For Friday: Summer and Sandy – Watch, Read and Listen

Image Source: Today Show

It’s Memorial Day Friday.  The start of the first long weekend and unofficial start of summer.  Time to head off to see family and have barbeques and have some good weather (hopefully), so we can catch some rays at the beach.

To kick things off, the “Today Show” moved to the Jersey Shore for this morning’s broadcast.  Their location was the boardwalk of Seaside Heights, a beach community pummeled by Hurricane Sandy (think back to the images of the seaside roller coaster actually in the sea and the boardwalk that was no longer).

Over the last seven months, this community has fought back and recovery efforts have yielded results – the reason for this morning’s beachside broadcast was the official reopening of the boardwalk, with a ribbon-cutting ceremony with Governor Chris Christie.  During an interview, Governor Christie gave the recovery on the boardwalk an “8,” on the one-to-ten scale, which, as Matt Lauer noted, is a positive thing for local businesses and the state’s coffers (visit!).  However, the governor pointed out that other areas are only at a “4,”  and many of these areas are neighborhoods where homeowners are still struggling to rebuild.

So, as we head off for the long weekend…

WATCH:  Nonprofit organization Waves for Water is doing great work and partnering with like-minded organizations to keep the relief effort in all affected areas front-of-mind and to raise money, because really, we all know that’s what’s needed.

READ:  Carmen Petaccio’s moving New York Times Op-Ed piece about her Jersey Shore hometown, “Seaside’s Last Summer?“.

And LISTEN: