LAKEHURST – National Night Out is held every August in towns across America to bring the community together and to get to know the members of local law enforcement and other first responder agencies.
This marked the first year for the event to be held at Horicon Lake instead of the ball field just a few blocks away. The change of locale proved highly successful.
Many community organizations were present to showcase their services and programs including the Lakehurst First Aid Squad, the fire department and there was representation from the Ocean County Sheriff’s Office. Members of Joint Base Lakehurst Color Guard were also present to provide the colors prior to the pledge of allegiance and singing of the national anthem that opened the event.
Borough Police hosted the event as always and Police Chief Matthew Kline said, “It is a great night. The turnout is great. It is a great night for law enforcement to interact with the local community. I want to thank all our vendors. I want to thank our officers who are volunteering their time to be here. We set this up and started at 8 this morning.”
“In the past we did it at the ball field and this is the first time we are doing it at the lake and everyone has been saying it has worked out so much better. We have volleyball on the beach, cornhole, the playground here. There is so much more to do here,” the chief added.
Tim Sinkewitz, vice president of the Lakehurst First Aid Squad 24, joined members in giving out Italian ice donated by the ShopRite of Manchester to attendees but their real mission was to let the public know that they were in need of more members. The squad formed back in 1952.
“We cover Lakehurst Borough which is one square mile. We run probably about 200 runs a year. This year we probably had about 400. Manchester is our back up service. We are 100% volunteer. No one gets paid and no one gets a bill,” Sinkewitz said.
He added, “we need members more than anything else. We don’t need money; we need members. Sometimes when we ask for members, we get a lot of people wanting to give us money. We have two ambulances. Both of them are up to date with everything and have the latest equipment. We have the power stretchers and things like that. The biggest thing we need is for people to join us. Right now, we have roughly 10 members.”
The one provision of being a member however is to be within member distance. “We don’t man the building. People come from home so you have to live within five minutes of the building which is on Proving Ground Road,” Sinkewitz added.
Sinkewitz said, “we can go five days without a call and then one day we’ll get four calls. If someone came up to do a duty call for the whole day, they would get bored most likely. It is a tough town to have volunteers in.”
Rondi Shelhamer and Carrieann Domanico, both of Jackson, manned a table to promote the work of The Volunteers Auxiliary For Animal Shelters. The organization has been around for “25-plus years and we’ve been involved with this organization for quite a while. We work with the Ocean County shelter specifically the one right in Jackson,” Shelhamer said.
She added, “we provide all kinds of rescue services, dog fosters, cat fosters. We take care of kittens and whatever the shelter needs we try and provide. We are a non-profit. Everything we do is based on donations and we here tonight to let everyone and the public know that we are here and we are helping.”
Another group present had a name that explained its purpose. Always Supporting Our Military is based in Toms River but has members in the borough and other Ocean County communities. It sends troops packages of food, toiletries, snacks and other items. Barbara Youmans, Toms River, who heads the organization, said “we have been around for four years and are based at my house. We send about 20 boxes every week at the cost of $20.40.”
She said outreach events like National Night Out allows the group to raise money and bring awareness to their cause. The group has a Facebook page Always Supporting Our Military. The group relies on donations of supplies and monies to help cover the expense of the postage involved in sending the packages. Those interested in joining or supporting the group can also e-mail pasrmilitary@yahoo.com.
