in 100 years, but my dad must have built it well because I survived. I have a home to go home to so I'm here volunteering. Gets me emotional 'cause of the hundreds of neighbors that lost everything and, you know, come in here crying n' get me crying n' that's the emotional part of it all. But when I arrived we had all kinds of shelves set up with food, everyday somebody would volunteer something. They'd come in with blankets gloves, hats, no matter, every day something different come in we, never knew what was coming in. 

At our church they talked about helping the people, the houses that are destroyed. So we came to just help the people. We brought a bunch of tissue papers. I think it's a good idea for, to help people because what if I had no house and our house was destroyed. I feel bad for the people whose houses are destroyed. That's why I wanted to help. 

The food has been from local restaurants, local, just everybody. The food has been plentiful and delicious, so that's been a good thing. 

One of my employees who's been working for me for me for the last 20 some-odd years, lives in Union Beach, and he lost everything. And I came here and  I saw what was going on here and I just knew we had to do something. So every Saturday we've been coming down and producing a hot meal from 11 to 1 for the volunteers and people that just need it. I mean we have meals to go that they come in and just take a hot meal home with them. 

The majority of the people are just so grateful. They're very grateful for whatever you can give them. They're just so thankful and uh, sometimes they'll cry, they'll really get to you and you almost break down which I have several times. But they're just grateful for whatever you can give them. The littlest thing can mean so much to them whether its food, clothing. It just means a lot to them. 

Right now we are 2 1/2 months into this relief effort here in Union Beach, and our greatest need at this time is building supplies, which includes sheet rock, two-by-fours, insulation, windows, hot water heaters, everything that you need to rebuild a house. If we had a thousand families adopt a thousand families in Union Beach, then we could get everybody back on track. And so that's really what we need. 

It means so much. It's like I can't put it down. I have to be here every day. 

This is a family-friendly place. The people just love each other here and they help each other out, and if we can get that community back. That's what I'd like to see.