Spring Cleaning AP beach style

Asbury Park

Spring Cleaning AP beach style

Residents volunteer to beautify city owned beach property

By Michelle Gladden

A group of city volunteers work each year to beautify the beach and boardwalk amenities to ready for the summer season.

Think spring cleaning AP beach style.

What began in 2012 with a close to 40 volunteer crew working to refurbish and recolor city-owned booths, receptacles, and lifeguard benches, continues annually with a bit of touch up paint to freshen things up.

Their mission was to bring the city owned property into harmony with the natural boards and the accent colors at Convention hall, volunteer Jana Manning said. The need to quiet the jarring elements while making a connection to the city’s iconic architecture was crafted in a that needed to make sense and be pleasing to the eye. Now, great art at the casino and the boardwalk concessions are the elements that pop against a quieter view toward the ocean, Manning said.

Through the year’s they have recolored the beach badge booths, added the big red cross and AP letters to the lifeguard benches [shown above right] and refurbished the beach lockers.

For this group, it’s about taking pride in a community that hosts thousands of visitors during the summer months.

“When we walk down the boardwalk and see the fresh paint, we take pride in that,” said five-year resident John Fredricksen. “Each year a group of people come out to help us and we spend the day getting a little sunburned but it’s about taking pride in our community.”

This year the focus landed on the beach ticket booths, with colors used to compliment Convention Hall’s magenta, sea Foam, yellow, and brick accents.

“We only spent about five hours this year because everything was in pretty good shape,” Fredricksen said. “Some years we spend a couple days but really depends on how the winter weather has beat things up.”

Below are some photos from past year’s work: