Weather NJ & Friends Rock LBIF

On Saturday evening, August 13, 2016, Weather NJ & Friends raised $3,135 for Long Beach Island Foundation of the Arts and Sciences through a fun eco-friendly night of high-quality fresh and local food, beer, wine and live music. Our entire event team would like to thank all event sponsors, food establishments, attendees, volunteers and key personnel that made this possible.

Food

Kirk Larson, the current captain of the C.B. Keane, and I go way back into the 90s…back into the Southern Regional School District. We were on the golf team together and became great friends over the years. When I told him that we secured LBIF as a venue for a fundraiser, he immediately and selflessly committed to donating a bag of sea scallops “right off the boat.” We’re talking about a 50lb+ bag of the freshest scallops you can possibly get! This immediately set the standard for the event very high and for this reason, along with unanimous planning group agreement, Kirk has been named the honorary platinum sponsor of this event. His scallops absolutely made the dinner and we cannot thank him enough!

Many LBI restaurants rely on Viking Village in Barnegat Light, NJ for fresh seafood. The scallops served for dinner came straight off the Lindsay L. (pictured on the right – image by Ben Wurst) just prior to the event. Did you know that the Lindsay L. was in The Perfect Storm (2000) featuring George Clooney, Mark Wahlberg and John C. Reily? In the movie, the Linsday L. was the boat named “Hannah Boden.” It’s a small world folks but regardless, thanks again to Kirk for making the dinner menu so amazing and for keeping the freshest scallops in many LBI/regional/even national restaurants!

In addition to Kirk’s scallops (cooked Dan’s way), Stefano’s donated mini crab cakes, The Local donated roasted vegetables and cold pasta, and Sweet Melissa donated tasty event-themed desserts. The Manahawkin Shop Rite gave us a discount on organic chicken used in the satay skewers and Sunny Rays gave us an at-cost discount on the Mexican Quinoa Salad. Thank you so much to all local food establishments who helped comprise a slamming dinner menu at Fun(d) the Foundation!

Drinks

Ship Bottom Brewery gave us a discount for half kegs of Shack IPA and Beach Patrol Hefeweizen Ale. Pinelands Brewing Company did the same for sixtels (1/6 kegs) of Pitch Pine Ale and Batsto Brown Ale. Valenzano Family Winery gave us a discount for Cabernet/Merlot and Vidal Blanc red and white wines. It was great to see so many guests enjoying craft local brew and wine! We’re very grateful for such!

Music

Morningside Lane was kind enough to provide a 2 1/2 hour live music set. A huge thanks to the band for making the trip! You’re a great group of people and it was nice to meet you all!

The Venue

After a night of brainstorming event ideas earlier this year, we all basically said, why not LBIF? Then one day Jeff Ruemeli, an LBIF staff member, ceramics instructor and good friend,  told me that the event was approved by the LBIF board and that we had a set date.  This was a real nice surprise! I then had the opportunity to meet several other LBIF staff members including Jeannine Errico, LBIF’s Manager of Programs and Administration, Amy Carreno, Danielle Jonas, James Stanch and several board members. It was a pleasure working with Jeannine throughout the planning process. She made numerous resources available and made us feel right at home. Thank you Jeannine, Jeff, James and the rest of LBIF staff for everything!

The Party

Here are some event photos taken by Greg Molyneux of Greg Molyneux Photography:

Here are some event photos taken by Matt Bokey of Photo by Bokey:

Event Sponsors

The local businesses who generously supported Fun(d) the Foundation deserve the first mention in this article. Without these sponsors, the event and LBIF profit would simply not have been possible. Our entire team is grateful for the established business relationships and that all sponsors were happy with the event turnout. At the gold sponsorship level were:

    

Envision Innovative Solutions, Ellis Family Eye Care, Dr. Thomas Massa DMD & Associates, Van Dyk Group, Long Beach Township PBA #373, and Things Adrift/Echoes of LBI Magazine all supported Fun(d) the Foundation at the silver sponsorship level. Thanks again to all sponsors!

Event Volunteers

My friends really came to my rescue to help turn this event out. There’s no way I could have done any of this without them. We’re all super excited to do this again next year but this is where the real event operations credit is due:

Thank you Jennifer Carr, my beautiful wife, for all digital designs, promotional material, printed media, general decor, help serving food, and everything else you did.

Thank you Jessika Morgan and Kathy Nowicki for the beast work you did in the kitchen. The scallops and chicken were delicious and that was no small task cooking that many in such a short amount of time! Also thank you to Jessika Morgan for the planning assistance and finding backup wine reserves (which we needed).

Thank you Jack Gamble and Kyle Hoffman for keg transportation, general setup and help during the event.

Thank you Dan Molyneux, John Nowicki and Marco Orlean for holding down the beer and wine pouring tables.

Thank you Greg Molyneux for event inspiration, the video commercial idea, event photography and scallop cooking quality control.

Thank you Jeff Ruemeli for helping the band out with sound equipment and checks.

Thank you Elyse Abschutz for scouting out the local wine selection, general event help and help serving food

Thank you Kathy Carr, Giselle Gamble, Deanna Nowicki, and Dan Agin for food preparations and serving. Also thank you Kathy Carr for event sponsorship acquisition and local flyer/poster distribution.

Thank you Jeannine Errico, Danielle Jonas and her boyfriend for helping with ticket processing. That was a mad rush of people!

Thank you Jay Zimmerman for hooking up some much-needed preparation resources just before the event.

Thank you James Stanch for setup, breakdown and equipment help.

Thank you Justin Auciello of Jersey Shore Hurricane News and Dan Skeldon of the The Press of Atlantic City for aggregating and writing about Fun(d) the Foundation prior to the event.

Thank you Dani Corso of Volatile Media Management for excellent digital marketing advice.

Wrap-up

Thanks again to everyone that made this night a success. It was our absolute honor to support LBIF in such a fun way. If you missed it this year, we hope to see you next summer.  As always, party on and be safe! JC