Family Day goal being realized
Held noon to 5 p.m. Saturday w/ memorial paddle out at 4:30 p.m.
The 10th Annual Family Day is scheduled for noon to 5 p.m. Saturday along Asbury Park’s Eighth Avenue beach.
Behind the scenes of a day that features free surf lessons, food, music, and games, is a dream realized.
“Over the past 10 years it has become an example of a community coming together,” said Councilman Joe Woerner, who can remember when surfing was illegal along Asbury Park’s shores.
“The Surfrider Foundation had a lot to do with lobbying for a surfing beach here,” said Woerner, a former regional chair of the nonprofit.
That’s when small surfing clinics began. What started with lessons at the Boys & Girls Club pool has grown into weekly surfing clinics on the beach, he said.
Woerner credits local restauranteur Marilyn Schlossbach for dedicating the space, time and resources to offer free surfing lessons to not only the Boys & Girls Club members but also to children from the Westside Community Center.
“She took it to the next level,” he said.
While the first few Family Day at the beach events were corporate sponsored, it has become a home-grown, local Asbury Park event, Woerner said.
Sponsors today include the Surfrider Foundation Jersey Shore Chapter, the municipality, Libby’s, Lightly Salted, the Asbury Park Education Association, the local Boys & Girls Club, as well as Chat n Nibble, Toast, Frank’s Deli, Crust and Crumble, Pop’s Garage and Dean’s.
“The first year I think we had about a dozen kids then it slowly started to build,” Woerner said. “Today we have anywhere from 100 to 200 kids.”
The event is free of charge for all Neptune and Asbury Park kids and free transportation will be offered at 11:30am from the Boys & Girls Club, the Mercy Center Parking Lot and the West Side Community Center.
“People from all over town come down to enjoy a day at the beach, which was the goal originally,” Woerner said. “We wanted families from across the city to not only enjoy the beach, but become aware and educated about the resources the city has to offer. Ten years ago there weren’t that many Asbury Park families using the beach. This is kind of a testament to how we’ve grown.”
The day is dedicated to its earliest volunteers and organizers Paul Shelly and Regan Quail and will end with a Memorial Paddle Out near 4:30 p.m., Woerner said.
Registration begins at 11:30 a.m. The rain date is July 19.
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