Harbor Cleanup Day Gets Helping Hands Including Coast Guard Recruit Company

CAPE MAY – To Gretchen Whitman, Nature Center of Cape May director, the May 8 proclamation of Cape May County as an official “Coast Guard Community” is, in a sense, old news. Whitman and her colleagues in various other community organizations have been working closely with the Coast Guard community since she began volunteering at the center in the late 1990s.
“Harbor Clean-up Day,” which occurred April 25, was an illustration of that feeling of community between the Coast Guard and the people of Cape May County.
Although the weather was decidedly not spring like, members of Coast Guard Recruit Company Bravo 191 took a break from their training to join other community organizations as they conducted a cleanup of the harbor area and surrounding nature trails for the Nature Center of Cape May on Delaware Avenue near Training Center Cape May.
Some recruits were hacking away at overgrowth along the center’s nature trail, while others dug out and cleaned beds of plants and repaired walkways and cleaned clogged gutters.
Volunteers from Comcast in Cinnaminson, the Philadelphia chapter of Sea Shepherd, the Military Spouses Association and many others who just showed up to help, worked shoulder-to-shoulder with the recruits and several members of Coast Guard Auxiliary from Flotilla 82 Cape May as they walked the beaches of the harbor to pick up trash and debris.
As a biologist, Whitman became interested in the local marine environment as a Lower Township resident and as a young mother many years ago. The more she volunteered at the center, the more she interacted with Coast Guard mothers and their children as her family befriended Coast Guard children at school.
She discovered that those families were not just military transients without local ties, but were typical families that grew together with the community as well as the Coast Guard. Over the years, she developed strong friendships with those families; some relationships have lasted for 20 years.
“On a personal and professional level, I have been able to do what I wanted to do (while working at the center),” said Whitman. “Our work with the Coast Guard has been extremely rewarding for me and our organization and we get as much out of that relationship as the Coast Guard does.” She explained that she still stays in touch with many families and recruits through Facebook and more traditional methods because “they have been part of our community” and they still care about each other’s success.
Whitman cited the “Good Neighbor Fund” as a classic example of a program that is perfectly named to exemplify the community/Coast Guard relationship. “This program provides financial assistance to Coast Guard children to attend summer classes that illustrate how to protect the marine, fish and wildlife environment in the Cape May Harbor area” that includes the Coast Guard base.
Whitman explained that many years ago someone donated money to begin the program that has provided 50 scholarships to Coast Guard children that funded the two-week program. Those dependents are mostly from families with parents in the enlisted ranks of the Coast Guard where money may be tight and day-to-day living expenses continue to rise.
The fund’s benefactor passed away recently and they encountered a severe funding shortfall that endangers continuation of the program. She cited contributions made by the “Chiefs’ Association,” the “Officers’ Association” and the proceeds from the “Harbor Fest” as continuing funding sources, but that more money will be needed to ensure that those children have the opportunity to learn and enjoy the marine environment that Cape May provides.
Whitman also described how Boat Station and Training Center personnel have helped the Nature Center by completing or assisting with building projects that improve the experience for visitors as they walk through the nature area on Delaware Avenue.
In the past, the crew of cutter Dependable built a “fort” along the nature trail as a learning station, and has also built other stations along the way. The Chiefs’ Association funded a painting project for the center as well. “They have been absolutely tremendous; they have never, never turned down any request for assistance,” she added.
Whitman hopes to continue these educational programs at the non-profit Nature Center for years to come with the help of individual and corporate donations to their programs that benefit civilian and military children alike.
For information about programs or ways to volunteer or provide financial assistance, contact Whitman at http://goo.gl/5rj2Ru (case sensitive).
To contact Jim McCarty, email jmccarty@cmcherald.com.