What started as a single weekend of events is now a weeklong celebration. The Coast Guard Community Festival was created to celebrate the designation of Cape May County as a proud Coast Guard Community in 2015. Five years later, the community is as proud as ever and is getting ready to renew the designation. The fifth Coast Guard Community Festival day is scheduled for May 4. The weeklong celebration encompasses a Coast Guard Ball, a variety of art shows, beer launches, a Coast Guard Salute, museum exhibit and a Life Saving Station program.
Signs throughout Cape May County announce to passersby they are entering a “Proud Coast Guard Community.” In May 2015, after a lengthy application process, Cape May County was confirmed as one of the few places designated in this special way. In order to celebrate this achievement, the Coast Guard Community Festival was created, as well as the Cape May County Coast Guard Family Foundation.
The Foundation is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit and its mission is to nurture strong relationships between Coast Guard members, their families and the community by developing programs, supporting the efforts of others and facilitating active engagement between the Coast Guard and Cape May County. The Foundation works to enhance the Cape May County community’s understanding and respect for the work of the Coast Guard and further the community designation to benefit the county.
“Cape May County is engaged and supportive,” Foundation Chair and Cape May Freeholder Will Morey said. “The Foundation’s focus is to work on making Cape May feel like home as quickly as possible for everyone stationed here and have them enter the community in a meaningful way in a short period of time.”
The planning process of the first festival began with a visit to the Grand Haven Coast Guard Festival in Michigan by future foundation members. Morey and others flew to Michigan to attend and observe the festival. This process allowed them to recognize what they could do for the Coast Guard, amp up their designation application and grow a festival of their own, once the official designation was received.
The festival day offers the unique experience to visit the Coast Guard Training Center Cape May (TRACEN). Activities include a USO Show, music, a variety of vendors and walking tours of the Coast Guard cutters and boats, and helicopter displays.
A goal of Mike Couch, the executive director of the Coast Guard Family Foundation, has been to partner with organizations and businesses throughout Cape May County to play an active part in the festival. Expanding beyond the festival, new events are planned to take place in the summer and fall of this year.
“We held a focus group with enlisted personnel, who look to us to help them interact with the community,” Couch said. “It’s great to be able to connect members of our community with what is going on and help them enjoy all the things Cape May County has to offer.”
The festival is an excellent way for the community to see recruits in their temporary boot camp home. In return, it is a way for their recruits to thank the community and experience part of Cape May. The Coast Guard recruits have a limited interaction with Cape May. They come in on a bus in the dark of night and are training for eight weeks. The only time they are out in public is when they are on liberty for a single day, between the seventh and eighth weeks – before graduation.
“They see very little of Cape May while they’re here,” Couch said. “Their experience in Cape May is different than their friends and family. There is great recognition and respect for the uniqueness of having the only Coast Guard boot camp in the United States here. Anyone who comes through the enlisted route comes through Cape May, which is about 80 percent of their workforce.”
The economic impact of having the Coast Guard in Cape May County is recognized at various levels. TRACEN is a large employer, personnel live in homes off base and contractors are brought in to work on the base. The boot camp graduations alone bring in over 40,000 people a year, many of whom stay in local hotels/motels, dine and shop at local businesses.
“We became enthused and educated about the financial impact the Coast Guard has on the county,” Morey said. The economic impact to the community is over $170 million a year.
The festival would not exist without the many volunteers and Coast Guard personnel who step up to the plate. Plans for the festival are coordinated by the Foundation and include efforts from not only volunteers but the City of Cape May, who provide security, bike racks and dumpsters. High school students volunteer and help with various activities such as set up and breakdown.
“The festival is about the personnel connecting and interacting with the community in a casual way,” Couch said. “They are so appreciative of the support they’ve been shown by the community in so many ways, especially after the government shutdown. It’s a way to say thank you, by inviting the community into their home and making them feel welcome.”
Plans for future festivals and the renewal of the designation for 2020 are underway. The Cape May County community will continue to develop its bond with the Coast Guard for years to come.
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