Operation
Beachhead celebrated the last scheduled event of the summer on Saturday, August
27 2016 with the largest group of volunteers and participants. We welcomed members from both the Veterans Lyons
Campus in New Jersey and members from Heart to Heart.
We met the Heart to Heart
group for the first time at the Wildwood Event on August 13. They had such a
fun day at that event and we were very happy they were able to join us again to
successfully close out the summer. Our
regular team of adaptive surfers was present and was joined by a new member. It
is such a joy to experience a newcomer’s reaction on the first ride in on
either a surfboard or kayak. Operation Beachhead
was honored to welcome Matt Raible for a beach day. Matt was in the same unit as founder and president, Michael Ricci and is a fellow Purple Heart recipient.
The weather was
exceptional, as it often is, and because of the large number of volunteers, we
were able to get everyone in the water for longer than normal length of time.
When lunch arrived everyone was hungry and ready to share delicious generously-sized
trays of sandwiches donated by Whole Foods in Wall, NJ.
Operation Beachhead was lucky this summer to
have a large group of students from colleges, high school, and Lake Rivera Middle School participating
as volunteers this season. While most of our student volunteers came from local high schools, such as Manasquan, St Rose, and CBA, some vacationing students also joined us. Hopefully,
they’ll be back next year and we wish them luck and a safe and rewarding year
as they go off to school. As always we thank
the Sea Girt Beach Staff for welcoming Operation Beachhead, keeping us safe, and
helping to move equipment. We thank the community of Sea Girt for the
hospitality throughout the summer months. And finally with thank out numerous
volunteers without whom these events could not be possible without their
dedication to the Operation Beachhead vision and mission.