Surfers’ Environmental Alliance (SEA) is a nationally recognized 501(c)3 committed to the preservation and protection of the environmental and cultural elements that are inherent to the sport of surfing. SEA’s goals are achieved through grassroots efforts, community involvement, education and humanitarian efforts. SEA engages in projects that strive to conserve the quality of our marine environment, preserve or enhance surf breaks, protect beach access rights, and safeguard the coastal surf zone from unnecessary development.
Due to the events that happened from the destructive force of Hurricane Sandy, SEA had directed its efforts on assisting individuals and communities who have been directly impacted by the Hurricane Sandy. SEA had focused on coastal towns in New Jersey and utilizing their network to efficiently and effectively get help to people who needed it the most. SEA had been coordinating with town officials, borough councils, mayors, town administrators, state politicians, and federal politicians. The relationships that they have established and strengthened over many years had greatly benefitted their effectiveness in getting assistance to where it was needed most. All of their New Jersey resident board of directors and administrative manager live in coastal communities where devastation was witnessed firsthand.
SEA implemented their relief efforts immediately following the storm in the following ways. SEA teamed up with Project Rebuild Recover in Red Bank. In conjunction with Rebuild Recover, SEA helped organize supply drop-off stations in Red Bank and Brick. The supplies were delivered to areas in need and were item specific to family and community needs. The collaboration of efforts also included successful delivery of the supplies along with organized volunteer crews which assisted people in need in a variety of ways such as cleanup, demolition, and access entry into obstructed homes.
SEA’s board members and administrative manager organized hundreds of volunteers to assist in the efforts to get shore town communities back on their feet. But more importantly, they all committed a significant amount of time (in some cases, hundreds of hours) volunteering in some of the harder hit neighborhoods in towns such as Long Branch, Oceanport, Brielle, Manasquan, Atlantic City, Monmouth Beach, and to New Jersey’s beloved massively devastated gateway to the Jersey Shore, Sea Bright.
SEA’s efforts in Sea Bright have included organizing and deploying the large amounts of volunteers that have come from all over the country.
In addition to SEA’s organizational and physical volunteer efforts, SEA also purchased hundreds of Visa Gift cards and Home Depot Gift Cards in small denominations that were distributed throughout these devastated neighborhoods to individuals in need. SEA has also provided supplies to communities when they were needed in real time. For example, if a mayor asked for trash bags, mops, or sledge hammers, SEA endeavored to make sure the community had those supplies within a couple of hours. Their ability to respond nimbly and quickly has resulted in a smoother and more successful clean-up effort.
Due to SEA’s extensive knowledge in the coastal communities, they have been extremely effective in getting aid to some of the hardest hit communities and to the people in these communities who need it the most.
