Roller Girls Recover in Championship Style @NJShorePatch

There’s a saying in the entertainment business that “the show must go on,” but it’s not always true. For the Jersey Shore Roller Girls, the region’s all-female flat-track roller derby league, the decision whether or not to cancel… Read More

Managing the ‘Disaster After the Disaster’ @NJShorePatch

“You’ve probably been asked by out-of-state friends where to send Hurricane Sandy donations and what kind? It’s a daunting task to advise people when you’re in the midst of a crisis, but as the Associated Press reported, unwanted donations… Read More

Week One With Hurricane Sandy @NJShorePatch

“It’s been a week since Hurricane Sandy hit and like many others, we still have no electricity at my house off Mantoloking Road. Our neighborhood is humming with the sound of generators, but I’ve been worried about the… Read More

An Ode to the Jersey Shore @NJShorePatch

The most beautiful place I’ve ever been is the top of a mountain in the Austrian Alps. It was Easter Sunday 2001 after a rain storm. A group of us were in Austria for 18 days doing construction… Read More

A Quarter Century of Jersey Shore HIV/AIDS Response @NJShorePatch

I well remember when the thought that I could have AIDS first occurred to me. It was 1986 and I was newly married. I had gotten pregnant by an East African man two years earlier and my husband had… Read More

Lifelong Ocean Grove Resident Takes Helm of Camp Meeting Association @NJShorePatch

Dr. Dale C. Whilden succeeds Scott Rasmussen (who ended his six-year term in mid-October) as president of the Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association. Whilden is a life-long Ocean Grove resident. He has served as an OGCMA Trustee since 1983 and… Read More

Thoughts on Getting Through Thanksgiving After Suicide @NJShorePatch @HuffPost

How gratitude, a change of scenery and sharing stories have helped me face the Thanksgiving holiday after my son’s suicide. My son Gabriel was a Thanksgiving baby. His birthday didn’t fall on the actual holiday until his second… Read More

9/11 Lessons in Civil Religion @NJShorePatch

Inter-faith messages remind Monmouth County residents who they are. In Jean-Jacque Rousseau’s model of civil religion, the state is unified and strengthened by public displays of faith that refer to deity, point to the afterlife, draw attention to the… Read More

Jersey Shore Faithful to Commemorate 9/11 Anniversary @NJShorePatch

Sacred remembrances dominate the weekend calendar. Mayor Michael Bloomberg may have excluded clergy from the 9/11 10th anniversary ceremony at the memorial site in New York City, but there are plenty of opportunities here at the Jersey Shore for sacred remembrances. Here are… Read More

Listening to 9/11 Stories at @NJShorePatch

Two women recall their close encounters with those devastated by the 9/11/01 terrorist attacks. Mary Mick Davis The first time I saw Mary Davis in the spring of 2002, she was wearing a hard hat and overseeing a… Read More

Cross-Country Bike Ride to End in Toms River Brings Light to Brain Injury @NJShorePatch

Doug Markgraf’s cross country fundraising and awareness bike ride will end in Toms River August 21. The finish line is in sight for Doug Markgraf, a traumatic brain injury (TBI) survivor who is due arrive in Toms River… Read More

Who’s at Fault in the Debt Ceiling Debate @NJShorePatch

Former New Jersey Secretary of State DeForest Soaries says the vitriolic debate is a reflection of a new, negative era of Republican leadership. “Compared to the Tea Party, Gov. Whitman was a Democrat,” said the Rev. Dr. DeForest… Read More