Kat Crowe, Class of 2016 

I remember before Hurricane Sandy swept the east coast, it was such a joke to everyone. Chris Christie came to each town, exclaiming “all the beach towns must evacuate!”  Just the year previous, New Jersey experienced Hurricane Irene, Christie repeated the same words as before, the media told everyone to leave, but nothing serious happened except some minor flooding after the hurricane came. Everyone made such a big deal about it, but nothing serious occurred. But, Hurricane Sandy was a completely different situation.

I am from Keansburg, New Jersey, which is located on the Shore of Monmouth County; a beach and amusement park along the shoreline facing New York City. Hurricane Sandy’s winds broke the flood gates at Raritan Bay and caused the whole bay to flood into my town. Up to nine feet of water swept through the amusement park and the proceeding streets.

My friends all over town found refrigerators, ski ball machines, boats, and cars that they did not own, on their streets and front lawns. Sandy had not only completely wrecked my town’s main source of revenue, but it displaced two thousand families out of eleven thousand. Keansburg is not an affluent district; the average income for families is about forty-four thousand dollars a year. Knowing that my town would need more help than ever, I decided to start a fundraiser where all the proceeds would go to the re-establishment of those who lost their homes.

My fundraiser started off with two-hundred bracelets that stated “Jersey Strong” on them. Each bracelet cost two dollars each and within the first forty-eight hours of me selling them, I made six-hundred dollars with only one-hundred bracelets sold. I made a PayPal account so anyone could buy the bracelets online or just donate. I have sent bracelets to people in South Carolina, Florida, Maine, Missouri, Oregon, California, and Arizona. The news of these bracelets has spread across the country. So far, I have sold five-hundred bracelets and have made sixteen hundred dollars in profit. I have four hundred more bracelets coming to me and I will be continuing my fundraiser through Fun Without Drinking and the Keansburg School District.

If you would still like to buy a bracelet, you can easily contact me through Facebook at Kat Crowe or look up “Keansburg Jersey Strong Fundraiser,” which is my open event that anyone can join! I never believed that my fundraiser would be so successful.  Based on the generous donations I have received, I have a lot of faith in my fellow Ithaca College Students, friends and family back home, and the general public.